Kenneth Lee, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography

Leadership in Technology Transfer Award

Kenneth Lee
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography

---

For exemplary leadership in the development and transfer of innovative technologies and strategies to alleviate the damage of oil spills and enhance recovery of the natural habitat.

Kenneth Lee
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography

Not many people could win an entire community's approval to deliberately spill a barrel of crude oil into a small but fragile patch of a nearby wetland ecosystem — in order to learn how to heal the wound.

Part of the lore that surrounds Dr. Kenneth Lee is that he did just that, not once but several times. In 1999, the veteran Department of Fisheries and Oceans researcher convinced the skeptical citizenry of St. Croix, Quebec that the long-term benefits of conducting a controlled test of his bioremediation techniques to counter oil spills outweighed the potentially harmful environmental impact of the spill itself. A year later, he won approval in Nova Scotia to perform similar tests in a salt marsh habitat located in Petpeswick Inlet.

Scientific colleagues are both impressed by his panache and grateful for his efforts. The studies became the source behind the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) operational guidelines for the clean up of wetland oil contamination. They also continue to serve as the foundation of ongoing global research into a series of countermeasure techniques he pioneered, including phyoremediation (plantenhanced contaminant degradation) and surf washing. Says Dr. Albert Venosa of the EPA: "If it weren't for Dr. Lee's highly effective communication skills and ability to explain science to both private citizens and management... we would not have learned about how best to treat an oil spill on wetlands."

At the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Dr. Lee is known as the undisputed leader in the development of a wide range of strategic programs for offshore oil and gas research issues.

As the founding executive director of the Centre for Offshore Oil and Gas Environmental Research (COOGER), Dr. Lee set a precedent by successfully adopting an integrated approach to research issues that involved every stakeholder with an interest. Says Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright, DFO's Assistant Deputy Minister, Science Sector: "Ken is completely undeterred by the artificial boundaries among the public, private and academic sectors."

In the international scientific community, Dr. Lee is an undisputed authority in groundbreaking ways to limit the devastating impact of oil spills and accelerate the natural healing of coastal and wetland habitats.

The root of his expertise and interest in oil-spills can be traced to a sandy beach in Nova Scotia where Dr. Lee and his team noticed during field tests in 1985 that the addition of fertilizer to a spill encouraged the growth of oil-degrading bacteria. Four years later, in March 1989, the team's theory was practised on a worldwide stage when his bioremediation methods were used on a 100-kilometer stretch of Alaska coastline blackened by some 10.8 million gallons of crude oil that spewed from the hold of the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez.

Considered by many to be the worst American environmental disaster since Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez spill validated Dr. Lee's bioremediation techniques at a scientific level. But the overall clean-up operations also provoked lingering concerns that some oil spill clean-up techniques may have worsened rather than alleviated the devastation. Undeterred by the controversy and anxious to bolster his techniques with scientific proof, Dr. Lee conducted further collaborative field trials in the U.S., France, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands.

Promoting the use of standard methods for comparison of results, Dr. Lee developed biotest methods to monitor habitat recovery and co-chaired an international working group that produced guidelines for marine oil spill bioremediation for the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Global acceptance of this procedure has altered the design of oil spill response operations, stimulated commercial development of bioremediation agents, cut operational clean-up costs and above all, helped to maintain the quality of our oceans and coastal habitats.

A pragmatic perfectionist, Dr. Lee is as unfailingly frank as he is persuasive. As he told a recent on-line environmental panel: "It is virtually impossible to remove all traces of oil following a spill event. The question 'How clean is clean?' remains." Colleagues describe the admission — and the unrelenting drive to find the answer — as quintessential Lee.

Sponsored by:
The Impact Group
and
Research Money Inc.