Mark Ripperda
Proven Experience
Mark Ripperda
Mr. Ripperda has over 30 years of experience implementing environmental regulations. Mr. Ripperda has expertise in a broad range of CERCLA law, policy, and guidance on the complex issues of uranium waste cleanup on tribal lands. Specific issues include site investigations, risk assessment, the Off-Site Rule, principal threat waste, RCRA Subtitle C and D landfill regulations that all relate to mine waste cleanup, on-site management and capping of waste, transport and disposal, and air monitoring.
Mr. Ripperda holds a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California and Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering, University of Southern California.
Sustainable Results
Mr. Ripperda served as a Remedial Project Manager in the Superfund Division and provided oversight of investigations and cleanups of abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation and multiple military bases. He planned response priorities, and worked collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to manage the cleanup of uranium mine waste on Navajo lands. He worked directly with EPA’s lawyers and policy experts to negotiate legal agreements with responsible parties to require them to perform the investigation and cleanup work. The external stakeholders were a diverse group of private mining companies, US government agencies, the Navajo Nation government, community members, and public activist groups.
Mr. Ripperda worked directly with the Navajo Nation EPA, communities, and mining companies on actual cleanups providing him a unique perspective on how to build teams and trust to complete cleanup projects successfully.
As a Remedial Project Manager in the Federal Facilities Branch of EPA Region 9, he developed goals and objectives to clean up and transfer closed military bases under the CERCLA BRAC program for civilian use. He worked collaboratively with diverse stakeholders within EPA, including the Air, RCRA, and Water Divisions and external stakeholders such as the military, state and local agencies and community groups to resolve complex issues related to a military base closure and cleanup under CERCLA.
Mr. Ripperda also manage a project at Schofield Army Barracks in Hawaii, a CERCLA Superfund Site with a large drinking water aquifer contaminated with TCE. A standard pump and treatment remedy would have cost approximately 200 million dollars. Researching the CERCLA and SDWA legal issues and the science of karst aquifers, he developed an approach using strong strategic thinking skills to revise the typical method of groundwater pump and treat. To implement the improved approach of wellhead treatment, he wrote one of the earliest Technical Impracticability Waivers in the country for such a large drinking water source to address this emerging issue of how to address large-scale aquifer contamination. The technical impracticability waiver with wellhead treatment saved over $150 million and provided complete protection to the community. Mr. Ripperda saw through the entire site through cleanup and delisting from the National Priorities List.