KariAnne Czajkowski, Certified Senior Ecologist

Ms. Czajkowski is a Principal Scientist and Roux’s Ecological Risk Assessment Practice Leader with over twenty years of environmental project support experience, primarily focused on ecological risk evaluations and sediment remedial investigations and remedial actions. She holds a BS in Environmental Science and an MS in Environmental Science from Drexel University. Her expertise encompasses project management, investigation design, implementation, sampling, assessment activities, and technical document preparation and review. Ms. Czajkowski has experience with State and Federal agency-led projects, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Florida State environmental regulatory agencies; United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Regions 2, 3, and 9; as well as the Government of Bermuda and the Canadian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. She has extensive experience conducting screening level and ecological risk assessments and sediment remedial investigations. Additionally, her expertise extends to development, design, and negotiation of ecological risk-based remediation cleanup strategies under both state and federal programs. Ms. Czajkowski has also participated in international ecological investigations of threatened and endangered sea turtle populations and nesting grounds on the Pacific Coast beaches of Costa Rica.

She is an active Steering Committee member of the New Jersey Society of Women Environmental Professionals. Ms. Czajkowski is also a participant on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Ecological Risk Assessment Stakeholder Workgroup and co-author and trainer of the NJDEP Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance. She has served as the former President, Vice President, and member of the Board for the Hudson-Delaware Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Additionally, Ms. Czajkowski served as a member of the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council Contaminated Sediments – Bioavailability and Remediation teams.

• Confidential Business Client – Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Designed and actively managed a complex multi-phased sediment remedial investigation to support completion of an ecological remedial investigation for a former waste solvent recycling facility, including successful establishment of and delineation to background threshold values and development of a sediment remedial footprint. The facility is located within a Brownfields Development Area along the Arthur Kill tidal strait. Established and successfully negotiated an off-site source argument for numerous metals, pesticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Completed preliminary design assessment and a remedial alternatives and cost analysis, including development of a three-dimensional model of sediment impacts to support selection of a sediment remedy to achieve site-wide sediment concentrations equal to or less than the background threshold values using a surface weighed average concentration approach.
• Compressed Gas Distribution Facility – Morris County, New Jersey. Designed and completed a multi-phased ecological remedial investigation and risk assessment of a former compressed gas distribution facility in Morris County, New Jersey. Incorporated specialty analytical measures, including polychlorinated biphenyls congeners, methylmercury, and acid volatile sulfide analysis to assist in source identification and to evaluate the potential for bioavailability of sediment impacts to aquatic receptors. Developed and implemented an ecological risk assessment to address copper, zinc, mercury, and PCB impacts, including sediment and pore water sampling, biological surveys, sediment toxicity tests, food chain modeling, and an extensive background investigation. Successfully negotiated a joint remedial strategy to address the comingled sediment impacts identified under both state and federal cleanup programs. Designed a sediment remedy and received New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) approval of an ecological risk-based, sediment remedial action workplan to address the commingled sediment impacts at the Site.
• Flooring Manufacturing Facility – Salem County, New Jersey. Developed and negotiated an ecological risk assessment framework to address impacts from polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, and pesticides to surface water and sediment in an expansive tidal creek. Managed and conducted the ecological risk assessment, including sediment, surface water, and fish tissue sampling; sediment toxicity testing; biological surveys; food chain modeling; and delineation of visually and chemical-impacted sediment through the advancement of over 200 sediment cores. Developed ecological risk-based preliminary remediation goals for sediment impacts. Assisted in the design and implementation of a risk management decision framework to facilitate the client’s understanding and ability to prioritize and evaluate risks associated with sediment impacts and to develop and evaluate risk mitigation options. Assisted in the completion of an engineering feasibility analysis of remedial options to address impacted sediment within the creek system.
• Former Inorganic Chemical Manufacturing Superfund Site – Middlesex County, New Jersey. Completed a comprehensive site characterization for a site utilized for the production, sale, and distribution of zinc- and copper-based inorganic chemicals in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Designed and implemented a sediment and surface water field investigation for on and off-site surface water features. Developed and implemented a screening level ecological risk assessment and focused site-specific baseline ecological risk assessment of the waterways, including sediment, pore water, and sediment toxicity sampling. Utilized the results of the risk assessment to refine the understanding of ecological exposure risks, assess the bioavailability of site-related metals in sediment, and establish response actions to address ecological risk at the Site.
• Active Refinery – Gloucester County, New Jersey. Completed a facility-wide ecological remedial investigation that involved an extensive analysis of habitat types, drainage conditions, historic refinery operations, regional background, and file reviews of a neighboring Superfund site to support development of a comprehensive conceptual site model and delineation of site-related impacts. Developed, implemented, and managed an ecological risk assessment of a 170+ acre wetland system located adjacent to the refinery along the Delaware River to identify and quantify ecological risk associated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), PAHs, and metals impacts within the wetland system.

• Former Refinery – Hudson County, New Jersey. Provided ecological risk assessment and sediment remedial investigation expert support services to the Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) of record for the sediment area of concern located within the Newark Bay Superfund Site, including peer review of the sediment remedial investigation effort, background studies, and initial development of a remedial and coordination strategy with the USEPA to address site-related chemical and product impacts within the waterway.
• Former Manufactured Gas Plant – Morris County, New Jersey. Completed a comprehensive, multi-phased ecological remedial investigation and ecological risk assessment of a vast freshwater wetland and drainage system, including surface water, sediment and pore water bulk chemistry analysis within the on-site drainage feature, and off-site wetlands to delineate metals and PAHs impacts. The investigation included forensic studies; a detailed background investigation for PAHs, silver, cadmium, and antimony sources; the collection of over 95 sediment cores; and sediment toxicity testing to assess groundwater to surface water and overland flow migration pathways. Site-specific ecological risk assessment data was generated, used to establish and achieve delineation of sediment impacts, and develop ecological risk-based cleanup goals. Engaged in risk management and remedial decision-making negotiations with the NJDEP, and ultimately obtained NJDEP approval of the proposed ecological risk-based remedy.

• Czajkowski, K.A. and S. Weatherwax, 2019. Ecological Risk Assessment of Metals and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Impacts in a Freshwater Wetland Complex. The Tenth International Conference on Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments. New Orleans, Louisiana. February 2019.

• Czajkowski, K.A., Weatherwax, S. 2017. Ecological Risk Assessment: Crossroads between a NJDEP LSRP-Led and USEPA-Led Cleanup. The Ninth International Conference on Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments. New Orleans, Louisiana. January 2017.

• Czajkowski, K.A. and Seelman, E. 2014. “Ecological Risk Assessment of MGP Contaminants in the Raritan River.” The 5th International Symposium & Exhibition on the Redevelopment of Manufactured Gas Plant Sites. Destin, Florida. April 2014.

• Czajkowski, K.A. 2009. “Ecological Investigation and Sediment Characterization of a Tidal Freshwater Creek System.” Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments. Jacksonville, Florida. February 2009.