Sean Moran's Blog, page 14

Getting Ready for 2020: Expert Report

2020 is shaping up to be another good year. There are orders in the pipeline for the early part of the year already. I've probably got an expert report to read next week to do with a criminal prosecution under the Water Industry Act, followed by a meeting of experts and a court appearance.

I also have a training course to arrange overseas later in the month. It's in Europe, so we will have to see how that affects whether I have to charge VAT etc. All is still uncertain as far as UK/ Europe admin provision is concerned though as I have an Irish passport, I am certain I'll be able to continue working there...

Another Year Over at Expertise Limited Water Engineers

Its been a great year for Expertise Limited. Weve turned over more this year than any year since before the oil price crash, and I've got to do some worthwhile things in some interesting places.

I'm more or less down to an empty desk and inbox zero. I'll be keeping an eye out for new enquiries and correspondence form existing clients, but barring that, I'm going to take a week or two off.

Inexpert Witnesses Water and Sewage

I've got  a few expert witness jobs on, and I was asked by one of my LinkedIN contacts earlier today about those inexpert experts who have hit the news recently. The two worst cases recently have been those of Andrew Ager and Azef Zafar, but I come across inexpert "experts" all the time. These are most commonly people who were never qualified to have an expert opinion in the first place, people who retired thirty years ago as managers who hadn't engineered anything in decades, and consequently know nothing about current professional practice, and/or people who will argue that black is white and vice versa for money. Some of these people run report mills a bit like those of Messrs Ager and Zafar, but it does seem that things are not as bad in my area of engineering as in the medical field. Nevertheless, those occasions on which I am working with a genuine independent expert are the exception rather then the rule. 

Mining Industry Water Effluent Sewage Treatment Expert

I've been writing my report this week on the effluent treatment plants I went to see at a copper mine overseas recently. Its been interesting. The most interesting aspect might well be how tight the limits they have been set are on the quality of treated effluent. I have very rarely worked to such tight standards.

Those who accuse the mining industry of carelessness with environment impacts of its activities apparently don't know what they are talking about. Having been hired by an environmental campaigning group a few years ago to investigate pollution by another unpopular industry and having my report which found that the claim was ill-founded suppressed, this comes as no surprise to me.

Water Engineering Expert

I'm writing up my report on the Central American job, and looking at a possible court appearance in London (as expert witness, not defendant!) to do with a prosecution under the water industry act.

Keeping busy....

Troubleshooting Water and Effluent Treatment Plants

I'm away for home this week, troubleshooting ten water and effluent treatment plants at a mine in Central America. It makes a change to fly West for once....

I've also just finished an expert witness appointment in the UK for a food manufacturer being prosecuted under the Water Industry act. There are lots of other enquiries coming in, so it's been a busy end to the year.

Troubleshooting Sewage Treatment Plants

Picked up a couple of interesting jobs last week. The more exciting one involves me flying West for once to troubleshoot five sewage treatment plants in a remote location.

The other is an expert witness job, but you can't be a credible expert if you aren't practicing ( which is not to say that I don't come across dinosaurs who haven't practiced in decades)

Expert Witness Environmental Engineer

The judgement came out yesterday for the case I appeared in court as an expert witness in a while back. My client won their case, which they always prefer, though it is not my job as an expert witness to help them to do so. My duty is to the court, and to act impartially and professionally.

I can however help my clients to understand in advance of committing to the expense and risk of a court appearance whether my professional opinion on the facts available would tend to support their case. This may influence whether they settle before trial or not.

Expert witnesses were stripped of immunity from legal action a while back, but a recent case has also raised the possibility of jail time for bad expert witnessing. If this gets rid of a few of the so-called "experts" who knock out masses of quick and dirty reports every year, it can only be a good thing.

Scaleup of Novel Processes For Subcritical or Supercritical Thermal Processing, Pyrolysis, Hydrolysis and Oxidation of Organic Wastes

I've had a fair bit to do with new technologies for high temperature and/or pressure processing of wastes (especially organic waste) over the years.

As so much of my practice nowadays is forensic, approaches which do not work may be rather over-represented, but as 98% of new processes do not make it through to a successful build, maybe not. What appears to be over-represented are processes which should have been spiked at an earlier stage.

This is almost invariably due to a lack of good engineering practice (GEP) of one kind or another, often traceable back to the project being led by a non-engineer who (if they know about them at all) considers the checks and balances of GEP to be piffling concerns which should not stand in the way of a visionary such as themselves.

However, as I have pointed out before. engineers are not the oompa-loompas of science, though this is a misconception common amongst Sheldon wannabees. They should consider Chesterton's fence:

"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it. "

Expert Witness Water and Effluent Treatment Middle East and UK

I've finished for the week, and all ready to travel to the Middle East for an interesting expert witness engagement to do with industrial effluent and sludge treatment. I'm still awaiting the judgement on the UK case I was in court for a few weeks ago.