Errin Kemper named Springfield Director of Environmental Services

(From the City of Springfield)

Errin Kemper has been named the City’s Director of Environmental Services, effective April 1, 2018. Kemper succeeds Steve Meyer, who is retiring.

Kemper has been Assistant Director of Environmental Services at City of Springfield since January 2013. He previously worked for the City as a Professional Engineer for more than 10 years, serving in the stormwater engineering division of Public Works.

The Department of Environmental Services is one of the City’s largest departments, overseeing the sanitary sewer system, wastewater treatment plants, solid waste management and recycling, air quality, sustainability efforts and integrated planning for the environment. Environmental services also works in partnership with the Public Works Department to provide programs, projects, and services to meet the stormwater management needs of the community and protect the quality of our streams, rivers, and lakes.

Kemper has been recognized nationally as an expert in integrated planning for the environment and has shared the first-of-its-kind Springfield-Greene County plan with communities from coast to coast. City Manager Greg Burris said Kemper will be a strong leader navigating increasingly challenging waters ahead.

Like many other communities across the nation, Springfield is addressing the challenge of increasingly stringent environmental regulations from every front. Our community is required to devote an increasing amount of money and resources to comply with these regulations. In the midst of these increasing environmental obligations and the economic importance of protecting our environmental resources, however, Springfield is facing growing levels of poverty and an increasing demand for public spending.

In response to this, leaders from the City of Springfield, Greene County and City Utilities developed a holistic approach (integrated plan for the environment) proposing to use local knowledge to examine our environmental resources related to air, water, and land resources.

“Quality environmental resources are especially important to the Ozarks since much of our economic development, tourism and overall quality of life are directly tied into the quality of our air and water,” Burris said. “Errin has a unique set of skills and understands the technical details, but also sees the bigger picture, while being an approachable leader. He’s an emerging rock star in this industry.”

Kemper is a licensed professional engineer as well as a board certified water resources engineer. He has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and a master's in civil engineering with emphasis in water resources, also from Missouri S&T.