Michael L. Johnson, Ph.D.

President

Qualifications

Dr. Michael L. Johnson is the President and Managing Partner of MLJ-LLC. Dr. Johnson began his career at the University of Kansas performing water quality research in mixed use watersheds in Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. Dr. Johnson worked at the University of California, Davis from 1992-2010 beginning as a Research Scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He joined the Center for Watershed Sciences in the John Muir Institute of the Environment in 1998 and also joined the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Johnson will be leaving the University of California, Davis in July 2010 to focus on consulting.

Experience

Dr. Johnson brings over 25 years of extensive experience in basic and applied research to problems involving surface water quality. He was the Principal Investigator on numerous projects including modeling the hydrodynamics and sediment transport for marsh restoration efforts in North and South San Francisco Bay, and performing ecological risk assessments at closing military installations in northern and southern California. As a Staff Scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS), his position involved analyzing water quality data using statistical and modeling techniques where he was the first person to apply structural equation modeling techniques to ecotoxicological problems. Since arriving at the University of California, he has directed various regional water quality programs including monitoring and reporting for the multi-year organophosphate Total Maximum Daily Load and "Phase II Ag Waiver" programs for the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. He is currently completing the design of a Delta Island Monitoring Program with the goal of identifying sources of pesticides to Delta waterways. Through his role as President of MLJ-LLC, Dr. Johnson is the technical program manager for the San Joaquin County and Delta Water Quality Coalition (SJCDWQC) and the East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition (ESJWQC). In this capacity, MLJ-LLC is required to conduct required monitoring in accordance with detailed protocols, and prepare technical reports in an objective manner. Dr. Johnson's firm has designed and managed complex surface water monitoring programs for both coalitions and has been involved in identifying and quantifying the sources of a number of anthropogenic and natural contaminants with the goal of managing inputs to surface and ground water. Dr. Johnson has extensive experience developing innovative tools to assist in identifying sources of discharge of numerous constituents to surface waters. Over the last few years, Dr. Johnson has been a contributor to several panels and workgroups such as serving as one of the co-leaders for the Delta Regional Ecosystem Implementation Plan (DRERIP) team, the Principal Investigator for the Pelagic Organism Decline Contaminants Synthesis and the Ammonia Literature Review projects, member of the Bay-Delta Sediment Quality Objectives workgroup, the State of California's Clean Beaches Task Force, and the National Fish and Wildlife Service team that developed the recent Biological Opinion for the Delta smelt.

Selected Publications

  • Johnson, M. L. 2006. Water quality in agricultural landscapes in the Central Valley: Is the glass half empty or half full? UC-ANR Surface Water Quality Workshop. Woodland, CA April 27, 2006.
  • Kiernan, J.D. and M.L. Johnson. 2004. Using Marine-Derived Nitrogen in Riparian Tree Rings to Assess Nutrient Flux and Salmon Escapement. 22nd Annual Salmon Restoration Federation Conference, Davis CA. March 20, 2004.
  • Kaplan, J. D., R. E. Howitt, M. L. Johnson, and J. H. Viers. 2004. Managing water temperature TMDLs under economic and environmental uncertainty. Selected paper prepared for presentation at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado August 1-4, 2004.
  • T. Rajkumar and M. L. Johnson. 2001. Salinity Prediction of the San Francisco Bay-Delta area using neural networks. Proceedings of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics. Arizona, USA
  • Johnson, M. L., L. Holmes, A. Salveson, M. S. Denison, and D. M. Fry. 1998. Environmental estrogens in agricultural drain water from the Central Valley of California. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 60:609-614.