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Our staff has gained significant experience through previous engagements in such projects as environmental audits, environmental impact assessments, and phased contaminated site reviews and remediation for government, insurance companies and industry. While earth-water Concepts inc. generally does not directly undertake these types of projects, our staff's scientific management skills and past experience in these kinds of activities allows us to work competently with clients where we can help to resolve the geology, surface water and groundwater components of these projects. Plus we offer our expertise to engineers, biologists, environmental consultants, lawyers, and others to help them achieve maximum results for their clients.

Research and Assessments

For over 25 years, our principal and staff have taken the lead or have participated in various pure and applied science, research and development, and assessment projects, including:

participation in palaeomagnetic research and tectonic plate-temporal global reconstruction
assessment of acid generating materials, sampling protocol, avoidance, management and drainage control
evaluation of the cost and efficacy of various hazardous spill site remediation technologies
research and development of computer-run optical-electromagnetic material separation equipment for mining, hazardous waste reduction, and site environmental cleanup
research and development on material gravity separation for the mining industry and for site remediation of heavy metals

earth-water Concepts inc. has the scientific knowledge and capability to assist in your special research or development project: to help assure the use of appropriate research and reporting methods, credible scientific protocol, and proper quality assurance and quality control programs.

Site Monitoring Design

Municipalities, industry, engineers, and others can count on our expertise to help them obtain proper design, construction, maintenance, operation, and optimum return on investment for surface-water and groundwater monitoring systems and the data they produce.

Whether they are part of an environmental stewardship policy, or are mandated by regulation, surface water and groundwater monitoring systems must correctly represent site conditions and site dynamics. This cannot be accomplished by simply picking monitoring locations for convenience of access, or based only on topography. Good design, proper construction including good well development, and proper use, can help ensure that samples are collected in a sound, consistent manner, thus avoiding potentially costly bias in sample results initially, and over time. The tiny bit of extra effort that may be required to do it right the first time can offer significant dividends: to improve sample integrity and interpretations, yield more accurate concludions and thus, reduce needless expense. earth-water Concepts inc. can help at landfills, industrial, and other sites requiring monitoring, by:

evaluating site geology, bedrock structures, and site hydrology and hydrogeology to define optimum locations and depths for surface-water and groundwater monitoring stations
participating in, managing and interpreting pre-construction geophysical surveys to help identify subsurface features of concern that can affect proper monitoring design, and to serve also as a baseline against which to compare results from future surveys
assisting in facilities design to help property owners optimize monitoring locations and reduce installation and operating costs
designing regulator-approved monitoring schedules appropriate to sites and operations
supervising system construction, collecting and interpreting field data during construction
collecting water samples on behalf of property owners,
training site personnel in sample collection and developing quality control audit systems
interpreting sampling results and advising property owners on best management practices
evaluating existing monitoring systems and revising system design and use with the goal to improve sample quality, to optimize data collection, and reduce sampling costs

Baseline Studies

Having a clear understanding of pre-construction natural and site conditions is an important part of maintaining good environmental stewardship. It is a prerequisite to any monitoring program designed to properly identify if and where activity is causing impact to ecosystems; to any defense against allegations that there has been impact; or to show goodwill where there is public concern that there could be impact.

earth-water Concepts inc. hydrogeologists have the knowledge, observational, and scientific skills-set needed to properly assess, define and document the status of existing natural and other land conditions, including: soil and bedrock geologic surveys; surface-water and groundwater data collection system design and installation; soil, rock and water sampling and analytical interpretation; surface-water and groundwater flow and quantity evaluations; and geospatial and temporal data collection and management.

Environmental Assessments

Environmental impact assessments usually require input from a broad range of scientific disciplines. Involving a team of knowledgeable, specialist firms to complete these assessments can result in superior quality data and reports, and greater credibility with communities and regulators, often for less cost. earth-water Concepts inc. staff have participated in numerous environmental impact assessments both large and small, completing such tasks as:

local and regional soil and bedrock surveys
acid-generating material assessments and design of mitigation plans
sub-basin and whole watershed surface-water hydrology
local and regional groundwater characterization
project surface-water/groundwater use requirement and impact assessments
neighbourhood surface water, well and well water user surveys
water sampling and quality interpretation
assess soil and water quality at development sites that have past environmental legacies
stream characterization for flood prediction
assess surface-water/groundwater interaction
assess groundwater dependent ecosystems
evaluate climate change impacts on projects
evaluate storm water runoff vs. land use
contaminant assessment of receiving waters
evaluate various project option approaches against potentials for impact

Peer Reviews

Our expertise in surface-water and groundwater hydrology and hydrochemistry, and our broad experience in other related environmental studies and development projects, ideally positions earth-water Concepts inc. to serve as adviser and client's agent in the preparation of proposal requests for work that is to be completed by others, or to review relevant components of reports prepared by others to ensure the integrity of their work and recommendations. And since we are specialists who don't compete against others who boast the size or the multidisciplinary nature of their portfolio, we can offer our clients expert reviews without prejudice or commercial bias.