MANSOUR SEPEHR, Ph.D., P.E.
CREDENTIALS
Ph.D., Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Utah State University (1984)
M.S., Irrigation Engineering
Utah State University (1980)
B.S., Soil Science
Tehran University, Iran (1970)
Utah State University Post-Doctoral Fellow, 1984-1985
Utah Water Research Laboratory Research Assistant, 1981-1984
Agricultural Development Bank of Iran, Soil Scientist, 1972-1978
Soil Institute of Iran, Soil Analyst, 1970-1972
EXPERIENCE SUMMARY
Dr. Sepehr is a California registered professional engineer (PE). During the last 20 years, he has performed extensive work in the quantitative assessment of contaminant transport. He has broad experience in groundwater flow modeling, chemical plume definition, site characterization, and remedial investigation and feasibility studies of hazardous waste sites. he has used his expertise in litigation support for identifying potential responsible parties and cost recovery purposes. He has designed and implemented numerous groundwater and vapor extraction systems for remediation of volatile organic compound-affected aquifers and soils. he has considerable experience in design and interpretation of aquifer tests, well logs, and geologic cross sections. His major areas of expertise are hydrogeologic investigations;, surface water and groundwater hydrology and contaminant fate and transport modeling.
Dr. Sepehr has been the manager of the quantitative modeling group at a major environmental consulting firm for over four years. During this period, he made significant contributions to projects involving the identification of soil and groundwater clean-up levels. He has managed soil and groundwater remediation projects, prepared reports and proposals, and provided interface with regulatory agencies.
Dr. Sepehr has been effective in applying his expertise performing third-party peer review of hydrogeological reports involving site characterization, groundwater flow modeling, chemical transport modeling, as well as modeling involving atmospheric transport mechanisms. He has been involved in a number of EPA Superfund projects as a project manager and peer reviewer. He has performed computer modeling studies for numerous Federal and California State Superfund projects to evaluate future multimedia migration of the contaminants in surface water, groundwater, soil, and air. The results of these analyses have been used for public health risk assessments, as well as for the identification of clean-up levels in soils and groundwater at hazardous waste sites.
He has a considerable experience in the assessment of emission rates of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from groundwater and chemical-affected soils to ambient air. He has performed numerous emission rate calculations and dispersion modeling evaluations to assess the effects of volatilization and fugitive dusts to ambient air in on- and off-site areas. In addition to his unique technical background and capability in computer modeling, he has maintained strong contacts with various universities such as New Mexico State University, Utah State University and researches at U.C. Berkeley. He has been active in providing technical support to various regulatory agencies in Cal EPA. He has conducted a series of short courses in quantitative modeling for the Department of Toxic Substances Control in the Cal EPA. These contacts help keep him abreast of new advances in research, as well as developments in the regulatory area. Dr. Sepehr has been effective in applying state-of-the-art research result in practical tools for solving environmental problems.
Dr. Sepehr has considerable experience in developing computer models for water resources investigations. He developed a complete graphics package (called CONVEC) to interface with Modular Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model of U.S. Geological Survey (MODFLOW). He has modified RANDOM-WALK, a chemical transport model by Illinois Water Survey (1981) so that it can be used along with MODFLOW for simulation of water quality conditions in a multi-layer aquifer system. He has effectively applied this modeling technique in systems up to four layers.
DRAIN is a computer code in FORTRAN 77, which has been developed by Dr. Sepehr. It utilizes an analytical solution of a groundwater flow equation to simulate the optimum drain spacing and the piezometric head values in transient state. By displaying the solution in a graphical presentation, it estimates time requirements to reduce water levels to given levels under variable recharge rates.
CAPTURE is another computer code which he has developed to delineate the capture zone of a pumping well or multiple wells based on a particle tracking scheme using groundwater flow velocities. This model is an effective tool to track down the stream lines for designing the groundwater extraction wells in a chemical-affected aquifer.
GAS2D and GAS3D are numerical two and three dimensional models developed by Dr. Sepehr to simulate chemical gas flow conditions under vadose zone conditions. The model has been validated and used to assess the gas pressure distribution and anticipated gas flow rates from vapor extraction wells under different boundary conditions, soil moisture contents, heterogeneous and anisotropic conditions. This model has been used extensively to evaluate and design vapor extraction systems for different projects.
As a hydrologist, he has used HEC models at different sites for designing hydraulic structures for hazardous waste remediation purposes.
Dr. Sepehr is experienced in the use of EPA's User's Network for Applied Modeling of Air Pollution (UNAMAP), and PCGEMS. These packages contain a series of strong environmental models which have been developed by EPA. Dr. Sepehr has used these models to generate data for public health risk assessments involving the emission of toxic fumes from hazardous waste sites. These models can be used also for permit applications in the construction of air strippers and incinerators.
As a project hydrogeologist at Dames & Moore, Dr. Sepehr modeled groundwater flow conditions in the Plain River Aquifer in Idaho, and Bluewater-Grants Subbasin in New Mexico for hazardous waste management studies, and designed an effective groundwater extraction system for aquifer clean-up.
As a post doctoral fellow at Utah Water Research Laboratory, he performed extensive field investigation and data gathering to quantify groundwater salinity build-up from irrigation of saline alluvium. He developed a water quality model to test different management alternatives in reducing groundwater salinity due to the irrigation of crops in saline alluvium.
For his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Sepehr combined the U.S. Geologic Survey's Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model and the Solute Transport Model along with the surface water flow model, Basin Simulation Assessment Model (BSAM), to identify the modeling effort, the total salt contribution from agricultural irrigation and natural salinity to the Sevier River Basin were quantitatively identified, and optimal use of surface and groundwater for reduction of salinity in Sevier Rive was identified.
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