Rachael Casson

Rachael has over 22 years of consulting experience, evaluating the analysis, fate, and treatment of contamination in environmental media. In 2008, Rachael recognised the emerging concern over PFAS with aviation and Defence clients in Australia, positioning the AECOM team at the leading edge of the PFAS practice. During this time, she developed an expertise in assessing the fate and transport, risks, management and treatment of PFAS by working on over 100+ PFAS-related projects across the globe.  Based on the recognition as a leader in PFAS science, Rachael serves as the Director of AECOM’s International PFAS Program, focussing on innovation and technical excellence. Rachael provides thought leadership to technical specialists developing best practices in sampling, risk assessment, fate and transport, and treatment technologies. She has access to international research endeavours at the leading edge of assessment and remediation solutions that meet industrial, aviation, public health, and Defence needs. Rachael was the Lead PFAS Technical Specialist on the early work for two of the Australian Department of Defence’s highest profile PFAS investigations, the Army Aviation Centre, Oakey (AACO) and RAAF Base Williamtown. 

From a research perspective, she is the technical lead on the development and commercialisation of DE-FLUORO™, an electrochemical oxidation technology that destroys PFAS in solution.  Other research programs where she has been the principal investigator (PI) include: (1) Plant PFAS uptake study which evaluated the uptake of PFAS from four different test doses in seven different plant species (tomato, strawberry, cucumber, lettuce, alfalfa, radish and beet) and (2) Evaluation of the transformation of PFAS Precursors into perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) downgradient of known source zones.  Rachael was the lead author for the published paper, Integrating the total oxidisable precursor assay data to evaluate fate and transport of PFAS, Remediation, The Journal of Environmental Clean Up Costs, Technologies & Techniques, Spring 2018 / Volume 28, Number 2.