Porter Consults LLC

Porter Consults LLC provides subject matter expertise on environmental, land planning, and surface water issues, offering expertise in permitting and compliance, engineering management and project support, demographic and ecosystem analyses, litigation support, public outreach, and environmental reporting and information.

Elizabeth Porter, Principal

I bring to my newly established environmental consulting business, Porter Consults LLC, four decades of experiences in research, development, policy, and regulatory program management for land use and planning, and surface water resources and watershed issues.

 

My work portfolio includes:

US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) regulatory special projects manager for more than fifteen years, administering all aspects of the regulatory permit program. 

US EPA Policy Office, I designed and built environmental information systems, worked on national standards and methodologies, environmental indicators and program outcome measures, and helped bring data driven decision-making to the strategic planning process.

Prior to this, I was a systems developer and project engineer at a defense national mapping laboratory. 

I started my career as a National Parks archeologist. 

 

Along the way, I taught National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) protocols; wetlands, stream, coastal and ocean issues; and mapping and information analyses. I earned certification as a geographic information system professional (GISP). I served as the content manager for highly visited and recognized federal web sites and managed a portfolio of outreach multimedia projects on the water permit program.  I’ve developed educational materials for the USACE and EPA. I’ve worked with tribal and state governments, local communities, and the federal resource and land management agencies. I served as a Congressional Fellow on fisheries, water, and energy issues. I helped develop many of the information systems methods and techniques used by the USACE regulatory program and data standards used in geospatial analyses.

 

My academic background:

MS, Safety and Systems Management (MSSM), Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC). 

BA, anthropology (archeology) and earth sciences, Franklin and Marshall (F&M) College.

 

Land Use Planning and Surface Waters

 

Projects and Work Scope

 

• Land use planning, resource management, environmental reviews and information analyses
• Permitting and compliance (specializing in Clean Water Act § 404, 401 and 402), jurisdiction, mitigation, cultural and natural resources reporting, state-federal agency coordination
• NEPA reviews and reporting, integrative and merger processes
• Engineering project management, program support, informatics
• Litigation support – expert testimony, science research and interpretation
• Third party, expert, and peer reviews of environmental evaluations
• Relative risk assessments – damage impact assessments, response and recovery support, resiliency measures, FEMA coordination
• Geographic analyses, maps, and GIS applications
• Ecosystem assessments, watershed indicators, environmental and health indicator development, and outcome measures
• Demographic analyses for social and geospatial determinants, community health studies
• Investigative research – evidence and data quality reviews
• Policy analyses and reviews
• Educational outreach and training
• Peer mentoring and executive assistance
• Public interest reviews, community outreach