Dennis D. Rounds has been elected to the ASTM International board of directors for a three-year term.  Rounds is executive director of two South Dakota agencies, the Office of Risk Management and the Petroleum Release Compensation Fund, in Pierre, S.D.

Rounds is currently first vice chairman of Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action and a member of Committee D18 on Soil and Rock. An ASTM International member since 1993, Rounds served on the Committee on Technical Committee Operations from 2007 to 2009 and on the Committee on Standards from 2004 to 2009, including a term as COS chairman from 2007 to 2009. He received two Service Awards, in 2006 and 2009, for his work on COS. For his contributions to E50 committee work, Rounds received an Award of Appreciation in 2008 and a Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

After graduating from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., in 1979, with a B.S. in environmental engineering technology, Rounds began his career as a natural resource engineer with the South Dakota Department of Water and Natural Resources. Rounds gained additional experience as a planner with the Black Hills Council of Local Governments, as a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and as an engineer with Special Resource Management Inc., before he starting working for the state of South Dakota.

Rounds became director of engineering at the South Dakota Petroleum Release Compensation Fund in 1990, and executive director of the fund in 1993. In this role, he is responsible for the state program that provides financial assurance for the pollution cleanup of petroleum releases.  Rounds assumed his position at the Office of Risk Management in 2005. He directs all activities, including litigation management, claims administration and loss control programs for the risk management office. 

Rounds holds an M.S. degree in civil engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) in Rapid City, S.D.  He is chairman of the professional advisory board for the civil and environment engineering programs at SDSM&T, and he is a member of the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials, the Public Risk Management Association and the State Risk and Insurance Management Association.

ASTM PR Contact:  Erin Brennan, Phone: 610-832-9602; ebrennan@astm.org

Release #8763