The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Missouri NRCS offices awarded Conservation Innovation Grants to the Environmental Resources Coalition and Geosyntec Consultants for two projects aimed at introducing water quality trading concepts in Missouri.
Mule Dam is located near the city of Ione, in Amador County, California. The 540 acre-feet reservoir holds treated effluent from nearby Mule Creek State Prison (MCSP). Classified as a high-hazard potential dam (HHPD) by the California Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD), the failure of this structure would likely cause significant damage and loss of human life. The project's objective was to evaluate the impacts of a potential breach. Information from the study was used to update the dam's Emergency Action Plan (EAP).
The LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) requested sustainability engineering services for water resources, conservation and compliance. Under legal obligations Metro is required to track, implement, and report on the following categories: climate change & resiliency, energy, solid waste & recycling, and water. In order to maintain compliance in daily operations and capital projects, Geosyntec is tasked with providing research, analysis, planning, project development, and engineering services relating to the full life cycle of Metro's water sustainability and compliance programs.
One of the world’s largest data center developers required a secure and reliable water supply and wastewater-management strategy to support the development of new data centers. This initiative encompassed several key objectives, beginning with water rights confirmation and supply reliability validation at prospective data center sites. The requirement for water-supply development is driven by the substantial water demands associated with data center cooling systems, the necessity to obtain high-quality water to meet internal design and operational standards and comply with regulations, and the developer’s goals of achieving water budget neutrality. Providing sustainable long-term operations also involved navigating complex permitting processes by coordinating with regulatory agencies and project partners, including local utility districts. This collaborative approach was essential to meet the required water demands and establish resilient water infrastructure. This work is ongoing and expands across multiple geographies, data center designs, and water-supply conditions.
PRC Holdings, LLC (PRC) engaged Geosyntec to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study for the development of a data center and associated facilities on inactive coal mine areas in Boone County, West Virginia. The study focused on the potential use of underground mine pools for sustainable cooling via ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology. Partnering with McKinstry, Geosyntec assessed hydrogeologic conditions, utility service availability, and mine pool water flow rates. The project aimed to find whether an open-loop GSHP system could provide sustainable cooling for data centers on inactive coal mine sites. Key objectives were to determine the viability of an open-loop GSHP system, assess mine pool water availability and management, evaluate fiber and electric power services required for data center operations, and collect water flow data to support system design.
A confidential client owns and operates a data center facility in Irvine, California, that includes onsite cooling towers to manage the temperature conditions in the building. The cooling towers use makeup water to manage the quality of the process water and optimize system operations. The facility is engineered and permitted to receive both potable and recycled water from the local water district, Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD). IRWD rules and regulations mandate the use of recycled water when feasible. However, our analysis has shown that, due to its characteristics, the use of IRWD’s recycled water reduces the efficiency and longevity of the cooling towers or would require significant pretreatment.
A data center client in Arizona wanted to address operational challenges with their onsite cooling towers and explore options for reducing water consumption at the facility to increase sustainability and satisfy increased water demand as a result of facility expansion.
Gulf Coast Ammonia (GCA) is an agricultural and specialty chemical manufacturing facility that has been in development since 2017. With the addition of its new greenfield anhydrous ammonia production facility on the Texas Gulf Coast, which will produce approximately 1.3 million tons of ammonia per year from hydrogen, it will become one of the largest ammonia producers. Air Products, GCA’s engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company and operator, is responsible for the development of the subsea hydrogen feedstock pipeline and the diffuser pipeline into the bay.
TES (Tree Energy Solutions) commissioned Geosyntec to provide front-end environmental studies and permitting and siting services during the conceptual and planning stages of design for two potential electric natural gas (e-NG) facilities in Texas. Design addressed phased production with a 250-megawatt electrolyzer, then use of a 500-megawatt electrolyzer to produce e-NG for European and Asian markets.
Many areas of Eastern Washington are dealing with decades of unsustainable declines in groundwater levels in local aquifers due to withdrawals exceeding natural recharge. These declines have significant economic impacts on local municipalities, agricultural users, and single domestic-well users, all of whom rely on this groundwater. These declines also have long-term impacts on local stream flows and fish habitat. The East Moxee Black Rock (EMBR) area, near Yakima, Washington, is a structural subbasin that is experiencing some of the most significant declines in groundwater in the larger Yakima basin. Our client, the Selah-Moxee Irrigation District, is leading multidisclininary feasibility studies to better understand the nature and extent of groundwater declines in the EMBR and to create a strategy to develop a new water market that would import more reliable surface water to the EMBR and reduce reliance on local aquifers. On their behalf, Geosyntec helped lead the Phase II investigations and coordinated with many stakeholders throughout the basin.
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