Mr. Merksamer has a combined 37 years of extensive project management experience in the shipping, environmental, geotechnical, and construction fields. Mr. Merksamer’ s experience involves working on multi – million-dollar projects for major oil, utility, airports, shipping, and engineering firms. He is proficient in the management of daily operations, logistics, budgets, health and safety, permitting, reporting, and coordination of all subcontractors to ensure safe and successful completion of projects.
Mr. Merksamer is experienced in performing all aspects of Phase I and II site assessments and remediation projects and is knowledgeable in the permitting, design, installation, and monitoring of various treatment systems including ballast water treatment systems (BWTS), vapor extraction, groundwater treatment, bioremediation, and soil fixation. Mr. Merksamer is an expert in managing and controlling large-scale operations associated with logistics, health and safety programs, remediation, demolition, and general construction projects.
For the past 18 years Mr. Merksamer has been working with several manufacturers of BWTS and is familiar with system operations, maintenance, crew interaction and training. This has enabled him to able to assist shipping companies in implementing the United Sates Environmental Protection Agencies Vessel General Permit (USEPA VGP) sampling and reporting requirements (including the require annual reporting). He is an expert with the logistics and coordination needed to dispatch and sample vessels in US and international ports.
Mr. Merksamer’ education includes Water/Wastewater Engineering at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
Over the past 26 years Ms. Merksamer has gained expertise in a wide variety of environmental projects. Her focus for the last 21 years has been aquatic invasive species and the global transport of organisms in ship’s ballast water. A substantial area of Ms. Merksamer’s work involves assisting clients with obtaining approvals for ballast water treatment (BWT) technologies from various ship classification societies and international administrations. Management of these approvals requires extensive regulatory agency interaction, document / dossier preparation, data analysis, and risk assessment support. She is familiar with the logistics of scientific testing of BWT systems onboard ships, as well as system operation, maintenance, crew interaction and training. Ms. Merksamer stays informed on the latest global regulations pertaining to ballast water as well as scientific and technology advancements pertinent to BWT, and how those aspects can impact compliance, monitoring and enforcement for ballast water discharge standards.
Ms. Merksamer has worked as a laboratory analyst, research assistant, field biologist, biological and environmental compliance consultant, and manager of remediation projects. She is knowledgeable in various aspects of construction, water and air quality, microbiology, limnology, marine, plant and animal biology, and navigating complex regulatory processes. She has performed considerable amounts of environmental fieldwork including scientific data and sample collection, field sample analysis, and managing subcontractors. She is knowledgeable in biological and environmental project management, research, general and special-status biological assessments and field surveys, preparation of biological and environmental reports, construction monitoring and worker education programs. She has prepared and maintained permits for compliance with IMO, — USEPA, USCG, CEQA, CDFG, USFWS, US Army Corps, and other local regulatory agencies.
Ms. Merksamer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences with concentration in Environmental Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California. She is a Fellow of The Institute for Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), and a member of the IMarEST Ballast Water Expert Group (BWEG).