In the Wild: Alex Berk with the Contra Costa County Public Works

I am a second year EPM student with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, where I focused on remote sensing and stormwater. I worked for a year at a private consulting firm, and then spent last academic year as the greenhouse gas inventory analyst for UC Davis office of Sustainability. I am interested in nature-based solutions and hope to work in stormwater as an engineer or scientist. 

This past summer, I worked at Contra Costa County Public Works as a student intern in the Watershed Program. My practicum focused on preparing resources, tools, and recommendations to improve the grant application process and help secure funding for future stormwater infrastructure projects. The Watershed Program works as part of the Flood Control District to make sure water entering a storm drain in unincorporated Contra Costa County meets US EPA and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board standards. This means educating the public, coordinating with developers to meet stormwater treatment requirements, coordinating manual cleanups, installing trash capture technology, and performing inspections to check on best management practices and investigate illicit discharges. 

The Watershed Program faces increasing pressure from the county to use fewer taxpayer dollars and stricter requirements from the Water Boards to meet water quality standards. To meet these demands, the Watershed Program has begun to investigate grant funding. I contributed to their efforts by developing an access database of grant opportunities, an excel tool to determine whether to pursue a grant opportunity, and an excel database of recent water quality-related grants for the entire Flood Control District. I also provided a report of considerations from experienced colleagues for selecting and writing grants. I hope these tools and resources will help streamline the Watershed Program’s grant application process. 

As an engineer, I learned that the main constraints for a design are time, safety, and cost. I found working in funding especially rewarding because I could provide the County and the local communities with more freedom to make meaningful change by meeting that cost constraint. Furthermore, it was insightful to see how policy and regulation actually gets implemented. I think it’s important to understand the perspective of the agency tasked with the work of meeting requirements outlined by the state and federal governments. If I’m ever making policy recommendations as a regulator, I feel more confident that I can meet a local agency’s needs.