Lisa Austin

To help clients achieve stringent water quality goals, Geosyntec provides rigorous assessment and modeling services to assess the sources and factors that affect the delivery of critical pollutants across watersheds. Through our comprehensive studies and analyses, we provide technically defensible tools and approaches that can be used in the development of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) calculations and watershed protection plans. In addition, we frequently turn to Use Attainability Analyses to examine site-specific water quality criteria that affect attainability goals under natural, human-caused, and economic conditions. Our hydrodynamic and water-quality models integrate inputs from point and nonpoint sources to support our engineers and scientists as they study impacts on water quality in receiving water. These models allow us to understand the assimilative capacities of a given body of water, propose best management practices that can affect pollutant impacts, and predict the time required for a system to recover after being altered. Using watershed studies, water quality monitoring, and hydrological and hydrodynamic modeling, we also can assess compliance with local, state, and federal water quality standards. Using all this information, we are better able to evaluate the magnitude, frequency, and duration of impacts of a wide variety of pollutant sources. Our practitioners offer extensive experience with geographic information system applications for spatial analysis, planimetric and thematic mapping, and data representation. We employ watershed models including the Watershed Characterization System (WCS), Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS), and the Watershed Assessment Model (WAMView). We also employ the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP), the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC), and the Stream Water Quality Model (QUAL2K) for hydrodynamic and water-quality models. Our practitioners are at the forefront of policy analyses, regulatory compliance, and technology applications that promote sustainable water resources management and ecosystem restoration. We have extensive experience helping local governments develop and negotiate long-term control plans for combined sewer overflows, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, and consent orders. We also comment on Clean Water Act issues at the state and national level, including the development of new recreational use criteria for water bodies across the county and for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new framework for integrated planning for wastewater and stormwater.