The Team: David Gorman, Environmental and Ecological Engineer
David Gorman, Environmental and Ecological Engineer for Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue, boasts 35 years of experience in habitat restoration and water resources engineering. David is the owner of Ecological Engineering, a consulting firm that provides water and natural resource planning, engineering and permitting services on projects that involve water resource management, storm water management, flood reduction, aquatic habitat restoration, habitat mitigation, fish passage, and mitigation and conservation banking.
With a strong background in engineering, particularly when it comes to natural resources, David’s expertise will enhance the existing resources on the Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue site, “I have a degree in environmental science from Kent State University in Ohio and I also have a civil engineering degree from Ohio State University,” says David. “I have a strong educational background in natural resources, environmental science and civil engineering with an emphasis on biology, hydraulics and environmental engineering.”
David’s experience includes extensive work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with various consulting work. “I started my career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in hydraulic engineering. I worked on some of the bigger hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River. Most of that work was related to fish passage for salmon and steelhead,” David explains. “I also worked on the hydraulic design of the new navigation lock at the Bonneville Dam, which is one of the newest locks in the United States. I worked for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for about four years, and then went to work for the city of Gresham as their stormwater engineer, located just east of Portland. After that I worked for an agency called Clean Water Services that provides wastewater treatment and surface water management for the urbanized portion of the Tualatin River watershed just west of Portland and within the Portland metropolitan area. I served as the water resource program manager for surface water, and the main focus of my work there was to improve the water quality of stormwater runoff and urban surface water before it drained into the Tualatin River. I started my own consulting firm back in the early 1990s called Water Resource Management and I did engineering consulting for about eight years, mostly on surface water issues, flooding and storm water management. From there I worked for various other consulting firms. At each new job I took I took on more and more habitat restoration work. My work now is focused mainly on habitat restoration work, primarily for aquatic habitat including wetlands, streams and rivers.”
When it comes to habitat restoration, David is well-versed on environmental needs and regulations, “I own and operate a wetland mitigation bank, which restores and enhances wetlands,” says David. “The regulatory agencies that have oversight on wetlands and waters for the United States are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, here in Oregon, the Oregon Department of State Lands. The way that the program works is, if someone establishes a mitigation bank, or a piece of land that they are restoring the wetlands on, they can get wetland mitigation credits from the regulatory agencies. They can sell those credits to developers who need to impact wetlands as part of their development. The purpose of mitigation banking is to provide mitigation for wetlands that will be impacted in the future, so it’s pretty much advanced mitigation. I believe that it is an effort to make development a little more sustainable because it provides mitigation for development that regulators have a lot of oversight on. To start and operate the mitigation bank, we had to go through a pretty rigorous permitting process and we have extensive oversight by the agencies to make sure that the wetlands that we are creating or enhancing are as good as, or better than, the wetlands that are being impacted. I have been working on the wetland mitigation bank for more than 15 years.”
The Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue site includes three streams.
David’s role at Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue includes several major projects, “For Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue, I’m serving as the Environmental and Ecological Engineer, so I won’t be designing all of the water features on the site. My role is to manage most of the engineering design work and permitting that has any relationship to wetlands and waters of the state that are located on the Pegasus site and to provide all aquatic habitat restoration design. Right now I am managing the process for the design of a water supply reservoir. The Pegasus site has several water drainage basins. For one of those basins, the intent is to construct a reservoir to capture surplus surface water and use it for the project, mostly for potable water. As far as sustainability goes, the concept for water use on the site is to capture water from the site with the reservoir, treat it, and use it for all potable reasons including drinking, cooking and other domestic needs, then take the waste water and recycle it for uses like irrigation on the polo fields or gardens, and in places that are not for food consumption. In addition to that, we are also looking to improve sustainability by capturing storm water or rainwater from the roofs of the buildings, which is very useful for things like flushing toilets. You don’t need highly treated water to flush toilets. The concept there would be to capture roof runoff, store it and use it for other purposes that don’t require treatment.”
Wetland mitigation will take place on-site at Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue.
While every site has its own set of obstacles, David is confident that the natural resources on the Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue site will suit the water use needs of the venue, “One of the larger obstacles, from a regulatory perspective, is that the development of the site, including the development of the reservoir, will likely have some impact on natural resources. Right now, since we are focused on the reservoir, we are pretty sure that we will probably impact wetlands in the process of constructing an operating that reservoir. The Department of State Lands and the Army Corps of Engineers have jurisdiction over those wetlands and they will require that we mitigate those impacts.”
With the expectation of impact on natural resources during development, David plans to restore, and enhance, the site’s current resources, including Wheeler Canyon Creek, a salmon stream in the north part of the project. “Our intent is to do all of our mitigation on-site which will be good for the project because it will enhance the site’s natural resources, and will keep the habitat that is currently being used by fish and wildlife on-site so they will not have to travel elsewhere to find that same habitat. The habitat will be restored locally. One of my other roles on the project is restoring the larger stream watershed. There are three streams on the site and the largest of them will not be used for any type of water resources. The intent there is that we want to restore the stream channel and its riparian zone, which is the zone of vegetation that grows along streams and rivers. We want to restore that whole corridor for fish and wildlife. Essentially we may end up producing more mitigation than needed on-site, in which case we can provide mitigation credits for other developments in the county or area.”
The resources on-site at Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue will fulfill the venue’s water needs.
The resources on-site at Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue will fulfill the venue’s needs for water, driving forward the sustainability mission that is coupled with the development of the site. With David’s expertise, natural resources on-site at Pegasus Equestrian Resort & Venue will be restored and enhanced, ensuring that both the natural habitat and the venue can grow and thrive together.
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