Grand Environmental Services - Detailed Services Description


	Grand Environmental Services
	Infrastructure projects often encounter complex environmental challenges. Roads, bridges, utilities, retail and office space, and housing can trigger unexpected impacts, permit and NEPA requirements, and unexpected delays and costs. Our proven expertise will help you evaluate, simplify, expedite, and deliver progress on your project with minimal hassles. Grand Environmental Services often teams with other consultants to strengthen our team for specific tasks and resource needs. Typical collaboration includes legal review, engineering, conservation, fisheries, and hydrology. A dynamic team of local experts collected for your specific needs is often your most cost effective solution. We also work with local firms for excavation and utility work, installation of erosion and sediment control, and landscaping.

NEPA Environmental Planning and Permitting The National Policy Act (NEPA) is our National Charter for the Environment and a sustainable future, and offers many tools to balance reasonable resource development with environmental quality. Understanding these tools is the key to a more competitive team and cost-effective results.		Our NEPA services include: Pre-Scoping – Early project assessment of risks and strengths, then development of cost-effective project strategies. “Front loaded” projects avoid snafus, allow for adaptive management, and save time and money. Impact Assessment and Documentation – Studies and reports are “issue driven” and focus upon supporting legally defensible decision making. We believe editorial management is as important to project success as science and engineering, with reports properly “layered” to fit within larger efforts. Proponent Advocate – Larger projects often involve agency-managed 3rd Party NEPA teams paid for by the project proponent. We support proponent teams along with legal, financial, and engineering advisors, to help track NEPA progress, translate process and results between agencies and proponent, and push back and keep NEPA on target. Community Involvement – Collaboration is a key to agency transparency as well as a powerful source of legal strength. More than “talking heads” and listening sessions, we promote regular dialogue with stakeholder groups, and community involvement to help clients meet goals within the surrounding parameters of local masterplans, conservation efforts, and legal constraints. Mitigation and Monitoring – A prime mechanism for cost-effective NEPA management is the careful adjustment of early proposals to reduce risk, impacts, and regulatory burdens. There is as much art as engineering to improving projects and developing cost-effective alternatives to meet client goals during planning and permitting, then carry forward with monitoring, adaptive management, and agency reporting.

Wetland Site Planning Wetlands and open waters are challenging resources with overlapping protections including Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.		We apply NEPA-type tools to optimize site planning and permitting around wetlands, riparian habitats, streams and rivers, ponds and lakes. Hands on experience includes agricultural diversions, municipal water intakes, bridges, trails, and angler access. Our services include: Wetland Delineation Stream Morphology and Riparian Hydrology Permitting including Mitigation and Monitoring Habitat Restoration

Cultural Resources Management		Many natural resource and infrastructure projects trigger consideration of (Section 106) cultural resources including archeology, paleontology, and tribal values. We are pleased to team with Escondida Research in Colorado and Arizona and the Office of Archeological Studies in New Mexico to better understand, predict, identify, and manage cultural resources in a proactive, timely manner. Projects can benefit greatly from new advances in probabilistic modeling of cultural resources and adaptive management approaches.

Mitigation and Monitoring		New guidelines on mitigation and monitoring help clarify liabilities and opportunities for better project management, follow through during project development, and agency reporting. Our services include mitigation and monitoring plans, as well as on-site monitoring.

Environmental Oversight During Construction		Permit conditions can burden construction teams during project installation. We are pleased to follow through with clients to support project build out, freeing clients to focus on construction and operations.