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The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) announced in a November 3rd news release that its Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Robert Blanz, P.E., has been appointed to serve on two prestigious United States boards.
Dr. Blanz was appointed to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Science Advisory Board (“SAB”) and Board of Scientific Counselors (“BOSC”).
The ADEQ news release describes the SAB as a:
. . . chartered Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent scientific and technical peer review, consultation, advice, and recommendations to the EPA Administrator for EPA’s actions and programs. Members of the SAB constitute distinguished bodies of non-EPA scientists, engineers, economists, and behavioral and social scientists who are nationally and internationally recognized experts in their respective fields.
The BOSC is described as a Federal Advisory Committee which:
. . . provides advice, information, and recommendations for EPA’s Office of Research and Development Program.
Dr. Blanz has been appointed to serve as Vice-Chair of the Sustainable Water Committee of the BOSC.
As noted in a previous post discussing Dr. Blanz’s appointment as Chief Technical Officer at ADEQ (see previous blog post here), he is arguably one of the most experienced environmental professionals in the State of Arkansas. His experience has included previously serving in a variety of positions at ADEQ, including Deputy Director. He also served as the Director of the Kentucky Division of Water Quality. In the private sector, Dr. Blanz served for 19 years as head of the Little Rock Office of the national environmental engineering firm of CH2M Hill. He has also been associated with Harbor Environmental.
Dr. Blanz’s private and public sector work includes addressing some of the most complex issues in the environmental arena. These include NPDES permitting, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Part B TSD facility work, air emissions permitting, and solid waste management. The facilities he has worked with (or regulated) range from simple municipal wastewater treatment facilities to some of the most sophisticated hazardous waste treatment facilities in the nation. He also served for several years as the Arkansas Environmental Federation member of Arkansas Petroleum Storage Tank Advisory Committee.
Dr. Blanz’s educational background includes a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Zoology (with emphasis in Limnology) from the University of Arkansas and a PhD of Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.
