Wayne E. Eckas, P.E. - Senior Project Manager

Wayne has over 27 years of experience in the design and evaluation of pump stations and pipelines; non-potable water systems; and water control structures including check, diversion and conveyance structures, and storage ponds. Wayne also has extensive experience in irrigation system design, evaluation, planning, and management for commercial, municipal, and agricultural clients including expert analysis and review. He has completed projects from the conceptual and feasibility stage through construction documentation and construction observation.

Wayne obtained his B.S. from Colorado State University in 1982 and joined the LRE Civil Engineering team in 2008. He is a Natural Resources Conservation Service registered technical service provider. Wayne is a currently a member and was the 2010 Chairman of the Irrigation Association Certification Board. Wayne has also served on the Irrigation Association Legislative Committee and has participated in lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. for continued support of the NRCS, EQIP, and AWEP programs.

Katherine T. Fendel, P.E. - Environmental Program Manager

Katie is a Senior Project Manager with over 30 years of experience and expertise in water and waste water permitting, regulatory compliance, and water quality issues. She assists public and private sector clients with permitting and compliance related to the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, as well as National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act.  She works in watershed planning, especially with nutrient water quality issues.

Katie has two B.S. degrees in Sanitary Engineering and Engineering Administration from Michigan Technological University and an M.S. in Civil Engineering-Hydrology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Robert M. Weaver - Senior Project Manager

Bob is an environmental consultant for LRE with over 30 years of experience in the fields of water resources planning and development, water quality, environmental permitting, regulatory compliance, and public policy issues related to water resources and the management of natural resources throughout the Rocky Mountain Region. Mr. Weaver’s work has included extensive involvement with environmental permitting processes and liaison between permit applicants and regulatory agencies. He is familiar with regulatory requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Land Management and Policy Act, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and many State and local regulatory programs related to land use and water development.

His most recent experience includes extensive NEPA compliance work for the USDA Forest Service in conjunction with various National Forest System land management decisions regarding remediation of erosion impacts from roads, mining operations, and the development and operation of ski areas. He has also managed and conducted several studies related to water supply facilities and the implementation of watershed planning programs in the Eagle River, Fraser River, and Blue River basins. These efforts involved the analysis of water supply systems operations, proposed increases in transmountain water diversions, and associated instream flow and water quality issues.

During the last 10 years, Bob has gained considerable experience in water quality regulatory issues, including the proposed adoption of nutrient criteria for the State of Colorado and development of management strategies for meeting water quality standards. In addition, he has been working with County Land Use Regulations in Eagle, Jefferson, and Boulder Counties in Colorado. This work has included the preparation and review of several 1041 Permit applications under county regulations for Areas and Activities of State Interest, the preparation of Environmental Impact Reports under the regulations for Special Uses, and the preparation of applications under city and county Floodplain Regulations.

Matthew J. Brown, P.E. - Project Manager

Matt joined the Basin Planning Group at LRE in 2011, reinforcing our services in water resource planning, water rights analyses, and surface water modeling. Matt has gained over a decade of institutional knowledge of Colorado and California water resources and water rights issues after establishing a broad foundation of early-career experience with environmental compliance, hydrogeologic exploration, and civil engineering design. Having worked for over 60 clients in 28 states during his 16 years in engineering consulting, Matt honed his passion to specialize in western water resource solutions.

Matt greatly enjoys his current role managing the Colorado River Water Availability Study and the Colorado River Compact Compliance Study for the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Matt holds an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Davis and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. He is actively involved in ACEC, AWRA, and is a 2012 alumnus of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, Water Leaders Program.

Matt enjoys participating in the numerous social events with our close-knit water community as well as partaking in Colorado’s exceptional outdoor activities including hunting, camping, golfing, and kayaking.

Caroline E. Byus – Project Manager

Caroline joined LRE in 2010 with a background that complements the services offered by our Environmental Group in the areas of regulatory permitting and compliance, water quality studies and investigations, energy use and conservation, and development of resource management strategies. Caroline has over 15 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry where she has managed operations of water quality and laboratory divisions. She has expertise in regulatory compliance and permitting projects, laboratory certification for drinking water analysis, and water quality studies and investigations associated with aquatic health, nutrients, and temperature. She works with the LRE Environmental Group on environmental compliance projects, drought and conservation plans, demand-management strategies, and water supply planning investigations.

Caroline received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Connecticut and is working toward completion of her Master’s degree in GIS from the University of Colorado.

K. Kelly Close, P.E. - Project Manager & Data Integration Specialist

Kelly joined the field of water resources engineering in 1992.  Since then she has worked on a wide variety of projects in Colorado and other western states related to water resources engineering, planning, modeling, and analysis. Her project experience includes surface and ground water modeling, consumptive and historical use analysis, environmental permitting, water supply master planning, and water rights litigation. Through these diverse experiences, she has found her greatest strengths to lie in the development and use of computer technologies to meet challenges unique to this field. She has developed expertise in commercial and open source relational databases, custom tools development, GIS, and web-based user interfaces.

Today, while continuing to collaborate on surface water modeling and planning issues, she combines her technology expertise and her diverse background to provide relevant data management and data integration solutions to her clients. Kelly has a degree in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado with a focus on environmental planning. She is a member of the Colorado Water Quality Monitoring Council’s Technical Advisory Committee (CWQMC), participates in the Environmental and Technology Divisions of the American Planning Association (APA), and is a member of AWRA/CO and the Front Range Users of Geospatial Open Source GIS (FRUGOS).

David C. Colvin, P.G. - Project Manager

Dave has been a hydrogeologist in water resource and environmental consulting since 1998. He joined LRE in 2010 and is routinely involved with aquifer characterization and testing, geologic and environmental systems modeling (including MODFLOW ground water modeling), evaluation of subsidence due to fluid withdrawal, oversight of drilling and well installations, sampling, water rights analysis, evaluation of stream depletions, development of geographical information systems, permitting, and regulatory agency interaction.

Dave holds a B.S. in Geology from Syracuse University (1996) and an M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines (2002).

Dave aims to help communities manage drought and water quality issues by developing ground water as a high quality, sustainable water supply that provides the added benefits of storage and purification.

Heather L. Justus, P.G. - Project Manager

Heather began career in ground water resources in 1996. Her expertise includes ground water resource investigations, ground water aquifer supply evaluations, ground water modeling, aquifer storage and recovery, well testing, pump system design, GIS applications as they relate to ground water investigations, and water rights. Project management experience ranges from technical investigations to multi-disciplinary studies in Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming. Heather has served on the Colorado Ground Water Association as Vice President, President, Past President, and on various committees since 2006. 

Heather has a B.S. in Geology from Adams State College and has completed engineering classes at Colorado State University. Besides work, Heather enjoys spending time with her family, volunteering to head the Science Fair for her children’s school, outdoor activities, organizing a local book club, and quilting. 

Kevin M. O'Connell, P.E. - Project Manager

Having degrees in both Civil Engineering (Purdue University) and Law (University of Denver), Kevin brings a wide range of experience to the Company. He began his career in 1982 designing water, storm, sanitary systems, and streets on private and public projects primarily in mountain towns such as Aspen, Black Hawk, and Breckenridge. Kevin became well versed with planning, zoning, and project approval processes while working on subdivision projects in the late 80s and early 90s. He ultimately became responsible for administering construction contracts and managing the design teams for large scale projects such as the City of Black Hawk Hidden Valley Water Project. A brief stint as an attorney from 1992 to 1994 has given Kevin a great appreciation and understanding of contracts, specifications, and risk management. He has served as the District Engineer for the Aspen Consolidated Sanitation District since 2004.

Kevin is an avid fly fisherman as well as a highly respected fine artist having works exhibited and in the permanent collections of museums worldwide.

Matthew J. Seitz, P.G. - Project Manager

Matt is a Hydrogeologist and came to LRE in 2008. He began his career in water consulting in 1998 and has completed numerous ground and surface water projects throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. His areas of interest include aquifer testing, well design and construction observation, relational database design, applying Geographic Information System (GIS) to process and analyze ground water model input and output, ground water monitoring, and water rights engineering.

Matt holds a B.A. in Geology from Colorado College (1997) and a Master of Engineering degree in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Colorado at Denver (2007). Matt is Past-President of the Colorado Ground Water Association and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists.

Kara N. Sobieski, P.E. – Project Manager

Kara has been a practicing water resources engineer since 2003. Her expertise includes basin-wide water resource planning, water rights analysis, consumptive use modeling, and surface water modeling. Kara has been actively involved in the development of consumptive use and surface water models in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Specifically for the Colorado Decision Support System, she has been involved with model development or refinement in every Colorado basin.

Kara obtained her degree in Environmental Engineering from Northern Arizona University in 2001. Her professional activities have included positions with Society of Women Engineers and Colorado’s chapter of the American Water Resources Association. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and twin girls.

David L. Takeda, P.E. - Infrastructure Manager

Dave came to LRE in 2009 and is a Project Manager specializing in the planning, design, and construction management of water, wastewater, and reclaimed water infrastructure. He started his career in 1995 and during that time has designed and managed various projects, including pipelines, pump stations, well facilities, water and wastewater treatment, and storage tanks. Dave spent much of his career preparing utility master plans, water models, sewer models, rate and fee studies, feasibility studies, water supply plans, grant applications, asset management plans, regulatory compliance plans and permits. Dave has been the Town/City Engineer, District Engineer, or Public Works and Utilities Director for many clients.

Dave’s passion is to educate the public on the value of water and help them understand the complexity and cost of providing water. His focus is to implement projects that extend the life and efficient use of this vital resource. Dave obtained his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado in 1995.