New Professionals

Fred Burnside Managing Member Fred Burnside’s extensive experience ranges from field-level environmental investigations to the highest level of decision-making related to environmental enforcement in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. read more	Felix Flechas Member Felix Flechas is an expert in company environmental compliance strategies that take into account state and federal environmental regulations, and the principles of sound engineering practices. read more
Mark Measer Member Mark Measer is an expert in domestic and international environmental investigation and enforcement. read more	Donna Stephenson Member Donna Stephenson is an expert in Clean Water Act matters, wastewater treatment, wet weather regulations and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). read more
Gary G. Mowad Associate Before retiring from federal service, Gary Mowad had a distinguished career as a criminal investigator, biologist and natural resource aircraft pilot with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). An expert in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Mr. Mowad trained every USFWS Special Agent Basic Class in the ESA for 12 years and routinely taught classes on the law before USFWS biologists throughout the country. read more	Matthew Schweisberg Associate Matthew Schweisberg is a Professional Wetland Scientist, wildlife biologist, and mediator. His areas of expertise include the Clean Water Act section 404 program; Clean Water Act jurisdiction; environmental compliance and enforcement policy/response; fish and wildlife biology; wetlands ecology and restoration; ecological risk assessment and management; and all aspects of alternative dispute resolution. read more
Barbara Wagner Senior Advisor Barbara Wagner specializes in locating technical and regulatory information related to environmental enforcement from computer databases and other sources. read more

 

Fred Burnside, Managing Member

 fburnside@BurnsideGroup.com
  479-754-0373
  202-557-1576

Fred Burnside’s extensive experience ranges from field-level environmental investigations to the highest level of decision-making related to environmental enforcement in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Burnside is a former national director of the criminal enforcement arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He advised EPA leadership on hundreds of environmental enforcement cases nationwide and supervised federal agents, scientists and attorneys at 40 locations across the country. He was Special Agent in Charge of two of the 10 EPA regions (Denver and Atlanta) and served at EPA national headquarters in Washington, DC. A wetlands biologist, Mr. Burnside worked as special agent with the criminal program during his 23-year EPA career.

Due to the depth of his experience, Mr. Burnside can provide guidance to corporate officers, defense and corporate counsel regarding:

• How the agency will view a violation or fact pattern
• Evaluating and preparing for adverse regulatory inspections
• Compliance problems and evaluation of compliance programs
• Corporate responses to subpoenas, information requests and search warrants
• Conducting root-cause or internal investigations
• Whether a violation will be pursued as a criminal or civil action
• What agency decision-makers to approach to present your case
• How an enforcement action will likely proceed
• How to maximize the client’s position in adverse circumstances

Mr. Burnside is a regular lecturer for the American Bar Association and serves on its Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee. He has written extensively on environmental crimes enforcement and the U. S. EPA environmental crimes program.
Education
Master of Science in Zoology, University of Arkansas 1981
Bachelor of Science in Education, Biology Major, Henderson State University 1977
OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certification

 Fred Burnside’s CV
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Felix Flechas, Member

  fflechas@BurnsideGroup.com
  303-548-0569

Felix Flechas is an expert in company environmental compliance strategies that take into account state and federal environmental regulations, and the principles of sound engineering practices. His regulatory expertise includes the regulation and enforcement of hazardous waste, superfund and toxic substance laws.

Mr. Flechas worked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 31 years and was among just a handful of national hazardous waste experts in the Agency and one of a few who was also a Superfund Remedial Project Manager (RPM). Because of his extensive knowledge, he testified as a government witness in federal court proceedings and inspected and evaluated the largest, most difficult hazardous waste sites involving complicated toxicology and environmental site conditions.

As the team leader for hazardous waste inspectors in EPA, Region 8, Mr. Flechas directed the Regional inspection team and personally evaluated industrial sites, including refineries, oil and gas production and treatment facilities, metal refiners, power plants, and waste disposal sites across the Region to determine their compliance with environmental laws, particularly the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). He has represented the United States government internationally and has trained officials in the most effective practices of managing hazardous wastes.

A registered Professional Engineer and Board-Certified Environmental Engineer through the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, Mr. Flechas helped the EPA develop policies and rules regarding regulatory compliance, risk assessment, site remediation, and worker health issues at waste disposal sites, hospitals, refineries, oil and gas production and power plants.

Mr. Flechas’ decades of regulatory experience and work with enforcement personnel allows him to understand the relationships between scientific and technical issues and their intersection with regulatory and enforcement issues. He can provide guidance on:

• Federal and state enforcement actions related to RCRA, CERCLA and TSCA
• Whether the EPA or state enforcement response to a violation is likely to be administrative, civil or criminal
• Potential “waste exemptions” to RCRA
• Who to approach within the Agency to present your case
• How a civil or administrative case will likely proceed

Mr. Flechas has taught graduate-level engineering classes in environmental law and environmental engineering at the University of Colorado and currently teaches Environmental Law at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Education and Professional Registrations
Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Walla Walla University
Master of Science, Water Resources/Sanitary Engineering, University of Colorado

 Felix Flechas’s CV
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Mark Measer, Member

  mmeaser@BurnsideGroup.com
  206-201-3633

Mark Measer is an expert in domestic and international environmental investigation and enforcement. He works with clients to find and understand facts about potential environmental violations, identifies problems, and suggests solutions. Mr. Measer has 34 years of domestic and international enforcement experience to include 19 years as a Special Agent with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Criminal Enforcement. He also served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He has successfully planned, conducted and supervised complex investigations of white collar criminal violations of environmental statutes giving him a broad range of experience in the decision making process involved in the investigation and prosecution of cases.

Mr. Measer is a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representative at the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in Lyon, France. He worked with organizations including the International Maritime Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency and identified major environmental threats with global impacts.

In addition to his extensive investigative experience, Mr. Measer served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Denver (EPA Region 8) and Seattle (EPA Region 10) area offices where he supervised a staff of federal agents and routinely coordinated with federal and state prosecutors. He has supervised hundreds of environmental enforcement cases during his career. In addition, Mr. Measer was Associate Director for Policy and International Programs at EPA Headquarters where he helped develop national policy for the EPA Office of Criminal Enforcement.

Mr. Measer can provide advice and guidance to defense and corporate counsel regarding:

• How the Agency will view a violation or fact pattern in both civil and criminal actions
• Whether the violation will be pursued as a criminal or civil action
• Who the decision makers are
• Who to approach within the Agency to present your case
• How a criminal case will likely proceed
• How to minimize the client’s risk and exposure to enforcement of environmental laws and regulations

Education
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of New York at Oswego 1975

 Mark Measers’s CV
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Donna A. Stephenson, Member

  dstephenson@BurnsideGroup.com
  303-358-1160

Donna Stephenson is an expert in Clean Water Act matters, wastewater treatment, wet weather regulations and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).

During her 20-year U. S. Environmental Protection Agency career, Ms. Stephenson worked at the EPA National Enforcement Investigation Center, the nation’s premier, internationally accredited environmental forensics laboratory which conducts complex civil and criminal enforcement investigations and applied research in support of environmental enforcement. As a professional civil engineer at NEIC, Ms. Stephenson led teams of engineers and scientists on inspections of large, complex industrial facilities to evaluate compliance with environmental laws. She provided technical support for many hundreds of investigations and provided litigation support to civil and criminal cases on the local, state and federal levels. She routinely provided oversight for evidence collection, including environmental samples and documenting site conditions, preparing reports of findings and testifying as both a fact and expert witness in judicial proceedings.

Ms. Stephenson is widely recognized as an expert in wastewater sampling and data interpretation. She has helped train inspectors, law enforcement personnel, scientists and lawyers at the national and international levels.

Prior to joining EPA, Ms. Stephenson was a civil engineer with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. During her 11 years of Corps of Engineers experience, Ms. Stephenson worked in both the Hydraulics and Geotechnical Branches. She was responsible for the design of foundations for large civil structures, as well as flood control works.

Because of her background helping to investigate civil and criminal environmental violations, she can provide:

• Oversight and consultation for environmental sampling events to “mirror” government enforcement activities
• Guidance on federal and state enforcement actions related to the Clean Water Act
• A review of government sampling events, procedures, and results to ensure proper protocols were followed
• Snapshot assessments of environmental practices in place to ensure on-going compliance with regulations

Education and Professional Registration
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1982
Professional Engineer, Mississippi, 1986 (Current)
OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER)

 Donna Stephenson’s CV
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Gary G. Mowad, Associate

 gmowad@BurnsideGroup.com
  512-626-7158

Before retiring from federal service, Gary Mowad had a distinguished career as a criminal investigator, biologist and natural resource aircraft pilot with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). An expert in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Mr. Mowad trained every USFWS Special Agent Basic Class in the ESA for 12 years and routinely taught classes on the law before USFWS biologists throughout the country. He developed and wrote the ESA protocols and policy utilized in determining if a violation of the ESA occurred when habitat is modified. He is an expert in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and helped develop Eagle Act regulations, which can have a major impact on wind power, energy development, and urban expansion.

Mr. Mowad’s expertise includes development of enforcement cases involving wildlife mortality linked to environmental contaminants such as pesticides and oil spills. Mr. Mowad investigated the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on wildlife mortality, one of the few USFWS Special Agents to do so. Mr. Mowad’s high profile law enforcement casework has been featured in national media outlets.

After serving as a Senior Special Agent at USFWS Headquarters Mr. Mowad served as the Special Agent in Charge for the USFWS Mountain-Prairie Region in Denver, Colo. and, later, Deputy Chief for the USFWS’s national law enforcement program. As Deputy Chief, he supervised the USFWS law enforcement program in all 50 states and U.S. territories. He directly supervised the Branch of Training, the National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, the Undercover Investigations Unit, the Computer Forensics Unit, and the National Evidence Repository. Mr. Mowad represented the USFWS with other federal bureau heads, met with members of Congress, testified before congressional committees and coordinated law enforcement efforts with other agencies.

Mr. Mowad completed his career as the Texas State Administrator for the USFWS Ecological Service’s Division where he supervised USFWS biologists throughout Texas. In this capacity Mr. Mowad supervised the listing process for species proposed for listing as endangered or threatened, the recovery of listed species, and the establishment of conservation banks.

Education
Senior Executive Fellow,
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Masters of Science Degree,
University of Texas at El Paso, Major – Zoology
Bachelor of Science Degree,
Stephen F. Austin State University, Major – Biology/Geology

 Gary Mowad’s CV
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Matthew Schweisberg, Associate

  Mschweisberg@BurnsideGroup.com
  508-783-6026

Matthew Schweisberg is a retired federal wetlands ecologist and wildlife biologist with over three decades of experience in the Clean Water Act Section 404 (dredge and fill) Program. He spent more than 32 years with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency at both its Headquarters office in Washington, D.C. and New England Region office in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to retiring from federal service, he served concurrently as Chief of the New England Region’s Wetlands Protection Program, as Senior Mediator with the Region’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, and as the Agency’s representative on the International Joint Commission’s International St. Croix River Watershed Board.

He also served as the Boston Region’s Wetlands Enforcement Coordinator for 11 years, Senior Wetlands Ecologist for 26 years, and as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Regional Administrator for one year. While with the Agency’s Headquarters office, Mr. Schweisberg managed nationally controversial cases for the EPA National Wetlands Program. He also worked in the Superfund Program.

As a nationally recognized expert in the federal Clean Water Act’s Section 404 Program, Mr. Schweisberg served on national EPA work groups developing federal guidance and regulations on Clean Water Act jurisdiction, and agriculture and enforcement issues. He convened and supervised teams to prepare expert testimony for litigation for federal court cases. He also testified before federal grand juries and served several times as an expert witness on wetland regulatory and technical matters in civil litigation at both federal and state levels for cases involving residential development, agricultural conversions, and Superfund remedies.

Mr. Schweisberg also served as the technical expert for EPA Clean Water Act section 404(c) veto actions for projects in New England and advised both EPA Headquarters and other EPA Regions on section 404(c) veto actions in other parts of the country. While with EPA Headquarters, he provided oversight for section 404(c) veto actions in South Carolina and Louisiana.

Mr. Schweisberg has extensive experience with wetland and other aquatic resource issues for major projects throughout New England and other parts of the country involving transportation, energy, agriculture, commercial and port development, and Superfund cleanup. He has managed or served as the technical expert for:

• Transportation projects such as major highway and large rail line extensions;
• Energy projects such as natural gas extraction via hydrologic fracturing, wind turbine fields, and electrical and natural gas transmission lines;
• Agriculture conversions such as turf farms and cranberry bogs;
• Marine cargo port development;
• Shopping mall and industrial park developments; and,
• Superfund remedies.

He has taught courses in wetland regulation, restoration and creation, wetland ecology, and wetland identification and delineation for EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the New England states, Northeastern University, and many other organizations. He has made presentations and served on panel discussions at numerous conferences and symposia.

During his federal service, Mr. Schweisberg received 7 EPA Bronze Medals, 11 EPA Superior Achievement Awards, 2 U.S. Department of Justice Certificates of Commendation, and 2 Army Corps of Engineers Commendations. Mr. Schweisberg has a solid working knowledge of the National Environmental Policy Act; Rivers and Harbors Act; Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act; Endangered Species Act; Magnuson-Stevens Essential Fish Habitat requirements; USDA Food Security Act-Swampbuster program; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-Dam/Hydropower licensing program; Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act; Water Quality Standards program; National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program; and several state wetlands and water quality protection programs.

Mr. Schweisberg provides insightful and judicious policy, regulatory and technical advice and assistance for clients seeking to navigate regulatory issues related to wetlands and other aquatic resources. He also is well versed in all aspects of alternative dispute resolution. For nearly 15 years, he has mediated large public policy and environmental cases.

Mr. Schweisberg received his degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine. He is a certified professional Wetland Scientist under the Professional Certification Program of the Society of Wetland Scientists. In addition, he is certified as a mediator by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

 Matthew Schweisberg’s CV
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Barbara Wagner, Information Specialist, Senior Advisor

  bwagner@BurnsideGroup.com
  303-274-5309

Barbara Wagner specializes in locating technical and regulatory information related to environmental enforcement from computer databases and other sources. She has 12 years of experience as a research librarian for the US Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to coming to NEIC, Ms. Wagner provided technical information services for the U. S. Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

From 2002 – 2011, Ms. Wagner served as the Library Manager for the U. S. EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center (NEIC) located in Denver, Colorado. NEIC is the premier, internationally- accredited environmental forensics laboratory specializing in the investigation of criminal and civil violations of environmental laws.

At NEIC, she provided technical information support for scientists, engineers and special agents with the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training (OCEFT). This included locating expert witnesses, verifying their credentials, searching science and technology literature, and providing background information on companies and individual facilities. Her experience also includes regulatory and case-related research for agency attorneys and investigators in the U. S. EPA Office of Civil Enforcement.

Given her extensive experience, Barbara provides a full-range of technical information services for clients of the Burnside Environmental Group.

Education
B.A. in Biology, Minor in German, Heidelberg College
M.S. in Library Science, Western Reserve University
Certificate of Advanced Studies in Environmental Information, University of Denver

Professional Affiliations
Life Member of the Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals
Colorado Council of Medical Librarians
Colorado Association of Law Libraries
National Association of Environmental Professionals
Rocky Mountain Association of Environmental Professionals

 Barbara Wagner’s CV
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