Padre Profiles

Joe Guzzino

Ben Brugman

RYAN hUGHES

Joe Guzzino

Any time you need it, clean, safe water is available with the turn of a knob for drinking, cooking, cleaning, landscaping and more. This is in part thanks to the work of Joe Guzzino, Padre Dam's Water Quality Specialist. Joe is responsible for performing weekly, monthly and quarterly tests to ensure that drinking water delivered to homes meets all state and federal drinking water standards.


Read more about Joe. 

Ben Brugman

As we begin a new Fiscal Year our Padre Profile for this month highlights the important tasks of the District's Accounting Specialist Ben Brugman. Ben has worked at Padre Dam since 2015 and has the opportunity to work on multiple aspects of accounting, including accounts payable, vendor billing, financial reporting and payroll. Ben and the finance team help ensure financial stability while safeguarding the District's assets.

Read more about Ben.


Ryan Smiling at Ray Stoyer Water Recycling Facility

Ryan Hughes is Padre Dam's talented Recycled Water Operations Supervisor who ensures that the plant runs efficiently 24 hours a day to keep up with the demand of recycled water for Santee Lakes and the purple pipe system. Recycled water in Santee comes from the Ray Stoyer Water Recycling Facility (WRF), located a few miles north of Santee Lakes.

Read more about Ryan.

SARAH HARGIS 

Colleen Larsen

Mike Byerly

Sarah Hargis

Colleen Larsen

Man in work wear and safety vest with plumbing

Sarah Hargis is a utility worker in Padre Dam's wastewater workgroup. Sarah and her team work together to ensure that the wastewater collection system is functioning correctly.

Read more about Sarah.

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Coordinator Colleen Larsen has been mapping and analyzing Padre Dam's infrastructure for almost twenty years. Colleen and her team maintain spatial data on all of Padre Dam's assets such as pump stations, pipes, valves, laterals and more. 

Read more about Colleen.

Who's that guy working on the side of the road in an orange T-shirt? It could be Padre Dam Utility Worker Mike Byerly. Mike is on the ground every day making sure that the community's water system is working by performing water service repairs, fixing main breaks and laying new installations. Most of the time, Mike can be found replacing aging valves.

Read more about Mike.

Melissa Marquez

Eric Lucie

Seval Sen

Melissa Marquez
Eric Lucie smiling for camera
Woman sitting at computer smiling for camera

Melissa Marquez is a lab analyst at Padre Dam and spends her days in our sunny lab in Santee testing the District's water, recycled water and wastewater. Padre Dam's lab has the responsibility of providing data to operators to help ensure that all state and federal standards are being met.

Read more about Melissa.

Padre Dam's service area experiences elevation changes of over 2,300 feet. Additional infrastructure, such as pump stations, are required to deliver water to higher elevations. It's Eric's job to make sure that strategically placed pumps can move water to these higher elevations. He also works to ensure that our wastewater is pumped to a central location for disposal or treatment.

Read more about Eric.

Seval Sen has a passion for wastewater. She enjoys the challenge of working with water containing unknown and varying components. As an engineer at Padre Dam, Seval works to plan updates, improvements and expansions of Padre Dam's existing infrastructure including pipes, tanks and pumps.

Read more about Seval.

Rob Tron 

SCOTT BROOKS

Rob Tron holding mask smiling for camera
Scott Brooks smiling for camera sitting at desk

Rob is the Lead Field Services Technician at Padre Dam, and describes his job as "The most interesting job on the planet". Rob started out at Padre Dam over 20 years ago as a temporary meter tech and now leads a team of five.

Read more about Rob.

If you have ever called or emailed Padre Dam, there's a good chance the person on the other end of the conversation was Scott Brooks. Scott has worked at Padre Dam as a Customer Service Representative for almost 5 years, and works closely everyday with both customers and staff.

Read more about Scott.