Author Description
Karl Morgenstern became the Watershed Restoration Program Manager for the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) in October 2020, leading the response to the devastation of the Holiday Farm Fire. Previously he was the Source Protection & Water Quality Supervisor for EWEB and managed EWEB’s Watershed Protection, Water Quality Laboratory, and Water Quality Compliance groups. He has spent twenty years at EWEB developing and implementing a drinking water source protection program to safeguard Eugene’s sole source of drinking water — the McKenzie River. This program focuses on assessing and understanding the various threats to drinking water and working with numerous partners and watershed stakeholders to implement actions that mitigate for these threats. He is currently leading the Watershed Recovery Task Force as part of Lane County Emergency Operations in response to the Holiday Farm Fire. Prior to EWEB, Karl spent ten years at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and seven years as an environmental consultant managing high priority cleanups at abandoned hazardous waste sites and responding to hazardous material spills. While at DEQ he helped develop the time-critical removal program and abandoned mines program. He received a bachelors degree in geography from the University of Kansas. Karl is on the Board of Directors of the East Lane Forest Protection Association, Carpe Diem West, and the McKenzie Watershed Council and represents EWEB on the EPA Columbia River Toxics Reduction Working Group.
