In the movie, “Erin Brockovich,” actor Julia Roberts portrayed a budding activist in a story about the impact of hexavalent chromium on a local community. In about two hours, the audience left the theater convinced of Ms. Roberts’ version of the story – case closed!
Your “audience,” be it a state or federal regulator, a judge, or a jury, is not likely to be convinced of your “story” in two hours . . . with or without Julia Roberts.
Nevertheless, the idea of conveying a convincing technical story is something that can be accomplished – through a well-conceived, robust Conceptual Site Model (CSM).
Developing a robust CSM can generate a compelling story from data and information gathered from and about the site. This story can help you in your environmental site assessment efforts, your environmental remediation efforts, as well as your efforts in the court room.
Recently, Dragun Corporation’s Jeffrey Bolin, M.S., CHMM co-wrote an article with two environmental attorneys from Pepper Hamilton, Todd Fracassi and Tom Wilczak, on how to generate this compelling story. The article, “Every Picture Tells a Story … Convincing Regulators and Courts of Your Client’s Position,” appears in the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel’s Fall 2014 Publication – Michigan Defense Quarterly.
This article might be helpful if you are trying to get your arms around a question of contamination (who is responsible, how you prove it, how you optimize remediation efforts, etc.). If you have a question about site assessment, remediation, or litigation support, contact Jeff (jbolin@dragun.com) at 248-932-0228, ext. 125.