Introduction to Environmental Forensics

Introduction to Environmental Forensics helps readers unravel the complexities of environmental pollution cases. It outlines techniques for identifying the source of a contaminant release, when the release occurred, and the extent of human exposure. Written by leading experts in environmental investigations, the text provides detailed information on chemical "fingerprinting" techniques applicable to ground water, soils, sediments, and air, plus an in-depth look at petroleum hydrocarbons.

It gives the environmental scientist, engineer, and legal specialist a complete toolbox for conducting forensic investigations. It demonstrates the range of scientific analyses that are available to answer questions of environmental liability and support a legal argument, and provides several examples and case studies to illustrate how these methods are applied.

This is a textbook that would prove useful to a range of disciplines, including environmental scientists involved in water and air pollution, contaminated land and geographical information systems; and archaeologists, hydrochemists and geochemists interested in dating sources of pollution.

Co-edited by one of the experts from the Civil Action case in Woburn, MAProvides essential information about identifying environmental contaminants responsible for millions of deaths per yearContains the latest information and coverage of issues crucial to both forensics investigators and environmental scientists

1. Applications of Environmental Forensics
2. Site History: The First Tool of the Environmental Forensics Team
3. Photogrammetry, photointerpretation, and Digital Imaging and Mapping in Environmental Forensics
4. The Measurement Process
5. Statistical Methods
6. Statistical Tools for Ratio Data
7. Principal Components Analysis and Receptor Models in Environmental Forensics
8. Recepter Models for Source Apportionment of Suspended Particles
9. Chemical Fingerprinting Methods
10. Application of Stable Isotopes and Radio Isotopes in Environmental Forensics
11. Forensic Applications of Contaminant Transport Models in the Subsurface
12. Forensic Air Dispersion Modeling and Analysis
13. Environmental Forensic Microscopy
14. Applications of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in Environmental Forensic Studies
15. Emerging Forensic Techniques