The Gowanus Canal is one of the nation's most polluted waterbodies, located in the heart of Brooklyn, NY, one of the nation's most diverse urban environments. Jeff was selected by U.S. EPA and community representatives for the challenging task of convening and facilitating the nation's largest Superfund Community Advisory Group for the highly politicized $500 million cleanup. Jeff guided the group's 60 members through the complex process of creating a charter, organizational structure, and operating procedures, and facilitated the group through its first two years. Nine years into this long-term project, the group is still going strong.  

Jeff successfully mediated a complex cross-border litigation over drinking water and wastewater issues involving the State of Kentucky, the City of Cincinnati and the U.S. EPA. This situation highlighted key issues related to the intersection between the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.  After nine months of intense complex negotiations, with multiple junctures where parties were on the verge of going back to court, a settlement agreement was achieved resolving all aspects of the dispute.

The Pinedale Anticline Project was one of the nation's first natural gas hydrofracturing ("fracking") projects of the 21st century, located in the highly sensitive Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and containing one of the largest natural gas reserves in the U.S. Jeff facilitated the Federal Advisory Committee for this highly controversial project, helping its opposing members from the environmental community, natural gas drillers, ranchers, and local communities reach agreement on management recommendations.

Spurred by a bitterly-fought referendum battle, the City of South Portland (Maine) convened a municipal committee to draft an ordinance to address the possibility of "Tar Sands Oil" being transported through the city via the Portland-Montreal Pipeline. With Jeff's guidance and the conduct of a highly-acclaimed public process, the committee drafted the "Clear Skies Ordinance" that was enacted with nearly unanimous City Council support and which gained national attention as a precedent for local land use control over an international pipeline. The ordinance has withstood over four  years of constitutional legal challenges.    

Jeff organized and led the facilitation team for NOAA's national initiative - titled Envisioning the Future of Coastal Management - to establish a new framework for U.S. coastal management and to reauthorize the landmark Coastal Zone Management Act. The outcomes of the initiative have served as the foundation for legislation submitted to Congress and for a variety of programmatic initiatives within the federal government.