Sally Abella is a senior limnologist and engineer with more than 35 years of experience who leads the freshwater assessment group in the Science Section of the King County Water and Land Resources Division. She is involved in a wide range of projects related to water quality improvement and monitoring on lakes and streams around the county, both as a subject matter expert and as a program and project manager.

Rachael Gravon joined the Science and Technical Support Section in 2014 as a water quality planner and limnologist. She recently relocated to Seattle from Bellingham, where she received her MS in Environmental Science from Western Washington University. Rachael participates in numerous projects involving lake water quality and watershed management.

Olivia Wright is a hydrologist who has been with the King County Science and Technical Support Section for the last year. She specializes in urban hydrologic modeling and stormwater best management practices. She is a transplant from Atlanta, GA who received her Master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Washington.

Jim Simmonds is the Water Quality Unit Supervisor of King County’s Science and Technical Support Section. He has over 25 years’ experience monitoring and modeling environmental conditions, managing environmental investigations, managing environmental data, and assessing potential impacts of stormwater, wastewater, and environmental contamination. He has been with King County for 17 years.

Debra Williston is an environmental scientist within the King County Science and Technical Support Section with 25 years of experience in conducting water and sediment quality assessments and ecological risk assessments with a focus on contaminated sediment sites over the last 12 years. She is a member of the technical team conducting remedial investigations and feasibility studies for both the Lower Duwamish Waterway and East Waterway Superfund sites. She also provides technical and project management support for various source control investigations that support the Superfund sites.

Carly Greyell (Western Washington University, B.S.) is a recent addition to the King County Science and Technical Support Section and is part of the Toxicology and Contaminant Assessment group. She has been supporting many of the Lower Duwamish source control projects and will be involved in ongoing toxics monitoring and new projects assessing the effectiveness of stormwater treatment.

Jeff Burkey is a Hydrologist in the Science and Technical Support section. During his 20 years at King County, he has developed hydraulic and hydrologic models; model designs; and, manages water quality sampling and analysis plans. Jeff served as the primary architect for designing King County’s Brightwater treatment plant’s stormwater and base flow sampling and analysis plan for its NPDES construction permit. Most recently, he co-authored with the Washington State Department of Ecology staff, the Temperature TMDL and Implementation Plan for Newaukum Creek. He also co-designed the water quality sampling and analysis plan for supporting development of King County’s water quantity/quality models for the Green River and greater Lake Washington watersheds.

Richard Jack is a water quality scientist within the King County Science and Technical Support Section with over 17 years of experience investigating water, sediment and tissue quality problems. He currently serves internal clients addressing contaminated habitat restoration projects, as section expert to the Wastewater Treatment Division on emerging contaminants, and supports source control investigations in the Lower Duwamish Superfund site.

Jenée Colton is a water quality scientist in the King County Science and Technical Support Section with 20 years of experience in aquatic ecology, environmental toxicology and risk assessment. She is particularly experienced with PCB contamination. She provides technical and project management services for King County on toxics monitoring, source control investigations, and toxics bioaccumulation.

For more information about the SciFYI Newsletter, please contact Larry Jones, Senior Water Quality Planner, WLRD Science, Monitoring and Data Management.