50 Years of Environmental Engineering Experience in Atlanta, GA
David Russell has spent more than 50 years solving environmental problems that most engineers never encounter. As president of Global Environmental Operations, he leads every client engagement personally, bringing the kind of experience you can’t find at a larger firm where projects get handed off to junior staff.
Growing up near industrial plants in Chicago, David developed an early understanding of how industrial processes work and what can go wrong with them. That foundation shaped a career that spans water and wastewater treatment, hazardous waste management, air pollution control, site remediation, and environmental legal consulting. He’s a Registered Professional Engineer licensed in multiple states, and his project work has taken him across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
David holds six published books on environmental topics, including two editions of Practical Wastewater Treatment through John Wiley Publishers. His technical articles have appeared in Chemical Engineering Magazine and other industry publications for decades.
Expert Witness and Legal Consulting
When environmental disputes move into litigation, attorneys need an expert who understands the science, communicates it clearly, and holds up under cross-examination. David has served as an expert witness in landmark environmental cases, including Chevron vs. Donziger, where his testimony contributed to a significant legal outcome.
Global Environmental Operations’ legal consulting on environmental matters covers hazardous waste, compliance failures, structural damage, and a range of other technical disputes. David’s combination of field experience and courtroom credibility makes GEO a go-to resource for attorneys and clients dealing with high-stakes environmental cases in Atlanta and nationally.
Water, Wastewater, and Beyond
Water has been at the center of David’s career from the start. Global Environmental Operations handles wastewater treatment system design and optimization, drinking water system modeling and distribution analysis, and everything in between. David’s water work has spanned manufacturing plants, municipalities, and international facilities in Qatar, Poland, and beyond.
GEO’s full services include hazardous waste and site remediation, air pollution control, remediation and site assessment, environmental process design, emergency response and training, and international development. Whatever the environmental challenge is, David has likely worked on a version of it before.
Industry-Leading Project History
David’s project history includes some of the most significant environmental work of the past five decades. He led cleanup operations at the Love Canal site in California, designed groundwater remediation systems for petroleum-contaminated facilities in Venezuela, and developed a process for removing radium from highly saline mine waters in Poland. His emergency response and safety work has taken him to the Middle East, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kazakhstan, as well as Malaysia and Ecuador.
Closer to home, Global Environmental Operations has consulted for General Motors assembly plants in Georgia, worked with the City of Atlanta on remediation litigation, and managed environmental compliance programs for petroleum terminals across the Southeast. That range of experience, from local Atlanta-area projects to international assignments, is what GEO brings to every engagement.
Our Legacy Of Excellence
Below is a partial list of client companies and projects for which Global Environmental Operations, Inc. and its personnel have provided services.
Petroleum Industry
- Environmental Assessments and consulting work for 18 petroleum terminals
- Preparation of detailed Facility Contingency Response, Spill Response, and cleanup plans for 16 bulk petroleum terminals – Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama.
- Air Emission Summaries, Permit Reviews and Permit Preparation for terminals v NPDES Permit Applications for two Terminals.
- Design of contaminated groundwater treatment and remediation systems for Exxon and Chevron facilities.
- Manual for Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Sites.
- Consulting for Mol Rot Refinery (USAID Contract) Szazholmbatta, Hungary.
- Consulting for PDVSA, Caracas, Venezula on several plants to establish international projects in both scope and financing.
Automobile Industry
- Established Compliance Monitoring Program for General Motors Assembly Plants, and
instrumented and automated compliance monitoring - Established Toxic Organics Management Plan GM Assembly Plant, Doraville, GA.
- Consulting on PCB Cleanup and Equipment Rehabilitation at Fisher Body Plant in Syracuse,
NY. - Waste Water Characterization and Waste Paint Sludge Management Facilities
Nuclear Industry
- Design of Subsurface Barrier- Groundwater Protection System for cleanup of leaking
radioactive underground storage tanks at Hanford Nuclear Center, Richland, WA. - Cleanup study for removal of Radium from Piast Mine waters in Poland
Food Processing Industry
- Process consulting for Cryovac Division of W.R. Grace v Spill Control Planning for Cryovac Division of W.R. Grace.
- Development of electrolytic flotation system for removal of oil and grease from wastewater.
- Dynamic Modeling of wastewater treatment plant using commercial software.
- Consulting for various plants in the food industry, various locations.
- Consulting to Richway Foods, Buffalo New York.
Hazardous Wastes & Remediation
- Design of facility rehabilitation for hazardous waste treatment facility near Atlanta.
- Pond Closure and Cleanup for CBS Records, Carrolton, Ga.
- Hazardous Waste Emission Survey, Carrolton Tube, Carrolton, Ga.
- Development of waste gas reclamation system for landfill near Buffalo, NY.
- Design of Ground water and Waste treatment system for a textile manufacturer SC.
- Supervision of Landfill Cleanup at the Love Canal West- Lathrop, California.
- Specialty projects for clients on UST cleanups, and specialty remediation and risk consulting matters.
- Consulting for legal and specialty environmental matters.
- Consultant to attorneys on asbestos exposure from gaskets and pipes.
- Consultant to attorneys on explosives manufacturing processes.
- Consultant to attorneys on Safety for municipal employees.
- Consultant to attorneys for Runoff and Remediation studies, NJ and FL.
- Reclassification study to remove brownfield designation from agricultural site in GA.
- International training on hazardous wastes and risk assessments and harmonized
transportation.
International
- v Environmental Studies on two Hungarian Petroleum Refineries.
- LPG Gas Cylinder Demand Study for Ghana for US Trade and Development Agency.
- Review of Chernobyl Soil Cleanup Business Plan for US T&DA.
- Consulting to Georgian National Academy of Sciences, Tiblisi, Georgia.
- Joint paper on Wastewater Treatment in a Hungarian Petroleum Refinery.
- Multiple Studies on Venezuelan Oil industry in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
- Marketing Study for Development of a new industrial process and business area in Romania.
- Evaluation of new landfill and waste transfer station feasibility, Wyala of Fees, Morocco.
- Risk assessment training, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia
- Ten years experience in International Environmental and Process Industry, and
Safety training in the Middle East, (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Bahrain,
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) and Malaysia and Ecuador. - Principal Investigator and team leader for contamination assessment in Ecuador.
Other Projects
- Process consultant for Proprietary Waste Disposal Processes using molten aluminum as a reactant in a thermo-chemical destruction process.
- Design of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, for treating various types of wastes including nitroparrafins, electroplating, metal finishing.
- Environmental Assessments for industrial and financial clients.
- Environmental Compliance Assessments for chemical and industrial clients
- Instructor for HAZWOPER and RCRA Training classes.
- Development of Hazardous Waste Landfill Technology Master Plan.
- Consultant on Hazardous Waste cleanups and incineration projects.
- Consultant to the State of New York on site cleanup of the Enviro-Chem facility, Buffalo, NY.
- Consultant to the City of Atlanta on Remediation Lawsuit.
- Design and Development of Cable Manufacturing air, water, and odor treatment system.
- Development of a unique system for management of biosolids from municipalities by composting.
- Design and development of water and wastewater treatment systems.
- Ten years environmental control experience in US Chemical Industry.
- Wastewater treatment systems for explosives manufacturing.
- Design of Industrial Building for Grayling Industries, Inc., Alpharetta, GA.
- Risk and Evaluation Studies for insurance companies.
- Preparation of Air Pollution Title V permit applications
- Water and Wastewater Sampling and Process design and modeling
- Risk Assessment and Hazard Assessment, including HazOps.
Books
- Practical Wastewater Treatment 2nd Edition, April 2019, John Wiley Publishers – Available at Amazon.com
- Practical Wastewater Treatment 1st Edition, 2010, John Wiley Publishers – Available at Amazon.com
- Industrial Security: Managing Security in the 21st Century, March 2015, John Wiley Publishers – Available at Amazon.com
- Remediation Manual for Petroleum Contaminated Sites, 1992, Francis and Taylor – Available at Barnes & Noble
- Remediation Manual for Contaminated Sites, 2012, CRC Press (Francis and Taylor) – Available at Barnes & Noble
- Remediation Manual for Contaminated Sites, 2 nd Edition, published summer 2024. (Francis and Taylor)
Technical Articles and Publications
Contributor 2018 Water Encyclopedia (John Wiley Press):
- Cleanup of Oil and Chemical Spills
- Extreme Events and their Impacts (Planning for Extreme Events)
- Environmental Permitting in the US and EU: A comparison
- Horizontal Well Hydraulics
Chemical Engineering Magazine:
- “Understanding Groundwater Monitoring“, October, 1987.
- “Underground Storage Tanks…Potential for Economic Disaster“, with Steven Hart, Mar. 1987.
- “Managing your Environmental Audit“, June, 1985.
- “Monitoring and Sampling Liquid Effluents“, October, 1980.
- “Measurement Uncertainties in the NPDES Permit System“, with J. Tiede, October, 1978.
Purdue Industrial Waste Conference:
- “Design of an Enclosed Composting Reactor“, 1985.
- “Thermal Sludge Drying… Drum Dryer Systems“, 1985.
- “Now You See It…”, 1978 (article on statistics and environmental discharges), reprinted as Measurement Uncertainties in Chemical Engineering (see section above).
Other Publications:
- Occasional contributing author to Environmental Protection Magazine and Atlanta Realtor,
Magazine 1987-1992. - Better Statistics means Better Permitting, Chemical Engineering, Fall 2019.
Contact Global Environmental Operations to talk through your environmental challenge with David directly.