Environmental Forensics in the UK

The first undergraduate degree course in Environmental Forensics (EF) was started by Stephen Mudge within the School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor. Throughout his career, he has conducted investigations of the environment usually with the aim of finding out who was responsible for contamination. He took up a lectureship at Bangor in 1991 and almost immediately was quantifying the contribution local sewage discharges made to the coastal zone. A whole series of studies have since been undertaken on tracking sewage in the environment and he has investigated such contamination across Europe, Canada and South America. He has delivered courses in the biomarker approach to sewage tracking around Europe as part of a Water Framework Directive Masters and at a Chilean university where he is a visiting professor.

In 1997 Dr Mudge won the Enterprise Oil Heriot Watt University Environmental Award for his studies on the use of biodiesel as a solvent for removing oil from contaminated beaches.

The formulization of EF into a degree began in 2001 and the curriculum was ratified in early 2003 with three students starting in September of that year. The course has matured since then but retains the core ethos of getting the environmental science basics first and then putting the source identification and legal framework on top. Dr Mudge has published 30 papers since 2001, three book chapters and is editing a new book for 2007 on the diverse methods available to the environmental forensic practitioner.

While the title ‘Environmental Forensics in the UK’ may be new, the investigation, source identification, blame apportionment and prosecution of environmental crime has been active within the UK for many years. Previously, there may have been a concentration on such crimes as fly-tipping but there have been other high profile cases including the relationship between DDT and the Peregrine Falcon. What is relatively new, however, is the teaching of Environmental Forensics (EF) as a specific subject in our Higher Education establishments. The rationale for the introduction of new degrees of any flavour may be down to several drivers: at its lowest level it is simply “bums on seats” and these days, “bums” equates to money. Universities need students and students need degrees to study. When it comes to Environmental Forensics, the simplest way to achieve a new degree programme is to take an existing course in, say, Forensic Science or Analytical Chemistry, add an extra module or two from another department and voilà! This may be a successful strategy but is it the best either for the students or the country generally?

From an academic viewpoint, the introduction of a new degree in EF may be the recognition that there is a genuine niche market out there for students who wish to understand the fundamental processes of the environment, couple these to a range of chemical, physical and biological investigative methods and finally lay the complex legal protection of the environment on top. These potential students may have been spurred on by popular American crime investigation programmes, but does that matter? If we give all our students a good grounding in the basic sciences such that they understand the behaviour of chemical or biological contaminants in the environment, we have enhanced the knowledge base of the country and, more specifically, given the students the skills to tackle many science careers.

As the number of EF degrees increases (we already have four in the UK), it is reasonable to ask what jobs these graduates are likely to aspire to. This may be dependent more on our judicial system rather than our science base…the legal protection of our environment has been rather fragmented and spread across several pieces of primary legislation such as the Environmental Protection Act (1990) or the Water Resources Act (1991). However, we may be in a genuine expansion phase (in terms of protecting the environment) as the introduction into national legislation of the EU Directive on Environmental Liabilities (2004/35/EC) has to occur by April, 2007. It is possible that several disparate aspects of these different laws may be subsumed into one all-encompassing act.

One of the key features of this legislation will be that polluters will be financially liable for their actions (or lack of action); the natural caveat to this is that the correct polluters need to be identified. This is one aspect that may be overlooked in several monitoring programmes where a causal link needs to be demonstrated between potential sources and their receptors. In environmental forensics, the link between cause and effect is critical in demonstrating the legal responsibility of a potential polluter and the impacted site or person. Our legal system is such that we, as experts, need to demonstrate “beyond all reasonable doubt” (in criminal cases) or “on the balance of probabilities” (in civil cases) that such a link exists usually to lay judiciary. This requires knowledge of the existence of the source, the chemistry of the contaminant and its reaction with the environment, the pathways it may follow and some familiarity with its toxicity or ecotoxicity to the “injured”. There is considerable scope within this process for the development on new tools such as key markers for particular pathways, chemometric methods for source apportionment in complex, multi-source environments, methods for dating releases etc. It also will require close co-operation and understanding between scientists who do the work and lawyers who have to present it to the court.

The results of a potentially complex investigation also need to be presented both in written and verbal form to the court so judgement can be made. Simply repackaging existing Forensic Science degrees or any other degree for that matter without an environmental forensic framework as the glue will not produce the type of qualified practitioners we need. If we want our students to become practitioners of EF, then let’s train them appropriately and give them the skills to do the job.

Stephen M. Mudge

University of Wales, Bangor

---