Our People

Board of Directors

Biography:

Mr. O’dell was both a paid part-time employee and a volunteer on the Mammoth Cave groundwater studies conducted by Dr. James F. Quinlan from 1975 to 1985. In 1979 he attended Indiana University where he also worked for Geosciences Research Associates as a part-time geological technician while a student and after graduation as a geologist doing coal mine permitting, limestone mine permitting, landfill permitting, lab analysis and groundwater studies which included numerous karst and contaminate studies. He started to work for the Kentucky Division of Water’s newly formed Groundwater Section in 1985 as a geologist and groundwater hydrologist. There he worked on contaminant and karst problems around the state which included assisting in the mapping of karst basins and working to help implement the Caveland Sanitation project which helped to protect Hidden River Cave and Mammoth Cave. He also worked on many high-level contamination court cases involving PCB’s, radionuclides, and dense non-aqueous phase liquids in groundwater. He was also instrumental in helping to use both state and federal law to get the underground waters at Mammoth Cave designated as Outstanding Resources Waters giving them much more needed federal protection. He served on the boards for both the Kentucky Water Well Association and the Kentucky Groundwater Association. He was an active cave surveyor, is a 50-year NSS member and is a Life Member of the Blue Grass Grotto. He was a primary surveyor of Whigpistle cave, Hick’s Cave, and numerous other caves in the Mammoth region. He was one of the driving forces that constructed the WAR Entrance to Hick’s cave that is now owned by the ACCA. He is a semi-retired Registered Professional Geologist and lives with his youngest son in Lexington, KY.