Jim Rocco brings over thirty years of experience related to information management, environmental risk management, and risk-based decision processes for sustainable site corrective action and property redevelopment. His experience includes human health risk assessment; risk-based decision making for corrective action and property redevelopment, reuse, or disposition; community and stakeholder communication and interaction; and database and geographic information system (GIS) development and implementation.
Mr. Rocco’s expertise and primary interests are in multi-criteria structured decision making and the management, communication, and resolution of environmental risks related to brownfield and other environmentally impacted properties. His focus includes the design, specification, and development of processes and software applications to support environmental risk management and decision making and the accessibility, presentation, and dissemination of information through the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and tabular databases.
Mr. Rocco has extensive experience and involvement in the development of technical solutions for environmental risk management and the implementation of structured decision making in a multi-stakeholder environment to support corrective action and redevelopment. He has developed and maintained temporal and spatial databases and utilized GIS to support risk assessments, risk-based evaluations, and reuse planning evaluations for property or area revitalization. Using these skills, he has presented information to diverse audiences including GIS-based mapping applications and relational databases developed for spatial and temporal data analysis. He has also participated in the development of open, transparent processes utilizing temporal and spatial databases to facilitate and enhance decision making and communication about risks from chemicals and radionuclides in the environment.
He has worked with stakeholders at all levels, including federal and state environmental regulators, and communities surrounding facilities. He has developed and negotiated liability transfer mechanisms including the application of institutional and engineering controls associated with the transfer and redevelopment of over 300 sites in 17 states. He has actively supported and participated in the development of environmental covenants as a means of addressing long-term care for institutional and engineering controls.
Mr. Rocco has a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He worked for twenty-five years in private industry overseeing and managing the construction, maintenance, and environmental aspects of commercial and industrial properties. In addition to his work as a member of Vita Nuova LLC, he is a principal in Sage Risk Solutions LLC focusing on environmental risk management for commercial, industrial, and Brownfields properties and participates on a team of professionals with Risk Assessment Corporation (RAC) focusing on environmental and human health issues associated with chemicals and radionuclides in the environment.