Water Resources

Given the ever-increasing concerns regarding environmental and ecological impacts of development, water resources engineers are critical members of project planning and design teams. MACTEC’s engineers, scientists and regulatory experts enable us to provide a full range of water resources services. With MACTEC’s comprehensive solutions, clients can avoid the added administration and costs associated with multiple consultants and contractors.

Potable Water Services
MACTEC offers planning, design-build and upgrade services for drinking water systems such as water treatment plants, pump stations, storage facilities and transmission/distribution systems. Services include:

• Asset inventory and management
• Computer meter analysis
• Distribution and storage design
• Distribution system hydraulic modeling and fire flow studies
• Master planning
• Personnel training
• SCADA control systems
• Treatment plant evaluation and design
• User rate studies
• Water disinfection study and design
• Water system audits / leak detection
• Watershed and reservoir planning and analysis
• Well and surface water supply source studies and design

Surface Water Services
With an approach combining planning and engineering with hydrology, biology and aquatic ecology, MACTEC helps clients solve technical problems, understand government regulations and acquire necessary permits. Services include:

• Erosion and sedimentation studies
• Flood protection, water quality, and assimilative capacity studies
• Hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and conceptual design
• Stormwater management
• Water quality surveys and monitoring
• Water supply studies and hydrometrics

Groundwater Services
MACTEC’s hydrogeologists, geologists and engineers are experienced in all phases of groundwater resource exploration, permitting and conservation, as well as water supply development, protection and management. Services include:

• Aquifer water quality protection strategy development
• Expert testimony
• Model development
• Monitoring and sampling
• Municipal and industrial wastewater disposal options development
• Permit application assistance including presentations to regulatory agencies
• Production well, well field, and monitoring system design
• Quality protection siting and suitability investigations
• Regional impact studies
• Remediation studies, monitoring, modeling, and design
• Salt water intrusion analyses
• Supply studies
• Water reuse and aquifer recharge feasibility studies
• Withdrawal and recharge analysis

Environmental Modeling
To meet our clients’ diverse needs, MACTEC uses a wide array of commercially available, industry-standard, and custom-designed software to provide hydraulic, hydrologic, hydrogeologic and geochemical modeling. Our capabilities include groundwater flow and transport in saturated and unsaturated zones, subsurface geochemical reactions, and stochastic modeling of input-output relationships. Typical modeling applications include:

• Air quality and emissions predictions
• Atmospheric dispersion
• Groundwater contaminant transport
• Groundwater movement and hydrology
• Surface water quality and hydrology
• Particle tracking flow
• Soil contaminant transport
• Vadose zone migration

Natural Resource Studies
During the past five years, MACTEC has performed more than 400 natural resources-related studies. Our branch offices are familiar with federal as well as local regulations specific to their operating areas. Our in-house, professional staff includes highly experienced natural resource specialists including wetland scientists, biologists, fisheries experts, and land planners. Our specific experience includes the following:

• Agency/public interest group liaison
• Environmental impact statements
• Environmental planning
• Fisheries assessments
• Mitigation management
• Permit preparation
• Protected species surveys
• Relocation of protected species
• Vegetation and habitat mapping
• Wetlands delineation, assessment and mitigation
• Wildlife surveys

Natural Resource Damage Assessments and Restorations
For nearly three decades, MACTEC’s scientists have conducted hundreds of natural resource damage assessments and restorations throughout the US and Puerto Rico, beginning with studies required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the siting of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. We began providing full-scale wetlands services in 1985, as the US Army Corps of Engineers began to enforce Section 404 of the Clean Water Act in the private sector. Since that time, we have maintained a staff of professionals dedicated to conducting wetland delineation, mitigation and restorations. Projects have included literature reviews, endangered species surveys, and field studies for plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mussels and macroinvertebrates.

Natural Resources Design Projects (Erosion Control, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Control, Floodwater Detention)
MACTEC has such an excellent reputation for constructing wetlands and other natural habitats that several regulatory agencies have adopted our plans as the standard for future projects. A thorough understanding of environmental regulations, coupled with a strategic scientific approach, enables us provide a wide range of solutions. First, we determine how the available land and natural resources may be used. Then, we work closely with our clients to ensure their needs are best served within the context of the regulations. For example, our biologists identify endangered plant and animal species, then work with agencies to relocate affected populations where feasible. We also provide permitting assistance in the areas of:

• Demonstrating NEPA compliance including Findings of No Significant Impact
• Obtaining clearance for endangered species or cultural resources to build a specific structure
• Obtaining wetland permits for reservoir construction, landfill construction and other activities

We have extensive experience performing water quality protection investigations to support point source discharge NPDES permitting. We also conduct intensive field studies using long-term biological oxygen demand testing and analyses. Field and laboratory data are used to model water quality resources for NPDES permit applications.

Our stormwater management and drainage analysis capabilities include computer modeling of hydrologic parameters to determine expected peak stormwater discharges for various frequency events. Results of our studies are used to design or analyze hydraulic structures such as culverts, channels, lakes and spillways.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Whenever possible, we use GIS software to manage, prepare, and present environmental resources modeling data. We use GIS for projects that have massive relational data requirements such as base mapping, resource/asset inventorying, point/nonpoint source studies, corridor analyses, stormwater permitting, groundwater and reservoir management, endangered species management, cultural resource management, land use management, recreational planning, and geologic exploration. Using GIS enables us to produce maps and tables that lead to highly productive meetings with clients and assist during negotiations with regulatory agencies. Our professional staff use state-of-the-art software such as ARC/INFO, ERDAS, MGE, Inroads, Oracle and Project Architect.