Stuart’s interest in ground water dates back to his teenage years when, while pulling and setting pumps for his father’s rural Ohio plumbing business, he literally had the black and brown products of well microorganisms on his hands. Later, that experience led to his pioneering work in the application of biofouling methods in ground water system analysis.

Today, Stuart is one the nation’s foremost experts on the diagnosis and treatment of well problems and performance deterioration.  He is a Certified Ground Water Professional by the National Ground Water Association, a Registered Geologist with the State of Kentucky, and has been consulting in the ground water field since 1983.  In addition to his consulting career, he has also worked for the National Water Well Association (now NGWA), developed the curriculum and instructed ground water science and technology at Wright State University (where he developed portions of the WSU IRIS distance-learning hydrogeology training program), and taught biology courses and advised hydrogeological engineering projects at Ohio Northern University.  He has spoken on well maintenance, rehabilitation, and microbiology topics in Argentina, Australia, England, and throughout North America.

He is the author or co-author of numerous manuals, articles and papers, including many contributions to well maintenance and rehabilitation practice such as Methods for Monitoring Iron and Manganese Biofouling in Water Supply Wells and Evaluation and Restoration of Water Supply Wells  (AWWA Research Foundation), Monitoring and Remediation Wells:  Problem Prevention, Maintenance and Rehabilitation (CRC Press), Operation and Maintenance of Extraction and Injection Wells at HTRW Sites (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with George Alford and Roy Leach), and the first manual on the subject in Spanish (with Miguel Gariboglio), Corrosión e incrustación microbiológia en sistemas de captación y conducción de agua: aspectos teóricos y aplicados. He is also a coauthor of both the 1992 Australian Drilling Manual and its successor, Drilling (CRC Press), a major contributor to AWWA’s Manual M21, Groundwater and ASCE’s new International Manual of Well Hydraulics, and a principal author-editor of NGWA's Manual of Water Well Construction Practices. He has contributed to Water Well Journal and National Drillers Buyers Guide/National Driller.

Stuart earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with majors in Biology and Earth Science from Wittenberg University in 1977 and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Environmental Biology from The Ohio State University in 1984.

Professional affiliations:

• National Ground Water Association (AGWSE) (SDWA, Ground Water Disinfection Rule, and Well disinfection Task Forces, Microbial Interest Group)
• American Water Works Association (Groundwater Committee, Ohio Section and Section Small Systems Development and Water for People Committees)
• Standard Methods joint technical group for Section 9240, Iron and Sulfur Bacteria
• American Society for Testing and Materials (Subcommittee D18.21 on ground water investigations)
• American Water Resources Association
• American Society for Microbiology
• Ohio Water Well Association

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