Ted LeRoy Carpenter, brings an expansive 45+ year portfolio of Environmental Science leadership, instruction, and practice to our team. He is presently an adjunct instructor at the Walla Walla Community College in Washington. 

In 2007, Ted co-founded Bio-Environmental Solutions for Today (BEST). Together they developed the Microbially Accelerated Regeneration Science (MARS) process which led to Ted founding and becoming a chief scientist for Bio-Environmental Resource Recovery International (BERRI) in 2008. (Learn about BERRI at the end.)

Ted has served as the scientific research director for Environmental Technologies, Inc. (ETI) who helped to purchase the global rights to a proprietary culture of organisms that is currently turning thousands of tons of nuisance materials into valuable compost. He designed and directed all the biomediation research and application of the culture to environmental cleanup projects.

He has served as the Environmental Coordinator for Emergency & Environmental Response Solutions Global (E2RS Global) while living in Argentina. He oversaw environmental management, environmental training, environmental site assessments, and environmental reviews. He wrote Environmental Response Plans, Hazardous Materials Response Plans, and Hazardous Materials Remediation Procedures. He also managed programs and projects, translated documents in both Spanish and English, and supervised seven E2RS employees on-site in Argentina.

Ted has served as an Environmental Health and Safety Officer with Ovard Construction Inc. on their project to build the Staging, Storage, Sizing, and Treatment Facility (SSSTF) for the INEEL CERCLA Disposal Facility (ICDF). INEEL is the federal Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory responsible for compliance with all OSHA and site DOE safety requirements. He was responsible for recycling, environmental monitoring, training of all visitors and workers to the SSSTF site-specific HASP and appropriate JSAs, and prepared the Safety Analysis documents for SSSTF activities (inside and outside of INTEC.)

He has served as the Environmental Consultant/President/CEO of Cela Solutions, Incorporated, an international environmental consulting and environmental software company. He also served as the Federal EPA and California EPA-certified lead-based paint abatement supervisor and contractor who was hired to direct the Move It Out! Coalition as part of a successful campaign to support Idaho’s Settlement Agreement by defeating Proposition 3. 

Ted also served as the Senior Scientist for Shreenath International Consultants in California, India, and Utah. The company specialized in environmental engineering, environmental investigations, environmental compliance, preparation of environmental impact reportspreparation of Phase-I, Phase-II, and Phase-III Environmental Site Assessments, preparation of remedial action plans, project supervision, preparation of environmental permits, and hazardous materials redemption. To this day, Ted continues to work with the RTC, FDIC, and several asset management companies performing environmental services.

For its two years of operation, Ted served as president of IIAT, a private, non-sectarian, four-year liberal arts college that unfortunately closed in 1996 when Trustees’ financial pledges (based on investments in Micron stock that plunged between September 1, 1995 and January 1996) didn’t come to fruition. He had been hired to form the college. He designed and developed all the necessary forms, equipped empty rooms to provide offices and classrooms, wrote budgets, assembled, summarized, and reported financial information, produced class schedules, devised semester calendars, hired administrative personnel and faculty members, recruited students, assisted students with selection of majors and courses, registration, admissions, etc. It was one of the first schools to develop an internet presence for admission applications and registrations.

Ted has served as director for the Center of Environmental Services at Utah Valley College, preparing more than 20 proposals, writing budgets, coordinating the organization of project teams that included some of the nation’s foremost authorities in their fields. He provided expertise for environmental inventories, water-quality consulting, percolation/infiltration, and multimedia software development.

He also served as director at the Utah Environmental Training Center, School of Continuing Education, one of only 42 Environmental Training Centers nationwide and one of only 16 EPA Environmental Response Training Centers in the nation. He offered approximately 100 seminars or workshops per year, developed courses, manuals, and brochures, and hired and supervised instructors. He worked closely with the State of Utah Department of Environmental Quality to assure up-to-date certification information.

Ted has served as the director and chairman of the Department of Environmental Technology. This academic unit offered more concentrations, courses, and credits (1992-'93 Catalog) than any other in the college with the most ethnically diverse student population of any department at that time. He planned two new majors (Environmental Design and Environmental Studies), developed curricula for new courses including Environmental Principles in Agricultural Management.

Ted also served as an Environmental Safety Training Instructor at R&R Enterprises where he performed monthly OSHA  Audits for industry customers. He provided training in OSHA Hazardous Materials, Respiratory Protection, Road Worker Construction Safety, and HAZWOPER Hearing Protection.

He has served as a director for the Indigenous Plant Environmental And Cultural Education (InPEACE) in the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal AmeriCorps Program. It was the first Tribal AmeriCorps program of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He wrote grant proposals, selected AmeriCorps members, supervised eight members, and taught environmental botany. He was a project environmentalist on a Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Government / Department of Energy-funded Project where he planned and directed tribal environmental projects on the Idaho National Environmental & Engineering Laboratory (INEEL), reviewed environmental sampling data collection by the Federal Department of Energy (DOE), and others. He reviewed and commented on DOE and INEEL contractor documents and suggested new ways to implement the Agreement-in-Principle between the DOE and the Tribes. He attended briefings given by the DOE and DOE-contractor personnel. He was also a member of the INEEL Monitoring and Surveillance Committee and a member of the Tribal Energy Assessment Committee.

Ted has experience teaching multiple college courses in Life Sciences such as Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Biochemical Conversions, Human Nutrition, Botany, Invertebrate Zoology (on aquatic protozoans), Advanced Algebra, Wastewater Treatment, Water and Wastewater Mathematics, Environmental Practicum, Air Pollution Control, Weed Biology, Soil Weed Seed, Sampling and Weed Seed Identification, Plant Science, and Community Master Gardening, to name a few.

He is well-known in the science community for his work with the USDA, University of Idaho, Pullman High School, Washington State University, ESAI, Engineering Institute, Washington State University, University of Idaho, Utah Valley Community College, and Yakima Valley College. He is experienced in recruiting migrant and seasonal farm worker students, advising and assisting them with financial aid, admissions, registration and orientation at university levels. . 

Ted received the “Innovative Development Award” at the Lemley Intermountain Conference on the Environment in September 2007. He also presented a scientific presentation titled, “Rapid Bioremediation of Soil Contaminated with Petroleum Hydrocarbons and Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans,” at the 14th Intermountain Conference on the Environment and the 42nd Engineering Geology and Geotechnical Engineering Symposium in November 2009.

Ted’s doctoral studies include a Ph.D. in Plant Science from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. in Environmental Education from the University of Berkley. His Master of Science degree is in Environmental Science/Engineering with an emphasis on Water Quality. His other graduate studies include Plant Physiology, Biology, and Chemistry. Ted holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a Minor in Chemistry. 

Ted is also experienced in carpentry, drywall, construction, grounds-maintenance, greenhouse operations, gardening, and farm labor.

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The organization, BERRI, has documented the rapid bio-processing of thousands of tons of nuisance materials that include C & D Debris, unsorted MSW, yard-trimmings, livestock carcasses, food residuals, form-oil-contaminated materials, and more. The end-product of microbial degradation is safe, hygienic black dirt.

BERRI has also documented the complete elimination of freshly-tanned leather within days, the biodegradation of tar-pond sludge with a BERRI inoculant, and the rapid biodegradation of polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo dioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzo furans. They have also documented the bioremediation and stabilization of the liquid Monobenzoate, dibenzoate, bis (2-ethylhexyle)-1,4 benzenedicarbox-ylate, 2-ethylhexylmethyl, 1,4 benzenedicarboxylate, and polyvinyl chloride resins.

BERRI has further documented the bio-processing of unsorted MSW augmented with products on Code of Federal Regulations Title 40: Protection of Environment Part 258 – Criteria for M.S.W. Landfills Appendix II to 40 CFR Part 258 – List of Hazardous Inorganic & Organic Constituents. State regulators approved and monitored all project activities. In 2012, BERRI demonstrated the advantage of its MARS process compared to costly (labor, fuel, hours & wear on equipment) weekly turnings. The MARS-method end-product (after 10 weeks) was documented to have produced 100% seed-germination and 100% seedling vigor.

In 2012, BERRI received a signed, $5.5 million American contract for the first two years of a 10-year project. The promised funding for a project in Haiti was not received. “Pledged” funds are not committed funds.

From 2013 – 2015, BERRI documented that its inoculant could digest the hydrocarbons (including several carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in petroleum sludge.

In 2015, 2016, 2017, BERRI has been negotiating with several counties, municipalities, and landfills in three western states in which changing personnel in State regulatory agencies has resulted in repeatedly changing requirements. BERRI was also contacted to try to divert surplus or inedible raw produce from landfills. Negotiations involved plans to digest raw produce, MSW, human sewage sludge, yard-trimmings, etc. BERRI also demonstrated the efficacy of its inoculants on the site of a Resource Recovery Park that they were constructing for an international project.

During 2019-2021,Ted completed all the lengthy, expensive, and complicated procedures required to receive permission to use MARS. After seemingly countless steps in cooperation with the State of Washington, Walla Walla County, and Walla Walla; BERRI has almost all the required permits to bio-process or bioremediate landfill-destined materials in a Walla Walla Resource Recovery Park. They began working on the RRP site in April 2022.

During 2020-2023, BERRI bioremediated unsorted landfill materials (mostly plastics/synthetics) in a research and demonstration project. They tested ReCyclone equipment to document that glass and ceramics are converted to safe sand. They also bioprocessed aluminum cans, steel cans, spandex, milk cartons, plastic bottles, safety face masks, canine carcasses, cellophane, polystyrene, etc. In October 2021, the Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved Ted’s proposal and the site of the BERRI Resource Recovery Park to bioremediate 50K tons of unsorted M.S.W. per year. Then in 2023, BERRI bioremediated PFAS and diesel fuel.