Dr. John Day, Jr.

     Dr. John W. Day, Jr. is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, School of the Coast & Environment at Louisiana State University, where he has taught since 1971. He has published extensively on the ecology and management of coastal and wetland systems and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Professor Day received his PhD in marine sciences and environmental sciences from the University of North Carolina in 1971. Since receiving his PhD, he has conducted extensive research on the ecology and management of the Mississippi Delta region; for the last 25 years he has studied coastal ecosystems in Mexico. Since 1992, Professor Day has worked in the Mediterranean studying the impacts of climate change on wetlands in Venice Lagoon and in the Po, Rhone and Ebro deltas. He is presently working on using wetlands as a means of removing nitrogen from the Mississippi River and for assimilation of municipal effluents. Dr. Day served as a member of the hypoxia reassessment taskforce and published, along with Dr. William Mitsch, an article in BioScience on approaches to removing nitrogen from the Mississippi River.

     He is a member of the National Technical Review Committee that oversees the Louisiana Coastal Area program, the restoration program for the Mississippi delta, and served as chair of the committee from 2003 until 2005. In 1998, Dr. Day received the School of the Coast & Environment Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award and in 2000 he received the Lipsey Professional Educator Award. In 2003, the Estuarine Research Federation presented Dr. Day with the National William A. Niering Education Award. Currently, Dr. Day is a member of the Working Group on Science for Post-Katrina Future Planning for Greater New Orleans and Coastal Louisiana established by the Headquarters of the Corps of Engineers. He has lengthy experience in working with local governments and regulatory agencies. Dr. Day’s efforts in using alternative technology have helped local communities save millions of dollars.

Dr. Robert R. Lane

     Dr. Robert R. Lane is a Research Associate in the School of the Coast & Environment at Louisiana State University. In this capacity, he has worked on numerous projects focused on nutrient and sediment dynamics since 1994. In addition to his Research Associate duties, Dr. Lane earned a M.S. in 1998 and a Ph.D. in Oceanography & Coastal Science in 2003, with a minor in Experimental Statistics. He has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals concerning water quality and management of coastal and wetland systems. During his career at LSU, Dr. Lane has extensively studied the impacts of river diversions on coastal wetlands in regard to water quality, wetland elevation dynamics, wetland plant productivity, water column productivity, and soil pore water chemistry. He has also studied the effectiveness of other wetland restoration techniques, such as sediment fences, hydrologic alterations, and municipal effluent application.

Dr. Lane is currently co-Principal Investigator for a study on the development of nutrient criteria in the rivers and streams of Louisiana funded by LDEQ, as well as a study of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on coastal wetlands funded by LDNR, SeaGrant and CREST. He is involved with the Baton Rouge Planning Commission regarding river and wetland restoration within city limits. Dr. Lane started working for Comite Resources, Inc. in 2002 and began studying wetland assimilation of municipal effluent. He is a major contributing author on numerous Ecological Baseline Studies (EBS) of wetland assimilation of municipal effluent. Dr. Lane developed the experimental design for these studies. Dr. Lane oversees initial field setup, sample collection and data acquisition and finally assists in all analysis. He is the Quality Control Officer for several LDEQ and EPA funded studies.

Dr. Rachel Hunter

     Dr. Rachael G. Hunter is a Wetland Biogeochemist in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, School of the Coast and Environment, at Louisiana State University. Since 1993 Dr. Hunter has conducted research in the areas of microbial and plant ecology and soil and water nutrient cycling. Her primary area of interest is the use of wetlands for treating different types of wastewaters such as non-point source pollution (e.g., agricultural runoff) and treated effluents (e.g. secondarily-treated municipal wastewater).

Dr. Hunter earned an M.S. in Biology from Tennessee Technological University and a Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, with an emphasis in Wetland Biogeochemistry, from Louisiana State University. After graduating from LSU in 2000, she traveled to Thailand on a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellowship. In coastal areas south of Bangkok, she conducted research on nutrient mitigation of shrimp pond effluent using mangrove wetlands. In 2001 Dr. Hunter moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and began working as an ecological consultant for MWH, Global. She gained experience dealing with many types of land and water management issues unique to water-limited areas. In addition, a large portion of her time was spent in the development and use of ecological models. In October 2006, Dr. Hunter moved back to Louisiana and began working with Dr. John Day at LSU. The primary focus of her research is freshwater and coastal wetland biogeochemistry and restoration.

Joel Lindsey

     Joel Lindsey is a partner in Comite Resources, Inc. and has served as President since 1998. In this capacity, he assists municipalities, agriculture producers, and businesses in designing innovative wetland wastewater assimilation systems. Mr. Lindsey received his M.S in Political Sociology from Louisiana State University in 1973 and a B.S. in Marketing and Economics from of the University of Florida in 1963. He previously directed the office of Coastal Management, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. He successfully implemented the use of remote sensing technology to monitor and evaluate coastal restoration projects and coastal use permitting activities. He served as Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality where he established a state toxic release annual report, documenting major air and water toxic emissions. He also, directed the passage of Louisiana’s solid waste recycling legislation.

     Mr. Lindsey served as Manager of Southern University’s Institute for Environmental Issues and Policy Assessment. As Manager, he focused on using geographic information systems technology to identify communities impacted by air toxic emissions. At Southern, he was instrumental in increasing awareness of health impacts from toxic air emissions on poor and minority communities. He has published many articles on management of coastal ecosystems.

Jason Day

     Jason Day is a wetland ecosystem scientist and a partner in Comite Resources, Inc. As the field director for Comite Resources, Inc. he is in charge of activities pertaining to assessment, site development, and data collection and monitoring of all wetland projects. He has been with Comite Resources, Inc. since 1998. Since 2003, Mr. Day has been a Research Associate II in the Coastal Ecology Institute at the school of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University. He received his bachelors degree in zoology at LSU and is currently working on his M.S. in coastal ecology at Louisiana State University. He has worked in Mexico, Australia, France, Spain and Italy on wetland and avian ecological projects with multi-national teams.

     Mr. Day has conducted extensive research on the ecology and management of the Mississippi Delta region and co-authored several publications. In 2006, he earned a wetland delineation certificate from the Wetland Training Institute. Mr. Day is familiar with vegetation and wildlife analysis. He is well versed in many types of field equipment and vessel operation including state accepted certification for Airboat operation.

Laura De La Garza

     Laura De La Garza is the Texas Regional Manager for Comite Resources, Inc. Inc. and is responsible for the establishment, promotion, and operation of Comite Resources, Inc. in the State of Texas and other areas. Laura has over 23 years experience in water resource management including the areas of water quality monitoring, permitting and compliance, and watershed planning. She served as Watershed Coordinator for the Arroyo Colorado Watershed (2004-2008) Partnership in the development and implementation of a comprehensive watershed protection plan for the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

     Ms. De La Garza was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a B.S. in Geology. After working more than 12 years as a professional geologist in ground and surface water issues, Ms. De La Garza returned to UT Austin for graduate studies in community and regional planning with a concentration in natural resource planning. She has worked for two major Texas universities, Kennecott Utah Copper, the Lower Colorado River Authority, and the City of Austin. This has given her a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors.

William K. (Bill) Mellor

     Bill Mellor is a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Office of Law Enforcement special agent-pilot.  He retired from federal government service September, 2007.  As a criminal investigator and land and seaplane pilot for thirty-two years Bill worked in fifteen states successfully enforcing a wide range of state, federal, and foreign wildlife and environmental laws.  Bill’s contribution to conservation included over 2,000 investigations that involved a variety of individuals, commercial operatives, and major corporations.  He compiled over 4,500 hours of low-level flight time in support of the FWS and the environmental enforcement effort across the southern and northeastern U.S. and Alaska. 

     During his career Bill was instrumental in the passage of new laws to protect wildlife.  His experience and knowledge of wildlife and other environmental statutes and case law have distinguished Bill numerous times as an expert in the Federal Court system.  This positioned him to “educate” federal prosecutors and judges about the importance of upholding the Nations wildlife and environmental laws.  His effort and skill in assembling solid cases helped create a legal environment that caused wildlife violations to be treated as serious crimes, with some of the stiffest sentences in the country.  Bill was also active in strengthening federal and state wildlife law enforcement programs by sharing his knowledge, skills and expertise in educating the general public and training younger special agents and state officers in the classroom and in the field.  

     Bill’s duties with Comite Resources, Inc. include; promoting company services, assisting with company operations, setting up new office locations and hiring new personnel, aerial and ground photography, aerial environmental surveys (commercial pilot - land & sea), and promoting company expansion and diversification.

Montgomery Hunter

     Montgomery G. Hunter is a Civil/Environmental Engineer at Comite Resources, Inc. Mr. Hunter received a bachelor’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 1994. He has earned EIT and LSIT accreditations and has worked primarily in the fields of surveying, mapping, and land development. Working with the USDA he assisted rural counties of the Upper Cumberland Development District in getting recycling facilities on line and mapping existing landfills to determine their life expectancy. With the Tennessee Department of Transportation, he designed and inspected many road and bridge projects. In Louisiana, he worked with private surveying firms in providing hydrology revisions to FEMA flood maps and oil well placement surveys. For the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources he worked on a team that used GIS to map existing oil and gas lines and maintain aerial photography databases.

     Mr. Hunter worked on US Department of the Interior projects to update and refurbish the four dams of the Horsetooth reservoir in Colorado. In Lafarge he was the primary MSHA-Certified GPS surveyor for 350 miles of Front Range Operations from Laramie, WY to Pueblo, CO. Duties included finding, mapping, and acquiring in-ground gravel deposits using GPS and drilling techniques and setting up operation of extensive ground water monitoring programs. He then founded Hunter Engineering providing independent engineering, surveying, and mapping consultant services. In this capacity he worked with HydroGeoPhysics of Arizona using sonar and electrical resistivity methods to make maps of subterranean fissures of a closed city landfill in Fort Collins, CO that was leaking into the nearby river. He also worked with a variety of other engineers and architects on various land development projects.