Santa Clara County Fire Department (SCCFD), Senior Hazardous Materials Specialist, Michael Benjamin has over 25 years of experience in the operations and regulatory oversight of hazardous materials production, storage, and use facilities in the industry diverse Santa Clara County. Mike has overseen numerous plan reviews, as well as the construction and operation inspections, emergency response, incident investigation, and closure of hazardous materials areas at facilities such as Stanford University, Tesla, Bloom Energy, United Technologies, Chevron, Valero, First Element, Apple, and federal military and research installations. He has extensive experience with toxic gas systems utilized in the semiconductor industry. Mike facilitated the regulatory plan review, permitting, and construction inspections for the first, both gaseous and liquid, hydrogen dispensing stations open to the public in Northern California. He has provided his expertise to numerous public agencies throughout the United States, assisting with the permitting, inspection and emergency response to incidents at hydrogen dispensing and storage facilities and has worked with the California Air Resources Board and the NFPA on the creation of regulations specific to hydrogen. Mike is also a Fire Investigator with the SCCFD and is a Certified Fire Investigation Technician with the International Association of Arson Investigators. He holds an Underground Storage Tank Inspector certification with the International Code Council.
Mike earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University.