Chris Romeyn Engineers Solutions To Sustain The Environment

May, 2021

The practice of Water and Natural Resources combines science and engineering to find a balance between the built and natural environment. For Otak, a company that strives to build sustainable communities in all its work, WNR is a critical discipline. While its WNR team is a mix of engineers and scientists, it’s not often both those skill sets are rolled into one employee, but that’s what Otak found in the hiring of Chris Romeyn as Senior Water Resources Engineer.

Tracy Emmanuel, Colorado Water Resources Director commented, “Chris brings wide-ranging experience and technical expertise that will help guide our design process, as well as provide crucial mentorship for our team.”

Chris had been flirting with Otak for a few years after a former colleague went to work for the company and tried to entice him to come aboard. He was interested in working for a smaller firm than the one he was with and liked what he saw at Otak, but it took a twist of fate with the arrival of the pandemic and forced work from home to solidify his hire. Chris had learned he preferred working at home or at least close to home in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Otak is interested in expanding its services to that area of the state. With Chris’s background meeting Otak’s needs, the match finally clicked and Chris was hired in January.

A love for environmental issues and solutions goes back to Chris’s teenage years when he became obsessed with Edward Abbey’s books that touted environmental advocacy and showcased his time as a park ranger at Arches National Park. Chris ended up at the University of Vermont studying Natural Resource Management. Even with a degree in hand, Chris turned to his love of outdoor adventure and took a job in New Mexico working for the ski patrol. 

Eventually, realizing he needed more of a career, he took the advice of a friend’s father and went back to school for his engineering degree, ending in a dual BA/MA program. Chris said the decision provided him with a broad set of skills combining technical competencies with a scientific understanding of waterways. “My goal has always been to do restoration work, but adding engineering broadened my skill set and set me up to land in consulting,” he said.

Chris is already putting his myriad of skills to work on complex projects at Otak. One is a fish passage that Otak was contracted to design through a grant from a non-profit. Chris explains there are two large river diversion structures that lie within a quarter-mile of each other and span about 100-feet across the river. The structures are at least 50 years old and can only dam the river up about three feet. For the fish that live there, and spawn in the Colorado plains, the existing fish passage is impossible to clear because they don’t jump. Chris says ramps that are several hundred feet long will have to be designed and built to give the fish a fighting chance of survival. 

Other aspects of the project are to design for efficient sediment transport and meeting the needs of irrigation ditch owners. The overall project involves ditch companies, the USFWS, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, a water conservancy district, a fisheries biology professor from the University of Colorado, as well as the Otak team. The project is being funded through DOLA using federal funds and is sponsored by a non-profit watershed coalition. 

Part of being a leader is having the ability to share your expertise with co-workers, and for Chris, that especially means his work with junior engineers. He has two points he feels are the most important to share. First is that critical thinking is the most crucial thing for a junior engineer to learn. There is no one solution to a problem, but there is a best solution, and an engineer must be able to look at all the facts and form a judgment for what will work. Chris said to get there the second idea he coaches is that people need to be comfortable to ask questions. “Learning from your mistakes works, but sometimes it’s good to feel comfortable going to someone who knows,” he said. He also commented that he faces his own challenges with his role as a mentor in letting go of the reins and accepting that someone else may do something differently than he would but that doesn’t make it incorrect.

Going forward, Chris is excited by the opportunities he sees to help grow the Colorado office and take on challenging projects that allow him to share his expertise at keeping waters flowing and fish swimming.