Peer Praise: Staff Shoutouts and Celebrations

We all work with a team. Our project and client and career successes rely on each other. Here are some stories where we put a spotlight on our peers that help us shine, as told by their colleagues. There are so many great tales like this and we’ll keep telling them in this ongoing series.

Daniel Babcock, Project Geologist

Shoutout by Jasmin Toro, Project Engineer

How does your colleague help you?

Daniel is one of the most positive young professionals at Aspect I’ve been around. He supports a variety of environmental cleanup projects and is now exploring new territories as the Environmental Health and Safety representative. This is a key role that keeps our staff safe and our projects on point. He is also learning the ins and outs of project management while remaining closely engaged with the environmental field staff group. Without him, it’s unlikely we would have as strong a commitment in the field staff team in our environmental group.

What do you appreciate the most about your coworker?

Daniel is an available shoulder to lean on. Even when he’s well beyond a full work week, he’s available to help. Daniel is always a pleasure to communicate with; is proud of his work; and happy to share his skills with others. He does exactly what Doug Hillman – a recently retired Aspect owner – encourages us all to do: “Empower Others.”

Any other ways they stand out to you?

Across many projects this year – whether sampling a well or being patient with a hurried call from field staff or a client – Daniel leans into the unknown and embraces it. He’s fearless and wears many hats and wears them very well.

Carla Hanafee, Contract Specialist

Shoutout by Owen Reese, Principal Water Resources Engineer

How did your colleague help you?

Carla is a true specialist in one of my least favorite parts of project management – evaluating and negotiating contract terms. We’re all excited to get going on a project, but first there’s the hurdle of insurance, and limitations on liability, and other contract terms.

All critically important, but not particularly fun (at least for me). Carla’s always there to help me through this phase thoughtfully and quickly.

What do you appreciate the most about your coworker?

I really appreciate the care and ownership Carla brings to the contracting process – she proactively works to propose solutions to sticky contract terms and follows up with clients to see those changes through.

How else do they stand out?

We consistently get workable contract language that’s fair to the client while protecting Aspect from undue risk – all because of Carla’s help in sorting through the details.

Jill Van Hulle, Sr. Associate Water Rights Specialist

Shoutout by Kelsey Mach, Project Geologist

Jill (on the left) and Kelsey (on the right) at MLK volunteer event in January 2022.

How did your colleague help you?

Jill is my sounding board and often second brain when it comes to water rights projects. It’s a regular occurrence that I say “Jill, I got a puzzler for you” and she always seems to have thoughtful and helpful insight to provide.

What do you appreciate the most about your coworker?

Jill is good at having my back. I appreciate the feedback but also the overall support and unwavering confidence in me and my abilities.

How else do they stand out?

Ultimately, she helps to not only make my work environment better, but also to make the quality of work we produce at Aspect better.

The Nooksack Adjudication: A Pivotal Washington State Water Story

In Fall 2020, after decades of unresolved conflict, Washington State made a decision to initiate a “general adjudication” on a key Northwest Washington watershed – the Nooksack basin in Whatcom and Skagit Counties. This means that thousands of water right users will be formally evaluated. What does this mean? In a word certainty. Certainty for the State of Washington, Tribal governments, and the water users themselves. Why is this happening now? It’s the most common water story in the West – there’s just not enough water to go around.

The Nooksack watershed is one of two areas (WRIA 58, including Lake Roosevelt, was the other one) recommended for adjudication.

The Nooksack watershed is one of two areas (WRIA 58, including Lake Roosevelt, was the other one) recommended for adjudication.

Adjudication – What is it?

An adjudication is a binding court Decree by the state whose end result is a comprehensive inventory of valid water rights. Put in simple terms it means that an Adjudication Court, with support from the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), will methodically review all water uses in the watershed and confirm each water right has ‘valid’ water uses.

Why Now: What’s happening in Northwest Washington?

More rural development. Unquantified Tribal water rights. More water needs for agriculture in a growing part of the Pacific Northwest. Keeping water in the stream for fish. These competing demands often emerge as ‘whose water is this?’ battles in water rights. In Skagit and Whatcom counties, the adjudication is looking to bring certainty; however, there’s a lot of differing opinions on how to get there.

The Second Biggest Adjudication in Washington State History

Washington State is a ‘first in time first in right’ state for water law. Another way of saying it is if you were there first in using water, you are at the head of the line. That line can extend over a century in Washington state, and over generations if the water right passes on via property transfers. The Nooksack adjudication is potentially very big in scale.

The biggest one was in Yakima, and that took over 40 years to resolve including six Supreme Court cases. The schedule for the Nooksack will hopefully be more compressed, and Ecology plans to try out several time-saving shortcuts to make the process more streamlined.

Here to help as the State’s Preeminent Water Rights Firm

Aspect has consulted on literally thousands of water rights in Washington state in the last 10 years. We have also been involved in Nooksack water resources for more than a decade, including helping to lead the most recent watershed planning in 2021. We are looking forward to working with Nooksack water users.

Learn more here: www.nooksackadjudication.com

Building the Biggest Water Bank in Washington State

In Spring 2021, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) started the public review process for the TransAlta water bank—at 28,000 acre-feet per year, the biggest water bank in the state to date. This is the first significant water bank for Southwestern Washington and came together through years of planning, working with Chehalis basin stakeholders, and extending the water rights life of a Chehalis River hydropower project. The trigger for this new water bank is TransAlta retiring its decades-old hydropower plant on the Skookumchuck River, thus freeing up tens of thousands acre-feet of water rights for the basin.

Water banks Add Life to Thirsty Watersheds

In water-scarce basins — even on the western/‘rainy’ side of Washington State -- water banks provide an innovative mechanism to reuse water rights; once water is no longer needed for its original purpose it can be made available to meet new needs.  Water banking involves a partnership between the holders of valid water right holders and Ecology.  While the water right holder controls how new uses are permitted, the State of Washington is responsible for determining the amount of water that will be preserved, and then protecting that water from other users. 

Tranalta water bank image.png

The TransAlta water banking process has proceeded through an Aspect-led permitting path that involves an exhaustive vetting of the historical water use, and the development of a new process to guide the reallocation of future uses.  Water rights that were issued for other purposes – such as industrial supply – are converted to instream flows purposes, and generally become available to mitigate new uses.

The TransAlta water bank solution is a textbook example of how pre-planning saved a significant block of valid water rights from relinquishment for non-use.  Water that had been allocated for a highly consumptive out-of-stream use will now be held in trust for instream flows, with select new uses being reallocated for new purposes under Ecology’s permitting process. The end result will be a combination of water that will remain instream, and new water right permits for new uses.

Tapping the Skookumchuck River to Boost Chehalis Basin’s Water Future

Stretches of the Skookumchuck River, like this one taken near the City of Centralia, will soon receive more water.

Stretches of the Skookumchuck River, like this one taken near the City of Centralia, will soon receive more water.

The TransAlta water bank is situated near Centralia, Washington, along the Skookumchuck River—a major tributary of the Chehalis River. For decades, TransAlta has used the waters of the Skookumchuck to produce coal-based electrical power; however, as the company began to make plans for a life after coal, it also had the foresight to make plans for its water rights, which represents more than 50 cubic-feet per second (that is 22,500 gallons per minute) and 28,000 acre-feet per year of out-of-stream uses.

TransAlta’s retired Unit 1 of its Centralia, Washington coal-fired power plant in 2020. Unit 2 is planned to close by the end of 2025

TransAlta’s retired Unit 1 of its Centralia, Washington coal-fired power plant in 2020. Unit 2 is planned to close by the end of 2025

According to TransAlta’s Water Bank Overview FAQ, this is “enough water to fill 14,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools or irrigate 14,000 acres of farmland.”

Seeding 28,000 Acre-Feet of Water for Fish and Agriculture in the Chehalis Basin

While the budding water bank is still in the early planning stages, several new water uses have already been identified. One deal involves making water available to the City of Centralia for its future needs and to provide a source of mitigation water to offset the impacts of future private wells throughout the watershed. TransAlta also envisions making water available for the basin’s expanding agricultural needs and ensuring leftover water remains instream to protect aquatic resources.


Meet Jill Van Hulle and Jennifer Lawson!

Jill Van Hulle and Jennifer Lawson recently joined Aspect, in our (new!) Olympia and Seattle office, respectively. Here are five questions we asked to get to know them better…

Jill Van Hulle, Associate Water Rights Specialist

  1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?

    I’m an Alaskan Girl to my core—grew up on Kodiak Island and finished high school in Juneau. I came to Washington for college and never actually meant to leave Alaska, but a summer internship with the Washington State Department of Ecology morphed into a permanent job and I never escaped!

  2. What inspired you to pursue Water Resources? What made you curious about it?

    I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t even realize the field existed—I thought I was interviewing for a job in the water quality program. For my first job task, I was handed a GPS unit the size of a car battery (it WAS a long time ago), dropped off with my hip boots in the middle of the Salmon Creek watershed in Clark County, and told to look for illegal water diversions. I was hooked!

  3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?

    I love the nexus between water management, water law, policy, and science. Water Resources is exciting—I enjoy the variety of projects and people I get to work with.

  4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

    I like to build big campfires on my Cle Elum property and settle in with some whiskey (on ice) and maybe a good book. I also love to hike, especially if there is a chance to find mushrooms and dig for razor clams out on the Washington coast.

  5. Where would you like to travel next?

    I have a weakness for Hawaii and love to snorkel, hike, and eat buckets of poke from the local grocery stores. Longer range, I have good friends that do water supply work in Cambodia, and they have been begging me to go with them.

Jennifer Lawson, Environmental Planner

Icicle Ridge, overlooking Leavenworth, Washington

  1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?

    I’m a rare Seattle native. I grew up in northwest Seattle. I moved away a few times and found I missed the green, the trees, the water, the mountain views, and my family.

  2. What inspired you to pursue Environmental Planning? What made you curious about it?

    My academic background is in forestry, botany, and landscape ecology. I spent a handful of years chasing seasonal field assistant and data collection positions, then two things happened: (1) I started to crave some creature comforts (living out of a backpack, alone or with one or two other smelly humans and being perpetually cold and hungry often left me fantasizing about hot water on demand, grocery stores, and an expanded social circle), and (2) I had a lot of time to stare at the stars and wonder why I (and others) do what they do: why do scientists study what they study? What is the application? How do we weigh and measure natural resource demands and desires with protection, conservation, and restoration of the natural gifts and ecosystems that sustain us and all life?

    I looked toward some of my mentors and discovered yes, they were scientists by training and loved wandering in the woods, but moreover, they were writing papers, testifying before congress and working in multi-disciplinary groups to tackle big concerns and craft comprehensive resource management plans. I am inherently a detail-oriented person and saw environmental impact analysis and environmental planning as ways to expand my big-picture thinking skills and maybe do something that had a practical application and served people as well as plants and fish.

  3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?

    Environmental planning is by nature collaborative, changing, a little bit messy, and ideally grounded in reason and science. It requires people to look up and talk to each other, to engage, consult and consider people, populations, and elements they may not otherwise. It requires compromise and adaptive management. There has been a growing buzz about social and environmental justice this past decade.

    I see humans—individuals, societies and cultures—as an integral and inseparable part of the physical, biological and chemical processes that sustain them. Environmental planning is a powerful tool that offers the opportunity for inclusiveness and stewardship. I value and appreciate bringing stakeholders and ideas to the table, giving them a voice, and translating all the voices into practical, feasible and necessary strategies for managing and interacting with the natural and built environment.

  4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

    I need a lot of time walking outdoors to maintain my sense of grounding and being human, so I take any chance I get to walk, hike, or somehow plot one foot in front of the other and look at the sky. I’m also a nutrition science nerd and a podcast junkie. I can tell you all the ins and outs of “keto” and the autoimmune paleo protocol; walk you through a tailored elimination diet and reintroduction; and write a love letter describing the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-axis) and all the things we do in modern life to drive stress overload and knock that axis off-kilter. I love learning about that stuff. I also scratch cook most everything—out of necessity and interest—and am a total foodie at heart thanks to my years of restaurant and catering work to pay for school. Hanging out with my two wildly energetic and crazy daughters deserves an honorable mention.

  5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?

    Travel hasn’t been on my radar for many years due to a collection of circumstances. I’d love to go to northern England and Scotland and work with modern-day sheepherders for a stint, preferably in the spring and summer months.

Jill Van Hulle Joins Aspect's Preeminent Water Rights Team

Jill Van Hulle, Associate Water Rights Specialist

Aspect strengthens its water resources practice with the addition of Associate Water Rights Specialist Jill Van Hulle. Jill is a water rights evaluation and permitting specialist with over 25  years of experience focused on Washington state water law, water rights acquisitions, and transfers for public agencies and private industry. Jill will join Aspect’s growing Olympia office, expanding Aspect’s capabilities for clients in the south Puget Sound area.

“Jill is respected by clients, regulators, and peers as one of the most knowledgeable and savvy water rights practitioners in Washington,” says Tim Flynn, Aspect’s President. “We’re excited to continue to introduce Aspect to all the south Puget Sound and clients throughout Washington that Jill has built strong relationships with.”

Jill worked as a water rights consultant for the last 11 years, and before that had 15 years of experience working at the Washington State Department of Ecology. She brings in-depth understanding of many water rights permitting strategies that protect valuable water resources assets for clients. From relinquishment protection strategies to water banking, from new mitigated permits to transfers, Jill is working on innovative projects throughout Washington. 

 “I’m excited to join the Aspect team and honored to be a part of such a talented group of consultants,” says Jill.  “Within my practice, Aspect has long been considered as one of the best firms in the Pacific Northwest, and among the few that truly understand the complex relationship between the water resource practice and the technical world. I love their enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication to both their clients and the environment. Aspect is a great fit for me.”