Go With the Flow: Jake Kramarz

Welcome to Go With The Flow, a new FlowWest company blog series. Our bimonthly posts will feature sneak peeks of projects currently under way and a bit more about our hardworking employees.

Jake Kramarz is an Associate Hydrologist and has been with FlowWest since the beginning of 2022. As one of our newer employees, we wanted to sit down with him and pick his brain about a few exciting projects and his career trajectory.

Always on the move

Jake is passionate about hydrology, the Warriors, and hiking around the Bay Area.

How did you get into the environmental services sector?

I did a lot of outdoorsy activities as a kid; I hiked a lot, went to summer camp, and had environmentally-friendly parents. When I got to college I wanted to do something related to the environment. I landed on an Earth Sciences and Environmental Geology degree at UC Santa Cruz. I realized soon after graduating that it was impossibly hard to land the job I wanted without a Masters. So off to the Masters program I went. But I had to decide what to study – meteorology was too much chemistry, and I’d heard that whatever you do your masters thesis in is what you “are”. If you do your thesis on the structure of tornadoes, you will be “the tornado guy”. 

I grew up in Marin county, where there was lots of flooding. All my grade schools flooded. Because of this, I chose Hydrology, got my Masters, and then looked around for work at water resources consulting companies. Nine months after my graduate degree I got hired in 2016, but only lasted eight months due to a lack of work. After a couple months, I found a new job at a very small company, just two other people. I stayed with this company for over four years, but yearned for bigger projects and more co-workers to learn from and hone my skills with, especially in AutoCAD Civil 3D.

My previous employer had put me through a couple AutoCAD and Civil 3D introductory courses, however, mimicking natural topography is hard to design the way civil engineers design roads. My current colleague, Cristen, teaches AutoCAD in a great way, with lots of rules and processes, and has helped me acquire new skills for design work. First, you go out and do a topographic survey to capture existing conditions, and then build digital elevation models (DEMs) in Civil 3D. These existing conditions DEMs get sent to Bethany in the modeling team, who runs hydrologic models to see what water flows do (or are expected to do) with different flow sizes. We use that info to build design DEMs, look at whatever we want to design for the project like bank/bed stabilization and creek restoration. It can also be used for helping with fish passage or restoring a degraded creek. 

What are some of your favorite projects going on currently? 

One of our founders, Anthony, had been put in contact with someone in Diablo, CA with a small creek stabilization / restoration project. Anthony asked if I wanted to be the  project manager. This allows me to get to do a bit of everything - design, survey outside with Nick, client interface, and work with teammates like Ari who is the permitting environmental compliance specialist.

Jake’s recent project – building up the creek to prevent erosion and fixing the driveway.

Private projects move much faster than public projects; it's based on client budget. We don’t have to go through the ‘bureaucracy of themselves’, which is typical for public projects. It takes roughly 10 months to send to regulatory agencies and permitting review. This project also works with a structural engineer to build a driveway over the creek. Permitting agencies can take months – we plan to submit plans by late winter/early spring in order to build over the summer. 

What’s a past project you want to share?

I was a part of the Feasibility Study for Open Space and Park Expansion in the Lower Sausal Creek Watershed. The aim of the study was to talk with community members to glean possible ideas for improving the lower Sausal Creek watershed. This time, I teamed up with Paul, Bethany, and Anna to write a 90 page report for the Friends of Sausal Creek. They have spearheaded several projects that have been completed in the upper watershed. Dimond Park had a large portion of the creek restored. The creek was brought up from underground, making it a beautiful creek corridor. This time, we wanted to focus on the lower watershed. Unfortunately it’s a less affluent area. We asked people what they wanted, and we were surprised to have people see it as something to fear. 

Our study looked at a handful of parks–or potential parks–including Wood Park (in the upper part of the lower watershed), below Highway 580. How can we improve the park? It doesn’t seem to be well maintained, there is missing signage, there is no bathroom, entrances are overgrown and difficult to access. Our study highlighted improving entrances, making it more inviting, adding park infrastructure, and more friendly usable space. The creek goes into a big culvert under the park and doesn’t resurface into an open creek until downstream of the park. Currently, there are no trails that go to either of those places. When we investigated, the team had to walk down a concrete rainwater swale (it was definitely not a path) to get beyond a chain link fence to even see the creek. 

The Friends of Sausal Creek, founded in 1998, is an organization devoted to the restoration, maintenance, and protection of Oakland, CA’s Sausal Creek watershed. This Feasibility Study was funded by a DWR grant. Now that they have a report, they can use the info to go to the community. Our work was to flesh out the ideas, identify cost estimates and constraints, and determine priorities in advancing the improvements. We hope to continue working with FOSC, but until then, it’s in their hands to realize the improvements we suggested.

What is something that everyday people can do to help their local watershed?

If your neighborhood has stormwater drains (usually says, “no dumping, drains to bay”), don’t wash your car on the curb. All that soap is polluting and the water goes directly into the bay and your local watershed. Car washes also recycle their water (required by law) so none of that pollution makes it into the local ecosystem. 

Where do you see the future of FlowWest?

One of the biggest things I think about is the project in Diablo for the private client. With a definitive timeline and streamlined design/permitting process, if we can get that project done within budget and have a satisfied client, it shows that we can manage a private project. This would open up the door for FlowWest to be referred to other neighbors and local residents. The client told us that every house along this creek needs work done! Hopefully, this project will encourage the neighbors to go to FlowWest, and we can develop great working relationships with private clients in the Bay Area.

More new hires at FlowWest!

FlowWest has been growing lately and we’re excited to have brought on three new folks this spring.

Announcing New Hires!

FlowWest is excited to add some new staff - welcome Cameron and Aidan!

FlowWest is proud to announce a great new hire!

FlowWest has been growing throughout 2021 and 2022 and we’d like to highlight our newest team members! Willie Whitfield joined us earlier this year and is expanding our software development capabilities. Welcome Willie!

Sadie Gill selected as co-chair of the California Water Data Consortium's Data Users Working Group

FlowWest is proud to announce that senior data scientist Sadie Gill has been selected to serve as the co-chair of the California Water Data Consortium's Data Users Working Group. Sadie is honored to serve in this new role that will shape open water data practices in California. She is excited about the opportunity to establish a positive and inclusive culture within the workgroup and to create space for data users to shape CA's water data future! For more details check out the Consortium’s official press release.

FlowWest is a 2020 Winner in the Inner City 100!

FlowWest has been selected by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) as one of 2020’s fastest-growing inner city businesses! The ICIC 100 award recognizes one hundred companies experiencing rapid growth and making a meaningful impact on their cities and communities. Proudly based in Oakland, California, FlowWest looks forward to expanding our engagement with our great home town, and to making connections with other small businesses working hard to strengthen their inner city communities. More details available in our press release.   

Mark Tompkins of FlowWest to teach floodplain reconnection at annual Geomorphic and Ecological Fundamentals of River and Stream Restoration short course

Dr. Mark Tompkins will be leading a session on floodplain reconnection at this year’s Geomorphic and Ecological Fundamentals of River and Stream Restoration professional short course at the Sagehen Field Station near Lake Tahoe. This course attracts a diverse array of river restoration professionals and is a phenomenal learning and collaborative experience. Dr. Tompkins has been an instructor for this course for over a decade and looks forward to meeting a passionate group of river restoration professionals.

FlowWest at the Arab-American Frontiers Symposium in Kuwait!

Mark Tompkins will represent FlowWest at the National Academy of Engineering’s sixth Arab-American Frontiers Of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium November 4-6 in Kuwait City. The event is hosted by and in partnership with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science. The meeting will bring together US and Arab scientists, engineers, and medical professionals to discuss major scientific and engineering advances on the topics of big data, water systems, the microbiome, air quality, and next-generation buildings and infrastructure. Dr. Tompkins will be presenting on FlowWest’s ground-breaking work using open water data, remotely sensed habitat data, and artificial intelligence to improve management of water resources and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.

FlowWest at the AI for Earth Education Summit in Redmond, WA!

Sadie Gill from FlowWest is at Microsoft's AI for Earth Summit in Redmond, WA this week! The conference is focused on the latest technology in machine learning and other tools on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing environment and how AI can solve pressing environmental challenges.

Sadie is leading our ongoing work quantifying floodplain habitat for anadromous fish using remote sensing and machine learning, and she’s presenting this work at the conference.

FlowWest at the 2018 California Safe Drinking Water Data Challenge!

FlowWest is a proud participant in California's 2018 Safe Drinking Water Data Challenge. We answered the call to show our commitment to open water data by using open water quality data to develop an effective tool that will help ensure that safe drinking water is available to every Californian. 

FlowWest data scientist Sadie Gill partnered with CALPIRG's public health advocate Laura Deehan and visual journalist / interactive web developer Lo Benichou. Our team used data released by the San Francisco Unified School District and found that half the schools contained lead in the drinking water.

Our data visualization tool maps each school based on its lead level. The tool makes clear the unsafe lead levels in schools to community members and links to resources to help concerned citizens take action. 

An award ceremony and summit concluding the Safe Drinking Water Data Challenge will be held October 18th in Los Angeles. 

FlowWest at the 16th International Conference on Wetland Systems for Water Pollution Control, October 1-4, 2018!

Paul Frank from FlowWest will be speaking next week at the 16th International Conference on Wetland Systems for Water Pollution Control (ICWS) in Valencia, Spain!  In 2014, he presented FlowWest’s Khirbet Kanafar Wetland System in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon at the 14th ICWS in Shanghai, and in 2010, he led the 12th ICWS’s technical tour of the 250-acre Fusina Wetlands near Venice which he designed between 2006-2010.

This year, Paul will be talking about FlowWest’s work to improve water quality in the Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay in California.  The Salinas Valley produces more than 50% of the USA’s salad greens and generates an agricultural economy greater than $8 billion per year. These agricultural activities generate some of the greatest nutrient (especially nitrogen) and agricultural pollution loads in the USA, which drain into the Salinas River via a network of agricultural drainage canals. Depending on seasonal conditions, the agricultural pollution from the Salinas River can cause a so-called “dead zone” of hypoxia in the Monterey Bay.   

THE SALINAS VALLEY IS FAMOUS FOR ITS ARTICHOKES.

FlowWest is working with the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County (RCD) to develop innovative, natural water treatment systems that remove nutrients and other chemicals from agricultural drainage before it reaches the Salinas River.  Much of the lower Salinas Valley’s agricultural runoff makes its way to the River via the Blanco Drain, a canal that intercepts drainage from 6,400 acres of fields.  During 2017, FlowWest designed two biologically-based systems that could fit either on unused farmland adjacent to the Drain, or within the Drain itself.  Two of these systems are set to be built next year.

THE BLANCO DRAIN IS MILES LONG, CUTS THROUGH THE LOWER SALINAS VALLEY, AND DRAINS RUNOFF AND IRRIGATION EXCESS TO THE SALINAS RIVER AND ULTIMATELY MONTEREY BAY.