William A. Huber,
Ph.D.
Principal
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Expertise |
Statistical analysis |
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Experience |
Environmental: Assessment and interpretation of environmental data. Development of strategies to evaluate and improve the value of environmentally impaired sites. Development, application, and dissemination of improved methods to sample environmental media, assess the quality of data, interpret data, make optimal data-based decisions, present conclusions, and evaluate other interpretations. Negotiation and presentation. Peer review and strategy development for environmental investigations, remediation, and closure. Litigation support. RCRA groundwater monitoring statistics and water quality monitoring design. General: Development and application of mathematical and statistical models to analyze and process spatial data, including transportation (network) analysis and real estate market analysis. Geographic Information Systems development and analysis. Statistical consulting, computer programming, and database management. Teaching. Theoretical and applied research in mathematics, statistics, and physics. |
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Dr. Huber has completed over 150
projects for Quantitative Decisions since 1997, including |
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Environmental
liability assessment |
Evaluation of offsite liabilities
at a former pigments manufacturing plant.
Developed an offsite investigation work plan, evaluated all data,
supported the defense of civil and criminal claims, and provided improved
methodology to the health authorities for conducting a community survey and
blood sampling program ( |
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Assessment of potential
environmental costs for brownfields redevelopment
at a former refinery. Identified
regions most suitable for initial development and evaluated the extent of
potential soils contamination (East Coast |
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Estimation of financial liabilities
at chemical manufacturing facilities, for computing insurance cost recovery
and supporting the development of investigation and remedial strategies (NJ,
KY, MI). |
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Use of decision analysis to formulate a strategic plan to address Superfund liabilities (Puerto Rico, 1997). |
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Environmental
Statistics |
Evaluate Monitored Natural
Attenuation in Groundwater. Agrico Superfund Site (FL), 2009. Uses hydrological modeling and statistical
theory to estimate cleanup times and confidence intervals for them. Suggests improvements to methods in US EPA
guidance for MNA. |
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Develop alternate groundwater
monitoring compliance limits (ACLs) for arsenic in
groundwater at a petroleum refinery and pipeline facility, 2008. |
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Peer review of the US EPA Guidance
on Statistical Methods for Groundwater Monitoring, 2005. |
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RCRA groundwater monitoring permit
development for a large Midwest oil refinery, 2004: comprehensive data
review, selection of monitoring wells, monitoring parameters, and statistical
tests; negotiation with state and Federal regulatory agencies; creation of
the written permit; and development of software to streamline permit
compliance. |
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Peer review of the Hendry County
Groundwater Flow Model for the South Florida Water Management District,
2001. |
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Developing and defending remedial
goals and optimizing remedial designs for metals in soils at Superfund
sites (NY, PA). |
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Evaluation of groundwater monitoring data and development of an ongoing monitoring plan at two landfills at a U.S. Army Ammunition Plant (MO, 1998). |
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Evaluation of soils data for
investigations, waste characterization, management, and disposal (CA, CT,
FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, NJ, NY, OH, PA, VA, WI, Canada, and The
Netherlands) |
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Statistical plans to reduce soil and groundwater sampling costs for environmental investigations (CA, CT, DE, IL, FL, NJ, NY, PA). |
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Developing alternate groundwater monitoring compliance limits (ACLs) for a uranium mine regulated by the NRC (WY, 1995-7). |
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Consulting on RCRA groundwater
monitoring issues. (AR, AZ, KS, KY,
MO, NJ, OH, OK, PA, TX, VA). |
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Risk Assessment |
Expert reviewer for the USEPA of procedures developed to establish decision-making guidelines for residual disinfectant levels in drinking water and to set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for disinfectant byproducts (1999). |
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Invited presenter at the Second
Workshop on the Practical Issues in the Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment
sponsored by the USEPA and |
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Participation as an invited expert in the EPA’s Workshop on Selecting Input Distributions for Probabilistic Risk Assessments (NY, 1998). |
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Litigation Support and
Negotiation |
Evaluation of benzene exposure model (AZ, 2009). |
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Statistical
assessment of crop damage from alleged windborne contamination (ID,
2008). |
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Expert
witness, evaluation of principal components/factor analysis used to
identify contamination sources in soils, water, sediments, and
groundwater. (OK, 2008). |
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Expert
witness, modeling and measurement of lead solder contamination in an
industrial building (CA, 2006). |
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Statistical support to evaluate MTBE in public water supply wells (NY, 2006). |
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Expert testimony,
geostatistics. US Department of
Justice (defendant). Evaluated a
complex hydrological model formulated by plaintiffs to support a $4 billion
claim for natural resources damages.
Discovered and testified to fundamental flaws in the estimates of a
chlorinated groundwater plume extent.
The client was subsequently dropped from the case (NM, 2002). |
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Expert review and criticism of a
complex probabilistic dose reconstruction model. Provided advice to defense counsel and
helped prepare for deposing expert witnesses in hydrogeology, statistics, and
risk assessment (CA, 2001-2). |
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Independent review of local and
regional groundwater data at an MTBE contaminated wellfield
on behalf of a former gas station owner.
Addressed regulatory concerns about data quality (high detection
limits) and geological conditions (CA, 2000-2001). |
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Development of a waste sampling and
analysis program to help a landfill demonstrate attainment of Land
Disposal Restriction ( |
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Second opinion, peer review, and
support in deposing expert witnesses for an insurance claim litigation
concerning soils contamination by heavy metals at a former rail maintenance
yard (PA, 2000). |
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Investigation strategy development, data visualization, and geostatistical analysis to help a chemical manufacturer limit liability for extensive groundwater contamination by chlorinated solvents (CA, 1997-2000). |
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Statistical support to defend a
client against a claim of using an incorrect statistical test for RCRA
groundwater monitoring at a large hazardous waste facility (OH, 1998). |
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Successful criticism of a probabilistic ground water model purporting to demonstrate historical landfill releases of chromium (PA, 1997). |
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Decision Analysis |
Development of a multiattribute valuation function to prioritize 8,000 sites according to suitability for cellular towers (NJ, 1999). http://www.quantdec.com/projects/wireless.htm |
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Decision support for
development of an open space preservation plan, |
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Modeling |
Statistical director, national
broadband availability model.
Federal Communications Commission, 2009. |
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Development of new techniques for
interpolating and predicting demographic data. Patent applied for, 2006. |
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Development of new techniques to
find optimal travel costs in spatially diffuse networks. Patent applied for, 2006. |
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Development of new methods and
software to simulate, evaluate, and predict supply and demand within
regional markets. In collaboration
with Fiscal Associates,
Newark, DE, 2003-present. Patent
applied for, 2006. |
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Development of new methods and
implementation of software to optimize reallocation of agricultural
lands. Alterra,
Wageningen, The |
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Development of improved
techniques and software for the computation and visualization of
contaminant plumes from regional air sources (TNO-MEP, The Netherlands, 1999). http://www.quantdec.com/projects/ammonia.htm |
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The types of projects and activities previously completed include |
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Development of strategic management plans and financial and economic evaluations using decision theory. Applied successfully to state and federal Superfund sites, utilities management, site investigations, and remedy selection. |
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Review and strategic development of sampling, remediation, and closure plans for many sites across the United States in EPA Regions II, III, IV, V, VII, and IX. |
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Expert testimony on the interpretation of surface water and ground water data at hearings with Pennsylvania and New Jersey regulators; for manufacturing facilities. |
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Statistical and geostatistical
(“kriging”) evaluation of contaminant patterns and quantities to support
human health and ecological risk assessments; for Superfund sites, mines,
manufacturing facilities, chemical treatment facilities, refineries, and
landfills. |
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Critical evaluation and analysis of draft EPA guidance, for regulated facilities; for example, see “PCBs in Pipes” at http://www.quantdec.com/Articles/pcbpipe/pcbpipe.pdf. |
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Previous Experience |
Senior Associate, Dames & Moore, Inc., Willow Grove, PA, 1992-1997: Project management, marketing, and firm-wide technical support for issues related to environmental statistics and information management. Provided written evaluations for approximately 200 projects world-wide and participated in about 200 proposal efforts. Served private sector clients and state government agencies. |
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Partner, Integrated Data
Technologies, Inc. (IDT), Philadelphia, PA, 1986-1992: Developed and managed an environmental
software, database, and statistical consulting business. |
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Academic Background |
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Ph.D., 1985; M. Phil., 1980; M.A.,
1979. Mathematics, |
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B.A., 1978. Philosophy and Mathematics double major, •
College mathematics prizes 1975, 76, 77. |
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Citizenship |
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Professional Affiliations |
Editorial Board, Risk Analysis |
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Selected
Professional Activities |
Peer reviewer, Human & Ecological Risk Assessment (1998); Environmental Science & Technology (1997-2002), Risk Assessment (1996-99), Risk Analysis (2003-2010), Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (1994-6; 2005); Environmental and Ecological Statistics (1994-2000); Geotechnical Testing Journal (1995). |
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Instructor, Spatial Statistics Workshop, 2010. NITLE (http://www.nitle.org/). Developed and led a five-session Web-based
course for college professors and consultants. |
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Best reviewer award. Society for Risk Analysis, 2009. |
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Peer review of the 2009 Unified
Guidance, Statistical Analysis of
Groundwater Monitoring Data at RCRA Facilities, for the US EPA. |
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Author of over 40 publicly available software programs to perform
statistical and geometric analysis and visualization of data. |
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ESRI ( |
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Co-instructor, Geographic Information Analysis: Spatial Statistics Workshop. |
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Invited speaker on Designing Environmental Investigations
with |
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Editor, Directions Magazine (http://www.directionsmag.com/), 2001. Directions is a Web magazine, focusing on geographic information systems, with about 75,000 viewers monthly. |
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Contributing Editor, Directions Magazine, 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. |
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Founder and owner of a 1000-member
Internet discussion group
focusing on technical issues in Geographic Information Systems ( |
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Invited speaker on statistics at the National Groundwater Association’s Second Theis Conference, Amelia Island, Florida, November 1999. |
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Invited panel member, Workshop on Selecting Input Distributions
for Probabilistic Risk Assessment, U.S. EPA, |
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Keynote speaker, The Nature Conservancy Mid-Atlantic Region GIS Conference, |
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Invited speaker, GIS for Brownfields Redevelopment, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, November 1996. |
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Organizer and speaker, Brownfields and Beyond, March 1996, |
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Invited speaker, Statistics in Environmental Applications, American Statistical
Association conference held at the |
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Developer of the Government
Institutes’ two-day course on Environmental
Sampling, |
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Selected Publications |
Huber, William A, 2010. Ignorance
is Not Probability. Risk Analysis 30 (to appear). doi:
10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01361.x |
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Huber, William A., 2010. Comment on Why Risk is Not Variance: An Expository Note. Risk Analysis 30 (to appear). |
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Guagliardo, Mark F., William A. Huber, Deborah M. Quint, and Stephen J. Teach, 2007. Does Spatial Accessibility of Pharmacy Services Predict Compliance with Long Term Control Medications? Journal of Asthma, 44:10, 881-883. doi: 10.1080/02770900701752680 |
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Cox, LA and WA Huber, 2007. Symmetry,
Identifiability, and Prediction Uncertainties in Multistage Clonal Expansion
(MSCE) Models of Carcinogenesis.
Risk Analysis 2007 Dec(6): 1441-53.
doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00980.x |
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Sinton, Diana and William A. Huber,
2007. Mapping Polka and Its Ethnic Heritage in the |
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Jamall, IS,
T Lu, and WA Huber, 2005. Distinguishing
Between Multiple Chlorinated Solvent Plumes: A Comprehensive Approach. The Annual International Conference on
Soils, Sediments, and Water, |
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Cox, LA, D Babayev, and WA Huber, 2005. Limitations of Qualitative Risk Assessment. Risk Analysis 25 (3), 651-662. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2005.00615.x |
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Huber, William A., 2002. |
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Huber, William A., 2001. Estimating Markov Transitions. Journal of Environmental Management, v 61, no. 4, pp 381-385. |
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Huber, William A., 2000. Variability and Uncertainty. Chapter 12.2 of The Standard Handbook of Environmental Science, Health, and Technology, J. Lehr, Ed. McGraw-Hill. |
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Huber, William A. and W. A. S. Nijenuis, 2000. Predictive
Modeling of Ammonia Deposition from Large Numbers of Agricultural Sources
. 4th International Conference on Integrating |
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Huber, William A., 1999. Convolution. Published in three parts on the Web in Directions Magazine at http://www.directionsmag.com/features.asp, October 1999. |
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Harkness, Bracco, Franz, Tsentas, Becker,
Huber, Orient, Rich, & Figura, 1998. Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Aliphatics at the Naval Air Engineering Station, |
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Huber, William A, 1996. Discussion: Detection of Low-level Environmental Pollutants. Environmental and Ecological Statistics. |
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Huber, William A., and Douglas W.
Watt, 1994. Probabilistic Data Analysis
and Soil Vacuum Extraction Used for Identifying the Location of DNAPLs.
Technical Papers of the Twelfth Annual Environmental Management and
Technology Conference International, |
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Huber, William A., 1993. Discussion: Resampling from Stochastic Simulations for Assessing Uncertainty in Global Estimation. Journal of Environmental Statistics, v. 1, no. 2. |
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Huber, William A., 1993. Graphical Techniques for Enhancing the Utility of Multivariate Environmental Statistics. Multivariate Environmental Statistics, G.P. Patil et al., eds., North Holland/Elsevier, 1993. Pages 203-213. |
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Huber, William A., 1992. Selecting
a Statistical Methodology for RCRA Facilities. Short Course, HMCRI Superfund '92, |
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Huber, William A., 1992. N-factorial computations, timing, etc. ACM SIGSMALL/PC Notes, March 1992. v 18 #1-2. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/134307.134322 . |
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Huber, William A., and Richard N.
Sands, 1989. Regulating the Pollution of Groundwater: Lessons from a Pollution
Discharge Elimination Program. HazMat World. |
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Huber, William A., 1989. Well Placement and Well Elimination. NWWA conference on solving water problems
with models, |
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Huber, WA and C Bottcher, 1980. Dielectronic Recombination in a Magnetic Field. J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Phys. 13 L399-L404. |