Padre Profiles

Ben Brugman

RYAN hUGHES

SARAH HARGIS 

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

Sarah Hargis

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 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.

Colleen Larsen

Mike Byerly

Melissa Marquez

Colleen Larsen

Man in work wear and safety vest with plumbing

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

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.

Eric Lucie

Seval Sen

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

Rob Tron 

Rob Tron holding mask smiling for camera

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 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.

SCOTT BROOKS

Scott Brooks smiling for camera sitting at desk
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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.