Integrating Water Quality and Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning
The management challenges and impacts of natural hazards extend beyond just one agency and beyond the boundaries of different programs. Water program integration and green infrastructure solutions in urban-to-agricultural settings can aid in resilience to flooding, drought, water contamination, erosion, urban heat island, and airborne dust particulates. In this webcast, Tetra Tech staff Dacia Mosso, Rob Flaner, Barry Tonning, and environmental engineer Lisa Hair with the U.S. EPA Office of Water in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds discussed how to align program goals and activities to create a cooperative, coordinated water protection and hazard mitigation approach. State Hazard Mitigation Plans that have natural resource protection as a goal were highlighted, as their approaches help mitigate both the impacts of sudden natural disasters as well as the risks to health and water resources.
Details
December 17, 2019
1:00 - 2:30 pm EDT
Speakers
Lisa Hair is an Environmental Engineer with the U.S. EPA Office of Water headquarters, in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds in Washington, DC. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia and Tennessee. She has a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Tennessee, and an MS in Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech. Ms. Hair has authored several papers on industrial wastewater treatment and stormwater management. Her work now focuses on promoting green stormwater infrastructure in development and as nature-based hazard mitigation for co-benefits at the site and watershed scales. She has over 30 years of experience combined, in consulting, and with state, local, and federal government agencies.
Dacia Mosso is an environmental scientist at Tetra Tech with 20 years of experience in water quality, nonpoint source pollution control, environmental regulatory implementation, environmental outreach, and nutrient pollution. Ms. Mosso has provided technical and project management support on many projects supporting EPA’s water quality standards and nonpoint source control programs. In addition to the support she is providing EPA on integrating water quality with hazard mitigation planning, she has also supported various outreach projects and technical support projects involving reduced nutrient and stormwater runoff.
Rob Flaner is a Hazard Mitigation Program Manager at Tetra Tech who has spent over 30 years developing a comprehensive background in floodplain management while administering the Community Rating System (or CRS) under contract with FEMA. He has been responsible for coordinating all CRS objectives between state, local, and federal entities in a 9-state territory spanning three FEMA regions. He has taken his diverse experience in floodplain management and expanded it into planning and preparing for the impacts of natural hazards through coordinated planning efforts pursuant to the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Utilizing planning tools such as the CRS 10-step planning template, he has supported local governments across the country in all phases of emergency management.
Barry Tonning is a water resource planner at Tetra Tech with 26 years of experience, specializing in nonpoint source pollution control; industrial, construction site, and municipal stormwater management; regulatory compliance; and risk assessment, communication, and management. He has also supported projects addressing water quality standards, technology transfer, decentralized wastewater management, and source water assessment and protection.