Consulting Services

Itasca provides consulting services in mining hydrogeology, contaminant hydrogeology, aqueous geochemistry, and seismology. Staff hydrogeologists, geochemists, engineers, geologists, and geophysicists specialize in solving hydrogeologic and seismic related problems in the mining, petroleum, and environmental industries, with extensive experience working with regulatory agencies to achieve practical, cost-effective solutions to a broad range of environmental problems.

The company is fully equipped to decipher complex hydrogeologic systems, such as those associated with ore bodies, highly-fractured bedrock, and complex depositional and/or tectonic environments. Itasca solves problems using effective methods and clearly communicates study results to clients and other stakeholders. Itasca offers a variety of services that build on its foundation of hydrogeologic expertise involving the practical and efficient application of fundamental principles to real-world problems:

• Baseline hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization
• Evaluation of groundwater supplies and identification of groundwater recharge/discharge relationships
• Exploration and development of groundwater supplies for mines, mills, and leaching operations, as well as technical support in obtaining groundwater rights and permits
• Development of conceptual hydrogeologic models
• Development of numerical groundwater flow models
• Prediction of mine dewatering rates and impacts, such as the extent of drawdown
• Prediction of pore pressures and phreatic surfaces in highwalls during mining (e.g., as inputs for slope stability analyses)
• Prediction of the rate-of-formation of mine pit lakes
• Prediction of dewatering-induced subsidence and the subsidence zone of influence surrounding open pit and underground mines
• Design and optimization of dewatering systems and evaluation of alternative dewatering systems
• Design and installation of test, observation (monitoring), and production wells (including technical specifications and bid packages), as well as analysis of step-drawdown tests and production logs
• Design and analysis of aquifer tests, especially in more problematic fractured rock, low permeability materials, or cold regions
• Evaluation and optimization of gold heap-leach operations using a gold heap-leach simulator
• Hydrogeologic evaluation of covers using vadose-zone codes
• Expert witness, second opinion, and litigation support

Itasca works directly with industries, government agencies, law firms, and as specialists to other consulting firms in roles that address a wide range of water resource issues. Extensive experience with quantitative assessment of groundwater flow and water quality enables the company to efficiently provide clients with reliable information that is critical for attaining their operational and environmental goals as well as for navigating the complex technical, legal, and permitting aspects of water resources. Itasca’s experience ranges from providing recommendations of approaches to remediate small diesel spills to conducting detailed investigations and hydrologic and geochemical modeling for Superfund sites.