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His professional career started with a hydropower relicensing project in Michigan performing stream flow and fishery surveys. His next endeavor brought him into the world of water quality working for the Monroe County Health Department’s Environmental Health Lab, in Rochester, NY. Water quality monitoring, including sampling and lab tests, was performed for closed landfills, trout streams and potable water within the Irondequoit Creek and Genesee River watersheds. He then spent over nine years working for NYSDEC in the Bureaus of both Inland and Marine Fisheries before transferring to NYSDOT in 1999. Scott has worked in DOT’s Hudson Valley region for over 25 years performing stormwater and erosion control inspections as required by New York’s SPDES permit for construction projects. He also performed GIS based environmental screenings and permitting for emergency contracts and trains summer inspectors and new hires. He acquired his CPESC in 2005 and his CESSWI
in 2023.
The Hudson Valley region is a very diverse region. It includes the high peaks of the Catskill Mountains, about 80 miles of the tidally influenced Hudson River and shoreline along Long Island Sound. Most of the New York City drinking water supply either originates here or passes through the region in the form of aqueducts. It also has many miles of trout streams, a variety of threatened and endangered species and over 6000 lane miles of roadway. Major projects during Scott’s DOT career included multiple phases of upgrades along the I-287 corridor in Westchester County, Stewart airport access in Orange County which included clearing for new highway construction and realignment of existing roads and interchanges, replacement of the I-84 bridge deck over the Delaware River, several bridge replacement projects over the Esopus Creek in Ulster County and realignment of portions of the Taconic State Parkway which included removal of an at grade intersection at Pudding Street in Putnam County and bridge replacements in Yorktown, Westchester County. Scott retired from NYSDOT in November of 2023 and returned to that job part time in May of 2024.
Scott’s appreciation for the outdoors and environmental quality started at an early age. He grew up on 14 acres that included mixed hardwoods, a small sugarbush, a stream and wetland and about 1.5 acres of garden space. As a 4-H member he learned to canoe and fish. He applies the values learned throughout his life to protecting nature in hopes that others can have the same opportunities.
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