Firm Overview

HSW Engineering, Inc. is an integrated earth science and engineering firm providing proactive, innovative, and cost-effective solutions for Environmental, Water Resources and Civil/Land Development projects.

HSW has distinguished itself as a leader in the environmental industry by adhering to its philosophy of strategic long-range management of environmental concerns. This successful philosophy revolves around a project organizational structure that always includes one of the firm's principals to maintain strict quality assurance, effective communication and senior leadership.

HSW has successfully applied innovative strategies to technical and regulatory issues nationwide, resulting in substantial cost and time savings. This approach assures our clients of the best possible service and value and is a key reason that over 90% of our work comes from previous customers. This same approach has also been integrated into our Water Resources and Civil/Land Development Practices.

Senior Staff: 

Ken W. Watson, Ph.D.
President/Principal Hydrologist
kwatson@hsweng.com

As a Principal Hydrologist, Dr. Watson is the officer in charge of contamination assessments of industrial facilities, water resource investigations, numerous underground storage tank projects, and groundwater studies. He is involved with unsaturated zone studies of wetlands. He is also involved in specific investigations dealing with establishing minimum flows and levels in water bodies in west-central Florida. Dr. Watson is continually called upon to provide quantitative expertise with respect to groundwater and unsaturated zone hydrology, and the transport of contaminants in the subsurface. As President of HSW, he is in charge of corporate technical development.

Fred A. Seguiti, P.G.
Vice President/Principal Hydrogeologist
fseguiti@hsweng.com

Mr. Seguiti manages projects involving site assessment and remediation. He has worked at more than 300 project sites throughout the Southeast and Puerto Rico including retail service stations, pipeline facilities, bulk storage terminals, transportation distribution centers, refineries, manufacturing facilities, DOD & DOE installations, Defense Contractor facilities, solid waste landfills, commercial developments, and public works facilities. The types of materials investigated include both lighter (gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, jet fuel, aviation gasoline, mineral spirits, stoddard solvent, motor oil, hydraulic oil, and Bunker C oil) and heavier than water organic chemicals (chlorinated organic solvents and creosote), pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, and inorganic compounds. Mr. Seguiti has utilized innovative and cost saving techniques during both assessment and remediation including: soil gas surveys, direct push technology, field analysis for real-time site assessment, bioremediation strategies using bioaugmentation and natural attenuation/monitoring approaches, risk assessment, intensive limited scope and short term source removal, multiple well, recovery trench and horizontal well schemes for capturing impacted groundwater, dual-phase extraction wells, insitu air sparging and soil vacuum extraction. He also has managed multiple assessment and remediation projects under Florida's Brownfield Program.  

Carol D. Henry, M.S.
Vice President/Principal Hydrologist
chenry@hsweng.com

As a Vice President/Principal Hydrologist, Ms. Henry provides expertise on virtually all aspects of environmental compliance and cleanup, including hazardous waste determinations, assessment and remediation of regulated units and solid waste management units (SWMUs), closure and post-closure care permitting, and negotiating resolution to complex regulatory issues at both permitted and non-permitted facilities. Ms. Henry provides meeting facilitation services to develop consensus relating to permitting and other environmental compliance issues. In this capacity, Ms. Henry assists both private and public RCRA facilities in developing efficient and cost-effective solutions to regulatory compliance while maintaining appropriate environmental stewardship. She has developed many streamlined approaches to regulatory permitting and reporting that have resulted in substantial cost savings and improved environmental protection and remediation. These innovative approaches have been embraced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation, NASA, DOE, DoD, and other agencies.

C. Dennis Peek, P.E.
Vice President/Principal Engineer
cdpeek@hsweng.com

As a Vice President/Principal Engineer, Mr. Peek has extensive experience in major project management, military design and construction, treatment system design, construction, and operation and maintenance, hazardous waste, groundwater recovery, and air dispersion modeling. His extensive experience in project management includes cost estimation, cost comparison, and value engineering, as well as selection, management, coordination, and scheduling of multi-disciplined technical and construction teams, and also cost tracking and financial projections for long term operating and monitoring requirements. In the environmental arena, he has working knowledge of federal and state regulations and permitting requirements.

Mr. Peek has successfully served as project manager or officer, responsible for project QC/QA and execution, on numerous other projects ranging from site investigations to treatment system construction. This work included RCRA work as well as CERCLA work. He has provided permitting, oversight and closure certification at numerous RCRA TSD facilities including the DOE Pinellas Plant.

Since 2005, Mr. Peek has directed HSW's military construction (MILCON) program under the US Army Corps of Engineers Range and Training Lands Program (RTLP).  This work includes the design and construction support of military training facilities for the US Army and the US Marines Corps and extends to international work including Afghanistan.

Andrew M. Lawn, M.S., P.G.
Vice President/Principal Hydrogeologist
alawn@hsweng.com

Mr. Lawn operates HSW's Orlando office. His responsibilities include management of complex hydrogeologic projects including contamination assessments, remediation system design and operation, data evaluation, site monitoring, remediation system design, permit and work plan negotiations with regulatory agencies, and evaluation of remediation system effectiveness. He regularly presents due diligence strategies, Brownfield site redevelopment and environmental business topics at the Florida Chamber and Brownfield Association Conferences.

Joel Balmat, M.S.
Senior Technical Consultant
jbalmat@hsweng.com

Mr. Balmat has over twenty years of progressive experience as an environmental manager and consultant with broad knowledge of environmental project management, site restoration, permitting, and regulatory compliance. He has eleven years of consulting operations management experience, including senior technical direction, staff management, quality control, report preparation, client communication, coordination with regulatory agencies, and budget and schedule control. Mr. Balmat also has eleven years' experience as a technical project manager and supervisor for the U.S. EPA, directing hazardous waste site responses, permitting, and compliance/enforcement activities.

Don Carpenter, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP
Senior Technical Consultant
dcarpenter@hsweng.com

Dr. Donald Carpenter, in addition to being a Senior Technical Consultant with HSW, is currently an Associate Professor of civil engineering and Director of the Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute at Lawrence Technological University, in Southfield, MI. In his capacity as an instructor, he teaches numerous water resources courses including Hydrology, Urban Hydraulics, Hydraulic Engineering, River Engineering and Restoration, and Coastal Engineering. In these courses he covers topics such as conceptual design of stormwater treatment facilities and pipe networks, innovative stormwater best management practices (BMPs), wet detention basin and stormwater treatment wetland design, hydrologic and stormwater modeling, field data collection for hydraulic projects, and performance monitoring of stormwater facilities. In addition, he directs research on innovative stormwater (BMPs) with current projects including bioretention planting medium performance, rain garden design, green roof performance, and structural stormwater chamber compliance with local standards.

Dr. Carpenter is a member of the State of Michigan Low Impact Development (LID) Technical Implementation Committee, which is charged with providing practical guidance for the dissemination and implementation of the State of Michigan LID Manual.  Dr. Carpenter is also a member of several national LID Committees and routinely provides professional lectures and short courses on innovative stormwater treatment facility design as a component of LID implementation. 

Robert E. Bretnall, Jr., M.S., P.G.
Senior Hydrogeologist
bbretnall@hsweng.com

Mr. Bretnall is a hydrogeologist with over 25 years of direct experience in planning and managing complex environmental projects and investigations. He has been recognized for superior job performance in conducting multi-phase investigations and assessments, auditing/evaluating site conditions, analyzing and interpreting data, and preparing reports and remedial plans. Mr. Bretnall has demonstrated expertise in contract management, tracking multiple projects, budgeting, quality control, technical report preparation, compliance with state and federal regulations, and staff training and supervision.

Scott H. Emery, Ph.D.
Senior Technical Consultant/Ecologist
ehi@tampabay.rr.com

Dr. Emery's water resources experience spans 29 years of professional experience (11 states, 3 countries) in both the public and private sectors. His primary areas of technical expertise are in: minimizing impacts from water resource development projects; assessing impacts from water withdrawal on lakes/streams/wetlands (including the development of methods for determining minimum flows and levels (MFLs)); resource management and policy development for local and regional governments; water supply development, treatment, and testing; applied ecology and ecological risk assessments. He has won awards for his professional facilitation services, undertaken for a variety of water resource and habitat issues. Dr. Emery has successfully completed multiple projects for three different water management districts, including Peer Reviews for different MFL issues. He has a research professorship at the University of South Florida, where he heads a multi-year MFL - related study for the Southwest Florida Water Management District. He has been a Board of Directors member for the Institute for Environmental Studies at USF since 1993. Dr. Emery was the Director of Resource Management for one of the largest water supply utilities in the state, in charge of all water supply development, operations, treatment and testing. He is qualified as an expert witness, and has successfully obtained large water use permits for public supply and agriculture.

William Lais, P.E.
Senior Engineer
wlais@hsweng.com

Mr. Lais has over 15 years of experience in remedial action planning and construction management, and is an expert in the evaluation and selection of cleanup technologies. Mr. Lais evaluates renewable energy sources and designs processes that reduce overall energy requirements and impacts to air and water quality. He applies these skills to site cleanup by developing matrices that compare the effectiveness of traditional and innovative technologies. The matrices include in-depth evaluation of energy and material requirements, environmental impacts, technical issues, regulatory requirements, annual expenditures, and time to achieve cleanup goals. Mr. Lais is also an expert at optimizing treatment processes to improve efficiency of failed or under-performing systems, and has served as Engineer of Record for over 50 remedial action cleanup sites.

Linda Hoffman
Senior Engineer
lhoffman@hsweng.com

Ms. Hoffman has performed field audits pursuant to EPA and FDEP Standard Operating Procedures, water management district sampling quality assurance (QA) plans, and projects with site-specific field protocols for several years. In fact, she performed QA oversight and auditing of field activities (sediment, soil, surface water, and groundwater sampling; and monitor well installation) for a multi-billion dollar land transfer. She has also performed numerous audits of environmental laboratories. Ms. Hoffman's experience includes QA oversight of field activities and analytical data, site assessment and remediation, regulatory compliance, and operations, maintenance, and process control of treatment systems. She has developed and presented training curriculum for environmental monitoring and sampling, hazardous waste handling, and water and wastewater treatment plant operators.

Cindy L. Westergard, MBA
Senior Scientist
cwestergard@hsweng.com

Ms. Westergard, a senior chemist, has served in a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) capacity for over 20 years and in the environmental field for over 25 years. As corporate QA Officer at HSW, she is responsible for the generation of quality assurance plans, validation of field and analytical data, data analysis and management, generation and updating of HSW's Quality Manual, auditing of environmental laboratories and negotiation of laboratory contracts.

Ms. Westergard has worked in fixed-based analytical laboratories and has served as the on-site chemist in over 100 field investigations requiring real-time analyses of environmental samples by EPA-based methods. She has been responsible for designing and maintaining several large, Microsoft Access-based databases and is experienced with other relational database management and analysis software such as SAS and SPSS. Ms. Westergard performs independent third-party data validation and generates quality assessment reports, including Quality Control Summary Reports (QCSRs) and Chemical Quality Assessment Reports (CQARs) meeting USACE requirements.  HSW and Ms. Westergard strongly believe that on-time delivery is as important a component of a quality product as the product itself, and that an essential part of quality assurance is acting in a proactive manner such that quality issues are minimized or precluded altogether.

Dean Mades, M.S., P.E.
Senior Hydrologist
dmades@hsweng.com

Mr. Mades heads our Sarasota office. He is a Senior Hydrologist with more than 30 years of experience studying, monitoring, statistically analyzing, and modeling surface and groundwater hydrology, hydraulics, and water quality. He has managed and contracted maintenance dredging projects and associated bathymetric surveys, and prepared a number of flushing studies in support of marine construction projects. He has substantial experience designing and installing automated hydrologic and water quality monitoring systems. Mr. Mades has provided expert testimony related to water resources, water use and drainage; and he has provided technical support for environmental rule development in Florida. He currently manages and provides technical reviews on a wide variety of projects including environmental, water use and stormwater permitting; minimum flows and levels; and groundwater remediation.

Derek Huston, P.E.
Senior Environmental Engineer
dhuston@hsweng.com

Mr. Huston is a Senior Environmental Engineer for HSW's Orlando Office. He has been performing site remediation for more than 10 years on contaminants including chlorinated solvents, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, pesticides, PCBs and metals.  He specializes in air sparge, soil vapor extraction and chemical oxidation technologies and has broad expertise in various computer software and programming.  Clients include attorneys, realtors, manufacturing facilities, municipalities, federal agencies and petroleum distributors. 

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