Growing into a Better Future

The need to attract the next generation of LSRPs.

By Mark Pietrucha, President, LSRPA On Mar 5, 2021

The Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association (LSRPA) was built on the expertise of our members – those people whose experience and comprehensive knowledge of regulations and technology make environmental remediation possible. Now in our second decade, we are focusing more on the future and change. 

A recent survey of Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs) and our membership confirmed that we must do more to attract men and women of varied cultures and backgrounds into our profession. We must do more to reflect society as a whole and specifically the multi-cultural cities and urban areas where so much of remediation is performed. 

About 60% of LSRPs and environmental consultants are over 50 years of age. Additionally, about half of all LSRPs may give up their license in the next 10 years. More LSRPs will be needed. 

As far as New Jersey has come with the remediation of past industrial sites – and it has come far – there are still many sites to clean up. To continue to meet this challenge, it is time for the LSRPA to consider how it will attract the next generation of LSRPs to clean up New Jersey’s industrial legacy. 

If you are not familiar with what LSRPs do, fundamentally they are accomplished engineers, geologists and scientists who oversee remediation and guide Persons Responsible for Conducting Remediation through the state’s complex rules for environmental clean ups. 

Their expertise and recommendations help remediating parties choose the method to clean up contaminants in soil, sediment, water or indoor air. Since 2009, when the program began, LSRPs have helped Persons Responsible for Conducting Remediation successfully clean up about 16,000 projects. 

But the LSRP’s past success is not enough to secure the future. In the past few years, the LSRPA has guided its own members to re-examine their world and their role in it. 

As a statement of mission, the LSRPA Board of Trustees in July 2020 unanimously committed to fight institutional racism, encourage diversity, broaden our outreach, and encourage environmental justice. The resolution is found at lsrpa.org. 

This commitment includes those people who will lead the future of environmental remediation. 

On these pages, you will read about efforts by the LSRPA and others to bring more people into the environmental profession, encourage the transformation of brownfields, and make our communities better. 

It starts with people with a passion for science-based solutions to environmental problems in our communities. Smart and dedicated, some of them are still learning and looking to LSRPs for inspiration. Increasingly, sharing, teaching and guiding will assure the ongoing success of the LSRP program. 

2021 will be a busy year. New environmental standards will be promulgated, and regulations will be drafted. And we will stay active to make sure that LSRPs are part of the conversations and are heard. 

The LSRPA is proud to represent these highly educated, conscientious and hard-working professionals – both the LSRPs who guide us today and the aspiring professionals we are training to guide us tomorrow.

Sincerely, 

Mark Pietrucha, LSRP 

President, LSRPA 

Mark Pietrucha is a Professional Engineer and LSRP with Woodard & Curran in Cherry Hill. With the LSRPA, he contributes to the association’s review and input into proposed New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Site Remediation Program policy, regulatory and statutory changes.

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