John offers regulatory and environmental knowledge garnered from a previous 3-year tenure, beginning in 1989, as Regional Municipal Planner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Solid Waste Division. He was responsible for working with 4 regional municipal recycling consortia, representing 50 communities and nearly a million residents. The primary objective was developing recycling collection and processing infrastructure, as well as encouraging end users and identifying new markets.
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Office Manager

Senior Engineer

Herb Hollander is internationally recognized for leadership in all facets of materials and energy resources recovery. He has spent more than 45 years in solid waste management planning, systems analysis, and design of facilities.

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He has written extensively for national publications on such topics as landfill economics, waste material processing equipment, waste material handling, and combination transfer and recycling facilities. A list of relevant presentations and publications is included below.

Prior to entering the environmental field, Mr. Merritt spent seventeen years as Executive Director for the Dental Laboratory Association of Massachusetts and the last six of those as Executive Director for the New England Dental Laboratory Symposium. Responsibilities included being a registered legislative agent in the Commonwealth and drafting successful legislation to amend the Dental Practices Act to the benefit of his member firms. Reporting to the respective Boards of Directors, Mr. Merritt ran a New England regional professional convention and trade show, planned and presided at all other association meetings, published a quarterly newsletter and handled all internal and public communications and advocacy.

Based on his experience, Mr. Merritt has intimate knowledge of regional municipal organizations as well as federal, state, and local solid waste issues and regulations. His experience over the past 20 years includes management positions in municipal and state government as well as trade associations. His Town of Natick experience as an elected Town Meeting Representative, chairman of the Finance Committee, on which he served twelve years, Conservation Commissioner and founder/chair of the municipal recycling program, provides him with extensive knowledge of municipal fiscal, solid waste and environmental issues. He earned his M.A. in Philosophy from Case Western University and his B.A. in Philosophy from Boston University.

Areas of Special Interest and Expertise

General municipal government - In addition to over 20 years experience in Natick municipal government, including 12 years and a term as chairman on the Finance Committee, he has worked very closely with municipal officials during all his work in Natick, at DEP and NESWC, and as an independent consultant.  He has an extremely clear idea of what motivates and discourages municipal decision makers.

Creative procurement - Experience at DEP, as Senior Project Manager at NESWC, and as a consultant has included the development of unique and creative RFP's that have uniformly returned excellent proposals to the relevant parties. These include RFP's for the development of multi-million dollar regional recycling facility, household hazardous waste collection for 23 communities, regional landfill development and many other projects. Mr. Merritt recently assisted Springfield, Massachusetts in procuring incinerator ash recycling and management proposals.

Managing regulatory and general communication - Mr. Merritt has managed these communications for private and public entities. Regulatory issues have included a wide range of waste-to-energy matters, landfill development, ash recycling, general recycling and others. General communications have included press strategy development, public meetings, legislative strategy and development of promotional materials.

Negotiating - Mr. Merritt has extensive experience reviewing and negotiating agreements ranging from the NESWC project's power purchase agreement, netting in excess of $10 million value for Contract Communities,  to saving the Town of Natick in excess of $60,000 over the term of a 3-year curbside recycling collection contract.

Presentations (available on request - see Readings)

Mr Merritt recently made several presentaions at national environmental conferences:

	How to procure ash management and recycling services 10/27 - At Wastecon's 35th annual International Solid Waste Exposition, Gateway to Success; St. Louis. MO; Oct 27-30, 1997
	Regional, public-private waste management collaborations must remain public-private partnerships 9/29 - At the International Solid Waste Association's '97 World Conference, (ISWA), Towards Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges; Wellington, New Zealand; Sep 29-Oct 3, 1997
	Should regional municipal solid waste consortia enter incentive based service contracts for professional management services? 4/23 - At the 5th annual North American Waste-to-Energy Conference; Research Triangle Park, NC; April 22-25, 1997
	Waste to Energy Ash: A regional solid waste consortium's search for answers 11/15 - At the 8th International Solid Waste Conference, Municipal Solid Waste Combuster Ash Utilization; Arlington, VA; Nov 15, 1995
	Waste to Energy Ash: A regional solid waste consortium's search for answers 10/26 - At SWANA's Wastecon 33rd annual International Solid Waste Exposition, Public & Private: A Partnership for the future; Baltimore, MD; Oct 23-26, 1995
	Waste to Energy 1995: What are the issues? 10/25 - At SWANA's Wastecon 33rd annual International Solid Waste Exposition, Public & Private: A Partnership for the future; Baltimore, MD; Oct 23-26, 1995

Publications (available on request - see Readings)

Mr. Merritt has published many articles on waste management issues.  These articles have addressed such topics as waste-to-energy, waste material processing equipment, combination transfer and recycling facilities, and landfill economics. The most recent articles are listed below.

	Waste Material Handling, Moving and Processing (Efficient and successful waste management will depend increasingly on sound financial analysis as well as technical innovation and sensitivity to environmental issues. More and more MSW activities are considering managed competition for collection services.) MSW Management magazine; Dec, 1997; pp. 37-41
	Summary of the DEP 1997 Draft of Solid Waste Master Plan SWANA Newsletter/Massachusetts Chapter; Oct, 1997
	Combination Waste Transfer and Recycling Facilities: Ingenious and Cost-Effective Solutions or Cynical use of Recycling's Image? (Do combination facilities promote more economic recycling, or mask efforts to skirt regulatory requirements?) MSW Management magazine; Jul-Aug, 1997
	Facility Profile: Springfield Waste-to-Energy SWANA Newsletter/Massachusetts Chapter; June, 1997
	Sorting it All Out - A Moving Experience: Waste Materials Handling and Processing Equipment (It takes some pretty exceptional machinery to segregate MSW and recyclables on the fly with great precision and reliability in order to strike the most cost-effective balance between disposal and diversion possible.) MSW Management magazine; May-June, 1997
	Space Wars (Soaring permitting costs coupled with the scarcity of geotechnically suitable land make landfill acreage among the most valuable real estate around. A landfill manager must relentlessly pursue and capture every cubic inch of available airspace.) MSW Management magazine; Mar-Apr, 1997
	Waste-to-Energy: Time to Face the Issues (With all the challenges facing us - ash management, clean air, public attitudes, and stiff financial concerns - it's time that everyone with a stake in WTE gets down to brass tacks.) MSW Management magazine, Guest editorial; Jul-Aug,1995; pp. 8-13
	WTE issues still burning in 1995 (For an integrated approach to waste management to succeed, waste-to-energy still must overcome some significant barriers.) World Wastes magazine; Jul, 1995; pp. 56-60

Special interests and expertise

In addition to strong organizing and writing skills, PF is adept at identifying with the end-user and providing relevant information in a clear, concise manner. A valued asset is PF's ability to find common ground and constructive agreement among parties with differing interests and perspectives. Her hallmark is the ability to work independently and bring projects in on time. PF derives tremendous satisfaction from sharing knowledge and always makes the extra effort to ensure understanding.

He also specializes in system concept development, design engineering, construction coordination, start-up/operating  procedure  development, malfunction analysis,  performance testing and management control. Herb frequently provides public presentations, expert testimony and arbitration functions, and is very active in many professional societies.

Major Accomplishments

	Positions - Registered Professional Engineer with an BME and MBA. Honored Fellow - AMERICAN SOCIETY of MECHANICAL ENGINEERS (ASME). Diplomat - past Trustee - AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERS. Founding member and past Chairman - ASME Solid Waste Processing Division. Founding member and past Chairman - ASME Research Committee on Industrial and Municipal Waste. Founding member - ASTM Committee D-34 on Waste Disposal. Founding member - ASTM Committee E-38 on Materials Resource Recovery. Editor of the ASTM special technical publication:- Thesaurus on Resource Recovery Terminology.
	Professional Focus - Herb specializes in waste handling, processing, and fossil fuel energy systems and is a nationally recognized authority on these subjects.  His experience includes: developing energy recovery systems that implement materials recovery; and recycling discards as fuel while providing disposal options for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional waste generators - locally, regionally and nationally. Herb has developed system criteria and specifications, and implemented construction inspections and performance testing and monitoring. He was the initiator and stimulus of the ASME/Bureau of Mines Investigative Program on Vitrification of Combustion Residues. After some twenty years in the boiler industry, he held positions with Roy F. Weston, Inc. (as Principal Consultant), Gilbert Associates (as Staff Consultant), and STV/Sanders & Thomas (as Vice President), before becoming an independent consultant and joining the Merritt Environmental Solutions team. Herb has been honored with several national medals and awards, made many presentations on solid waste management issues, authored more than 30 publications and contributed to the McGraw Hill Handbook of Environmental Engineering.
	Citations - 1984: ASTM Frank W. Reinhart Award. 1990: Appointed to Board of Trustees - American Academy of Environmental Engineers. 1990: ASME Distinguished Medal of Achievement. 1992: ASME Dedicated Service Award Medal, Who's Who in Engineering, Who's Who in Environmental Engineering, Who's Who in Energy Recovery From Waste, Who's Who in Finance and Industry.

Background

	Principle-in-Charge - Developed a regional nominal 1000 TPD, 20 MW, waste-to-energy  facility on a 3.4 acre site 8 miles from the Washington Monument. Prepared the initial feasibility study for WTE retrofit for Alexandria, and then the RFQ/RFP with specifications for the larger regional facility.  Participated in bid evaluations and contract negotiations with system suppliers/constructor/owner/operators.  Provided contract design review, construction monitoring, acceptance test monitoring, technical operational plant acceptance documentation and executed the Certificate of Completion.  Participated in many public information meetings.  This facility was financed by $75.7 million IDR bonds and $26 million in equity by the owner/operator.  The facility serves the City of Alexandria/County of Arlington, Virginia.
	Arbitration Engineer - Provided third party review of design, construction, operation, performance and acceptance testing of 1500 TPD, 30 MW waste-to-energy facility in North Andover, MA, serving the 23 community North East Solid Waste Committee. Services rendered at the behest of the project participants ( the system owner/constructor/operator, the 23 municipalities and their engineers, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management).
	Arbitration Dispute Resolution Panel - Reviewed issues regarding design, construction performance, and operation of 20 MW co-generating, combined cycle  biomass fired facility -- consuming hogged bark, waste wood chips, sawdust, sander dust, and excavated landfill organics.  Steam was supplied to an adjacent plywood mill and power transmitted to Ontario-Hydro for distribution.  He co-chaired the arbitration panel with a former Canadian, Supreme Court Justice.  Services were rendered at the behest of the bonding company, Trustee, and system owner/operator.
	Independent Evaluation Team - Evaluated proposals for a large Midwestern electric utility from "independent power producers" to supply 100 MW generation, using dedicated, biomass fuels. The project was to be based on IPP development, management and utilization of dedicated biomass energy plantations as the fuel source.  This was a DOE, EPRI, PUC endorsed and supported program directed toward reduction of CO2 greenhouse gases.

Combustion Ash Residue Management

Background and Scope - A decade or so ago, there were emerging public perceptions regarding possible trace metal contamination of aquifers by burying ash residue (from waste combustion) in MSW landfills. To expediently allay these concerns, disposal of these residues in "monofills" was adopted .  EPA-ORD-CINN initiated a competitive program whereby comprehensive evaluation  tests would be conducted on products developed from the five most promising processes using  cold stabilization, fixation, encapsulation, or solidification techniques  with the expectation that their products would have practical beneficial use as a construction material - or at least be benign if buried in a "conventional" MSW landfill.  The resulting materials produced for beneficial use during this EPA investigative program left much to be desired and was not  pursued further.

After the practice of energy recovery and independent power production was endorsed and encouraged, the intriguing concept was introduced of using a portion of the this energy from waste to process its residues one step further, into a new dense, amorphous, environmentally benign material.  DOE was persuaded to sponsor proof-of-concept ash residue vitrification trials, using the conventional AC electric furnace at the Bureau of Mines Rolla Missouri Research Center.  The trial melting of combined grate ash/fly ash residues from the Chicago NW WTE plant produced a vitreous "float"  material and a ferrous alloy "sink" ingot.   The results of the EP Tox analyses revealed they were well below the criteria values...  at or below the detection limits.  The density of the vitreous product was 4X and metal ingot was 10X  that of the original residue.

These encouraging results prompted initiation of a commercial demonstration with a campaign to vitrify continuously 24 hours/day for at least 5 days at the rate of 1000-2000 lbs./hr of residues from different state-of-the art plants.  Eventually, the ash/residues vitrified were: combined grate and  fly ash residues from three mass-burn plants, each using a different combustion technology and employing acid gas absorbers; combined sludge incinerator ash from a regional WWTP; and fly ash from a large RDF WTE plant.  For better control and comparative analysis all of the residues were  to be screened to  -2",  have no more than 5% combustible, and no more than 5% moisture. The fume generated during drying, and released during vitrification, was extensively sampled and analyzed. This was done under the direction of Environment Canada and EPA.  Some 6000 analyses were performed by the Bureau of Mines Albany Research Center laboratories.  The TCLP analyses were conducted by the ABB laboratories. Oregon DOT conducted civil engineering analyses.

This was a $1.2 million collaborative effort supported and funded with financial and technical resources of 38 entities, including: federal, state and local governments; technical associations; academe; industry; consultants; and  regulatory agencies (like ASME, BuMines, DOE, NYSERDA, EPRI, Environment Canada, EPA, Chem Waste Mgt., ABB, American-Refuel, Westinghouse, Foster Wheeler, and CRRA, among others).  The final report was published  by ASME CRTD in June 1994.

Presentations and Demos

Multimedia - Some 40 presentations were made to sponsoring organizations and at meetings, conferences and seminars.  News releases and/or technical papers covering this effort appeared in magazines and newspapers. A video is under production covering program motivation, the operation of the vitrification furnace system, and the environmental, economic and beneficial use implications.

Personal Project Contributions - While chairman of the ASME Research Committee on Industrial & Municipal Waste, Herb initiated discussions with DOE and BuMines that prompted the preliminary proof-of-concept vitrification trials and the resulting commercial scale demonstration programs.  He helped formulate the program objectives; recruited the sponsors and supporters; recommended facility modifications, operating modes and testing protocols; arranged and directed the residue preparation, bagging, and shipment; monitored the operations; participated in preparation and editing of the report;  made more than 90% of the presentations; and assisted in scripting and editing the Video.