Enrollee Spotlight

Mr. Daniel Chellaraj began his first assignment on the AARP Senior Environmental Employment Program (SEE) in 1989 with the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (OERR).  There he did evaluation and offered remediation alternatives for contaminated sediments in streams, lakes and harbors.  He also served with a workgroup dealing with the listing and delisting of chemicals in the Toxic Release Inventory.  He has received commendations for helping to develop the Reportable Quantity (RQ) Database to ensure accuracy of data and appropriate inputs.  Mr. Chellaraj coordinated with the Office of Solid Waste (OSW) with the development of RQ Adjustments for Lead Metal, Lead Compounds, Lead Containing Hazardous Wastes and Methyl Isocyanate Final Rule. He also helped to publish the Final Rule for Wood Preservation in the Federal Register.  Currently his NOWCC SEE Program assignment is with the Regulations and Policy Development Division, Office of Emergency Management where he provides chemical and chemical engineering technical support to projects associated with Risk Management Program.

Mr. Chellaraj was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2000 and is among the very few Fellows currently working at EPA.  He was recognized by the then EPA Assistant Administrator, Timothy Fields Jr. for this award and other contributions at EPA in 2000.  He is a member in the Admissions Committee (AIChE) to elect Fellows from Senior Members.  Mr. Chellaraj is also a Fellow of the Institution of Plant Engineers, London.

Mr. Chellaraj is an internationally recognized expert in rayon production, waste water management and environmental risk mitigation.  For the last two decades, Mr. Chellaraj has been a Volunteer Executive in developing countries across the world through the International Executive Service Corps, World Environment Center, Washington, in cooperative agreement with USAID.  He has made trips to India, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Bulgaria, Poland, Jamaica, Russia, to name a few, to provide chemical engineering expertise in rayon manufacture and waste water treatment.  He was invited to Russia by the European Union to address Volga River pollution.  He has received commendations from the U.S. Congress for donating his time and expertise.

He prefers to keep his SEE Program assignment part-time because he is very involved as a volunteer in his community with Meals on Wheels, his Church Clothing Bank and for the assignments abroad.

Before coming to EPA Mr. Chellaraj worked as a wastewater treatment engineer for the Commonwealth of Virginia.  One of the jobs he did was to supervise the pretreatment program to treat industrial waste before it gets discharged to a sewage treatment plant (STP).

Mr. Chellaraj has devoted his career to environmental engineering after he started living in US, for the last 33 years.  In India he worked as a Production Manager/Maintenance Engineer in two rayon factories.    In India his career spanned 30 years as a chemical engineer for Travancore Rayons where he supervised cellulose film casting, coating, printing, lamination and conversion, carbon disulfide units, water and wastewater treatment plants and machinery maintenance.  He served as a Senior Chemical Engineer/ Production Manager at J.K. Synthetics where he supervised rayon purification, quality control, trouble shooting, steam generation and supply, and water and wastewater treatment plants.  He also conducted investment studies to develop the process package for the cellophane project with British collaboration. 

Mr. Chellaraj received his B.S. from the University of Madras in India where he also received a post graduate degree in Chemical Engineering.  He did graduate work in waste water engineering at the George Washington University, Washington, DC.