Manu Sharma, M.S., P.E.
Principal
Mr. Sharma is an environmental engineer with over 35 years of domestic and international consulting experience. He advises clients on complex environmental issues that draw on his expertise in contaminant fate and transport, environmental sciences, and risk-based remediation. He has applied these skills to find solutions at specific sites associated with multiple industry sectors, such as chemical/petrochemicals, large-scale manufacturing, mineral processing, manufactured gas plants, and waste disposal facilities. His work has also evaluated the transport and effects of chemicals at large scales, such as across watersheds, states, and nationally. Mr. Sharma has extensive experience in assessing a wide range and classes of legacy and emerging contaminants, including chlorinated solvents, 1,4-dioxane, NAPLs, PCBs, PFAS, pharmaceuticals/personal care products, petroleum hydrocarbons, and mercury and other trace metals.
Mr. Sharma has served as a consulting and/or testifying expert on litigation matters related to contaminant fate and transport, remedy appropriateness/reasonableness, environmental liability evaluation, cost recovery/allocation, water resources, and environmental forensics. He has published multiple peer-reviewed papers and regularly serves on regulatory-agency convened expert panels.
PFAS Fate and Transport: Provided expert testimony regarding fate and transport and sources of PFAS affecting various environmental media, including groundwater quality at public and private water supply wells.
1,4-Dioxane Forensics: Evaluated the sources and relative contribution of 1,4-dioxane at multiple public water supply wells using multiple lines of evidence, including numerical modeling, mass loading estimates, and fingerprinting.
LNAPL Fate Evaluation: Provided expert testimony regarding the transport of and remedial strategy for a large gasoline LNAPL plume associated with a petroleum refinery that was the subject of a RCRA health endangerment lawsuit.
Remediation Standard of Care: Provided expert testimony at an arbitration regarding the standard of care used by an environmental contractor in designing and implementing a groundwater pump and treat remedy at a Superfund site that failed due to metals precipitation.
DNAPL Remedial Strategy: Led a multi-year investigation and remedy development process at a complex, multi-party Superfund site with pine tar and creosote-related contamination.
Urban Waterway Cost Allocation: Developed a risk-based cost allocation model that accounted for sources and relative risks posed by mercury, dioxins, and PAHs in sediments.
Sediment Remediation and Forensics: Developed an ecological risk-based sediment remediation strategy for a stream affected by PCBs and PAHs contributed by multiple sources. Reassessed the impact of the presence of perfluorinated compounds on selected remedy.
Hydraulic Fracturing Risk Evaluation: Assessed fate and transport and human health risks associated with hydraulic fracturing additives and flowback constituents in tight shale formations in the US. Submitted work to US EPA and other agencies.
Personal Care Product Risk Assessment: Developed a framework to conduct screening-level environmental risk assessments for personal care product ingredients, which is being used to rank ingredients and make substitution decisions.
Remedy Negotiations and Design: Developed a risk-based soil and groundwater remedial strategy for a chemical plant, which was part of a property transaction between two multi-national companies. Chemicals of concern were VOCs and pesticides.
Flewelling, SA; Sharma, M. 2014. “Constraints on upward migration of hydraulic fracturing fluid and brine.” Ground Water 52:9-19.
Sharma, M. 2011. “Modeling Drinking Water Related Human Health Risks from Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) Additives.” US EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Workshop, Arlington, VA.
Thakali, S; Sharma, M; Verslycke, T. 2008. “Environmental Safety Ranking Framework for Surfactants in Personal Care Products (PCPs).” Presented at the Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Sharma, M. 2004. “Vapor intrusion – EPA vapor intrusion model reliability and role of background concentrations in risk assessments.” Risk Policy Rep. 11:42-43.
Sharma, M; Saba, T; Bittner, T. 2003. “Optimization of Groundwater Pump and Treat Systems Using Numerical Modeling and the Monte Carlo Approach.” Presented at National Ground Water Association (NGWA) Midsouth Focus Conference, 19p.