Natural Resource Monitoring
Geosyntec uses biological assessment and monitoring to create an accurate picture of the affected environment. Our services reliably evaluate the health of streams, rivers, lakes, and ocean environments. In addition, we can offer a less expensive alternative to complex chemical testing programs. Relying on deep experience, our team evaluates the ecological health of a given environment to show how organisms integrate the effects of varied stressors at your site over time. This means Geosyntec can characterize long-term ecological issues and understand the status of highly valued biological communities. By examining a variety of species, their life stages, their survival, and their health, Geosyntec deciphers complex relationships among habitats, bioregions, and ultimately, water and sediment quality. Geosyntec has experienced biologists who efficiently conduct fish and invertebrate collection for both site investigations and NPDES-permit compliance. We also partner with industry-leading laboratories to analyze samples, compile metric scores and data into a project database, and use geographic information system capabilities to define spatial relationships and ensure data consistency and comparability. Geosyntec's biological monitoring services include fish tissue collection for analysis of chemicals of concern; fish population and macroinvertebrate/plankton community studies; fish-kill investigations; and sediment infaunal invertebrate studies. We also conduct habitat inventories and assessments; sediment and water quality toxicity testing; ecological risk assessments; and Natural Resource Damage Assessments. Our practitioners compile environmental impact statements for compliance with National Environmental Policy Act requirements and consult with clients on Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 wetland permitting, Section 401 water quality certification, and threatened and endangered species surveys related to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Section 7 requirements. For more than a dozen clients, Geosyntec has monitored the concentrations of chemicals found in fish tissue over many years. Often, the fish community is exposed to chemicals via direct or indirect uptake from contaminated sediments. By monitoring the fish tissue concentrations over time, the effectiveness of an environmental remedy can be evaluated. Additionally, biota-sediment accumulation models can be developed and refined to support informed management decisions. This has been used for both active remedies (like dredging) and passive remedies (like MNR). These monitoring data provide our clients and the regulatory agencies with an accurate picture of the affected environment.
