Speakers - Reclaiming the Sierra
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jane Hightower, M.D. is widely acknowledged as the first U.S. physician to recognize low-level mercury poisoning in patients who regularly consume certain types of fish. Dr. Hightower’s book, Diagnosis: Mercury: Money, Politics, and Poison, has been widely acclaimed and has brought the issue of mercury in fish to national attention. Materials that complement the book’s findings are available at diagnosismercury.org, including a summary of the many ways mercury toxicity expresses itself in patients and a list of which types of fish typically contain the highest and the lowest levels of mercury as well as a chart that illustrates the many competing mercury consumption guidelines from the EPA, the FDA, and others.
Gray Brechin, Ph.D. is an historical geographer, a frequent radio and television guest, and a popular public speaker. He is currently a visiting scholar in the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography. His book, Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, is a celebrated history of those who gained power through Sierra resources including mining, ranching, water and energy.
FEATURED and WORKSHOP SPEAKERS (to date)
Dr. Charles Alpers has an undergraduate degree in geology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of California, Berkeley. For the past two decades he has been a Research Chemist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Sacramento where his work has focused on environmental problems related to abandoned mine lands. In addition to his work on acid mine drainage from copper mines including Iron Mountain and Penn Mine, he has led several investigations of mercury contamination and bioaccumulation associated with past mining of gold and mercury in the Coast Ranges, the Trinity Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada.
Steven Becker, P.G. is a Supervising Senior Engineering Geologist with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). He oversees regulatory oversight of investigation and cleanup activities on hazardous substances release sites including several Abandoned Mine Land projects located in Northern California. Mr. Becker also serves as regional Brownfield contact for inquiries regarding the various types of regulatory oversight agreements available through DTSC. He has conducted outreach on Abandoned Mine Land issues and projects with various local, state, and federal agencies since starting with DTSC in early 2001.
Jon Blinder graduated from Washington University in St Louis in 1975. He was a founder of the Washington St Cafe and Caterers in TriBeCa, NYC. He moved to Nevada County in 1987 and has been a licensed realtor for 22 years. Jon has been the project manager for the Osborne Hill, Village of South Auburn and Kenny Ranch projects and has worked to resolve mining impacts on these parcels for the past 5 years.
Jim Branham has spent more nearly 30 years working on natural resource and rural community issues in California. He was selected as the Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s first Executive Officer by the Conservancy Board in October of 2005. Prior to assuming his current position, he served as Undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency from November 2003 through October 2005. Previously, Jim worked under State Senator Jim Nielsen and Governor Pete Wilson, and also worked in the private sector, assisting with the implementation of Pacific Lumber Habitat Conservation and Sustained Yield Plans. Jim graduated from California State University at Chico in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
Dr. Robert K. Brodberg is a Senior Toxicologist in the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), which is part of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Dr. Brodberg received his B.S. in biology from Heidelberg College, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in biology from Bowling Green State University. Dr. Brodberg has worked as a risk assessor for the State of California since 1989. He has worked on human health assessments for pesticides, sediment quality objectives, and water quality issues. He is chief of the Fish and Water Quality Evaluation Section responsible for assessing the potential human health risks of eating chemically contaminated sport fish and seafood and issuing sport fish consumption advisories for California.
David Brownstein is a resident of Grass Valley, California, where he lives with his family within the Wolf Creek watershed. David is a professional software engineer and an amateur ecologist and a member of Wolf Creek Community Alliance, a watershed conservation group dedicated to preserving and restoring Wolf Creek, which runs through downtown Grass Valley before joining the Bear River in southern Nevada County.
Dr. Ken Cutler, MD is the Sierra County Health Officer. He also works as a pediatrician in Truckee, and is the Board Director of the Tahoe Forest Hospital. Dr. Cutler earned his BA in Biochemistry from Yale, his MD from UC San Francisco, and his Masters in Public Health from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Ignacio Dayrit is Director of Programs for the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) where he coordinates CCLR's technical assistance program for redevelopment projects. He is a redevelopment expert, having spent 21 years with the City of Emeryville, California, where he was responsible for the city's Brownfields Program, and was instrumental in the redevelopment of hundreds of acres of blighted property. Mr. Dayrit has presented and written widely on sustainable Brownfields redevelopment and has over 23 years of experience in public sector development, covering areas such as fiscal and financial analysis, public debt financing, feasibility analyses, public-private partnerships and urban design. He holds a BS in Architecture from the University of the Philippines and a Masters in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
Becky Damazo, RN first worked with The Sierra Fund in 2006 to complete a literature review on Mining Toxics, and conducted y key informant interviews to determine the use of environmental health histories in the Sierra Nevada. Her current work has been to develop an environmental health history form and then pilot test that form. She is a professor in the CSU, Chico School of Nursing. Her career has focused on health in rural communities. She has been an invited speaker on pubic health both nationally and internationally. In 2009 she received the Rotary Club’s Teacher of the Year award.
Ellison Folk is a Partner with the legal firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, where she has worked since 1990. Ms. Folk represents community groups, public agencies, and environmental organizations on a wide range of environmental and land use issues, including CEQA, Proposition 65, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and general plan and zoning law. She received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, and she also holds a Master’s in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Folk graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1984.
Mark Franco is the Headman of the Winnemem Wintu and Keeper of Ceremony for the Winnemem people. Married to Caleen Sisk, he is the father of two children, Mike and Marine. Mark is deeply involved in assisting his life partner in maintaining the Winnemem Wintu culture and ceremonies and acts as the government liaison and spokesperson for the Winnemem in protecting the cultural areas of tribe through his work on water, sacred sites, repatriation, and land management issues. Mark is a graduate of CSU, Sacramento.
Leah Goldberg is an attorney with Meyers/Nave Law Corporation specializing in re-use and redevelopment of contaminated properties. She works with developers, responsible parties, redevelopment agencies and regulators to develop brownfields agreements and strategies. In addition, Leah practices general environmental and land use law with an emphasis on clean water, underground storage tanks, storm water and wastewater permits, hazardous substances and wastes, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance, land use entitlements, Endangered Species Act issues, and Section 404 Wetlands permits. Ms. Goldberg is admitted to practice in California, Colorado and the District of Columbia.
Steven Haberfeld, Ph.D., Indian Dispute Resolution Service, Inc.
William Haigh is the Field Manager for the Bureau of Land Management’s Mother Lode Field Office. He received a BA in Geography from the University of California at Los Angeles and a JD from the McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento. He is a member of the State Bar of California. Mr. Haigh has spent his 25-year BLM tenure as a field manager and as a land use planner. As a supervisory land use planner in BLM’s California Desert District, Mr. Haigh directed habitat conservation planning efforts and led teams that prepared environmental impact statements for interstate crude oil and natural gas pipelines and transmission lines. Currently, he directs BLM operations on 230,000 acres of public lands in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and oversees BLM’s abandoned mines program within the historic California Gold Rush mining belt.
Adam Harper is the Director of Policy Analysis for the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA) where he works on legislative and regulatory issues impacting California’s mineral industries. Previously, he worked for the California Mining Association as Executive Director prior to the consolidation of the state’s three trade associations into one statewide group. He also worked previously for Assembly Member Bob Epple and as a student assistant for the California Department of Finance. He has a BA in international affairs with a minor in anthropology from California State University at Sacramento.
Joe C. Heckel serves as the Community Development Director for the City of Grass Valley overseeing their planning, building, code enforcement and redevelopment divisions, a position he has held since 2002. Since graduating from California State University Humboldt with a Bachelor in Science in 1981, Joe has worked in the land use planning profession holding positions in both the private and public sectors. He has a keen interest in the preservation of historic downtowns and using the powers of a redevelopment agency to advance their revitalization. Joe is member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), the California Association of Building Officials and the California Redevelopment Association (CRA).
Rick Humphreys is a Senior Specialist Engineering Geologist with the State Water Resources Control Board, where he has worked since 1986. Mr. Humphries began specializing in mining issues related to water quality in 1991. Mr. Humphries holds both a BS and a MS in Geology.
Victor Izzo is a registered Professional Geologist who has worked for Regional Water Boards on mines, landfills, Superfund sites and surface impoundments for the past 25 years. Fourteen of those years, he worked on active, inactive and abandoned mines to prevent water quality degradation and cleanup pollution from mine sites. Presently he manages the unit that contains the Central Valley Regional Water Board mining program.
Robert Joehnck serves as a consultant to The Sierra Fund’s Mining Initiative, working on liability issues associated with assessment and remediation and to help identify potential funding streams for public land cleanup and to explore new models for funding legacy, non-point source pollution. Mr. Joehnck has worked in the public sector on a variety of land use and environmental issues, and was the lead attorney with the Department of Conservations Office of Mine Remediation until his retirement in 2006.
Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin, the CEO of The Sierra Fund, is an organizer and advocate with thirty years of experience working in rural communities to promote economic and environmental justice. She worked with farm workers, farmers and environmentalists to develop pioneering programs to promote organic agriculture and reduce community exposure to pesticides. While serving as Nevada County Supervisor Izzy led the fight in the legislature to put the Yuba River into the state’s wild and scenic river system, spearheaded the effort to clean up an abandoned mine in her district, and began a successful five-year campaign to establish the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. Izzy conceived of and directs The Sierra Fund’s Mining Initiative.
Mike Miller is President and Chief Executive Officer of the last fully functional gold mine in California – the Original Sixteen to One Mine in Alleghany. Mike Miller is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company. In 1975, Miller became the sole proprietor of the Morning Glory Gold Mines. Mike served as a trustee and President of the Sierra County Board of Education (1979 to 1983 trustee; Director in 1976, President in 1983). From 1991 to 1999 he served as a member of the Sierra County Planning Commission (Chairman 1992 and 1993). He is licensed as a California Class A general engineering contractor and is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. In 1965, Mr. Miller received a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in combined Social Sciences-Economics.
Dr. Carrie Monohan earned her Ph.D. in Forest Engineering and Hydrology in 2004 from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her dissertation work addressed the relationship between water quality in agricultural streams and diminishing salmon habitat. Throughout her graduate program, she was a research assistant to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Other notable recent positions include Senior River Scientist for the Natural Heritage Institute and project manager and lead scientist for the EPA Brownfields Community Wide Assessment in Nevada City. Carrie has worked as a consultant to The Sierra Fund since 2007, and was hired as staff in 2010.
Perry Myers, P.E. has worked as an engineer for the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) since 2000, including six years with the Brownfields and Environmental Restoration Program as a site cleanup project manager. The mission of the DTSC is to provide the highest level of safety, and to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm. He currently works in the Special Projects Office providing engineering support to DTSC project managers. Mr. Myers is the manager for DTSC’s study of health risks posed by arsenic at mine scarred lands, which is funded by an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, and has worked on the cleanup of several former mine sites, including the Empire Mine State Historic Park.
Wesley Nicks, Nevada County Environmental Health
Sherri Norris, California Indian Environmental Alliance
Lauren Pagel, EARTHWORKS
Tom Parilo is a professional land use planner with 36 years of experience working in local governmental agencies and as an independent consultant in the Sierra Nevada region. Throughout his career, Parilo has acquired a wealth of experience working on natural resource management projects and in developing and implementing public, land use policy. While serving as a staff planner in the Nevada County Planning Department, he was the lead planner for surface mining and mined land reclamation projects. He served as the Planning Director in the counties of Nevada, El Dorado and Butte from 1985 through 2001.
James S. Pompy has managed the Mine Reclamation Unit for the Department of Conservation’s Office of Mine Reclamation over the last 24 years. He has provided technical assistance in the review of environmental impact reports and reclamation plans for hundreds of mines in California and has supervised the development of remediation strategies for the several abandoned mine sites, and performed pit design, ore reserve estimation, and reclamation planning. Mr. Pompy holds a Bachelor’s of Science in biology from the University of South Dakota, a Master’s of Science in mining engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and an MBA from Rice University.
Jason Rainey is Executive Director of the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL). Before joining SYRCL in March 2005, Rainey spent the previous five years as a program director for the Marin Conservation Corps, where he worked on habitat restoration, ecologic al monitoring, recycling, volunteer coordination, environmental education, and zero-waste event planning. He completed a B.A. in Government/History from Claremont McKenna College and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Russian Far East from 1995-1997. His graduate studies include a year at the School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University (Bloomington) and an M.A. in Humanities & Leadership at New College of California.
Daniel F. Reidy, Ph.D., J.D., is principal attorney with the Law Offices of Daniel F. Reidy, and has over 33 years of practice in the environmental, land use, and regulatory areas of law. Services provided by the law offices include strategic advice, transactional documentation, advocacy in administrative hearings, and litigation. Clients have included local governments and special purpose districts, public utilities, Indian tribes, non-profits, business parks, real estate developers, ranchers and farmers.
Dr Alice A. Rich founded A. A. Rich and Associates (AAR), Fisheries and Ecological Consultants in 1983, has had over 30 years of technical and administrative project management experience in a wide range of fisheries-related projects. Dr. Rich's professional experience encompasses work as a fisheries consultant, fisheries biologist, fish physiologist/toxicologist, analytical chemist, and university lecturer. Dr. Rich has worked on projects for a variety of clients, including government agencies, private companies, law firms, and environmental organizations. She has been called upon as an expert witness on the stressful impacts of pollution, water temperature, sediment, water diversions, migration barriers, catch-and-release fishing, and transportation and handling on fishes.
Elizabeth Russell is the Mine Restoration Project Manager for Trout Unlimited and coordinates all of TU’s abandoned mine land restoration work in Colorado. She currently works on mine restoration projects in the Kerber Creek, Snake River, and Lake Fork of the Arkansas watersheds. She also serves as one of TU’s lead organizers on efforts to enact Clean Water Act liability protections for Good Samaritan mine cleanups. She received MA in Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where her thesis research focused on collaborative approaches to cleaning up abandoned hardrock mines in Colorado. While in graduate school, Elizabeth served as the coordinator of the Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group, a Boulder County watershed organization working to reduce the impacts of abandoned mines in that watershed. Before graduate school, Elizabeth worked for over eight years for another non-profit group working to protect the environment.
Don Ryberg has served as Executive Director of the Tsi-Akim Maidu non-profit corporation, and Chair of the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, since 1997. Over that time he has led the Tribe in important accomplishments that have contributed to re-vitalizing his tribe, devastated over 150 years ago by the gold rush on their traditional lands in the Sierra. Born third in a family of seven children in Quincy, the family moved to Nevada City in the mid-1950s. Don has made his living as a timber feller and logger, running a successful business for more than 30 years.
Debbie Schechter is the Chief, of the Brownfields & Site Assessment Section, EPA Region 9 covering California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, and 147 tribal nations. She and her staff work with state, tribal, and local governments and communities to investigate, clean up and redevelop contaminated sites. Her group also oversees more than $30 million in grants for assessment and cleanup of contaminated sites. Ms. Schechter has prior experience at EPA overseeing cleanup and community involvement activities at Superfund sites and working on transportation and air pollution issues. She also has previous environmental experience in the non-profit and private sectors.
Reinette Senum, Nevada City Council
Velma Smith is an Officer in Government Relations with the Pew Environment Group, working on a ranging of federal policy issues. In this capacity and as Director for the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining, she worked on efforts to update the 1872 law that governs hardrock mining on federal public lands. Prior to joining Pew, Velma was Senior Policy Advisor with the National Environmental Trust, where she worked on Superfund, mining and toxics related issues. At Friends of the Earth, Velma worked on a wide range of policy issues, with special emphasis on water pollution.
Richard Sykes is the Manager of the Natural Resources Department for East Bay Municipal Utility District. EBMUD is a water utility serving 1.4 million customers in Oakland, Berkeley and other cities and communities in the East Bay. Richard is responsible for land management of over 50,000 acres in the East Bay and Sierra Foothills. He has degrees in Conservation and Resource Studies, and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Richard worked on the remediation of the Penn Mine site located adjacent to EBMUD’s Camanche Reservoir in Calaveras County.
Mike Thornton began working for The Sierra Fund in May of 2008 as the Mining Project Community Organizer. Mike is a former radio journalist, producer and News Director for KVMR-FM Radio in Nevada City, CA. During his radio career, Mike traveled to report on stories in the Middle East, Latin America, and Mexico as well as covering major national events including three Presidential Conventions and two World Trade Organization (WTO) events including the "Battle in Seattle" in 1999. Prior to his career in journalism he worked in the mental health field as a substance abuse program manager and counselor.
Steve Wilensky, Calaveras County Board of Supervisors
Becky Wood is manager of environmental services for Teichert Materials’ operating properties. She is the past chair of the Cleaner Air Partnership (CAP) and current chair of the CAP Technical Advisory Committee. She has served on the Carl Moyer Advisory Committee, and is a past board member of the Mother Lode Section of the Air and Waste Management Association, chair of the Environmental Committee for the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA), and active in the local chapter of Society of Mining Engineers. Becky has an undergraduate degree in geological engineering from the College of Engineering and Mines at the University of Arizona and has completed graduate work in industrial engineering at Arizona State University.
Phil Woodward is Senior Engineering Geologist with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. He holds a B.A. in Aquatic Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.S. in Geology, from San Jose State University, as well as Professional Geologist, Certified Engineering Geologist, Certified Hydrogeologist Licenses. He has been employed by the Regional Board in Redding for the past 23 years, and is responsible for regulatory oversight for the cleanup of abandoned mine. Mr. Woodward is the Regional Board project manager for three Federal Superfund sites, including Iron Mountain Mine.
Tim Vendlinski is Program Director of Restoration on Private Lands for Sustainable Conservation. He directs the permit coordination programs for voluntary habitat restoration on farmland, rangeland, and timberland. From 2000 to 2006, he supervised the Wetlands Regulatory Office for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regional office in San Francisco. He led a team of scientists and regulatory experts involved in planning, permitting, and enforcement actions to address activities affecting a diversity of aquatic ecosystems throughout Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Islands. From 1995 to 2000, Tim helped lead a 13-agency consortium toward signing and implementing a Framework Agreement for the Interagency Vernal Pool Stewardship Initiative. He used the US EPA's grant and loan programs to catalyze partnerships with other agencies and non-governmental organizations to secure conservation for strategically important lands within California's Central Valley. These partnerships resulted in the protection of tens of thousands of acres encompassing vernal pool landscapes, grassland, oak woodland, farmland, and riparian corridors. From 1989 to 1995, Tim served as the point-person for the San Francisco Estuary Project on freshwater flows and fisheries within the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. During this time, he organized and co-facilitated a series of scientific forums with internationally known scientists resulting in the formulation of estuarine salinity standards that provided a foundation for the historic 1994 Bay/Delta Accord. Upon joining EPA in 1984, Tim helped establish the Community Involvement Program for the Superfund Division (hazardous waste). Later, he joined the Office of Federal Activities where he influenced a variety of projects involving flood control, water supply, timber harvesting, road construction, and the establishment of conservation areas in the West. Tim holds a BS in Environmental Policy and Planning from UC Davis.
Peter Van Zant works with Sierra Watch and has a proven track record in conservation leadership and land use experience. He served as board member and President of the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) from 2005 to 2007. Peter was also a two-term Nevada County Supervisor. During his tenure as a supervisor Peter was chairman of both the Sierra Economic Development District and the Golden Sierra Job Training Agency. His private sector experience includes an engineering career in the microchip industry and college instructor. He is the founder of Peter Van Zant Associates, a consulting training organization. Peter lives in Nevada city with his wife Mary and a household of goofy pets.