He has applied his expertise across a broad range of sites and for a wide range of clients from industrial sectors that include chemical and pharmaceutical manufacture, downstream oil refining and distribution, large scale ferrous and non-ferrous metal industries, broader large scale manufacturing and engineering facilities, mining and waste management sites. Contaminants of potential concern at such sites have included chlorinated solvents, other volatile organic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, mineral acid and alkali, trace metals and metalloids.
Dr. Ford specializes in helping clients understand and prioritize programmes to manage contaminated land and broader environmental liability issues, developing cost-effective, practical remedies using the latest proven technologies, as appropriate. For example, he served as the project director for a detailed multi-phase soil and groundwater investigation and remediation programme at a site in the United Kingdom with three principal contaminant plumes and one source area involving lagoon with VOC-contaminated sludge. He also served as the project director for the investigation and remediation of a portfolio of sites for a client, including active and former chemical manufacturing sites and three former chemical waste landfills.
Dr. Ford has lead projects involving property transactions (due diligence) and facility permitting/compliance. For example, he has served as the project director for 30 transaction-driven environmental due diligence assessments at industrial facilities and premises in the UK and Republic of Ireland, in some cases helping preparations for sale, and in others working for the buyer during a proposed acquisition. Once the transaction is completed, Dr Ford can manage identified environmental liabilities on behalf of the client, including the design and implementation of corrective action programmes. An example of this was a chemical production site which required significant up-grades to a tank farm, production building effluent collection and drainage systems, stack emission monitoring equipment, plus the installation of a contaminated groundwater containment system, which was completed under a 12 month programme or work.
Dr. Ford has provided expert witness type work to Corporate and legal clients, in the UK & Ireland, linked to regulatory and civil litigation cases, spanning the period 1997 to 2012. This has typically involved complex cases of land and groundwater contamination that require forensic analysis of data and information to determine and communicate the detail of the case in a way that is understandable to the court and all stakeholders. Dr Ford is highly experienced at understanding, rationalising and condensing down relevant data and information into a form that is both useful and understandable.