Thomas R Benke

Thomas Benke received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, working summers as an Engineer in Training in the petrochemical plants and oil fields of east Texas. He began his career as a hazardous waste permit writer at the Texas Water Commission (now the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and was the lead permit writer for most of the commercial hazardous waste Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities in the state. He graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in 1992 and specializes in environmental law (with extensive experience in RCRA, CERCLA and CWA matters) as Managing Member of ECO LLC. Thomas serves as Executive Director of ECO International, a non-profit he created to engage in environmental response work in Russia, China and Uganda and also as President of the Portland-Khabarovsk Sister City Association.