Ms Samantha Deacon

Samantha has over 18 years’ experience in ecological risk and damage assessment to the environment from chemical and biological contamination. Her experience in consultancy, environmental regulation and research had led to recent work at Ramboll Environ including the ecological risk assessment (ERA) of historically contaminated soils, sediments and both freshwater and saltwater environments under planning and contaminated land regimes. Prior to joining Ramboll Environ she managed the development of the Environment Agency’s ERA for contaminated land, which was published in 2008. Samantha also provides advice on risks to ecosystems from new pollution incidents relating to Environmental Damage Regulations and recent civil sanctions cases. In particular, Ramboll Environ is at the forefront of environmental damage and liability assessments including cost-benefit/ecosystem services analysis of damage and development of compensatory actions. Samantha has provided expert witness advice to the Royal Horticultural Society and a local action group on potential risks to the health of local residents, the integrity of an adjacent special protection area (SPA), protected under European law, and plant health in the adjacent leading botanical garden from two proposed composting facilities.