Water Stewardship

The Water Stewardship Team at Falkirk is equipped to serve our clients through the application of practical industry-standard approaches and science-based innovative solutions to water management and mitigations. The team has extensive expertise in supporting operations, strategy, and engagement related to water. The team excels in collaborating with clients across corporate and site-levels to seamlessly integrate data-driven analytics and metrics into their water sustainability strategy, improve efficiencies, and develop and achieve robust environmental and social water stewardship goals.

Support from the Water Stewardship Team can be provided throughout the project life-cycle and regulatory approvals process including environmental assessments and permitting applications, as well as site operations with compliance monitoring, operational water modelling, geochemical characterization and modelling, hydrogeological interpretation, strategic planning and decision-making, and reporting.

The team is highly skilled in developing, maintaining, and updating water balance and water quality modelling of complex mine sites, with support from a multi-disciplinary team of dedicated modellers, data scientists, geochemists, hydrogeologists, GIS analysts, water quality scientists, hydrologists, water resources engineers, and water treatment specialists. The team continues to grow its expertise in other key service areas, including climate change, risk assessments, and reclamation and closure.
As a multidisciplinary team, some of the interdisciplinary water stewardship services offered include:

  • Technical Direction and Planning
    • Senior technical direction of components of complex regulatory applications
    • Mitigation planning and design, including scenario analyses
    • Best available technology assessments for water treatment

  • Modelling and Characterization
    • Geochemical characterization and modelling
    • Hydrogeological characterization
    • Site water balance models, including development and third-party reviews
    • Catchment-based water balance and water quality models
    • Modelling support for PEA, mine planning, detailed project descriptions, and feasibility studies

  • Design and Evaluation
    • Water supply evaluation and development
    • Drinking water source protection
    • Water treatment design basis models
    • Evaluating effluent discharge and assimilative capacity studies

  • Management Plans, Permitting, and Licensing
    • Water management plans for all project phases
    • Water-related Adaptive Management Plans
    • Water licensing
    • Permit applications

  • Reporting and Assessments
    • Environmental effects assessments
    • Annual water monitoring reports
    • Water quantity and quality modelling reports
    • Initial dilution zone and water mixing zone studies
    • Water infrastructure compliance assessments
    • Climate resiliency assessments
    • Characterization of existing conditions (baseline studies and monitoring programs)
    • ESG reporting

Our tightknit team is highly integrated and collaborative, providing results in a timely manner. We work with clients across corporate and site levels: 

  • Operations Support: Assisting with water-related issues during day-to-day operations.
  • Strategic Planning: Integrating planning across all stages of the project life-cycle.
  • Compliance Monitoring: Verifying and supporting adherence to environmental regulations, including senior technical direction of components of complex regulatory applications.
  • Decision-Making: Providing informed insights for strategic water management.
  • Reporting: Transparent and concise communication of water-related metrics.

Our team collaborates with:

  • Modellers: Developing comprehensive water balance and water quality models.
  • Data Scientists: Analyzing large datasets for actionable insights.
  • GIS Analysts: Spatially visualizing water-related parameters.
  • Water Treatment Specialists: Implementing effective solutions.
  • Permitting and Compliance Specialists: Verifying adherence to regulatory requirements and facilitating necessary permits.
  • Reclamation and Closure Specialists: Incorporating earth and water considerations into reclamation and closure planning.

More information on the team’s specific discipline expertise is provided in the following sections.

"Falkirk's Water Stewardship Team combines practical industry-standard approaches with innovative, science-based solutions to help clients achieve robust environmental and social water stewardship goals throughout the project lifecycle."

Water Modelling and Data Science

Our water modelling and data science team excels in handling complex environmental systems and processes, seamlessly integrating multiple disciplines. We leverage advanced programming techniques and data visualization tools to analyze complex hydrological and water chemistry datasets, enabling us to draw precise and actionable conclusions. This approach ensures that our assessments and models are based on the most accurate and comprehensive data available.

Key expertise includes the development of site and catchment-scale water and load balances, hydrological and water quality models, and multiple scenario analyses to support integrated water management and mine planning, strategic decision-making, engineering design, effects assessments, and mitigation.

Some of our key data science skills include:

 

  • Water quality and quantity modelling (e.g., using Goldsim),
  • Data extract, transform and load (ETL),
  • Data visualization,
  • Programming language and automated data tool development (e.g., VBA, R, Python),
  • Online dashboard platform development (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau, Shiny),
  • Geospatial and temporal data visualization/management,
  • Statistical and machine learning algorithm application,
  • Climate change analysis.

Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering

We bring extensive experience in hydrotechnical analysis, including flood risk assessment, watershed modeling, and watershed studies. Our team has designed integrated water management plans, reservoir operations models, water balances, hydrological models, and hydrometric monitoring studies. We also specialize in regulatory permitting applications, conceptual designs, and pre-feasibility design studies. Proficient in advanced tools such as HEC-RAS, FLOW-3D, GoldSim, R, and ArcGIS, we ensure accurate and reliable analyses for a wide range of water management challenges.

  • Hydraulic modeling,
  • Water balance development,
  • Flood inundation and dam breach studies,
  • Design of hydraulic structures,
  • Spatial analysis using ArcGIS,
  • Climate and meteorological analysis,
  • Hydrology baseline and existing conditions reports.

Hydrogeology


Our hydrogeology expertise includes groundwater characterization and monitoring, water supply evaluation and development, and drinking water source protection. Our team has significant experience collaborating on a diverse range of multi-disciplinary projects including mining, well construction and decommissioning, drinking water and sewage effluent disposal, construction dewatering, slope stability, applied geophysics, source control, and remediation. Our geoscience professionals support projects across Falkirk’s practice areas.

Geochemistry

Falkirk’s team of geochemists brings diverse expertise across consulting, industry, and research. Their experience includes a variety of projects: complex mine sites, linear infrastructure (e.g., roads, pipelines, transmission lines), hydropower developments (e.g., dams and channels) and quarries/borrow sources. Our geochemists will support every phase of a project from initial planning, through exploration, baseline studies, feasibility, permitting, operation, reclamation and to post-closure.

Key services of the geochemistry team include:

  • Geochemical characterization
  • Metal Leaching and Acid Rock Drainage (ML/ARD) assessment
  • Evaluation of ML/ARD mitigations or remediation options
  • Geochemical modelling, including reactive transport (e.g., PHREEQC, MIN3P)
  • Source term development and water quality modelling (e.g., GoldSim)
  • Development of ML/ARD management plans
  • Fingerprinting and delineation of contaminant sources

Water Quality Studies and Assessments

Our team excels in water quality analysis, with a strong grasp of federal and provincial guidelines for surface water, effluent, and drinking water. We have extensive experience in field data collection, laboratory analysis, and managing water quality projects. Our expertise includes developing study designs, implementing field programs, identifying chemicals of concern, assessing water quality results, and establishing water quality objectives.

Key services and deliverables we offer:

  • Water-related studies (e.g., plume delineation/initial dilution zone/water mixing zone, baseline water quality assessments, existing conditions reports).
  • Annual/regulatory reports (e.g., water licence reports, permit reports).
  • Water compliance assessments.
  • Permit application reports.