James A Jacobs

James Jacobs has over 25 years of experience as an AHERA asbestos inspector and geologist and licensed contractor focused on answering environmental impairment and forensic questions. He is also familiar with water treatment plants and has been an elected director of two public agencies, one a sewer collection agency and the other a wastewater treatment facility. Some of the projects relate to collecting, describing, and analyzing materials, such as asbestos, soil, rock, groundwater, vapor and stormwater samples, summarizing the data and creating useful technical information and cost recovery statements for decision makers or settlements. He has performed dozens of asbestos inspection surveys as part of property transfer and due diligence, including at industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residential properties. Other projects relate to peer review and contractor evaluation projects. 1990, he has worked extensively on and written widely about the assessment and remediation of soil and groundwater impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, and heavy metals. He is the qualifying individual for the contractor license (#799370) in general engineering, drilling, building, hazardous waste removal, and asbestos removal. He has supervised dozens of underground storage tank removal projects. He is a Fulbright Senior Scholar winning 4 awards in environmental engineering and science teaching post-graduate workshops in risk-based subsurface environmental management and sustainable remediation methods, including field sampling methods, laboratory analysis, data evaluation and reporting. He developed and taught Sustainable Remediation Methods for Soil and Water (X-451) for the University of California, Berkeley Extension Program. He has developed, co-authored and edited books on topics such as MTBE (2000), Chromium(VI) (2005) and most recently, Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage and Acid Sulfate Soils (2014; Wiley and Sons), Oil Spills and Gas Leaks (2014, McGraw-Hill) and Hydraulic Fracturing and Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources (in press, McGraw-Hill). Jacobs has bachelors and masters degrees in geology.