Environmental Lecture Series: Land Recycling

Dr. Kevin Svitana will present “Brownfield Redevelopment: Also Known as Land Recycling” as part of the Environmental Lecture Series. Join Svitana at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 23 in Orchestra Hall.

This presentation describes the history of environmental impacts that led to a category of properties known as Brownfields. These are potentially impaired properties where former waste management practices may have created real or perceived impacts, which limit development potential.

The science behind risk evaluation criteria used to evaluate the sites will be discussed along with examples of how risk can be managed so that innovative approaches to redevelopment can be formulated. Examples of redevelopment successes will also be presented.

Svitana is a professor in the Department of Biology & Earth Sciences at Otterbein University in Westerville Ohio. He received a bachelor’s degree from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in 1981, a master’s from West Virginia University in 1983, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2005.

Svitana also works as an environmental consultant with BSI. His experience includes assessment and remediation of hazardous waste sites, Brownfield redevelopment, coal mining projects, water supply development projects and sustainable resource management. He also is a program manager for a federal Superfund site in Pennsylvania.

Svitana is a licensed professional geologist in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina and an Ohio EPA Voluntary Action Program certified professional.

He is a member of the Geological Society of America and the American Institute of Professional Geologists. Svitana is active with the National Groundwater Association, where he’s on several advisory committees and is actively developing conferences and continuing education opportunities related to polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), uncommon groundwater contaminants and conceptual site models.