Ask the Experts
The Bulletin features interviews with experts in the watershed and stormwater professions to discuss the topic of each issue. In this issue, five practitioners and researchers provide insight into how their communities are using green infrastructure to address combined sewer overflows.
ASK THE EXPERTS
Pete Mulvaney
Advisor, Greenleaf Advisors LLC
Pete Mulvaney started his career at the Museum of Southwest Biology, where he was exposed to the environmental and economic impacts associated with hydrologic diversions through various studies along the Rio Grande and other southwestern river systems. Pete then spent four years with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), developing experiments and publishing findings about the triggers that stimulate a tumor cell to become invasive. Pete left NIH with the feeling that preventing environmental insults was the path toward a healthy future. This principle led Pete to environmental engineering. As the Kappe Lab Scholar at Pennsylvania State University, he studied the engineering of water treatment technologies and parlayed this into consulting for HARZA Engineering (now MWH). As a team leader, Pete either led or participated in the engineering of environmental solutions to major infrastructure investments, including hydropower reservoirs in South America, major floodplain restorations along the Danube River, and the restoration of wetlands in Illinois. In 2005, Pete accepted a position as director of sustainability for the Chicago Department of Water Management, where he integrated solutions to complex issues such as stormwater policy, water conservation, and sewer operations. Since 2011, as an advisor with Greenleaf Advisors, Pete has been able to leverage his broad experience to solve complex problems with financial, environmental, and engineering acumen. Pete holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; an MS in environmental pollution control from Pennsylvania State University; and a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado.
ASK THE EXPERTS
John W. Schombert
Executive Director, 3 Rivers Wet Weather, Inc.
As executive director of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, Inc. (3RWW), John Schombert played an instrumental role in the founding of this nonprofit organization in 1998. Prior to 3RWW, John worked for nearly three decades in the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Health Department’s water pollution, public drinking water, and waste management programs. Most recently, he served as chief of public drinking water and waste management. In October 2002, John was appointed to the Pennsylvania State Board for the Certification of Sewage Treatment Plant and Waterworks Operators, and in 2011, he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Water Resource Advisory Board. John also serves on several boards, including those of the Local Government Academy and the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association. A registered environmental health specialist and a graduate of Thiel College with a BS in physics, John is an expert on wet weather issues.
ASK THE EXPERTS
Franco Montalto, PhD, PE
Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department, Drexel University
Franco Montalto is a licensed civil/environmental engineer and hydrologist with 20 years of experience working in urban and urbanizing ecosystems as a practitioner, designer, and researcher. This experience includes planning, design, implementation, and analysis of natural area restoration and green infrastructure (GI) projects, featuring natural treatment systems for wastewater and stormwater management as well as water harvesting and reuse systems. In addition to serving as the president and principal engineer of eDesign Dynamics LLC (EDD), Franco directs the Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory at Drexel University, where he was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering in 2007. He is a member of the advisory board of the New York City (NYC) Natural Areas Conservancy, among other organizations, and serves as co-chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Technical Committee on Low-Impact Development Computational Methods. Prior to founding EDD and joining academia, Franco served as the wetlands engineer at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, where he was responsible for large urban wetland restoration projects, such as the engineering design of the 139-acre Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus, New Jersey. Franco has also worked in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. In addition, he was formerly a fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, a Fulbright Scholar, and an adjunct professor at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
ASK THE EXPERTS
Brandon C. Vatter, PE
Senior Project Manager, Hatch Mott MacDonald
Brandon Vatter is a senior project manager and watershed/wet weather technology expert for Hatch Mott MacDonald in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office. A registered professional engineer with more than 16 years of experience, Brandon has been involved in all aspects of collection system and wet weather modeling, planning, and design. He has directed the planning and design of multiple green and gray infrastructure projects within the combined and separate sewer systems to reduce overflow volume and stormwater runoff by addressing stormwater at its source. Brandon’s work focuses on affordable water quality—integrated watershed management to obtain the optimum public investment to improve water quality. Brandon is currently helping several utilities implement integrated watershed planning based on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA’s) Integrated Planning Framework. Brandon’s work also includes regulatory risk advisement to more cost-effectively and efficiently implement pollution abatement programs to minimize impacts to sewer rates and improve efficiency and lower costs within a utility. Previously, Brandon was the director of planning and design for Sanitation District No. 1 (SD1) of Northern Kentucky. He was one of the main architects of SD1’s innovative watershed plans, which combine gray, green, and watershed-based controls to comply with the Clean Water Act and balance affordability with measurable water quality improvement. This watershed-based approach was designed to save the ratepayers of SD1 nearly $2 billion compared to a traditional combined sewer overflow (CSO) and sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) approach. Brandon has a BS in civil engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
ASK THE EXPERTS
Aaron Koch
Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability, City of Chicago Department of Water Management
Aaron Koch is the deputy commissioner for sustainability in the City of Chicago’s Department of Water Management. In this role, he is responsible for implementing the water sustainability initiatives outlined in Sustainable Chicago 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s roadmap for environmental stewardship and economic development. Aaron previously served as a senior policy advisor in the New York City (NYC) Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, where he was an author of the water chapters of PlaNYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability plan, as well as the New York City Wetlands Strategy and the Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan. Aaron holds a master’s in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in architecture from the University of Minnesota.
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