Herrera Environmental Consultants, Inc. services

How effectively we manage, treat, and use stormwater as a resource is one of the most critical issues facing growing human populations in increasingly developed landscapes. Herrera designs stormwater conveyance, treatment and flow control at scales from site to regional and in settings including high use industrial sites, urban developments, neighborhoods, and sensitive ecological sites. Our services include hydraulic and hydrologic modeling, master planning, development of plans, specifications, and cost estimates (PS&E), and construction oversight.

Assessing and maintaining the health of aquatic ecosystems is of paramount importance because water is the basis of life. Herrera’s aquatic ecologists assess algae, aquatic plants, invertebrates, and fish populations in lakes, streams, rivers, and estuaries. We determine if your lake has toxic algae or invasive species and offer solutions to address the problem. We conduct underwater surveys, prepare plans for managing invasive plants and protecting rare plants, assess impacts of water pollution on sensitive aquatic organisms, assess aquatic habitat conditions, design habitat restoration, obtain grants to fund management activities, and conduct eelgrass and forage fish surveys in Puget Sound for permit compliance.

Herrera has been integral in the history and evolution of stormwater management in the Pacific Northwest, and brings a wealth of experience to supporting permittees in meeting the municipal, industrial, and construction stormwater permit requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. Our stormwater permit support strengths include developing internal tools (e.g., checklists, SWPPPs, SOPs, and training) to streamline stormwater plan review, O&M, and inspection processes and external tools (e.g., codes, manuals, handouts, checklists) to streamline the stormwater site plan submittal process.

Watershed planning is where science and technology meet practicality, making it just the kind of work we enjoy at Herrera. Whether it’s a general assessment of watershed health, a study to identify restoration or stormwater retrofit opportunities, a modeling exercise to examine impacts of different regulatory schemes when applied at a watershed scale, or a flow control trading program, we have it covered. We are continually advancing the use of models, geospatial analysis tools, data collection apps, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS, aka drones) to improve our analyses as well as to enhance the public’s ability to provide input and feedback.

Herrera conducts coastal restoration projects along a range of Puget Sound marine shoreline types: embayments (coastal wetlands/estuaries), bluffs, and spits (barrier beaches). Herrera creates sustainable and aesthetically pleasing shoreline habitat features that also offer public access to these sensitive environments. We understand the challenges and opportunities in constructing improvements in remote coastal environments and draw on that experience to maximize what can be achieved with available funding.

Effective watershed management demands active stakeholder participation, assessing causes and sources of pollution, identifying appropriate goals, implementing specific actions, measuring the effectiveness of those actions, and implementing different actions, if necessary. We believe that all those elements must be knit together to achieve long-term benefits, so our watershed and floodplain management teams include practical specialists in all of them. Our staff of limnologists, hydrologists, geomorphologists, biologists, and engineers offer a breadth and depth of experience which is unrivaled in the region.

How well we integrate surface water resources with the built environment now will influence the quality and resilience of our communities for decades to come. We study physical and biological processes to inform our restoration designs and believe that taking a holistic, watershed approach results in the best, long-term, self-mitigating designs. We excel at the engineered placement of large wood, having done some of the first installations in the Pacific Northwest nearly 20 years ago. Our resume has expanded to levee removals and setbacks, channel creation and relocation projects in a variety of environments, and culvert and bridge replacements. We do all of this in full knowledge of a changing climate, which we have considered and prepared for in our first restoration designs many years ago. Now we are actively adapting our design standards and modeling scenarios so that the money spent now will benefit present and future generations.

We believe that being good stewards of our environment includes getting good value for the dollars spent on conservation and restoration and continually learning to benefit future projects. Herrera employs solid science and a combination of technology tools and “boots on the ground” to conduct ecological surveys and monitoring of wetlands, rare plants, endangered plant and animal species, fish, and upland vegetation. Our post-construction monitoring programs are efficient and designed to inform adaptation strategies and future projects.

Herrera’s regulatory strategists approach each project with a single question: How can we achieve the project objectives within schedule and budget, comply with applicable laws and regulations, enhance the built and natural environments, and add value to the design in a cost-effective manner? It’s just one question, but it’s not simple to answer. We begin with a strong understanding of regulations and permit requirements, then add insights gained through decades of combined experience working with other disciplines and our clients to modify projects to better fit site constraints, limit impacts, reduce risks, and streamline permit timelines. Please join us as we learn, teach each other, and plan smarter projects.

We believe development practices must continue to evolve toward sustainability—not only to have less impact on ecological systems but eventually restoring them. Herrera’s site development engineering practice leverages the firm’s deep bench of engineers, environmental scientists, ecologists, permitting experts, biologists, and researchers to deliver site development civil engineering solutions that support sustainable development and are based on current science.