Martins Creek Cleanup Director

Robert J. Barkanic Martins Creek Cleanup Project Director

Bob Barkanic is PPL’s Martins Creek Cleanup Project director. Since the incident happened in August 2005, Bob has been directing the environmental monitoring and cleanup activities.

Bob also is PPL’s director of Environmental Management, responsible for providing vision for the company’s environmental activities, communicating with regulatory agencies and other environmental stakeholders, and providing expert environmental support to the company’s business lines.

Before joining PPL in 2002, Bob was deputy secretary for Air, Recycling and Radiation Protection in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He was responsible for establishing the policy and strategic direction for the department’s Air Quality, Land Recycling, Waste Management and Radiation Protection programs. These multi-media programs included indoor and outdoor air quality, stationary and mobile sources of air pollution, the Land Recycling program for brownfields, hazardous sites cleanup, municipal waste, landfills and recycling, tanks remediation, Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs, multi-site remediation, radon, nuclear safety, low-level radioactive waste, and environmental radiation programs.

Bob also was deputy secretary for DEP’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Compliance Assistance, responsible for working with citizen groups, businesses, trade organizations, local governments and communities to help Pennsylvanians understand and apply pollution prevention, energy efficiency and environmentally sound technology practices into their daily decision-making process. 

Bob joined the Pennsylvania DEP in 1993 as a senior nuclear engineer and special assistant to the deputy secretary in the Office of Air, Recycling and Radiation Protection. He began his career with Bechtel Power Corp., working at several nuclear power plants around the country. He also served as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Governor’s 21st Century Environmental Commission, a 40-member blue-ribbon panel tasked with setting environmental priorities for the commonwealth.

A licensed professional engineer, Bob earned his bachelor of science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and his master’s in engineering science from Penn State in 1997.

Communication with local government, area residents, community leaders and environmental groups about the Martins Creek cleanup is an important part of Bob’s responsibilities. You can call him at 866-364-2800 or e-mail him at cleanupdirector@pplweb.com with concerns or suggestions.