Our community is looking to hire a consultant who will help us create a system to test the air quality in our community (maybe at different locations simultaneously) and to analyze the data.
The largest pollutant (a landfill) in the area is asking for a permit to expand. We would like to find out what's in the air, both gasses and particulate matter. We do not have anyone in the community who is an expert in this field, so we would like to hire a person (or team). We would need guidance in hiring an agency to pull samples and run them through the lab. We would need help finding out what materials we should be testing for. After the test results are in, we would need help analyzing the data, to see if there is a correlation between the pollutants and health related illnesses.
Due to the small number of firms that do this, we've found that they have all done work for the company, therefore we are skeptical that we'll receive objective help. My though was to hit some of the top schools in environmental science (in Southern CA) to find either a grad student or professor who can help. We should have enough funds to complete the project.
My questions for this group are:
1. What would you advise regarding the best way to find and hire someone who can help us?
2. Has anyone here ever hired someone in this capacity?
3. Do you think it would be better to hire a grad student or a professor - or someone else?
4. How much do you think something like this would cost?
5. What questions would you recommend we ask while we're interviewing candidates?
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Tips on Hiring a Scientific Consultant?
