Ken Gano - Senior Environmental Scientist

Professional Summary

Ken Gano is a natural resource specialist with 38 years in ecological studies, environmental restoration, and environmental regulations. His extensive experience includes environmental restoration, stabilization, and revegetation of remediated waste sites, as well as environmental regulatory issues associated with CERCLA cleanup and decommissioning of radioactively contaminated facilities. He has also conducted numerous research projects involving his expertise in ecological sciences, environmental restoration, and environmental risk assessment. Ken's experience includes ecological reviews of remedial action projects, ecological resource protection in accordance with State, Federal, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laws and policies, and direction and guidance to project activities for habitat mitigation and restoration/revegetation planning. He also has provided expertise for implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Ken has developed numerous mitigation designs to protect and/or restore sensitive habitats while allowing demolition and CERCLA remediation projects to proceed. He has provided technical support to DOE and the Hanford Natural Resource Trustee Council to assure their interests and concerns were represented and accounted for in the Environmental Restoration Contract work. He also helped lead the way in developing and conducting ecological risk assessments on the Hanford Site to support Final Records of Decision and Site closure, and coordinated the process of public involvement.

For more than 16 years, Ken interacted with State, Federal, and Tribal representatives to develop natural resource remediation and mitigation plans as part of a project for Washington Closure Hanford. In this project, he supported ecological resource reviews of project activities, reviews of planning documents, site walk-downs, revegetation monitoring and reporting, and ecological investigations. He also provided guidance for mitigation of project impacts to natural resources of concern, prepared correspondence, and provided consultations to the DOE-Richland Operations Office, regulators, and natural resource agencies.

Ken is the senior scientist on the EAS team collecting, processing, and shipping soil and biota samples in support of the Comprehensive Monitoring Program for the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, Umatilla, Oregon. Ken routinely performs sample collections, including handling small mammals, field logbook record keeping, copy and scanning records, performing data QA checks, and summary report preparations.

Ken has written or co-authored numerous journal articles and technical reports in the field of Ecological Sciences. He has presented the results of his accomplishments in habitat mitigation and revegetation to numerous DOE-sponsored workshops, professional conferences, and public forums.

Areas of Specialization

  • Field Biologist
  • Ecological characterization
  • Natural resource/habitat mitigation planning
  • Remediation
  • Ecological Resource Reviews
  • Environmental restoration
  • Environmental regulations (NEPA, NRDA, CERCLA, RCRA)

Relevant Work Experience

2005-2008, Senior Scientist, Washington Closure Hanford, Richland, Washington—Responsible for coordinating ecological reviews of remedial action projects, assuring ecological resources are protected in accordance with State, Federal, and DOE laws and policies, and providing direction and guidance to project activities for habitat mitigation and restoration/revegetation planning. Provide expertise for implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Develop mitigation plans for impacts to sensitive species and habitat from CERCLA restoration activities. Provide unique expertise to study and develop a mitigation strategy for a large (>2,000 individuals) maternity colony of bats in a retired Hanford facility.

Science Specialist, 1996-2005, Bechtel Hanford, Inc., Richland, Washington—Responsible for coordinating ecological reviews of remedial action projects, assuring ecological resources are protected in accordance with State, Federal, and DOE laws and policies, and providing direction and guidance to project activities for habitat mitigation and restoration/revegetation planning. Provided technical support to DOE and the Hanford Natural Resource Trustee Council to assure their interests and concerns were represented and accounted for in the Environmental Restoration Contract work. Helped lead the way in developing and conducting ecological risk assessments on the Hanford Site to support Final Records of Decision and Site closure, and coordinated the process of public involvement.

Science Specialist, 1994-1996, IT Hanford Corporation, Richland, Washington—Responsible for spill reporting, SARA 312 Hazardous materials inventory reporting, NEPA documentation, regulatory support, and coordinating ecological reviews of restoration activities.

Manager, 1989-1994, Westinghouse Hanford Company, Richland, Washington—Responsible for managing a staff of 7 professionals to provide environmental regulatory support to WHC facilities. This group provided interpretation of applicable environmental standards such as CERCLA, TSCA, and Endangered Species Act, as well as documenting and reporting all spills of hazardous materials.

Environmental Engineer, 1987-1989; Westinghouse Hanford Company, 1985-1987: UNC Nuclear Industries, Richland, Washington (This position and its responsibilities were carried over from UNC when WHC took over the contract for managing the Hanford Site in 1987)—Responsible for providing environmental regulatory support to the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) group and to N Reactor.

Scientist, 1974-1985, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington—Conducted research in terrestrial ecology and performed many studies dealing with impacts to the environment, as well as the environmental fate and effects of radioactive and hazardous materials.

Some of the major projects he contributed to include:

  • numerous studies comparing animal populations of contrasting habitat types and various baseline ecology studies for siting of nuclear power plants
  • ecological effects of an 1100 kV electrical transmission line
  • various studies to evaluate the potential for biotic transport of buried radioactive wastes
  • a study using honey bees to detect the presence of radioactive and hazardous materials in the environment
  • developed a bioassay technique using harvester ants to assess hazardous chemical waste sites.

Education/Training

  • M.S., Biology, Washington State University, 1983
  • B.A., Zoology, Central Washington State University, 1973
  • 40-hr Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response certified
  • Rad Worker II
  • CPR/First Aid