Lester McKee
Lester McKee, PhD
Senior Environmental Scientist
Clean Water Program
Bay Regional Monitoring Program
Sediment
Sources, Pathways, & Loadings
415-847-5095
With a B.Sc. (Hons) in Geology from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and a Ph.D. in resource science from Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia, Dr. McKee is an applied scientist who designs and implements studies to inform environmental management and policy. His research career began with a focus on nutrient biogeochemistry in subtropical watersheds and estuaries. He then joined SFEI in 2000 to lead a team of scientists carrying out geomorphic and water quality research in watershed sediment and contaminant processes. His fields of interest include:
- Design and implementation of urban water quality monitoring programs,
- Whole system mass balance in watersheds and bays,
- Watershed and tributary sediment and pollutant mass loadings,
- Pollutant source identification, prioritization, and source tracking,
- Performance analysis of best management practices (BMPs) and low impact design (LID), and
- Modeling sediment and pollutant transport and optimizing placement of BMPs and LID for water quantity and quality improvement.
His other interests include gardening and landscaping, squash, tennis, and most forms of aerobic exercise, documentary media of all forms, and healthy eating.
Related Projects, News, and Events
Climate change models forecast that California’s fluctuations between dry and wet years will grow more intense as the globe warms. So when Zone 7 Water Agency’s territory sustained severe damage in the storms of 2017 following the drought of 2012-2016, it catalyzed increased preparation for a future of greater climate extremes.
Catalyzed by the extensive damages caused by the Winter 2016-2017 storms and the opportunity to align flood response with major habitat improvement, Preparing for the Storm is an innovative public-private partnership to improve watershed health and resilience in the Alameda Creek watershed.
![Images: Pete Kauhanen](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/McCosker.png?itok=-iG2gSbm&c=2f550f48131a8f8d3878f7ce693262eb)
At the McCosker Creek Restoration site, 3,000 linear feet of creek channel that previously had been flowing through underground culverts since the 1950s was daylighted and reconstructed. In addition, invasive and non native plants were removed and replaced with over 5,000 native plants. The restoration was also designed to support erosion control, and provide habitat for wildlife and aquatic species including rainbow trout, California red-legged frog and the Alameda whipsnake. This restoration work began in 2020 and concluded in 2023.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Cover%20Pages%20from%20SFEI_RMP_Update%202023_v13_101123%20130pm.png?itok=pgR4InCF&c=1f64562500333563b23eaead1616fa94)
The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay is an innovative collaboration of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulated discharger community, and the San Francisco Estuary Institute. It provides water quality regulators with the information they need to manage the Bay effectively. The RMP produces two types of summary reports: The Pulse of the Bay and the RMP Update. The Pulse focuses on Bay water quality and summarizes information from all sources.
![Conceptual diagram of sediment dynamics](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/ConceptualUnderstanding_Subembayment_v1.jpg?itok=AhRKGb7t&c=9ef57db8101b5529f5a105a09d5412ae)
Sediment is a lifeblood of San Francisco Bay. It serves three key functions: (1) create and maintain tidal marshes and mudflats, (2) transport nutrients and contaminants, and (3) reduce impacts from excessive human-derived nutrients in the Bay. Because of these important roles, we need a detailed understanding of sediment processes in the Bay.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/rwsm-logo2.png?itok=VY1rraly&c=6324a053e6de9d1007e4b4479c424829)
The Regional Watershed Spreadsheet Model (RWSM) was developed to estimate average annual regional and sub-regional scale loads for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is part of a class of deterministic empirical models based on the volume-concentration method.
![Photo Credits: Micha Salomon (L), Dee Shea Himes (R)](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/HealthyWatershedsResilientBaylands.jpg?itok=3nbBLx57&c=63c841a77d60371fb78dcb9fab0438de)
Through the EPA-funded Healthy Watersheds Resilient Baylands project, SFEI and sixteen partner organizations are developing multi-benefit tools to enhance climate change resilience in San Francisco Bay. Healthy Watersheds Resilient Baylands has two major components: Multi-benefit Urban Greening and Tidal Wetlands Restoration. Through both components, we have developed strategies that inform policy, planning, and design of innovative implementation projects.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/nodumping.jpg?itok=lAu5VB52)
SFEI collaborated with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program to monitor the effectiveness of Low Impact Design elements constructed at the Gellert Park/Serramonte Main Branch Library in Daly City.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/GreenplanIT.png?itok=VkQcoqGC&c=5283f37725ad1e867c5982bb40bfe505)
Green infrastructure (GI), such as permeable pavement, rain gardens, tree-well planters, or bioswales, can be used as cost-effective, resilient approaches to managing stormwater at its source while delivering environmental, social, and economic benefits for your community. GreenPlan-IT is a versatile open-source toolset that helps aid municipalities with their efforts to plan and evaluate the placement of green infrastructure in the landscape and track the effectiveness of these installations in reducing stormwater run-off, PCB, and mercury in receiving waters.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/GreenPlan-IT.png?itok=XnweRzAU)
With the conclusion of the first round of funding for the Green Plan Bay Area project http://www.sfestuary.org/our-projects/water-quality-improvement/greenplanning/, SFEI produced GreenPlan-IT in collaboration with SFEP, a technical advisory committee, pilot partners, and BASMAA. GreenPlan-IT is an innovative planning tool to help municipalities evaluate multiple management alternatives for green infrastructure in the urban landscape.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/2016-05-13_1552.png?itok=IFNDeq3x)
GreenPlan-IT, a toolset created in a collaboration with SFEP, US EPA, and local partners, has been featured in the newsletter of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council, which has in turn been distributed broadly to subscribers throughout the nation and beyond.
The Hacienda Avenue Green Street Project in Campbell, California, reconstructed 1.4 km of public right of way along W. Hacienda Avenue from Winchester Boulevard to Burrows Road. In collaboration with the City of Campbell and the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, scientists from SFEI installed monitoring equipment in two adjacent basins to measure how the basins infiltrated water over the course of a rainy season. This award-winning project infiltrated 100% of the stormwater flowing into it during the rainy season of 2015-2016.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/Screen%20Shot%202017-03-20%20at%2010.08.57%20AM.png?itok=W73gIxfA)
SFEI’s GreenPlan-IT is a planning level toolkit which help municipalities with green infrastructure planning, assessment and reporting. Green infrastructure is a multi benefit tool that helps to restore the natural water cycle of infiltration and filtration (most notably of mercury and PCBs) within the urban environment.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/gpII.png?itok=vNfsU2Zh&c=022cce49012f31a0958536b8a600a380)
SFEI has completed development of Phase II of our GreenPlan-IT application -- a toolset to empower municipalities to plan, assess, track, and report their green infrastructure investments. This helps restore the water cycle and improve filtration of water quality contaminants. In the latest round of implementation work, we collaborated with the cities of Richmond, Oakland, Sunnyvale, and the county of Contra Costa to meet their green infrastructure planning and reporting needs, while also providing needed enhancements to the toolset in response to user feedback.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/CW%20Journal%20%281%29.png?itok=9CkxggIK&c=25809f92597db4a4b407f585fac0d13c)
A team led by Dr. Jing Wu penned a paper in January on using Green Stormwater Infrastructure to protect the Bay from PCBs and other contaminants. "Optimal Selection and Placement of Green Infrastructure in Urban Watersheds for PCB Control" is now featured in the Editor’s Choice section of the Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment for the American Society of Civil Engineers.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Russian-River-Watershed-Projects-v2_map.png?itok=mFCXUU3g&c=c6748ea34f81b3ce5b6c7f85cb2b7913)
Our projects in the Russian River Watershed help us to understand our past, understand our present, and envision our future. Learn more about what SFEI is doing in partnership with others to advance our scientific understanding of this valuable landscape.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/Sediment%20for%20Survival%20title%20page%20for%20web.jpg?itok=OySjbTn9&c=2c112be9407b1c7923a374c2df8f00ff)
SFEI worked with local, state, and federal science experts to develop the new Sediment for Survival report. The report provides a regional sediment strategy aimed at examining the future of sediment in the Bay and informing sediment management for the resilience of tidal marshes and tidal flats to climate change.
The release of “Towards a Coarse Sediment Strategy for the Bay Area” represents a step forward towards beneficially reusing coarse flood control channel sediment by outlining reuse challenges, and identifying incentives for participation and potential solutions.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/Alameda.jpg?itok=zDGGQGOO&c=9797612db8bc0f5777f34b5aa4ee8e2c)
Alameda Creek is the largest watershed in the Bay area draining approximately 650 square miles of the East Bay interior hills and valleys, including the Livermore-Amador and Sunol valleys. The creek then cuts through the East Bay Hills via Niles Canyon before flowing across its large alluvial fan and floodplain complex, ultimately discharging into the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay. Average annual rainfall in the watershed varies from 24 inches on Mt Hamilton at an elevation of 4,400 ft above sea level to 15 inches near the Bay margin in Fremont.
The Small Tributaries Loading Strategy (STLS) is overseen by the Sources, Pathways, and Loadings Workgroup. It focuses on loadings from small tributaries (the rivers, creeks, and storm drains that enter the Bay downstream of Chipps Island), in coordination with the Municipal Regional Permit for Stormwater (MRP).
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