Join our presenters Bill DiGuiseppi and Chris McCarthy both from Jacobs as these two international experts discuss issues of high importance to New Zealanders, requiring well resourced and informed actions from our industry.

Bill DiGuiseppi is a Denver based hydrogeologist of 30 years who leads Jacobs Chemicals/Issues of Emerging Concern (CEC) Initiative, covering in the identification, prioritisation, and management of CECs, such as PFAS, nanomaterials, hexavalent chromium and other critical pollutants.

Bill's presentation will cover aspects of his keynote address at the EcoForum conference in Sydney, which traces the evolution of awareness and action of chemical hazards in drinking water, from early discoveries about how
contaminants in our drinking water can affect our health (e.g. lead from pipes in the late –
1800s) to the modern "crisis" of PFAS and other manufactured substances being detected in our drinking water.

Chris McCarthy is a Boston based ecologist who leads Jacobs global ecological risk assessment practice.
Chris' experience includes the quantitative risk evaluation of a wide variety of contaminants including PFAS, hexavalent chromium, mercury, arsenic, radionuclides, PCBs and Dioxins, and PAHs.

Chris has extensive experience designing and leading field work, including environmental media sampling, wetland delineation, bird surveys, fish sampling, endangered species surveys, and various biological surveys. Chris will discuss the approach to ecological risk assessment in the US, which often involves quantitative modelling of ecosystems before going to the field and gathering biological data, in relation to approaches in New Zealand and Australia.

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