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Welcome to another edition our Client Spotlight series! Each blog provides a peek into our partnership with a particular client. We value our client relationships and pride ourselves on forming strong ties with organizations that share our values of creating a better future for people and our planet. 



Meet Medford Lakes Colony



Medford Lakes Colony is a not-for-profit organization that organizes social, community, and recreational activities for the Town of Medford Lakes, New Jersey. The Colony grew out of a resort development in the early 1920’s in the heart of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens on the edge of the Pinelands National Reserve. The area was first settled hundreds of years ago by the Lenni-Lenape tribe of Native Americans.



Today the Colony lakes are still dotted by log cabin homes built according to the original plan for the community nearly a century ago.



For this Client Spotlight, we spoke to Medford Lakes Colony’s Lake Restoration Chair, Jim Palmer. 



Q: What makes your organization unique?



The Medford Lakes Colony is a nearly 100-year-old, private, not-for-profit organization. Our organization is actually older than the municipality in which we reside. We “own” the 21 lakes in our town. We are nearly an all-volunteer organization with only an Office Manager and a Maintenance Manager on our payroll. Everything else is done by volunteers.



Q: What does your organization value?



Everyone in our town will agree with the following statement: The most important asset in our town is our lakes. And maintaining the water quality in those lakes is a high-value responsibility. But with that said, we are a town in the New Jersey Pinelands, with all our lakes surrounded by trees. That presents us with challenges every year.











 Q: How long have you been working with Princeton Hydro?  



The Colony started working with Princeton Hydro back in the late 1990s. I have personally been working with Princeton Hydro for around 10 years. I have partnered with nearly a dozen Princeton Hydro people, from Princeton Hydro President Geoffrey Goll, PE down to many individual Project Engineers.  









Q: What types of services have we provided to your organization?



Princeton Hydro has provided recurring dam inspection services, as well as design, permitting, and oversight work for both planned and emergency dam repair and maintenance work. There are multiple dams for which Princeton Hydro completes the NJDEP Dam Safety inspections. There have been multiple large spillway repair projects where Princeton Hydro has been the Engineer-of-Record, completing the official designs, getting Dam Safety approval,  and doing the full project management. The Princeton Hydro engineers and project managers have always been great partners on these projects. 





 Q: Do you have a favorite or most memorable project we’ve worked on together? 



Three years ago we had an emergency situation at our Wauwaushkashe Dam. Over the previous several years, unknown to us, the culvert pipe was getting increasingly clogged with organic material. Then, one Sunday, it became completely plugged.  



















The upstream lake filled till the water was a foot above the top of the outbound spillway and was threatening to overtop the dam. Through the network of volunteers we have in Medford Lakes, we were able to get a contractor out within 24 hours to clear the plug. Princeton Hydro was brought into the project because the full repair was going to require engineering design, project plan development, submission to Dam Safety, and ongoing oversight to ensure the repair was completed correctly. Princeton Hydro managed that full process with a very quick turnaround. Who would have thought that pine needles could plug a 30-inch corrugated culvert pipe?



Q: What are some exciting things your organization is working on right now?



In this line of work, around managing dams and water quality, we don’t like “exciting.” Waking up one day to a plugged culvert pipe and a lake about to overtop a dam is the kind of “excitement” we would prefer not to have! 



We are moving along with a program to install aeration bubblers in most of our lakes. We have them in about one-third of the lakes completed right now. Subject to budget constraints, we should have them in all relevant lakes within the next two years. We are also in the first year of a small longitudinal data collection project. Last fall, the Colony purchased a YSI Proline data logger which allows us to collect temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. I have partnered with another volunteer, and we have collected data from nearly a dozen lakes on multiple dates in May, June, July, and August. We have defined locations in each lake and we gather data in one-foot increments in the entire water column at each location. We are able to see water stratification developing in some of the lakes as the summer moves on and temperatures rise. I have identified a couple locations where we have underground springs flowing into specific lakes. This is just the start of a broader data collection and the analysis program the Colony wants to implement to understand the long-term dynamics of this watershed. 







Click here to read the previous edition of our Client Spotlight blog series, which features The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey:



CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey
Welcome to the newest edition of our Client Spotlight Blog Series! Each spotlight provides an inside look at our collaboration, teamwork, and accomplishments with a specific client. We value our client relationships and pride ourselves on forming strong ties with organizations that share our values of creating a better future for people and our planet....

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Strawbridge Lake is located in Moorestown Township in Burlington County, New Jersey with portions of the watershed also extending into Mount Laurel and Evesham Townships. This 33-acre, tri-basin lake is a result of the impoundment of the confluence of Hooten Creek and the North Branch of the Pennsauken Creek that dates back to the 1920s.
The lake receives surface runoff through Hooten Creek to the Upper and Middle Basins and the Lower Basin receives runoff from the headwaters of the North Branch of Pennsauken Creek. The lake then discharges back into another section of the North Branch Pennsauken Creek, which then flows into the Delaware River.
The watershed area that drains into the Strawbridge Lake is made up of an intricate mix of land uses: agriculture, new and mature residential subdivisions, office parks, major highways, retail stores, and large industrial complexes. The lake and the park area that surrounds it are heavily used for a variety of recreational activities.
Children’s Pond, which is located in Strawbridge Lake Park, is a popular fishing spot in the community. The pond initially functions as a wetland and drains from the northern portion of the watershed. Sedimentation—the naturally occurring process of the deposition and accumulation of both organic and inorganic matter in the bottom and/or banks of waterbodies—had significantly reduced the mean pond depth, thereby reducing the pond’s aesthetic appeal, impairing the fishery, contributing to eutrophication, and impacting the water quality of Strawbridge Lake. Sedimentation can also lead to contamination that poses a threat to aquatic plant and wildlife.
The dredging of Children’s Pond was identified by Princeton Hydro's Lake and Watershed Management Plan and presented to the Moorestown Township Council’s environmental committee as one of a number of immediate actions needed in order to restore the pond, preserve the health of the watershed, and reduce impacts to Strawbridge Lake. Dredging, often used as an efficient solution for sediment removal, can expeditiously restore the waterway to its original depth and condition while also removing dead vegetation, pollutants, excess nutrients, and trash that may have accumulated.
Moorestown Township Council awarded contracts to Princeton Hydro for the dredging and cleanup of the Children's Pond, which was an important part of the previously mentioned Watershed Management Plan for Strawbridge Lake.
Before the dredging could begin, a variety of surveys, field investigations, and data collection activities took place at the project site. A bathymetric survey is a critical component of any dredging project because it measures the depth of a waterbody, as well as maps the underwater features of a waterbody.

Due to the small area and shallow depths of Children’s Pond, the survey was conducted using a calibrated sounding rod and a Trimble GPS unit. The calibrated sounding rod was lowered into the water until it reached the top of the accumulated sediment. The location of the sample point and the water depth was then recorded with the GPS unit. Next, the pole was pushed down into the sediment until the point of refusal, and the bottom of sediment elevation was also recorded with the GPS unit. Data was collected from shoreline to shoreline at 25-foot transect intervals.
The data collected via the bathymetric survey, as well as the site survey, field investigations, and soil analysis, was used to shape the project’s engineering design and construction plans.
 
With the data collection process complete, Princeton Hydro was able to finalize the engineering plans and obtain all necessary permits for the project. Once the project commenced, Princeton Hydro oversaw the construction process and documented the project's progress through Daily Field Reports (DFRs).
DFRs act as a living record of the project and provide the project’s key stakeholders with full details of the team's daily performance and productivity, including arrival and departure times, the weather and temperature, equipment utilized on-site that day, a description of the work completed, and photographs of the work in progress.
This photo from the DFR on March 2, 2020 documents the beginning of excavation work in Children’s Pond:

This photo from the DFR on April 16, 2020 shows grading being completed on the west side of Children’s Pond: 

This photo from the DFR on April 20, 2020 documents the continuation (and near completion) of the excavation and grading work:

Princeton Hydro provides construction oversight services to private, public, and nonprofit clients for a variety of ecosystem restoration, water resource, and geotechnical projects across the Northeast. For more information, go here. And, to get an inside look at all that construction oversight entails, check out our blog:
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                    [post_content] => This summer, Princeton Hydro is hosting five interns, each of whom are passionate about protecting water quality and preserving our natural resources. From June to August, our interns will gain professional work experience in a variety of subject areas, ranging from stormwater management to dam restoration to ecological design to lake management and much more. They are assisting on a variety of projects, getting real-world practice in their areas of study, and working with a Princeton Hydro mentor who is helping them gain a deeper understanding of the business of environmental and engineering consulting and setting them up for career success.

Let's Meet Our Interns:
Ivy Babson, Environmental Science Intern
Ivy is a rising senior from University of Vermont, majoring in Environmental Science with a concentration in Ecological Design, and minor in Geospatial Technologies. In the future, she hopes to implement ecological design in urban areas and create a sustainable environment that would allow future generations to care for and interact with a healthy earth.

Ivy will work alongside Senior Aquatics Scientist Dr. Jack Szczepanski and the Princeton Hydro Aquatics team on projects related to lake and pond management, including fisheries management, data collection and analysis, and water quality monitoring. Recently, Ivy assisted Aquatic Ecologist Jesse Smith in completing an electrofishing survey in a Northern New Jersey river.

Learn more about Ivy.



Marissa Ciocco, Geotechnical Intern
Marissa is entering her fourth year at Rowan University where she is a Civil and Environmental Engineering major with a Bantivoglio Honors Concentration. In the future, Marissa hopes to work towards creating a greener and safer environment.

During her internship, Marissa will be mentored by Jim Hunt P.E., Geotechnical Engineer, who has already engaged Marissa in a few construction oversight projects, including a culvert restoration effort in Medford Lakes, NJ and observing geotechnical borings in Evesham, NJ.

Learn more about Marissa.



Will Kelleher, Environmental Science Intern
Will is a rising junior at the University of Vermont, studying Environmental Science with a concentration in Water Resources. His current career interests are focused around wetlands restoration and water chemistry. He recently spent two weeks studying water management and sustainable technology in the Netherlands and in the past has helped with biological and chemical stream monitoring with Raritan Headwaters Association.

Mentored by Senior Aquatics Scientist Dr. Jack Szczepanski, Will’s area of focus will be lake and pond management. He’ll spend most of his time in the field alongside members of the Aquatics Team collecting water quality data and mapping aquatic plants, learning about aquatic habitat creation, and implementing various invasive aquatic weed control efforts.

Learn more about Will. 



Veronica Moditz, Water Resources Intern
We are thrilled to welcome back Veronica, who interned with us last year, and is in her final year at Stevens Institute of Technology, pursuing a Bachelor Degree in Environmental Engineering and a Master Degree in Sustainability Management. She is currently the secretary for Steven's Environmental Engineering Professional Society chapter. In the future, she hopes to work on more sustainable approach to engineering problems.

Veronica will work alongside Project Engineer and Construction Specialist Amy McNamara, EIT, and Mary L. Paist-Goldman, P.E., Director of Engineering Services, on a variety of environmental engineering projects. Most recently, she assisted with a construction oversight and stormwater management project in Morris County, NJ.



Tucker Simmons, Water Resources Engineer
Tucker is a Civil and Environmental Engineering major at Rowan University focusing on Water Resources Engineering. His Junior Clinic experience includes the study of Bio-Cemented sand and the Remote Sensing of Landfill Fires. In the future, Tucker hopes to work on creating a more sustainable environment.

Throughout his internship, Tucker will be mentored by Dr. Clay Emerson, P.E. CFM, Senior Water Resources Engineer, and will work on projects related to stormwater management, hydrologic and hydraulic analysis, and various aspects of environmental restoration. He recently assisted with a sink hole inspection in Tredyffrin Township, PA and mapped the water depths of a lake in Bucks County, PA.



Stay tuned for updates on what our interns are working on!
…
 

 

 
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Princeton Hydro, LLC celebrates two decades of business and
unveils its new look!


Today, Princeton Hydro, LLC is proud to celebrate 20 years since its inception. Princeton Hydro has grown from a small four-person idea operating out of a living room to a 53-person qualified small business with five office locations in the Northeast region. Last year, the firm generated $7.5 million in revenue, as it continues to grow its market share and breadth of ecological and engineering services.

“We are committed to changing the world we live in for the better.  In everything we do, we strive to improve our ecosystem and our quality of life. This firm was originally built upon the ideal of creating a workplace of innovation and passion in the areas of science and engineering,” said Geoffrey Goll, Princeton Hydro’s current President and co-founder. “And, we did not do it alone; the people that were brought aboard helped grow us to what we are today, and will continue to increase our reputation of honesty, integrity, and creativity.”

Two decades ago, Mark Gallagher; Geoffrey Goll, P.E.;  Dr. Stephen Souza; and Dr. Fred Lubnow, along with several staff decided it was time to leave the corporate culture to start a new company focused on the management and restoration of water resources. All four had been employed by a small business named Coastal Environmental Services when it was bought out by the large engineering firm Post Buckley Schuh and Jernigan (PBSJ) in 1996.  None of the “fab four” really fit the “big company” mold, and so the highly regarded wetland scientist, top-notch professional engineer, and well-respected aquatic ecologists formed Princeton Hydro; a company with a mission true to their environmental roots and consistent with their moral compass.

“It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years since our humble beginning in a small office, a former dance studio lined with mirrors, above a gym in Lambertville. I am proud, yet, still somewhat amazed at how the firm evolved into a well-respected firm of over 50 employees with offices in four states,” stated Mark Gallagher, Vice President and co-founder. “All this from a few important decisions made over breakfast at a Denny’s on Route 1 in 1998 that established a vision for this company. Since that breakfast, we have had the opportunity to implement this vision and to steward the development of Princeton Hydro.”  

After moving from their home office to Lambertville, New Jersey in the same building as the original River Horse Brewing Company location, the company began to grow. At times they struggled to make ends meet, but by supporting each other and celebrating their accomplishments, the team pushed forward. Eventually, they grew so much that they moved down the road to their own office space in Ringoes, and then branched off with offices in southern New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland.

The firm and its people have won dozens of awards since its founding; the most recent honor includes the 2018 "Land Ethics Award of Merit” presented by Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve to Princeton Hydro and GreenVest, LLC for their restoration work at the Mullica River Wetland Mitigation Site.

“Over the years we remained true to our goal of doing right by the environment. Princeton Hydro has grown from a humble start-up to a well-recognized and respected leader in the management and restoration of our water, wetlands and natural resources,” said former President and co-founder Dr. Stephen Souza. “Thank you to all that have supported us and have helped us grow. Here’s to another successful 20 years!”

Importantly, it is at this point in the company’s history, the firm’s future is no longer solely dependent on its four founders as its future now relies heavily on the firm’s leadership team and staff to continue the firm’s growth into its next 20 years.  The Princeton Hydro team has the skill sets necessary to conduct highly comprehensive assessments; develop and design appropriate, sustainable solutions; and successfully bring those solutions to fruition. All of our ecological investigations are backed by detailed engineering analyses, and all of our engineering solutions fully account for the ecological and environmental attributes and features of the project site. 

“I can't believe 20 years have passed since the establishment of our firm. This is an absolute testament to Princeton Hydro's core principle of bringing together the best, most innovative people to preserve and restore a variety of ecosystems throughout the Mid-Atlantic region,” said Dr. Fred Lubnow, Director of Aquatic Programs and co-founder. “It has been a pleasure to work with Steve, Mark, Geoff and all of the staff at Princeton Hydro over the last 20 years. I’m looking forward to many more!” 

As part of Princeton Hydro’s 20th anniversary celebration, the firm unveiled a refreshed brand which includes a new logo, 20th anniversary logo, colors, and style. As we transition into this new look, we’ll be updating our online presence and external communications over the next few months.  This new style matches the evolution of our company since our original “pH” concept was designed in 1998.
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Welcome to another edition our Client Spotlight series! Each blog provides a peek into our partnership with a particular client. We value our client relationships and pride ourselves on forming strong ties with organizations that share our values of creating a better future for people and our planet. 



Meet Medford Lakes Colony



Medford Lakes Colony is a not-for-profit organization that organizes social, community, and recreational activities for the Town of Medford Lakes, New Jersey. The Colony grew out of a resort development in the early 1920’s in the heart of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens on the edge of the Pinelands National Reserve. The area was first settled hundreds of years ago by the Lenni-Lenape tribe of Native Americans.



Today the Colony lakes are still dotted by log cabin homes built according to the original plan for the community nearly a century ago.



For this Client Spotlight, we spoke to Medford Lakes Colony’s Lake Restoration Chair, Jim Palmer. 



Q: What makes your organization unique?



The Medford Lakes Colony is a nearly 100-year-old, private, not-for-profit organization. Our organization is actually older than the municipality in which we reside. We “own” the 21 lakes in our town. We are nearly an all-volunteer organization with only an Office Manager and a Maintenance Manager on our payroll. Everything else is done by volunteers.



Q: What does your organization value?



Everyone in our town will agree with the following statement: The most important asset in our town is our lakes. And maintaining the water quality in those lakes is a high-value responsibility. But with that said, we are a town in the New Jersey Pinelands, with all our lakes surrounded by trees. That presents us with challenges every year.











 Q: How long have you been working with Princeton Hydro?  



The Colony started working with Princeton Hydro back in the late 1990s. I have personally been working with Princeton Hydro for around 10 years. I have partnered with nearly a dozen Princeton Hydro people, from Princeton Hydro President Geoffrey Goll, PE down to many individual Project Engineers.  









Q: What types of services have we provided to your organization?



Princeton Hydro has provided recurring dam inspection services, as well as design, permitting, and oversight work for both planned and emergency dam repair and maintenance work. There are multiple dams for which Princeton Hydro completes the NJDEP Dam Safety inspections. There have been multiple large spillway repair projects where Princeton Hydro has been the Engineer-of-Record, completing the official designs, getting Dam Safety approval,  and doing the full project management. The Princeton Hydro engineers and project managers have always been great partners on these projects. 





 Q: Do you have a favorite or most memorable project we’ve worked on together? 



Three years ago we had an emergency situation at our Wauwaushkashe Dam. Over the previous several years, unknown to us, the culvert pipe was getting increasingly clogged with organic material. Then, one Sunday, it became completely plugged.  



















The upstream lake filled till the water was a foot above the top of the outbound spillway and was threatening to overtop the dam. Through the network of volunteers we have in Medford Lakes, we were able to get a contractor out within 24 hours to clear the plug. Princeton Hydro was brought into the project because the full repair was going to require engineering design, project plan development, submission to Dam Safety, and ongoing oversight to ensure the repair was completed correctly. Princeton Hydro managed that full process with a very quick turnaround. Who would have thought that pine needles could plug a 30-inch corrugated culvert pipe?



Q: What are some exciting things your organization is working on right now?



In this line of work, around managing dams and water quality, we don’t like “exciting.” Waking up one day to a plugged culvert pipe and a lake about to overtop a dam is the kind of “excitement” we would prefer not to have! 



We are moving along with a program to install aeration bubblers in most of our lakes. We have them in about one-third of the lakes completed right now. Subject to budget constraints, we should have them in all relevant lakes within the next two years. We are also in the first year of a small longitudinal data collection project. Last fall, the Colony purchased a YSI Proline data logger which allows us to collect temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. I have partnered with another volunteer, and we have collected data from nearly a dozen lakes on multiple dates in May, June, July, and August. We have defined locations in each lake and we gather data in one-foot increments in the entire water column at each location. We are able to see water stratification developing in some of the lakes as the summer moves on and temperatures rise. I have identified a couple locations where we have underground springs flowing into specific lakes. This is just the start of a broader data collection and the analysis program the Colony wants to implement to understand the long-term dynamics of this watershed. 







Click here to read the previous edition of our Client Spotlight blog series, which features The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey:



CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey
Welcome to the newest edition of our Client Spotlight Blog Series! Each spotlight provides an inside look at our collaboration, teamwork, and accomplishments with a specific client. We value our client relationships and pride ourselves on forming strong ties with organizations that share our values of creating a better future for people and our planet....

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