Helder is one of Haley & Aldrich’s national sediment practice leaders focusing on investigation design and remedial strategy, advising and overseeing our entire sediment team’s work. Early in Helder’s college years he decided on the path that has become a 35-year career as an environmental chemist specializing in contaminated sediments. His work has taken him on investigations of sediment quality in waterways across the U.S., including Alaska, and Hawaii, and all three coasts.
Over the past two decades, Helder has worked on more than 50 remedial investigations for manufactured gas plant, creosote wood-treating, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), dioxin, metals, and petroleum sites. He has also investigated sediments in water bodies affected by point and non-point sources, including in San Francisco Bay, the Ohio River, the Lower Willamette River, Thea Foss Waterway, San Diego Bay, New York Harbor/New York Bight, Passaic River, and Boston Harbor. Helder has also worked on numerous major oil spills across the U.S., including in the Gulf of Mexico, Prince William Sound, Arthur Kill, Suisun Bay, offshore San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Alaska.
“The first college seminar I attended was about PCBs in New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts. Having grown up a mere stone’s throw from a major sediment Superfund Site, I decided then and there what I wanted to pursue in my career. Today, I remain passionate about collaborating with teams of experts with a shared commitment of doing something good for the environment.”
