President, Sr. Hydrogeologist
A native of Manitoba, Rick Gagné earned his B.Sc. with Honours in Geology and a minor in Chemistry from Carleton University, and went to work in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia as an oil and gas exploration geologist for Shell Canada and junior petroleum exploration companies.His thesis work and his work for oil exploration companies examined buried river channel deposits, mostly within Cretaceous terrestrial, deltaic, and shallow coastal marine paleao-environments. Later Rick worked as lead geologic researcher providing design input for building new computerized ore sorting equipment for use by the mining industry, and for use in waste reduction and management.
Rick did his Master's level studies in Hydrogeology at the Technical University of Nova Scotia (now Dal-Tech), during which time his research focused on water resource assessment, exploration, and protection.
Prior to founding earth-water Concepts inc. and its predecessor company, Rick was the Senior Hydrogeologist and a Lead Environmental Auditor for the Environmental Services Group at Public Works and Government Services Canada, and Senior Hydrogeologist at other consulting firms where he planned and managed large and small-scale hydrologic field investigations, managed contamination hydrogeology projects,installed monitoring networks, developed groundwater supplies, and collected thousands of water-quality samples.
Rick offers customized service in English and French and is a licensed geoscientist with the province of Nova Scotia. He is a founder and an inaugural member of Council for the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Nova Scotia. Rick is a member of the International Association of Hydrogeologist, the National Groundwater Association, the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers, he is past chair of the Halifax Lakes and Waterways Advisory Committee, and is Director of the Technical Division of the Nova Scotia Ground Water Association.