EDUCATION

M.S: Engineering Management, University of California at Los Angeles

B.S: Civil Engineering, University of Iowa

  PROFESSIONAL LICENSES

Registered Civil Engineer; California

Registered Professional Engineer - Virginia and Ohio

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

  - Past Chairman of Solid Waste Management Committee

  - Past Chairman of Standards of Practice Committee

  - Past President, Los Angeles Section

Southern California Waste Management Forum

  - Past Chairman

Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)
  - Past Member, International Board and Corporate Director
  - Recipient, Robert L. Lawrence Distinguished Service Award, 1987
  - Recipient Distinguished Achievement Award, 1998
Environmental Industries Associations
  - Member, Professional Services Council
  - Inductee  -  EIA Hall of Fame (2003)

  PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Mr. Stearns provides SCS Engineers with more than 30 years of experience in engineering analysis and design of solid and hazardous waste management systems.  He has served as an expert witness on a variety of cases involving refuse collection; landfill acquisitions, operations, and environmental impacts; landfill leachate; and landfill gas odor and migration control.   

Mr. Stearns began his professional career with the City of Los Angeles , Bureau of Sanitation in 1960.  For the City, he participated in solid waste collection planning and analysis; sanitary landfill planning, acquisition and design studies; landfill planning; and feasibility studies of resource recovery from solid wastes.

Mr. Stearns was a co-founder of SCS Engineers in 1970, and has directed or served in a review capacity on the firm’s solid and hazardous waste management-related work.  In 2002, he became Chairman after serving as President and CEO for over 25 years.  Under his leadership, SCS has grown to 400 employees located in 10 regional offices throughout the United States .

More than a dozen sanitary landfills have been sited and designed under his direction.  The firm completed the design and construction management for landfill gas control and closure of the Fresh Kills landfill in the City of New York .  For a major private waste management company, SCS successfully permitted and designed a major new municipal waste landfill in Virginia .  Mr. Stearns has personally directed the firm’s substantial commitment to projects involving the control and/or recovery of methane gas generated in sanitary landfills.

Mr. Stearns directed SCS efforts on innovative landfill gas control and recovery features of the Industry Hills Civic-Recreation-Convention Complex in Industry, California .  The project received the “Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement” award in national competition in 1981 from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Mr. Stearns has been recognized nationally for his significant contributions to the environmental engineering profession, solid waste management, and landfill gas control and recovery.  He has been a frequent contributor to professional and trade association technical programs, and has published many articles addressing solid waste management issues.

In 1989, he was honored as a finalist in the Arthur Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” competition.  In 2003, he was inducted into the Environmental Industries Associations prestigious Hall of Fame.

Mr. Stearns is active in expanding SCS capabilities and geographic presence through acquisitions and establishing new office locations, and strategic planning for the firm.