As populations grow and competition for water supplies increase, cooperative strategies are needed to manage the resource. Since the 1980s, Layne Hydro has been helping municipal, state, federal, and tribal governments prepare water-resource management plans. We use our experience as scientists and engineers to design new tools and craft innovative ways to organize data and model surface water and groundwater.
Source of Supply Investigations
As communities continue to grow, there is increasing difficulty for water suppliers to meet new demand. Intelligent planning is the only way for communities and water purveyors to ensure that an adequate water supply is available to support future growth.
Layne Hydro works with communities to develop regional and local water-supply master plans with solutions that meet the short and long term needs of the community.
A source of supply analysis looks at all available water sources and rates them based on yield, reliability, water quality, infrastructure, and lowest delivery cost. The investigation systematically evaluates water supply options, including groundwater and surface water. Layne Hydro hydrologists and engineers apply existing and proprietary modeling solutions combined with field data to develop a set of resource strategies to meet future needs.
Cooperative Management
Groundwater and surface water sources often cross political boundaries; be they city, county, state, or national. As demands upon water supplies increase across the nation in areas of concentrated growth, negative impacts of increased water withdrawals are often crossing boundaries as well. When they do, conflicts inevitably occur. Layne Hydro has worked in these difficult areas to help relieve the political and social stress between communities. We have worked with multi-county and multi-municipality groups to initiate cooperative management of the water source. By working together, groups can find common ground and learn to manage the water supply for the benefit of all.
Wellhead Protection
Wellhead protection recognizes that the quality of groundwater can be threatened by land uses and activities in the source areas of wellfields. Scientists at Layne Hydro developed the EPA’s wellhead protection area delineation model: WhAEM. This new analytic element model is being used throughout the country by state agencies and consultants. Layne Hydro provides not only groundwater modeling, but planning and management services that aid in the protection of community drinking-water supply systems. Pollution prevention and groundwater protection is much less expensive than the cost of remedial actions needed to clean up polluted or contaminated groundwater.
Drought Planning
Drought planning provides communities with the assurance that they can prosper in a drought situation. Planning before drought occurs gives water suppliers time to evaluate the best strategies for their community. Drought planning involves learning to predict drought, identifying drought risk, and mitigating its effects. Layne Hydro helps communities create comprehensive drought plans by analyzing the water supply, identifying vulnerability, and proposing specific drought procedures.
Demand Analysis
Every water supplier needs to know how much water is required to provide for his/her customers. Not only is knowledge of daily and seasonal water demands important, but planning for future demand is critical. In rapidly growing communities, this is not an easy task. Layne Hydro has done water demand analysis for cities, counties, and even regional aquifers to predict water use five to twenty-five years into the future. This information allows communities to prepare for growth and increases in water demand with ample time to expand water supplies.
TMDL Analysis
Layne Hydro works with local and state governments, watershed groups, and NPDES permit holders in the development of Total Daily Maximum Loads (TMDLs) for waters that have been identified as impaired per Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The TMDL initiative is an attempt to address pollution problems that have not been adequately addressed by technology-based limits on dischargers.
In the development of a TMDL, Layne Hydro compiles and analyzes existing information on the watershed, estimates contaminant inputs from all sources, and then uses hydrologic models to determine the contaminant load that can enter a stream within the watershed, while meeting water-quality standards. The calibrated model is used to determine the point and nonpoint-source reductions required to achieve the maximum allowable load. A final plan with Best Management Practice (BMP) recommendations and monitoring plans is built with stakeholder involvement. Buy-in from stakeholders ensures that watershed goals can be met in the long term.
Water Conservation
In the past, water conservation has been a response to local drought conditions or to emergency shortages. This is no longer the case. Water use efficiency and conservation are now essential elements of a long-term strategy to meet water demand, extend the life of existing water supplies, protect water quality, and demonstrate good stewardship of a finite resource.
Water conservation planning is now a normal part of water supply planning in western states, and a developing concept in the eastern states.
Layne Hydro has worked with water utilities to develop unique conservation plans that evaluate the utility’s current and projected water demand. Our clients have ranged from regional utilities to state-wide investor-owned utilities that provide water to multiple communities. Also, in addition to water conservation plans, we have written model ordinances addressing conservation and drought response. We assess our client’s infrastructure and water supplies, and then determine the actions the utility will take to reduce water loss, strategically decrease consumption, and increase the efficiency of its water system.
Wellfield Optimization
Optimization of wellfield operations can minimize treatment costs and determine the most efficient, cost effective way to produce and deliver high-quality drinking water. Groundwater wellfields can be plagued with water quality and/or water quantity issues. Operators often invest large amounts of money to remedy these problems, but Layne Hydro has found that sometimes these difficulties can be overcome through operational techniques. By analyzing well information through either groundwater models and/or statistical models, Layne Hydro can make recommendations about how a wellfield should be operated to maximize its capacity or minimize water quality issues. Wellfield optimization can provide a low-cost alternative to wellfield expansion and/or well replacement.
