Barr is leading the planning effort to develop a 10-year comprehensive watershed-management plan for the Cedar River watershed that is in compliance with the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources’ (BWSR) One Watershed, One Plan requirements. The watershed, located in southern Minnesota, is 722 square miles and includes areas that are tributary to the Cedar River in Minnesota, as well as five additional watersheds that drain to the Cedar River south of the Minnesota-Iowa border.

The Cedar River Partnership includes four counties and soil and water conservation districts, two watershed districts, and the City of Austin. Barr worked with the advisory and policy committees to identify and prioritize issues and resources of concern into a three-tiered priority framework and to establish long-term and short-term (10-year) measurable goals to address each priority issue.

Barr used watershed-wide digital-terrain mapping, water-quality modeling results, and hydrologic and hydraulic modeling results to identify target areas for best management practice implementation. We helped develop an implementation program that includes prioritized capital improvements as well as non-structural practices that will yield measurable progress toward achieving the goals of the partnership.

After compiling a complete draft plan, Barr helped guide it through a formal review process. We worked with the partnership to respond to comments from local and state agencies and to revise the plan, which was approved by BWSR in fall 2019 and subsequently adopted.

Barr completed greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories to address comments received on the environmental impact statements prepared for the development of new mining facilities, one of which included a steel mill. We calculated the clients’ GHG emissions from estimated future fuel consumption, transportation, haulage, land use impact, the carbon densities of feed and products, and the expected electrical demand.

We also conducted GHG BACT (best available control technology) analyses for a prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) air permit for a pellet-production process to be used at the facilities. The technologies evaluated included fuel blends; improved energy efficiency; and carbon capture, transport, and storage.

To complete our evaluation, we compared the facilities’ high-efficiency processes with the traditional steel-making process to highlight reductions in GHG emissions and wrote summary reports outlining the key differences and advantages of the more-efficient integrated processes. The new mining facilities were designed to achieve reductions by processing ore at the mouths of the mines, using electric arc furnaces rather than traditional stokers, and natural gas instead of coal as a fuel source.

Barr has an established history of using sand and active-media filters to remove dissolved pollutants, such as phosphorus, from stormwater runoff. Metals removal is a new application of this technology—using finely shredded scrap iron that rusts to ferric oxide in a stormwater treatment filter and then binds to both phosphorus and dissolved metals.

Barr designed and conducted a study for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program to field test the effectiveness of ferric-oxide media in sand filters for removing dissolved metals—such as copper, lead, zinc, nickel, and arsenic—from highway runoff. The study’s goals were to better understand how ferric-oxide filtration works; determine the chemical, physical, and hydrologic factors that affect performance; and identify metals that could be readily removed given a range of environmental and chemical conditions. Longevity and life-cycle costs were also quantified. The monitoring and sampling program was complex. Continuous measurement of flow, water level, pH, and dissolved oxygen for each treatment cell, along with aquatic chemistry modeling, helped researchers identify conditions conducive to metals removal. Quality assurance and sampling and analysis plans were developed based on U.S. EPA guidelines.

Using study results, Barr produced design, maintenance, and siting guidelines for ferric-oxide sand-filtration systems, which require less maintenance than mechanical systems. Filtration-media costs can be further reduced by using repurposed industrial byproducts. The study will likely have relevance outside of the transportation industry, with applications for cities, water management organizations, regulatory agencies, and industrial markets including mining, fuels, power, renewable energy, and manufacturing.

In 2015, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board hired Barr to determine the causes for and the amount by which the Hiawatha Golf Course routinely exceeds the groundwater pumping volume specified in its water appropriations permit. Barr monitored groundwater and lake levels, pumping/flow rates, and surface-water and groundwater quality. We also developed and calibrated a regional groundwater model and an XP-SWMM model to determine impacts to groundwater, surface water, and flooding during design storm events and Lake Hiawatha tailwater conditions. In 2017, Barr performed an alternatives assessment of pumping and water management alternatives, along with possible future uses of the golf course. This evaluation will help the park board and City of Minneapolis define the future direction for the golf course and outline the next steps and timeline implementing the selected option. Barr also assisted the park board with public outreach and communications.

In 2018, the park board hired Barr (including a team of subconsultants) to design and guide a master planning process for developing a park management approach that fits within the site’s challenging water resources constraints; complements the regional park; and provides a program that keeps the park experience rich and evolving for visitors. The process includes exploration of two potential tracts—one without golf and one maintaining some variation of traditional golf. Benefits of the selected approach are expected to extend beyond the park boundary and will likely include reducing pumping, alleviating flooding in the adjacent watershed, realigning Minnehaha Creek to its historic configuration, restoring stream ecology and habitat, improving the quality of water discharging into Lake Hiawatha and Minnehaha Creek, and helping the city and park board meet the pollutant-load-reduction requirements established by their NPDES permits.

The City of Richfield hired Barr to develop a detailed hydrologic and hydraulic model of its stormwater system, including 116 miles of storm sewer pipes. Using PCSWMM, a stormwater management model, Barr simulated 2-, 10-, and 100-year, 24-hour rainfall events using NOAA’s Atlas 14 data. Inundation maps were created for each of the design events, showing inundation extents and potentially flood-prone structures. The model can be used to assess performance of existing stormwater infrastructure and prioritize locations for upgrades and stormwater BMP implementation. The city will also be able to evaluate the impact of flooding on development and flood-mitigation options.

Barr also used stormwater-infrastructure spatial data and other topography, hydrology, and infrastructure parameters to evaluate the likelihood of failure of high-risk pipes and culverts and possible consequences. Failure likelihood and consequences were then combined to evaluate the relative risk of each storm sewer infrastructure component. Over 8,300 storm sewer pipe segments were analyzed. Although this qualitative analysis does not identify absolute risk or predict future failure, it allows the city to focus repair and replacement efforts on pipes most in need of attention or where the consequences of potential failure are greatest.

Barr is helping a confidential oil-and-gas investment firm incorporate ESG factors into its investment decisions and corporate policies. Our work consists of three elements:

In reviewing the client’s draft policy, strategy, and implementation plan, we focused on identifying gaps and recommending ways to fill them based on ESG best practices, requirements in international ESG frameworks and standards, and benchmarking with peer companies.

We identified several gaps for which we developed a set of recommendations, including incorporating ESG into the asset-screening, due-diligence, active-ownership, and deal-exit stages of transactions. We also provided recommendations on overall policy structure and incorporation of best practices.

Our ongoing consulting support includes process design and policy implementation; training; development of workflows; due diligence; support for materiality assessments and stakeholder engagement; review of metrics and targets; and mapping and improving data collection, evaluation, and disclosure processes.

In addition, we provide environmental, engineering, or technological support as the client and/or its partners seek to reduce their environmental footprint, evaluate potential investments, or make improvements in other ESG areas.

The St. Marys River hydroelectric plant is owned and operated by Cloverland Electric Cooperative. The project diverts approximately 30,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) from Lake Superior around the natural falls to the St. Marys River where it generates approximately 30 megawatts (MW) of hydroelectric power. The 11,200-foot-long power canal directs flow to a 1,350-foot-long masonry powerhouse with 74 turbine-generator units.

Barr performed a facility evaluation that included a comprehensive assessment of the facility’s civil, structural, and mechanical aspects (except for energy generation). The objective was to identify issues that could arise over the next 50 years and possibly impact plant operations or present undue risk to the public. We conducted a detailed visual inspection of the powerhouse foundations and superstructures, log boom system, canal walls, embankments, headgates, and gate and maintenance hoist systems. We also reviewed available project documentation and analyses and completed a comprehensive review of the project’s dam safety program. Based on our detailed review, we developed risk-based recommendations for repairs, upgrades, and improvements; detailed cost estimates; and time-based projections for addressing the recommendations.

Barr’s assessment included extensive review of available project documentation as well as in-person inspection of project features by civil, structural, geotechnical, and mechanical engineers. We used a GIS-based smartphone application to document and georegister our field inspection observations.

To safely and efficiently observe and evaluate difficult-to-access features, such as canal walls, elevated portions (e.g., roofing, windows, gate hoist superstructure), and shoreline areas, we used a drone to provide high-resolution video and photo images. 

Our team included an architect with historic property expertise to make practical recommendations for maintaining historic structures, specifically the roof, eaves, windows, and doors. We also had a construction estimator with extensive hydropower expertise to help develop realistic cost estimates associated with our recommendations extending over a 50-year look-ahead.

A public university in Michigan was facing pressure from student groups and other stakeholders to address the aesthetic and perceived environmental impacts associated with a former dump located within the property limits of campus. Although not liable for any potential impacts associated with the dump site, the university hired Barr to help address these issues. Barr provided a desktop review of the site, assessed the nature and extent of dump materials, and evaluated the potential environmental impacts associated with the site.

Our work included historical research, soil and groundwater sampling, a baseline evaluation of groundwater/surface-water interaction and site hydrogeology, and development of a conceptual site model. We then recommended options to address stakeholder concerns regarding the aesthetics, potential environmental impacts, and physical safety hazards related to the dump’s contents and assisted the university with public and stakeholder meetings. Barr also helped with a joint state and federal permit application for remediation work and provided remedial oversight and post-construction verification sampling in accordance with the joint permit. Barr provided support following site restoration, including post-restoration inspection assistance, stakeholder interactions, and due care obligations required by Michigan’s remediation program such as Part 201.

Although natural areas cover a significant portion of Denmark Township’s 27 square miles, past land-management practices have adversely affected wildlife habitat, woodland quality, and soil stability. Washington County Parks’ goal was to help direct future residential development and protect the St. Croix River’s watershed by conducting a natural resources inventory.

Barr’s ecologists completed plant community surveys and employed the Minnesota Land Classification system to assess the status of the area’s natural resources and develop a detailed inventory (including maps of resource quality rankings, invasive species distribution, wildlife habitat, and priority restoration areas), along with stewardship recommendations and strategies to protect, preserve, and restore the natural landscape of the township.

Barr helped Bosque Systems obtain permits for two saltwater disposal wells (SWDs) from the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) Oil and Gas Division. For the first well, we created a map of the proposed SWD showing other wells in the vicinity and then interpreted gamma ray logs for the depth and thickness of the Dakota Sandstone (the geologic formation into which the produced water would be injected) and developed a model of the pressure distribution as a result of well injection at the permitted and proposed rates. Barr then performed a hydrogeological investigation to demonstrate that hydrogeological conditions under the aboveground facility would prevent spills on or near the well pad from contaminating aquifers. Based on the results of the pressure model and the hydrogeological investigation, applications for the proposed well were written and submitted to the NDIC DMR, which were approved.

The second well was proposed to be drilled near two other SWDs, neither of which was owned by Bosque. Therefore, another pressure model was required. Water samples from two springs in the vicinity were analyzed for water quality parameters. Based on the results of the pressure model and water quality results, an application was completed and submitted to the NDIC DMR for another well. The application was approved.