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Expertise: Environmental

Chris Romeyn Engineers Solutions To Sustain The Environment

The practice of Water and Natural Resources combines science and engineering to find a balance between the built and natural environment. For Otak, a company that strives to build sustainable communities in all its work, WNR is a critical discipline. While its WNR team is a mix of engineers and scientists, it’s not often both those skill sets are rolled into one employee, but that’s what Otak found in the hiring of Chris Romeyn as Senior Water Resources Engineer.

Tracy Emmanuel, Colorado Water Resources Director commented, “Chris brings wide-ranging experience and technical expertise that will help guide our design process, as well as provide crucial mentorship for our team.”

Chris had been flirting with Otak for a few years after a former colleague went to work for the company and tried to entice him to come aboard. He was interested in working for a smaller firm than the one he was with and liked what he saw at Otak, but it took a twist of fate with the arrival of the pandemic and forced work from home to solidify his hire. Chris had learned he preferred working at home or at least close to home in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Otak is interested in expanding its services to that area of the state. With Chris’s background meeting Otak’s needs, the match finally clicked and Chris was hired in January.

A love for environmental issues and solutions goes back to Chris’s teenage years when he became obsessed with Edward Abbey’s books that touted environmental advocacy and showcased his time as a park ranger at Arches National Park. Chris ended up at the University of Vermont studying Natural Resource Management. Even with a degree in hand, Chris turned to his love of outdoor adventure and took a job in New Mexico working for the ski patrol. 

Eventually, realizing he needed more of a career, he took the advice of a friend’s father and went back to school for his engineering degree, ending in a dual BA/MA program. Chris said the decision provided him with a broad set of skills combining technical competencies with a scientific understanding of waterways. “My goal has always been to do restoration work, but adding engineering broadened my skill set and set me up to land in consulting,” he said.

Chris is already putting his myriad of skills to work on complex projects at Otak. One is a fish passage that Otak was contracted to design through a grant from a non-profit. Chris explains there are two large river diversion structures that lie within a quarter-mile of each other and span about 100-feet across the river. The structures are at least 50 years old and can only dam the river up about three feet. For the fish that live there, and spawn in the Colorado plains, the existing fish passage is impossible to clear because they don’t jump. Chris says ramps that are several hundred feet long will have to be designed and built to give the fish a fighting chance of survival. 

Other aspects of the project are to design for efficient sediment transport and meeting the needs of irrigation ditch owners. The overall project involves ditch companies, the USFWS, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, a water conservancy district, a fisheries biology professor from the University of Colorado, as well as the Otak team. The project is being funded through DOLA using federal funds and is sponsored by a non-profit watershed coalition. 

Part of being a leader is having the ability to share your expertise with co-workers, and for Chris, that especially means his work with junior engineers. He has two points he feels are the most important to share. First is that critical thinking is the most crucial thing for a junior engineer to learn. There is no one solution to a problem, but there is a best solution, and an engineer must be able to look at all the facts and form a judgment for what will work. Chris said to get there the second idea he coaches is that people need to be comfortable to ask questions. “Learning from your mistakes works, but sometimes it’s good to feel comfortable going to someone who knows,” he said. He also commented that he faces his own challenges with his role as a mentor in letting go of the reins and accepting that someone else may do something differently than he would but that doesn’t make it incorrect.

Going forward, Chris is excited by the opportunities he sees to help grow the Colorado office and take on challenging projects that allow him to share his expertise at keeping waters flowing and fish swimming.

Otak Survey Teams Expand Capabilities in Bathymetric Mapping and Hydraulic Modeling

Otak has long been at the forefront of survey and mapping processes and electronic data collection. With the recent acquisition of the Hyrdrolite single beam sonar and the Hydrone, an unmanned surface vessel (UVS) with the AutoNav system from Seafloor Systems, Otak’s survey teams have expanded capabilities in bathymetric mapping and hydraulic modeling. As Nathan Dasler, Otak Water Resources Engineer, states, “we now have an easy way of collecting a significant amount of accurate data for mapping channel bottoms to aid in our fish passage and stream restoration work, as well as construction and engineering projects that are either abutted against bodies of water or submerged.”

Equipped with pre-programmable GPS tracking, the UVS allows for remote data collection in otherwise challenging or inaccessible environments. Further, in situations where multiple surveys are needed over time, reliable data can be collected efficiently in the same location, and with extreme precision.

The application and use of the technology and equipment in the field are proving to be beneficial in a number of settings and project types including shoreline validation, hydraulic modeling, and sedimentation measurements. 

Read the complete story on how Otak is using this new technology and the data it provides to achieve greater outcomes.

City of Washougal SMAP Plan

The City of Washougal is advancing its commitment to protecting its natural environment and charting a clear path to implementing stormwater improvements in the Gibbons Creek Watershed. A Storm Stormwater Management Action Plan (SMAP) was developed to help meet those commitments as well as the City of Washougal’s NPDES Phase II permit requirements. In continuing this long-lasting relationship with the city, Otak also regularly assists with best practices for developing their GIS program for effective data infrastructure development, collection, and display to the community and internal staff.

Protecting a Watershed with a Stormwater Management Action Plan

The City of Washougal’s SMAP Plan for Gibbons Creek aims to help the City maintain compliance with its Phase II municipal stormwater permit and other surface water and groundwater quality regulations. In developing the action plan, GIS analysis was utilized along with data collected from the city. This included field visits to assess all receiving waters in the city limits and prioritizing a basin for stormwater retrofits. Utilizing GIS web mapping applications, this work also delivered effective communications for agency collaboration and public outreach on project progress.

Waterway Restoration: A Holistic Approach to Improving Fish Passages

Posted on by OTAK Team

Every year, millions of fish migrate between the ocean and their native habitat, navigating waterways across natural landscapes, farmland, and ever-expanding developed regions of highways, towns, and cities. Removal of barriers such as dams, culverts, and levees, has long been recognized as a necessary and viable means to improving fish passage, and good progress has been made in this regard. More importantly, though, waterway restoration as a whole has evolved over the past 20-30 years to encompass a broader approach.

Fish passage restoration is no longer confined to removing or replacing existing impediments. It is also about understanding watersheds and river basins as a whole and implementing solutions that improve the health of a complex ecosystem, improve the ability of fish to migrate and thrive, and ultimately improve multi-species preservation efforts.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, a real sense of urgency has also emerged as 27 West Coast Salmon runs are threatened, including Chinook Salmon whose survival is linked to the recovery of southern resident orca. In response, local agencies and tribes in Puget Sound have launched comprehensive fish restoration programs. Otak has been involved in a number of projects in Washington and the Columbia Basin and has been at the forefront of this shift to a more holistic approach to improving fish passages.

Barriers, Encroachment, and Water Quality

Today, rather than looking at only physical barriers like culverts and dams within a waterway, multidisciplinary firms like Otak take into consideration all of the other factors that impact healthy fish passages. “Twenty years ago, we had this concept of the four Hs: habitat, hydropower, hatcheries and harvest,” Jamie Bails, Otak Senior Environmental Scientist, states, “and while each of these things is important, we have come to understand it is barriers that are preventing fish from getting where they need to go.” But there is more to it, as Jamie further explains, “all of those things can’t be improved if we don’t fix the habitat. Correcting infrastructure like culverts and bridges will help, but ultimately it is the streams that will do the work when we get out of the way.”

What Jamie and the rest of the Water & Natural Resources team at Otak understand is that improving fish passage is not just about the physical barriers, it is also about encroachment on waterways and adjacent habitat. Water quality, sedimentation, and pollution are equally important and present real barriers to fish. Russ Gaston, Senior Vice President, Water & Natural Resources, has 33 years of experience studying and improving fish passages, working in both the public and private sector. He explains “for years, restoration projects focused mainly on removing physical barriers or helping fish pass through or around barriers. What we have seen though, is streams that had polluted water flowing into them did not achieve positive results after physical barriers were removed. Rather, they saw little to no improvement at all.”  

For example, Russ and his team worked with Snohomish County for over 20 years to improve fish habitat and remove fish barriers in the French Creek watershed, but restoration of spawning salmon to the upper watershed remained impeded because the water-quality-barrier in the watershed had not been improved. They have since worked with the County and the farmers in the watershed, to restore stream buffers in the agricultural lands, and have developed options to improve water quality in the highly degraded lower reach of the watershed, which the County is evaluating and deciding on which option to move forward on. 

Today, Russ says “we commonly focus on stormwater runoff and work to create a stable channel to keep bank erosion to natural rates, which are primary sources of pollutants in a stream. We also use the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBII) to project the health of the stream before and after the restoration is completed.” The work Otak did on the Miller Creek Daylighting project for the City of Burien, Port of Seattle, and the City of Sea-tac is an example of where the team has applied this process.

Multidisciplinary Project Teams

To fully understand what is happening within a waterway and what barriers—physical or otherwise—are having the greatest impact on fish passage, the entire watershed needs to be considered. And this requires expertise and perspective only possible through a multi-disciplinary approach. Optimally, project teams should include structural and civil engineers, geomorphologists, biologists, wetland ecologists, and landscape architects. Russ, who has been involved in a number of fish basin planning projects in Washington, points out that it is not just multiple disciplines weighing in on a project, it is integrated teams working together. “What I thought was an integrated team years ago, is nothing compared to what we do today. Engineers are no longer working in isolation, but are now working together with stream biologists, geomorphologists, landscape architects—all within one firm. This is a key advantage and influences the way we think about restoration,” Russ asserts.

Working closely together, integrated teams have a greater understanding of all the impediments to fish passage and where to focus restoration efforts. This level of data essentially provides a blueprint for identifying failing infrastructure and prioritizing projects. This in turn has the added benefit of not only improving fish passage and multi-species preservation across a region but can also save the various jurisdictions—cities, counties, the state—considerable expense.

Fish passage restoration is only a small piece of what teams like Otak’s Water & Natural Resources team can provide. For example, Otak has a surveying group that is experienced in collecting water resource information. “We are able to do everything in-house, which allows us to go beyond improving fish passages in isolation to really addressing stream restoration as a whole and improving an entire watershed,” Russ states.  

Fish Passages and Stream Restoration

There are two typical approaches to designing and improving fish passage. One is an engineered hydraulic calculation with a specific focus on providing the right depth and velocity conditions in a system that targets specific fish species.

The other approach involves stream simulation, which takes into consideration the natural geomorphic processes and seeks to replicate how a stream might have evolved naturally, what is currently impacting channel evolution and how it might be impacted in the future. “Obviously, there are constraints to what we can do—existing roads, cities, and other development—but when we look at streams in this manner, it allows us to come up with solutions that will have a greater impact than improving specific sites in isolation,” Russ states.

With this approach, Otak has been working with cities, counties, and agencies to help them assess where they should be focusing their restoration efforts. “We bring a multi-disciplinary team to assess water quality, water flow, channel degradation, floodplain, and habitat values,” Russ explains. “We’re assessing fish habitats and the connectivity of wetlands, as well as existing infrastructure, regional stormwater management, and integrating our findings into cohesive designs and fish passage restoration planning,” he adds. Ultimately, with such comprehensive data, Otak’s teams are able to give recommendations based on real cost-benefit analyses and offer solutions that benefit the fish and other species on a broad scale. “This is an area where we have been extremely successful,” Russ asserts, “and the advances we are continuing to make in the industry are exciting.” 

Lasting Resilience

It is not just firms like Otak that are embracing a comprehensive watershed approach to fish passage restoration. As the industry has evolved and best practices continue to improve with the integration of multi-disciplinary teams, government agencies are also looking at the bigger picture of coastal adaptation and seeking solutions that will not only improve fish passage and aid in multi-species preservation but will also benefit the region economically. Commercial and recreational fishing and tourism are all linked to fish preservation. Economics aside, the real benefit, as Russ points out, “is that we’re restoring natural processes, which holistically lifts the entire system, improves the resilience of the watershed, and benefits all aquatic and riparian life.”

See Our Fish Passage Work

Building Communities Both Inside and Out

Projects that Otak undertakes require multi-faceted teams of professionals—engineers, planners, surveyors, designers—but perhaps more important is what each of the team members bring to the table. The team members themselves are multifaceted, bringing not just their professional skills, but a host of life experiences that help form their decisions.

Embodying this is Water Resources Designer and EI Teresa Huntsinger. Don’t let the Engineer Intern moniker fool you. Teresa is a seasoned professional, having started her career working in rural communities for the Peace Corps and then shifting to non-profits that had a focus on environmental public policy, particularly for river and stream health. Her favorite part of her job was promoting green infrastructure and reducing the impacts of urban runoff, and she decided to return to school to strengthen her expertise. “I wanted to learn more of the processes for designing infrastructure like stormwater facilities. I like that working on the design side has a direct, tangible impact,” she said. 

She completed a Master’s Degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering, and now has just six months left to be eligible for her PE certification. 

While she’s changed gears, she emphasizes that her experiences are brought to bear on all the projects she’s involved with now. She’s working with the team that’s completing the Red Rock Creek project in Tigard, Oregon to explore the benefits, both economic and environmental, of rehabilitating the creek instead of only implementing current stormwater requirements. “The requirements would result in building ponds and underground detention vaults as the area redevelops, but that won’t help restore the severely degraded creek. The area is already urbanized so we looked at how stormwater requirements can drive rehabilitating the creek,” she said. 

Internally, she was named program manager for Otak’s equity and inclusion strategy. In this role, Teresa has tapped into her experience from working in the Peace Corps where she learned that to be effective you need to work not only with the official leaders but also with the unofficial leaders who are respected by their peers and often volunteer to get things done, which is why she focuses on making sure everyone is given equitable treatment and opportunities. She says the equity and inclusion committee work has a lot to do with how colleagues and clients relate to each other and bring their different perspectives to projects. “Otak is multidisciplinary already, but we can do more to bring our different cultural and personal experiences to the table and to create opportunities for all kinds of people to grow with us,” she said. 

Her recognition of the roles in a community and the value that each has melds into Otak’s vision that the projects they do, in the end, improve communities and do not just solve one problem. “There are different ways of looking at my path which hasn’t been typical for an engineer, but it’s all related to building sustainable communities,” Teresa said. 

As Kevin Timmins, project manager for Otak’s Water and Natural Resources Division states, “Teresa has an incredible commitment and engagement with the communities she belongs to. She brings a lot of established relationships, management skills, and different life experiences from her prior career to share with us at Otak and has served us well in her role on the E&I Strategic Plan.”

Otak Completes ODOT Project to Repair and Upgrade Bad Banks Culvert

Lying beneath fifty-feet of fill and one of Oregon’s major recreational highways, was an ailing 75-year old concrete culvert with a history of operation and maintenance problems. The culvert in question funnels the Bad Banks Creek underneath Oregon State Route 22 about four miles east of Gates, Oregon. Working with the Oregon Department of Transportation, Otak’s hydraulics engineering team led a design and construction project to repair damage to the 300 foot-long culvert, improve stream flow and provide safer access for ODOT inspection and maintenance crews and equipment. 

The Bad Banks Creek culvert at HWY 22 was subject to abrasion from sediment flowing in the stream channel, which over time, had worn down the concrete culvert and exposed the rebar reinforcement. The culvert also presented various safety issues for ODOT inspection and maintenance crews as it was difficult to access either end of the culvert due to steep slopes and lack of space to operate. While extending the life of the culvert was a priority, the other significant part of the project was to improve access for long-term maintenance.

Otak was hired by ODOT in May of 2019 to provide design services for repairs to the culvert to extend its service life and to modify the culvert entrance to improve access for long-term operation and maintenance of the culvert. Otak was then hired to provide construction administration, engineering, and inspection services during construction, which began in June 2020. 

Extending the life of the culvert made sense—the typical life-span of concrete reinforced culverts is 75-100 years and it would have been very expensive to replace. As Otak Project Manager and Principal Kevin Timmins, states, “if the culvert ever does get replaced it will likely be with a bridge.”  Rather than a costly bridge project with major disruptions to traffic along HWY 22, ODOT was able to get money and permits to make repairs and modifications and chose to work with Otak on a design to prolong the life of the culvert while also addressing the safety and access issues.

To mitigate the effects of streamflow and sediment abrasion, the culvert was lined with six inches of new concrete. The upstream end of the culvert was also extended, a more gradual transition into the culvert was added for better streamflow, and debris fins were installed at the upstream end to catch large debris so it doesn’t enter the culvert. The modifications had the added benefit of allowing the maintenance access road to come further down. As Kevin explains, “previously the access road just stopped at a steep vertical drop off into the culvert. By extending the culvert we were able to bring the road down and across the top of the culvert to the other side where we were able to create a level area where ODOT will be able to park an excavator and reach upstream of the debris fins in the event they need to be able to clear debris in front of the culvert.” 

Ten days before substantial completion in September of 2020, the Beechie Creek fire burned through the construction site, scorching the forest vegetation, melting the stream bypass system, and causing damage to a portion of the freshly poured concrete. Otak has been working with the ODOT to manage the response at this site, including project closeout and plans for additional site stabilization and concrete repairs to be constructed in 2021.

“One of the reasons we were excited to work on this project was the fact that we were already familiar with the site,” Kevin stated, “and that our water resource team has a lot of experience in working in streams. They understand the hydraulic conditions, how to manage streamflow during construction, how to accommodate construction access.” This project was an opportunity for Otak’s hydraulics team, who possess deep knowledge and capacity for hydraulic engineering, to work in tandem with Otak’s structural team. Additionally, Otak has experience working on projects in environmentally sensitive areas, and mitigating the environmental impact during construction was a priority and requirement of the state.

In the end, the culvert repairs have staved off a costly bridge replacement by extending the life of the culvert and ODOT inspection and maintenance staff now have better and safer access to the culvert.

Tracy Emmanuel Helps Rivers Run Free

A fluvial geomorphologist by education, Tracy Emmanuel in Otak’s Colorado office has recently been promoted to Business Unit Leader for Otak’s Water & Natural Resources Division in Colorado. In this role, she will be responsible for leading a team of scientists and engineers to identify and win work, develop and coach her team members, and continue to apply her technical and project management abilities in the execution of projects. Matt Marshall, Regional Business Development Manager at Otak said, “Tracy is a triple threat. She’s super smart, she’s really good with clients, and is a genuine and caring leader and coach for her team.”

Tracy did not find a love of rivers right away. She first loved math and actually chose her college based solely on her desire to run cross country. However, an injury changed her trajectory and she found that college opened her eyes and her aspirations to a career with rivers. 

“My geology teacher gave me a book of hydrology for engineers and it really resonated with me,” Tracy said further emphasizing that spending her free time whitewater kayaking instead of running sealed the deal. 

Once hooked, Tracy went on to graduate school where she was able to work with world-renowned geomorphologist, Ellen Wohl. More than 17 years later, Tracy has built a solid reputation in her own right having worked on projects in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Washington. Her expertise includes floodplain reconnection, stable channel, and fish habitat design, as well as flood recovery and water diversion improvement planning and design. 

In 2014, Tracy, along with a handful of colleagues from a previous firm, joined Otak and began their work on several projects along St. Vrain Creek, Lefthand Creek, and the Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers mitigating the massive destruction of the 2013 Colorado flooding triggered by a 1000 year rain event. 

“The flooding in the Front Range raised the profile of why geomorphology is so important. Rivers aren’t going to stay where they are. They are going to move and it’s critical to understand that potential for adjustment,” Tracy said. She continued to highlight how that experience proved that natural riverine systems that can retain some of their natural adjustment processes, as opposed to human cut channels and structural solutions, serve to better protect people, property, and the environment.  

Recently Tracy has been leading the Otak team on the Godfrey Ditch Diversion replacement project on the Middle South Platte River in Weld County, Colorado, taking it from conceptual design to construction. The federally funded project is designed to reduce sediment transport disruptions, improve maintenance requirements, limit damage potential in future floods, and enhance aquatic and riparian habitats. Following a lengthy alternative analysis, the team decided to move the point of diversion upstream 900 feet to a more stable location, replacing the 9-foot failing structure with a 3-foot-tall bladder dam structure, fish passage ramp, and increased efficiencies in ditch infrastructure. Tracy recently spoke of the work Otak is doing in this area at the Poudre Riverfest.

ENR Recognizes Pringle Creek with a 2020 Regional Award of Merit

Otak has been selected by the Engineering News-Record as an Award of Merit winner for the Pringle Creek Demolition and Stream Restoration project. A virtual ceremony will be held Thursday, December 10 to recognize project winners. 

This project was performed for the City of Salem and involved removing a vacant concrete structure and opening a 600-foot linear stream corridor which was designed to appear as if it had always been there. The work improved the aesthetics of the area and added a natural area for nearby residents and future park and trail users. It also improved water quality and increased fish passage.

The size and scope of the project necessitated coordination among several firms including Pacific Habitat Services who was key in obtaining environmental permits, and Geo Design Inc. who assisted with the management of contaminated soils. The prime contractor relied on two key subcontractors; Cascade Shoring and Abiqua Landscape.

Read More About the Project 

Phase 1 of Beaverton Underground Water Treatment Facilities Completed

 The City of Beaverton foresees a revitalization of its downtown area and is taking a proactive role to provide stormwater treatment within drainage areas that could experience redevelopment activity in the near future. The City is currently investing in regional underground public stormwater facilities at two locations as part of this project. 

Construction of one of the two facilities was completed in August, which included two large vaults – one to facilitate sedimentation and one to provide enhanced water quality treatment. The construction site was situated near the Beaverton Round on Watson Avenue, just south of the Watson and Hall Blvd. couplet split. This location is near the downstream end of a large tributary area (mostly untreated under pre-project conditions) that could see multiple redevelopment projects in the future. The project was constructed with the goal to provide regional treatment, thus allowing lots within the tributary area to be redeveloped without having to provide individual on-site treatment.

Ashley Cantlon, Senior Water Resources Engineer and Project Manager, has been leading the Otak team that is providing engineering design and support services from preliminary concept through to final construction. The range of services includes hydraulic and hydrologic analysis, survey, design, and visual mitigation (planning/architect), as well as construction management and construction support services. Sub-consultants included 3D Infusion for drafting services and GRI for geotechnical exploration and analysis. The contractor on the project was MEI. 

Working within the existing infrastructure in and around the area presented a unique set of challenges. For example, the need to fit the water collection and treatment system into the existing roadway and pipe infrastructure required using flow splitters and as little relocation of utilities as possible. Feasibility studies were conducted at the outset to gain a more complete picture of conflicts and constraints. These studies exposed potential problems which could then be mitigated, but also revealed opportunities to complete a portion of the project in conjunction with other concurrent city-led projects, including replacement of a water line, which will increase efficiencies and cause fewer interruptions to the public.

Flow split structures and other conveyance infrastructure associated with completing the connections to the Watson vaults will be completed in conjunction with other city projects in the nearby area to minimize road closures and traffic disruptions and keep costs down. 

This first phase of the water treatment facilities project (installation of the sedimentation and treatment vaults), which broke ground on June 3, 2020, was completed on August 5, within a critical 58-day construction window. Phase 2 (flow split and conveyance infrastructure) is being coordinated and integrated into the other city-led projects and is slated for construction during the summer of 2021, at which point the treatment vaults will be brought online. 

Otak came to the project with experience and knowledge of the area from previous work completed under multiple contracts with the City of Beaverton. “We have developed a good working relationship with the City and really enjoy working with their team,” Ashley said. Other stakeholders involved in the project include Clean Water Services, TriMet, and private property owners.

Posey Hire Expands Otak’s Water Resources Capabilities

Norton Posey was recently hired as Senior Water Resources Project Manager for Otak’s Redmond, WA office. Having spent the past 27 years working for King County in their Department of Local Services, Road Services Division, Norton brings with him a vast knowledge of roads, transportation, and water resources, and extensive experience ushering such projects through the government process.   

“I wanted to bring the experience I gained at the county to the consulting world and be able to help there. I like the diversity of projects, particularly at Otak, that the consulting world offers,” he said. 

At King County, Norton was initially charged with managing roadway and transportation projects, including road widening, roundabout design, and traffic signals, but he transitioned over the past eight years to leading water resources projects, particularly fish passages. 

It is that experience that he brings to Otak managing Washington Department of Transportation’s various fish passage projects that aim to replace or renovate the state’s many culverts, allowing streams and the fish that swim in them to run freely. Norton emphasizes that this work is among his favorites due to the challenges of finding the best solution for each site, and the chance to work collaboratively with environmental groups, tribes, and communities to ensure equitable solutions. With the addition of Norton, Otak is able to expand its ability to manage such projects. 

Because Otak believes new hires learn company processes and build relationships more quickly if they start delivering work immediately, Norton is already busy with fish passages and working on stormwater improvements to prevent street flooding for the City of Renton. His tasks include identifying water quality improvements and stormwater treatment for new facilities in the City of Burien, and helping with basin plans for several municipalities. With his extensive background in roads and transportation, he will also be helping on some of Otak’s highway widening and facility improvement projects.