Understanding ProUCL and Use of the 95% UCL to Demonstrate Compliance with RSR Criteria
The Connecticut State Board of Examiners of Environmental Professionals (LEP Board) has approved this course for 8.0 hours of continuing education credits (CTLEP-382). The MA LSP Board has approved this course for 6.0 Technical Credits (LSP Course #1518). This is a new course and it is the first time being offered.
TIME AND LOCATION (note new course location site):
This seminar will be held on April 27, 2015 and runs from 8 AM - 5 PM at the Sheraton Hartford South, 100 Capital Blvd., Rocky Hill, CT. Please arrive by 7:30 AM for registration. A continental breakfast and lunch will be served.
INSTRUCTORS:
Bernie Morzuch, Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Carl Gruszczak, Jr., Environmental Analyst, Remediation Division, CT DEEP
FEES:
EPOC Members: $225, Non-members: $275, Gov't Employee/Student Members: $112.50
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
For seminar agenda, CLICK HERE - PDF file
Note: Please bring windows laptop computer. Attendees will receive link to download ProUCL software prior to the seminar to pre-load on laptop.
The Remediation Standard Regulations (RSRs) allow use of a calculated 95% upper confidence level (UCL) for constituent concentrations to demonstrate compliance with various sections of those regulations under specific circumstances. The guidance document entitled, “Guidance for Calculating the 95% Upper Confidence Level for Demonstrating Compliance with the Remediation Standard Regulations”, published by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in May 2014, provides information on such relevant topics as the applicability of the 95% UCL calculation in the RSRs, selection of samples that are appropriate to use when calculating a 95% UCL for a dataset, and a description of several statistical methods that can be used to calculate a 95% UCL for a dataset. Among the options for calculating a 95% UCL, DEEP has recommended the computer software program ProUCL which is published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, for many Licensed Environmental Professionals (LEPs) and other environmental practitioners, even those with a basic understanding of statistics, the software operates in many ways as a “black box” into which data is entered and a recommended 95% UCL is identified as the output.
This seminar was developed to improve the environmental professionals’ understanding of the ProUCL program as a useful tool to calculate an appropriate 95% UCL for a dataset, as well as to emphasize how the 95% UCL can be used as a means to describe a dataset in the context of the RSRs. The seminar was designed to accomplish three primary objectives. The first two of those objectives are to provide a review of the sections of the RSRs that allow use of a calculated 95% UCL for constituent concentrations to demonstrate compliance with those regulations and to review information presented in the DEEP guidance document, particularly with respect to the generation of appropriate datasets in the specific circumstances when use of the 95% UCL can be used to demonstrate compliance. Presentation of these topics establishes the context for use of the ProUCL program to calculate a 95% UCL that is appropriate given a dataset that was generated based on site conditions.
The majority of the seminar will focus on explaining the statistical principles and methods on which the ProUCL software is based (i.e., the inner workings of the “black box”) and the meaning of the information presented as output by the software program. To accomplish that objective, multiple examples prepared with actual site data will be used throughout this portion of the seminar as specific topics are being discussed in order to effectively illustrate how the program handles various situations that are likely to be encountered when site data are evaluated. Use of the ProUCL software itself, from data input to presentation of various types of program output, will be included in the discussions to facilitate the attendees’ understanding of how the program works and what options are available for evaluation of a dataset.
SPEAKER BIOS:
Bernie Morzuch is a professor in the Department of Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. He has taught introductory statistics and intermediate statistics at the undergraduate level for 37 years to approximately 15,000 students at UMass. In May 2012, he received the College Outstanding Teacher Award in the Isenberg School of Management. He is a past recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award and of a national teaching award. He has also taught managerial economics and econometrics at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, he has taught econometrics, panel-data econometrics, and time series/forecasting techniques. He has written instructors' manuals and students' solutions manuals for a popular undergraduate textbook used in statistics. He has offered a short course in statistics to LSPs in Massachusetts five times previously and also to environmental professionals in Connecticut three times. He has also offered the second course in statistics several times in each state.
Carl Gruszczak, Jr. has been an environmental analyst with the Remediation Division of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) since 2008, overseeing investigation and remediation projects in northwestern Connecticut. Mr. Gruszczak also serves as the Remediation Division’s vapor intrusion expert. He co-authored the DEEP’s Guidance for Calculating the 95% Upper Confidence Level for Demonstrating Compliance with the Remediation Standard Regulations and is currently heading a workgroup that is developing guidance for evaluating background soil and groundwater conditions for compliance with the RSRs. Prior to his employment at DEEP, he was employed as an environmental consultant. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY with a B.S. in physics and a minor in geology and attended two years of graduate school at RPI enrolled in the geophysics program.
