About

Toney Ott

Toney Ott has been with the Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 over 40 years ago. Toney began her career as an aquatic field biologist and has assessed and sampled waters across the west.  Toney has worked developed a strong fish advisory program in Region 8, worked in the nonpoint source program, worked in the aquatic invasive species field and water/wetland monitoring and assessment.  Toney began working with the Region 8 wetlands team about 20 years. She was an active member of the waters of the U.S. Workgroup and helped with the completion of the first guidance for jurisdiction and initial rulemaking. She led the Region 8 workgroup to ensure consistent implementation of jurisdictional determinations, trained EPA and other water staff personnel on the processes and field support work.

She has been involved in the CWA Section 401 and 404 program. She provides support to the NEPA program, reviewing and providing comments on water and wetlands issues. Under 404 she has reviewed  a wide of range of projects, including pipelines, residential and industrial development, dam removal, hydroelectric facility redesign and relicensing, and supported the jurisdictional reviews. She also organized four regional wetland workshops that had participants from all levels of government and the private wetland world.  Toney led the 401 program  for 20 years and continues to support the program.  Toney is the lead for tribal wetlands technical assistance and grant program management. For the past 6 years Toney has been supporting EPA rule making.

Toney is an interdisciplinary riparian, wetland, and river ecologist with a diverse background in wetland, stream, floodplain, and watershed research support, restoration, and planning. Because of this broad background, she is able to see projects in their larger context and always work to see both the forest and the trees (and the watershed and floodplain).

Toney has organized and managed a number of large national and regional workshops and conferences. She has been able to bring diverse groups together to present on emerging and standard aquatic biology assessment methodologies and monitoring. Accordingly, I can help organizations of all sizes synthesize, create, and communicate scientific information and meetings to meet their needs.

I got my start in the field, monitoring and auditing wastewater and drinking water facilities. The other aspect of my position involved sampling, monitoring and assessing riparian, stream, river, wetlands and wetland complex ecosystems to inform adaptive ecosystem management and restoration, natural resource policy development, and environmental planning efforts. I am currently involved in Clean Water Act rule making, implementation of rules and guidance development, education of tribal professionals, policy and planning of environmental programs. I am knowledgeable in the development of wetland programs including monitoring, developing restoration and criteria to protect aquatic resources.

I am an experienced project manager, grant manager, assisting in the development of work plans and budgets, and developing successful programs to protect aquatic resources. I have managed over 75 grants, working with our applicants to develop and manage strong, nonpoint source, water quality, fish consumption and wetland programs. I have been able to develop relationships with diverse groups of stakeholders, scientists, policymakers, and interagency teams. As an experienced scientist, I specialize in the technical aspects of aquatic programs, but also my leadership and policy experience allow me to place ecosystem science into the policy and stewardship contexts that matter to agencies, companies, and society. Some of these contexts include the National Environmental policy Act (both Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements) Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act (including section 404, 402 and 401 programs), and tribal trust responsibilities outreach.