User:Obsidi/Jay Lehr

Jay Lehr
Alma mater	University of Arizona Princeton University
Scientific career
Fields	Hydrogeology
Institutions	The Heartland Institute National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers United States Geological Survey Civil Engineer Corps

Jay H. Lehr is a Geological Engineer and the science director at the Heartland Institute. He has written 19 books and over 900 journal articles. He has testified before Congress 36 times on environmental issues. He helped form almost all the environmental legislation of the 1970s.

Early life and education

Lehr earned a degree in Geological Engineering from Princeton when he was 20 years old. After graduating he joined the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineering Corps, eventually rising to the rank of Lt. Commander. He was briefly with the U.S. Geological Survey before earning a Ph.D from the University of Arizona. While this was technically in Groundwater Hydrology, this was one of the nation’s first Ph.D.’s more commonly refereed to today as Environmental Science mixing seven different departments which all touched on environmental issues. After graduating he taught at the University of Arizona and The Ohio State University.

Career

For 25 years, Lehr was the executive director of the National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers. In this role he helped advocate and form the EPA and had a hand in helping write the Water Pollution Control Act (which later became the Clean Water Act), the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (which dealt with waste disposal), the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide and Fungicide Act (FIRFA), the Superfund, and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act. It was also during this time that he started writing a total of 19 books and over 900 journal articles on the environmental sciences. He was editor of the Journal of Ground Water for 27 years, Co-editor of Ground Water Monitoring Review for 11 years and editor of the Water Well Journal for 25 years.

Dr. Lehr is currently the science director with The Heartland Institute where he has worked for the past 20 years. He is also president of Environmental Education Enterprises, which teaches advanced technology short courses for environmental professionals.

In 2008 he was named chief hydro-geologist for Earth Water Global (EWG) corporation, one of the world’s largest providers of water supply projects.

Conviction For Signing A Document He Knew To Be Incorrect

In 1988, the EPA had contracted with the National Water Well Association ("NWWA") to provide a Drastic mapping system to identify ground water vulnerability. According to Lehr, he found $29,000 in time that had not been charged by other engineers as such he asked the controller to adjust the time appropriately. According to NWWA, "In an effort to receive payment for services that they felt had been rendered" Lehr "apparently modified employee time sheets and submitted them to the EPA for payment," be he did not personally benefit from his actions. He was advised by NWWA and plead guilty to a charge of signing a document he knew to be incorrect (the employee time sheets). He was told by NWWA that it would likely result in community service and he could keep his job, but that was incorrect. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison (served 3 months) and was fired.

Publications

• Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications (2011)
• Water Softening with Potassium Chloride: Process, Health, and Environmental Benefits (2009)
• The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest Running Political Melodrama (2009)
• Groundwater Age (2006)
• Water Encyclopedia, Surface and Agricultural Water (2005)
• Modern Groundwater Exploration: Discovering New Water Resources in Consolidated Rocks Using Innovative Hydrogeologic Concepts, Exploration, Drilling, Aquifer Testing and Management Methods (2004)
• Wiley's Remediation Technologies Handbook: Major Contaminant Chemicals and Chemical Groups (2004)
• Handbook of Complex Environmental Remediation Problems (2001)
• Standard Handbook of Environmental Science, Health, and Technology (2000)
• Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns (1992)
• Domestic Water Treatment (1988)
• Water Well Technology: Field Principles of Exploration, Drilling and Development of Ground Water and Other Selected Materials (1973)