Melissa Downes embarked on her Ecology career in 2001 with the Water Resources Program (WRP) in the Central Regional Office (CRO).  She has broad range of water rights experience from providing hydrogeology support for water rights permitting activities to engaging in regional water supply issues to CRO WRP Section Manger.  

Currently, Melissa serves as technical and policy lead for the Office of Columbia River (OCR).  In this role, she assists with project development for OCR, including technical, permitting and policy evaluations of water supply development projects such as storage reservoirs, ASR projects, pump exchanges, water acquisitions, and conservation projects.