David Tonjes
- Assistant Professor
- Office Location: 344 Harriman Hall
- Office Phone: (631) 632-8518
- Email: david.tonjes@stonybrook.edu
- Homepage: http://www.stonybrook.edu/est
Education:
- BA (Liberal Arts), St. Johns College (MD)
- MS (Comp. Sci.), New York Institute of Technology
- MS (Tech. Sys. Man.), Stony Brook University
- MPhil (Coast. Ocean.), Stony Brook University
- PhD (Coast. Ocean.), Stony Brook University
Research Interests:
Dr. Tonjes conducts research on environmental management. His primary areas of research are solid waste processes and management, and estuarine and coastal management.
Solid waste research topics have included waste generation and management methodologies, including assessments of local programs and helping local governments plan and implement effective strategies. Landfill impacts on the environment are another topic of interest, including assessments of leachate quality and treatment methodologies, and tracing impacts to groundwater and surface water systems following releases of leachate to the environment, including creating and maintaining groundwater models of the affected systems.
Estuarine research has included assessing the effects of New York City sewage treatment plant effluents on New York Harbor, and developing a monitoring plan to support the Hudson River Estuary program. Dr. Tonjes has recently been involved in the creation of a mosquito control program for Suffolk County, and has worked on management programs for local salt marshes.
Some recent publications:
Tonjes, D.J., and K.L. Greene. 2012. A review of national municipal solid waste generation assessments in the USA. Waste Management & Research 30(8):758-771.
Edelstein, D., and DJ Tonjes. 2012. Modeling an improvement in phosphorus utilization in tropical agriculture. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36:18-35.
Patel, S., D. Tonjes, and D. Mahajan. 2011. Biogas potential on Long Island, New York: a quantification study. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 3(4), 043118 (doi:10.1063/1.3614443)
Tonjes, DJ, C. O’Connell, O. Aphale and RL Swanson. 2011. Human sanitary wastes and waste treatment in New York City. pp. 219-232. In: Henshaw, R. (ed.). Environmental History of the Hudson River: Human Uses that Changed the Ecology; Ecology that Changed Human Uses. SUNY Press. 376 pp.
Greene, K., DJ Tonjes, and RL Swanson. 2011. Throwing stuff away: It’s a waste. Op-ed (Earth Day), Newsday, p. A32. April 22.
Tonjes, DJ, and RL Swanson. 2010. Polystyrene overestimated. Letters. Science 328:45-46.
Some recent posters/published presentation abstracts (with students):
Aphale, O., and D.J. Tonjes. 2012. Locating Gardiners Clay near the Brookhaven (Long Island, NY) landfill. Expanded abstract, Geology of Long Island and Metropolitan New York. http://www.geo.sunysb.edu/lig/Conferences/abstracts12/Abstracts/Aphale.pdf
Aphale, O., and D. Tonjes. 2011. Groundwater-flow simulation model for a landfill site in the Town of Brookhaven, Long Island, New York. Poster session: Issues in development and calibration of site, watershed, or regional scale models at MODFLOW and More 2011: Integrated Hydrologic Modeling, International Groundwater Modeling Center, Colorado Springs, CO.
Greene, K., O. Aphale, G. Ntshalntshali, P. Nayak, DJ Tonjes, and RL Swanson. 2011. Long Island municipal recycling programs assessment. Poster Session 2, 26th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Department of Civil Engineering, Widener University, Philadelphia, PA.
Aphale, O., E. Hubbard, and DJ Tonjes. 2011. Analysis of correlation between demographic variables and recycling efficiency in the Town of Brookhaven, Long Island, New York. Poster Session 1, 26th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Department of Civil Engineering, Widener University, Philadelphia, PA.
Greene, K., O. Aphale, G. Ntshalintshali, P. Nayak, DJ Tonjes, and RL Swanson. 2010. An assessment of municipal recycling on Long Island. Advanced Energy 2010 (annual conference), Advanced Energy Center, New York, NY (3rd Place, Graduate Student Division).
Feld, A., and DJ Tonjes. 2010. Energy assessment of Smithtown, NY. Advanced Energy 2010 (annual conference), Advanced Energy Center, New York, NY.
Aphale, O. and DJ Tonjes. 2010. Recharge and head: preliminary findings using a long-term data set. Expanded abstract, Geology of Long Island and Metropolitan New York. http://www.geo.sunysb.edu/lig/Conferences/abstracts-10/Apahle%20and%20Tonjes,%20LI%20geologists%202010.pdf
Some recent presentations:
Classifying landfill leachates using major ions. Presentation at "Addressing the Complex Site: Chemistry, Toxicology and Fate of Mixed Pollutants Across Environmental Media," Division of Environmental Chemistry, at the 244th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Philadelphia, PA, August 19, 2012.
Issues associated with solid waste composition assessments. Presentation at: Federation of New York State Solid Waste Associations Solid Waste & Recycling Conference with Trade Show, Bolton Landing, NY, May 22, 2012.
Development of cost-effective technology for biogas purification. Remote presentation for the semi-annual Industrial Advisory Board meeting, Center for BioEnergy Research and Development. Raleigh, NC. May 15, 2012.
A critical analysis of extended producer responsibility. Presentation at the Tuesday Lunch and Learn on Extended Producer Responsibility, Environmental Research and Education Foundation, Waste Expo, Dallas, TX. May 10, 2011.
The value of compost. Presentation at: Federation of New York State Solid Waste Associations Solid Waste & Recycling Conference with Trade Show, Bolton Landing, NY, May 3, 2011.
Analysis of correlation between demographic factors and recycling efficiency in the Town of Brookhaven, Long Island, New York. Presentation at: Federation of New York State Solid Waste Associations Solid Waste & Recycling Conference with Trade Show, Bolton Landing, NY, May 2, 2011.
Four hundred years of human sanitary wastes and waste treatment in New York City. Presentation at: “Environmental History of New York City and the Hudson River: Human Uses that Changed the Ecology, Ecology that Changed Human Uses: 400 Years of Uses, Abuses, and Accommodations.” Pace University, New York, NY. February 9, 2011.
Potential of biogas on Long Island: an assessment. Presentation at the semi-annual Industrial Advisory Board meeting, Center for BioEnergy Research and Development. Port Jefferson, NY. November 4, 2010.
Biogas assessment and upgrading using templated membranes. Presentation at the semi-annual Industrial Advisory Board meeting, Center for BioEnergy Research and Development. Clearwater Beach, FL, April 23, 2010.
Counting solid waste. Presentation at “Sustainable Waste Management: Issues and Challenges,” Division of Environmental Chemistry, at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. American Chemical Society, San Francisco, CA, March 23, 2010.
Long Island Recycling Project
- Assessment of Recycling on Long Island
- Part I - Doing the Right Thing (Municipal Recycling Programs on Long Island in the 1990s)
- Part II - Comparing Apples to Oranges (Municipal Recycling Tonnages and Rates on Long Island in the 1990s)
- Part III - Plumbing the Unknown (Recycling Practices, Tonnages, and Rates in the Private Sector on Long Island in the 1990s)
- Part IV - Extending the Definition (Waste Reduction, and Municipal and Private Sector Recycling Rates on Long Island in 1994)
- Part V - Going for the Goal (Long Island and the New York State 1997 Recycling Mandate)
- Part VI - Silk Purse or Sow's Ear (Evaluating Recycling on Long Island in the 1990s)
- Tonjes and Swanson
- What Hath Albany Wrought? (Long Island and the New York State Solid Waste Management Plan), 1993
- Long Island's Solid Waste Perplexities, 1994
- How Do We Measure Them? (Lessons from Long Island on Computing Recycling Rates), 2000
- Where Does It All Go? (The Size and Methods of Disposal of Long Island's Solid Waste, 1986 and 1991
- Municipal Solid Waste Assessment, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Long Island, New York, 2006
- Recycling on Long Island (2009)
- Long Island Garbage Index , 2002-2003
Masters Projects Supervised:
- Matthew Scheiner (2008): Aspects of Decision Making in Small Package Wastewater Treatment Plants
- Iftekharul Awal (2008): Managing Natural Resources: Natural Gas
- Emmanuel-Ulrick Noel (2009): Municipal Solid Waste Management and Tourism in Developing Countries: The Case of Cote des Arcadins, Haiti
- Omkar Aphale (2009): Technological Risk Assessment of the Occupational Risks to the Refuse Collectors in the New York City
- Matthew Bell (2009): Feasibility of Small Nuclear Reactors without Onsite Refueling
- James Cressy (2010): Development of and Recent Changes in Phase I Environmental Site Assessments: An Environmental Professional’s Perspective.
- David Edelstein (2010): Biochar: A Promising Technology for Carbon Sequestration and Rural Development
- Jordan Doroski (2010): Optimizing the Potential for Microalgal Biodiesel as a Transportation Fuel Source
- Allyson Feld (2010): Energy Assessment of Smithtown, NY
- Krista Greene (2010): Inconsistencies in Municipal Solid Waste Measurement: Implications for Recycling Program Comparisons
- John Tumino (2011): The Extent Biometrics Contributed to the Stability and Security of Iraq from 2008-2009
- Thomas Melia (2011): An Overview of Groundwater Remediation on Long Island
- Liz Zelnick (2011): Using Renewable Energy to Meet Long Island's Energy Needs
- Fabian Perez (2012): How Can a Zero Waste Policy Help Create Sustainability in Solid Waste Management?
- Peter Solaski (2012): The Primacy of Information in the Adoption of Energy Efficient Technologies
- Amruta Rajendra (2012): Temporal Stability of Nutrients in a Subterranean Estuary: Observations from an Intertidal Cluster Well, Stony Brook Harbor, NY