Meet the residents serving on CA's watershed committee

CA's Watershed Resident Advisory Subcommittee began meeting in March to participate in the creation and implementation of the Columbia Watershed Management Plan and to enhance public awareness and facilitate education on watershed issues.

The WAC, as it's called, was established by CA's External Relations Committee for the Board of Directors, who has identified watershed management as one of its key strategic initiatives. The committee is comprised of 11 members, one from each village and one chosen by CA. Learn more about each member by clicking on his or her name.

Robert Schweinfurth, Owen Brown
Robert Schweinfurth's 27-year professional career has focused on water quality and quantity, watershed management and environmental issues. He has a broad background working for government agencies, industry, consulting firms and an international environmental association. He has served on many technical committees addressing surface water and groundwater, laboratory and sustainable practices, water and wastewater treatment and climate change implications. His sustainable approach to watershed management involves considering environmental concerns, as well as social and economic issues. Rob works for the Water Environment Federation and serves on federal advisory groups on water quality and groundwater availability. He has spearheaded stakeholder efforts to address emerging contaminants in the water environment and is a leader in efforts to develop sustainable practices for watersheds and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. He earned a Bachelor of Science in geology and a Master of Science in energy and ecological system science from the University of Louisville.

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Mark Charles, Hickory Ridge
Mark Charles is the chief of Environmental Management for the City of Rockville, where he oversees the production of drinking water, compliance with state and federal environmental laws, enforcement of the city's pollution ordinances, spill responses and the city's efforts to be a sustainable and environmentally friendly community. Prior to that, he was a national manager in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Washington, D.C., Office of Enforcement; a senior manager in the environmental agencies of Arizona and Oregon; and a ranger with the National Park Service. He has 30 years of professional environmental and national resource management experience. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Northland Colleges and Juris Doctorate from Washington College of Law at American University.

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Debbie Cappuccitti, Wilde Lake
Debbie Cappuccitti is a natural resource planner for the Maryland Department of the Environment and has worked in the Stormwater Management Program since 1993. Her responsibilities involve developing regulations to address the mandates under the 2007 Stormwater Management Act. These efforts include researching environmental site design techniques and developing guidelines for their successful application in Maryland. Additional responsibilities include oversight of local programs under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit. Her experiences at MDE also include plan review for water quality certification and stormwater management. Cappuccitti earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental studies from the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry College at Syracuse and a Master of Science in water resource management. Other professional certifications include River Morphology and Applications, Applied Fluvial Geomorphology, Intermediate Soils and Wetland Delineation.

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Jeffrey Campbell, Long Reach
Jeffrey Campbell is a research scientist with the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research focuses on employing state-of-the-art information technology in ecological applications and research. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, where he has worked on numerous research and monitoring projects. In addition, he has volunteered with many organizations, working on stream and wetland monitoring, restoration and clean up projects. Recently, he developed a web site for local amphibian monitoring. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in geology and general science from the University of Rochester, a Master of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in information science from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Jane Dembner, Harper's Choice
Jane Dembner is an urban planner and an associate vice president with HNTB, a national planning, architecture and engineering firm. Her experience spans both the public and private sectors, and her focus has been on improving the built and natural environment. She has led integrated land use and transportation projects at the city, county and regional levels. She is also skilled at moving numerous stakeholders toward consensus and in designing and executing civic engagement programs. She previously worked in health promotion and environmental and occupational health. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Oberlin College and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Dembner is a member of the American Planning Association and a Certified Planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners. Over the past 10 years, her work has earned nine state and national awards.

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Brian England, Hickory Ridge
Brian England is owner of British American Auto Care, which has been voted No. 1 auto shop in Howard County for more than 25 years. He immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom with his wife in 1972. He is an ASE-certified technician and is involved in career education with Howard County Public Schools and the Community College of Baltimore County. He is a member of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. He serves of the board of trustees for the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area and the board of the Howard County Citizens Association, is a founding member of the Coalition for Columbia's Downtown and is an active member of the watershed community ground HoCoH2O.

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Atal Eralp, Town Center
Atal Eralp is an environmental engineer who retired from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. His main areas of expertise are in the collection and treatment of municipal wastewater and water quality issues caused by wet weather. He worked in the EPA programs of wastewater treatment research, Combined Sewer Overflow regulation development and NPDES enforcement. He earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Istanbul Technical University; and a Master of Science in environmental engineering, a Master of Science in chemistry and a Ph.D. in water resources from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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Ray Gard, Kings Contrivance
Ray Gard began his career on civilian research ships as a hydrographic surveyor, where he was tasked with making nautical charters of river estuaries and ocean floors in all corners of the globe. He later became a project manager with an engineering and surverying firm before moving to his current role in rights-of-way and easement review for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in Laurel. Gard earned a bachelor's degree in surveying and a Diploma of Engineering and Mine Surveying from two institutions in his native Australia.

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Sylvia Heustis, Oakland Mills
Sylvia Heustis earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in biology from St. Joseph College and a Master of Arts in education from the Catholic University of America. She has an advanced certification to teach biology and earth sciences in Maryland. She is a retired Howard County science teacher and is an active member of Master Gardeners of Howard County. She is particularly interested in issues regarding the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

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Tom Mateya, River Hill
Check back soon for
Tom Mateya's biography.

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Monica Schmitt, Dorsey's Search
Schmitt earned a Bachelor of Science in geography and a minor in geology from the Ohio State University. She earned a Master of Science in meteorology from the University of Maryland. After graduate school, she spent a summer in Yellowstone National Park as a Student Conservation Association volunteer inventorying thermal features (hot springs, geysers) in the backcountry. She then returned to Maryland to work in the Hydrologic Services Division at NOAA's National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring. After six years experience working for the federal government, she resigned in September 2007 to raise her son.

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