Ernest To
Experienced environmental professional and water quality expert
About
Ernest’s area of expertise is in environmental and water resources engineering. He specializes in water quality and hydrodynamic modeling, water quality permitting, geographical information systems, and environmental applications and database development. Ernest has over twenty years of experience and has led and managed many projects in Texas, the East Coast and other parts of the United States. He has developed models to investigate issues such as water quality permitting, drought planning, raw water assessment and ecological restoration. He is also an experienced programmer who has developed GIS and software applications to improve environmental data sharing and accessibility for the public.
Experience
Ernest Models Water LLC (dba WATERMODSTER)
Owner and Lead Engineer (2023 to Present)
Providing environmental consulting services in water modeling to clients. Independently researching AI applications in the water business.
Skills: Google Colab Notebooks · Large Language Models (LLM)
Plummer
Water Innovation Manager (2022 to 2023)
Promoted the development and use of innovative modeling, analytical and automation tools within the water business. Communicated with different departments to understand needs and opportunities. Developed web dashboards to centralize data access and visualizations. Programmed automation scripts and systems to increase efficiency of workflows. Monitored developments in AI and other technologies and their potential application.
Skills: Microsoft Power BI · Computer Vision · Python· QGIS · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Dashboard Building · ArcGIS Products ·
Senior Project Manager and Lead Modeler (2015 to 2023)
Led and executed many modeling projects to simulate rivers, reservoirs, bays and estuaries in Texas and Oklahoma. Developed key water quality information to complete regulatory review of permit applications and renewals. Provided strategic recommendations to water and wastewater utilities for capital improvements, drought contingency planning, nutrient management, source water protection, and permitting strategies. Identified approaches and implemented solutions for non-traditional water quality permitting/modeling situations ranging from desalination, contaminant spills to habitat conservation planning.
Skills: TCEQ TEXTOX · Habitat Conservation Plan · USEPA NHDPlus · SWAT watershed model · CORMIX · Proposal Writing · Regulatory Compliance · Team Management · Project Management · Water Quality
RPS
Project Manager and Engineer (2009 to 2015)
Water resource project manager and engineer with a focus on water quality projects. Developed advanced hydrodynamic and water quality models to inform watershed protection plans, wastewater permitting, feasibility studies for capital improvements and other major water resources studies. Developed web services to publish water data for TWDB’s Water Data for Texas. Led development of YouTube educational videos for the Texas Water Development Board to introduce groundwater modeling to the public.
Skills: TCEQ QUAL-TX · TCEQ CSTR · USEPA EFDC · USACE HEC-RAS · USACE CE-QUAL-W2 · USEPA WASP
University of Texas at Austin
Graduate Research Assistant (2005 to 2009)
Developed web services to publish water data from various research and public environmental agencies using the Consortium of Universities for Hydrological Science, Inc (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS). Created desktop tools to download and ingest data for environmental modeling and analysis. Dissertation title: Using a Hydrological Information System to Model Hypoxia in Corpus Christi Bay.
Skills: Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) · Web Services · SAS (Programming Language) · R (Programming Language)
Quantitative Environmental Analysis
Project Engineer (2001 to 2005)
Provided valuable geospatial analysis of water quality and sediment data to identify key areas in the Hudson River Superfund Site for contaminant dredging. Helped develop and implemented protocol for delineating hot spots using geostatistical tools. Assisted in water quality modeling of the Colorado River for the LCRA-SAWS project.
Skills: IDL programming · Dredge design and support · Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Publications and
Conference Papers
• “One app to rule them all!” – A unified web application to protect the precious Lavon Lake from contaminant spills, Ernest To, David Cowan, Dongyu Feng, North American Lake Management Society 2022 Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November, 2022
• Mitchell Lake is for the birds, but take a gander at its permitting, Ernest To, Ryan Pierce, Greg Eckhardt, Texas Water 2022 Conference, San Antonio, Texas, April, 2022
• “One app to rule them all!” – A unified web application to protect the precious Lavon Lake from contaminant spills, Ernest To, David Cowan, Dongyu Feng, Texas Water 2022 Conference, San Antonio, Texas, April, 2022
• Concentrate Modeling: Seeking a Sustainable Solution, Ernest To, Texas Desalination 2019 Conference, Austin, Texas, Sept, 2019
• Potential Impacts of Indirect Potable Reuse as an Extreme Drought Supply Strategy in Lady Bird Lake, Austin, Texas, To, E.S.C, Teresa Lutes, Steve Coonan, Hannah Frels, WEF-EESS Conference on Advancement in Water and Wastewater Treatment and ReuseTexas Water 2019 Conference, Austin, Texas, July, 2019
• The Trinity River Compact – Past, Present, and (most importantly) Future, Peggy Glass and Ernest To, Texas Association of Clean Water Agencies, Austin, Texas, May, 2019
• Using Advanced Water Quality Modeling to Support Renewal of the Lakeview Regional Water Reclamation Plant Permit, To, E.S.C, Jody Zabolio, Peggy Glass, Lauren Gonzalez, Texas Water 2019 Conference, Houston, Texas, April, 2019
• Alternative Methods to Add Freshwater to the Nueces Delta, To, E.S.C, David Buzan, Texas Water 2019 Conference, Houston, Texas, April, 2019
• Oso Bay Dissolved Oxygen Model (“Not Your Father’s TCEQ Model”). Byrum, J., Ernest To, Texas Association of Clean Water Agencies, Austin, Texas, Jan, 2018
• The Trinity River Past, Present, and (most importantly) Future, Glass, P. G., Ernest To, Texas Association of Clean Water Agencies, Flower Mound, Texas, May, 2019
• Modelling the Potential Impacts of Indirect Potable Reuse as an Extreme Drought Supply Strategy in Lady Bird Lake, Austin, Texas, To, E.S.C, Teresa Lutes, Steve Coonan, Hannah Frels, Texas Water 2017 Conference, Austin, Texas, April, 2017
• Drought Study in the Trinity River Basin , To, E.S.C, Glenn Clingenpeel, Tony Smith, American Water Resources Association, Summer Specialty Conference 2011, Snowbird, UT, June 2014.
• Drought Research and Applications in Texas of Relevance to the Trinity River Basin, E.S.C. To Tony Smith and Glenn Clingenpeel, Texas Water 2013 Conference, Galveston, Texas, April, 2013
• Evaluating Sedimentation Risks in Reservoirs, E.S.C. To and Mel Vargas, TWCA 2013 Spring Annual Conference, Austin, Texas, March 6-8, 2013
• Using NHDPlus to Address Sedimentation Risks to Water Quality and Availability in Texas Reservoirs, T, E.S.C. To, (co-presenters: Carissa Belsky, David Harkins, Jim Patek, L. Steve Stecher, Mel Vargas, and Jennifer Walker), AWRA 2012 Spring Specialty Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 26-28, 2012.
• Using a hydrodynamic model to predict treatability of water from the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project, To, E.S.C., D. K. Harkins, W. Li, American Water Resources Association, Summer Specialty Conference 2011, Snowbird, UT, June 2011.
• Hypoxia modeling in Corpus Christi Bay using a hydrologic information system. To, E. S.C., CRWR online report, May 2009, http://www.crwr.utexas.edu/reports/2009/rpt09-2.shtml.
• Monte Carlo analysis of the Copano Bay fecal coliform model. To, E. S.C., CRWR GIS Hydro CD, ESRI Annual International User Conference, San Diego, CA, 2006.
• WOFpy – Publishing Your Data in WaterML Using Python, Whiteaker, T, E.S.C. To, Consortium of Universities for Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI) webinar, Nov 10, 2011. http://www.cuahsi.org/his-webinars.html
• Using Python to implement a Hydrologic Information System for the State of Texas, J. Seppi, D. Pothina, E.S.C. To, T. Whiteaker, A. Wilson, Conference on Hydrologic Data and Information Systems, Logan, UT, 2011.
• Data integration using a Hydrologic Information System to support hypoxia modeling in Corpus Christi Bay. Data Integration and Management on the Gulf of Mexico Workshop, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, 2009
• Assembling hydrological data for San Marcos Basin with HydroGET. Texas Hydrological Information System Workshop, Austin, TX, October 2008
• CUAHSI web services for ground water data retrieval, Whiteaker, T. L. and To, E. S.C., Ground Water 46 (1), 6-9 doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2007.00397.x, 2008
• HydroGET – a web service client for ArcGIS. Arc Hydro – Managing water data in ArcGIS, ESRI User Conference 2008 Preconference Seminar, San Diego, CA, 2008
• Using Space-Time interpolation to characterize the movement of gravity currents in Corpus Christi Bay. To, E. S.C., CRWR GIS Hydro CD, ESRI Annual International User Conference, San Diego, CA, 2008.
• Synthesis of web service data to support hypoxia modeling in Corpus Christi Bay. To, E. S.C., and D. R. Maidment, American Water Resources Association, Specialty Conference 2008, San Matteo, CA, 2008.
• Weather Downloader – A tool for downloading hydrological data into geographic information systems. To, E. S.C., T.L. Whiteaker, D. R. Maidment, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, San Francisco, CA, 2007.
• Web services and data ingestion. To, E. S.C. and T. L. Whiteaker, CRWR GIS Hydro CD, ESRI Annual International User Conference, San Diego, CA, 2006.
• 3D geostatistical model for salinity in Corpus Christi Bay. To, E. S.C., CRWR GIS Hydro CD, ESRI Annual International User Conference, San Diego, CA, 2007.
• Selecting spatial interpolation models for remedial management decisions using cross-validation. To, E. S.C., D. S. Glaser, J. P. Connolly, Presented at Battelle 2005 Contaminated Sediment Conference, New Orleans, LA, Jan 25, 2005.
• Use of vegetable oil in stimulation of reductive dechlorination of chloroethenes. To, S.C., J. M. Gossett. Presented at SETAC 2003 Annual conference, Austin, TX, November 9, 2003.
Contact
Ernest is always available for collaborations and talks. If you want to chat about water quality, geographical information systems, python programming or anything else, don’t hesitate in reaching out.
ernestmodelswater@gmail.com
WATERMODSTER 