Request Expert

Expert is an experienced water quality scientist and program manager who designs and conducts complex water resource investigations. Her extensive experience includes the assessment of freshwater and coastal ecosystems, designing and implementing water quality and hydrologic monitoring programs, water quality and hydrologic modeling, preparing watershed protection and restoration plans, navigating the wasterwater permitting, and performing expert reviews of technical documents. She possesses a deep understanding of federal and state environmental regulations and uses her knowledge to help clients navigate the Clean Water Act process.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Water Quality and Hydrologic Monitoring. Skilled at developing hydrologic and water quality sampling and analysis programs to meet various objectives, such as calculating baseline conditions, evaluating current conditions, developing site specific criteria, assessing trends, identifying sources of pollutants, evaluating NPDES permit compliance, evaluating BMP effectiveness, and filling data gaps. Experience includes the development of QAPPs and overseeing field crews and laboratories in the collection and analysis of environmental samples.

Data Analysis and Interpretation. Skilled at evaluating large water quality, hydrologic, and other data sets, and performing complex analyses to identify relationships, patterns, and trends. Applies critical thinking to provide meaningful interpretation of data analyses. Expert Reviews. Performs expert reviews of technical documents, such as monitoring plans and modeling reports. Evaluates the quality of the scientific and technical information. Prepares reports and technical memos that summarize major findings and provide specific comments.

Surface Water Modeling. Experience in calibrating, validating, and applying watershed runoff and receiving water quality and hydrologic models, including SWAT, HSPF, EFDC, WASP, GWLF, RUNQUAL, WARMF, QUAL2E, LAKE2K, BATHTUB, SWEM, and SPARROW. Applies statistical programs such as LOADEST and WRTDS for estimating constituent loads in rivers, and long-term trends in concentration and flux.

Clean Water Act. Routinely conducts projects in support of compliance with Clean Water Act regulations, including water quality standards (WQS), total maximum daily loads (TMDL), national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES), combined sewer overflows (CSO), and nonpoint source (NPS).


Expert is providing technical support to Riverkeeper, NRDC, and Save the Sound in the evaluation of several New York City Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long Term Control Plans (LTCP). New York City Department of Environmental Protection is required to develop waterbody-specific LTCPs to control discharges from CSOs to improve water quality in New York City’s waterbodies. There are concerns that the LTCPs will continue to allow excess amounts of untreated wastewater discharge into New York City’s waterbodies, resulting in a potential risk to those using the waters for recreation, and impacting efforts to restore water quality in Long Island Sound. Expert has reviewed several of the LTCPs and related documents, evaluating the quality of the scientific and technical information in the documents, determining if the LTCPs are consistent with federal CSO policies, and evaluating whether implementation of the selected CSO control alternatives (e.g., chlorination) will achieve water quality standards. As part of the review, Expert has prepared technical review reports to summarize major findings and provide specific comments.
Expert provides on-call technical review support to the Five Tribes for the Portland Harbor Superfund project. Portland Harbor is a heavily industrialized stretch of the Lower Willamette River north of downtown Portland. EPA listed the Harbor on the National Priorities List, known as Superfund, in December 2000. Sediments in the river are contaminated with various toxic compounds, including metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides and dioxin. EPA Region 10, Oregon DEQ, tribal governments, community groups, and companies are working to investigate and clean up contamination in Portland Harbor. On behalf of the Five Tribes, Expert conducts technical reviews of reports, plans, and other documents prepared by companies performing the remediation activities. Examples of documents include field
sampling plans for water quality, sediment, and pore water. Expert evaluates the quality of the scientific and technical information in the documents, and prepares technical review reports that summarize major findings and provide specific comments. All reviews are conducted on a quick turnaround basis. Expert is providing technical support to the Sierra Club for the review of thermal impacts to the Merrimack River due to the Merrimack Power Station, New Hampshire. The review is being conducted as part of the public comment period for the Merrimack Station draft NPDES permit. s. Expert reviews and interprets data and other information related to thermal discharges from the Merrimack Power Station, and the effects on ambient temperature in the Merrimack River, as part of an evaluation for compliance with Clean Water Act Section 316(a). Expert led a study for Massachusetts DEP to investigate the influence of natural DOC on aluminum toxicity in low hardness waters in Massachusetts. Aluminum concentrations in excess of the EPA recommended water quality criteria (750 µg/L acute; 87 µg/L chronic), along with high concentrations of DOC, have been measured in Massachusetts waters. Aluminum discharge limits in NPDES permits for water suppliers can be difficult to meet in Massachusetts due to natural instream elevated aluminum concentrations. In the low hardness waters typical of Massachusetts, DOC can be at high concentrations (e.g., greater than 5 mg/L) and may decrease aluminum toxicity. Expert designed a study to investigate the influence of natural DOC on aluminum toxicity for low hardness waters using an aluminum-sensitive test species. Results showed that water quality criteria for total aluminum based on hardness alone are overprotective, especially in low hardness waters, and that a joint hardness-DOC model would produce more reliable water quality criteria for aluminum. As a follow-up to the study, Expert designed a detailed water quality monitoring plan for a new study to collect water quality data at drinking water supply sites in Massachusetts in conjunction with effluent samples, for use in calculating site-specific aluminum criteria based on the site’s water chemistry (pH, DOC, and hardness).Through a cooperative project with the Providence Water, Expert oversaw USGS staff in operating a real-time hydrologic and water quality monitoring network for tributaries flowing into the drinking water supply reservoirs for the City of Providence, Rhode Island. Located in northwestern Rhode Island, the Scituate Reservoir system is the principal supply of drinking water for more than 60 percent of the population of Rhode Island. The system includes the Scituate Reservoir and five tributary reservoirs - Barden, Moswansicut, Ponaganset, Regulating, and Westconnaug Reservoirs with a maximum storage capacity of 37 billion gallons. The 93 square mile drainage basin for the resevoir system is primarily forestland (87%); however, the basin also includes residential and industrial areas, and is crossed by major highways. Runoff associated with the developed land use activities is a potential source of pollutants to the reservoirs. Various constituents associated with these land uses are a concern, including sodium and chloride from the application of deicing compounds on roads. The USGS long-term monitoring program is designed to monitor the drinking water supply for
potential contamination from various pollutants. The data are used to calculate constituent loads for use in guiding source water protection decisions.Through a cooperative project with the Cambridge Water Department, Expert oversaw USGS staff in operating a realtime hydrologic and water quality monitoring network for tributaries flowing into the drinking water supply reservoirs for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The drinking water supply system consists of the Hobbs Brook Reservoir and Stony Brook Reservoir, located in a heavily urbanized area. The USGS long-term monitoring program is designed to monitor the
drinking water supply for potential contamination from various pollutants. The data are used to calculate constituent loads for use in guiding source water protection decisions. Expert provided RIDEM with support through planning, management, and implementation of a year-round surface water quality monitoring network on the Blackstone, Branch, Pawtuxet, and Pawcatuck Rivers. The program involves yearround monthly collection and analysis of water samples for nutrients, trace metals, major ions, suspended sediment, and chlorophyll a; and field measurements of water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity. Expert performed a technical audit of the project upon taking over management, and implemented new protocols and processes to ensure data quality, bring efficiency to the program, and to eliminate errors and mistakes that had been made in the past. She also led a team of senior scientists in developing a standardized process for timely review, validation, and publishing of the data generated by the project, which is used by RIDEM to assess the health of their surface waters relative to state water quality standards, and for estimating nutrient pollutant loadings to Narragansett Bay. Expert also led a team of senior hydrologists in using 35 years of water quality and streamflow data to perform a
statistical analysis of trends in long-term water quality and streamflow for six monitoring stations in the Blackstone, Branch, Pawtuxet, and Pawcatuck Rivers, which flow into Narragansett Bay and Little Narragansett Bay