Barr prepared the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Minnesota Energy Connection Project, a proposed 170-mile, 345 kV transmission line project. Barr’s work supporting the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s Energy Environmental Review and Analysis (EERA) unit started with participation in seven public scoping meetings. We helped our client answer questions, explain the regulatory process, and facilitate public input on potential alternatives and impacts during preparation of the EIS. 

During the scoping comment period, Barr catalogued over 400 comments and more than 60 route alternatives. Barr reviewed these alternatives and assisted EERA in determining which alternatives should be recommended for analysis in the EIS based on Minnesota Rule 7850.2500. Barr assisted EERA in drafting the final scoping decision. 

Scoping resulted in more than 10 potential connection points between a western and eastern routing option that were miles apart. To help interested parties assess the viability of these options and their potential combinations, Barr’s GIS and environmental team designed the EIS to study multiple route options within seven regions. To accommodate the remaining alternatives, Barr also completed equivalent comparisons for shorter route refinements. The EIS examined a range of human and environmental impacts, including aesthetics, greenhouse gas emissions, biological resources, human health and safety, and land-based economies. 

The Draft EIS was published in October 2024. Barr supported the public hearings with visuals and meeting attendance in November 2024. The Final EIS was published in January 2025. As part of the Final EIS, Barr catalogued over 1,400 unique public comments and prepared draft responses to each. These responses were finalized with EERA staff. 

In February 2025, the Administrative Law Judge indicated that the EIS satisfied the requirements set forth in Minnesota Rule and determined it to be adequate under Minnesota law.  The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) issued the Route Permit and Certificate of Need in June 2025.   

In 2024, Barr was hired by the Town of Frederick, Colorado, to assist with a water rights court case around the proposed releases of water from Milavec Reservoir to replace historical irrigation return flows. A key issue centered around downstream water quality impacts from the releases resulting from the reservoir’s history of higher nutrients and algal blooms. 

Barr helped the town evaluate the water quality of the reservoir and several sources that supplied water to the reservoir and users downstream, including the Lower Boulder Ditch. We determined it was likely that the water quality of the proposed Milavec Reservoir releases would be comparable to downstream sources owned and operated by others. Barr was then able to help negotiate a settlement to avoid trial. We are now helping the town monitor the water quality of the reservoir and develop a water quality study to determine when and how often releases from the reservoir will be restricted to avoid downstream impacts.

Since 2017, we have represented the San Diego Unified Port District (District) on sediment investigations near the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal (TAMT) in San Diego Bay. This work was previously performed by Windward Environmental LLC, which is now part of Barr. 

The California Regional Water Quality Control Board has issued two Investigative Orders (IOs) to the District and City of San Diego (City) related to the TAMT. The first IO (R9-2017-0081) required the District and the City to establish the nature and extent of sediment contamination, its potential sources, and contaminant transport and pathways. The second IO (No. R9-2022-040) required the District and the City to determine if sediments within and adjacent to the TAMT meet narrative sediment quality objectives (SQOs) that protect beneficial uses, including those associated with aquatic life, benthic communities, human health, wildlife, and resident fish.

The District and City of San Diego collaborated to address both IOs. On behalf of the District, we supported the development of focused sampling plans and collected sediment trap, surface sediment, sediment core, biota, and water samples to answer study questions presented in the IOs. We then contributed to the in-water sediment evaluation for the Sediment Chemistry Assessment Report, completed in 2020, to address the first IO. Our sediment trap sampling and analysis were critical to understanding sediment sources and transport pathways at the TAMT. Also in 2020, we completed a supplementary study to evaluate sediment trap chemistry throughout San Diego Bay, providing deeper insight into sediment sources and transport. 

To address the second IO, we led a collaborative team in developing the Sediment Quality Objectives Assessment Report, which was completed in March 2025. As part of this effort, we conducted a sediment quality evaluation, an ecological risk assessment, and a human health risk assessment. We were the primary author of a memorandum summarizing the development of toxicity reference values for the ecological risk assessment. To support the human health risk assessment, we developed a calibrated food web model (FWM) for San Diego Bay and applied it to the TAMT, which helped our team assess potential human health risks and understand how sediment contamination might impact the local food chain.

Our recommendations in the Sediment Quality Objectives Assessment Report were to refine the focus areas for evaluating the benthic communities and human health SQOs, delineate contamination hotspots that could impact human health, and further characterize resuspended sediment to assess recontamination potential before any potential future actions at the TAMT.

Preserving Hispanic heritage in Montrose

In 2019, a proposed development in Montrose, Colorado, threatened the remains of a historical morada: an adobe chapel used during Hispanic Catholic services, particularly during Easter by los Hermanos (the Penitente Brotherhood). A Hispanic neighborhood, commonly referred to as Tortilla Flats, rallied support to save the remnant foundation and archaeological remains from destruction. In response, the City of Montrose worked to list the morada with the State Historic Preservation Office as a significant historical resource and has since engaged in various efforts to promote understanding and appreciation of Montrose’s Hispanic heritage.

The city hired Barr in 2025 to write and submit a nomination to list Tortilla Flats in the National Register of Historic Places. Our goal is to support the nomination by synthesizing the history of the city’s Hispanic population from 1900 to 1980, with a focus on the origins of Tortilla Flats and the roles of Hispanic residents in the city’s history and in regional agricultural and ranching histories. We will prepare nomination documents supported by thorough research, including primary and secondary source materials such as newspaper articles, photographs, maps, census records, architectural surveys, and scholarly publications.

Listing Tortilla Flats in the National Register of Historic Places will formally recognize the parts that Tortilla Flats and Hispanic residents have played in Montrose’s history. It will also enable residents to access state and federal funding and tax credits for projects that preserve or enhance the neighborhood’s historical character. 

Barr will draft the nomination documents in 2025 and 2026 for review by the city’s Historic Preservation Committee and the Colorado Historic Preservation Review Board before submitting them to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. The Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places will then provide a final review and determination. 

On behalf of the Minnesota Chamber Foundation (a committee under the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce), Barr undertook an in-depth study in 2023 to document and compare the environmental review and permitting processes in Minnesota with those of 10 other states with similar economies and natural resources. 

The impetus for the project was the state business community’s long-time concern that Minnesota’s environmental-approval processes for industrial facilities inhibit economic growth and development. Permitting timelines are unpredictable but often span several years, partly because the state’s process is unusually vulnerable to legal challenges. 

Partnering with the Washington, DC–based Policy Navigation Group and the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs, Barr conducted extensive research, using publicly available data on current environmental-review and permitting rules and practices in Minnesota and the 10 benchmark states. We also interviewed regulators to gather first-hand perspectives on the processes in many of those states. That body of information allowed us to make comparisons, document economic impacts, and identify barriers to and opportunities for improvement. 

In early 2024, we presented our analysis to the Chamber Foundation in two documents: the full report, which includes eight appendixes of supporting data and is more than 4,300 pages long, and a 30-page executive summary featuring plain language, charts, and illustrations to clearly communicate key findings to the business community, state legislature, regulatory agencies, and members of the public. The report and its 18 actionable strategies for improving Minnesota’s environmental-review and permitting processes were well received by all of those audiences. 

In 2025, Barr teamed with the Chamber Foundation to prepare an update and scorecard documenting improvements achieved in the preceding 12 months, along with remaining challenges. All documents—the full-length report, the executive summary, and the 2025 update—can be viewed and downloaded at www.mnchamber.com/minnesota-chamber-foundation/streamlining-minnesotas-environmental-permitting-process-essential.

A Canadian iron ore mining facility operates a tailings disposal system that handles solid tailings in a pumped slurry that moves through five pipelines to a tailings deposition area. As the tailings deposition area expanded farther away from the mine, the demands on the pumping system increased. As part of an overall tailings management project, Barr was asked to evaluate the capabilities of the then-existing system to provide a baseline for future pipeline extension development plans. Barr also evaluated the installed pumps, which were experiencing limitations, to recommend improvements for better operation. Barr inspected and documented the pipelines and supporting systems, and system stakeholders, including engineering, maintenance, and operations staff, were interviewed to develop an inventory of issues that identified problem areas within the process.  

To gain greater insight into the operating problems, Barr modeled the pipelines in AFT Fathom and evaluated numerous scenarios to answer the client’s operational questions regarding potential impacts the proposed changes to the pumps would have on their performance. This analysis also allowed Barr to identify root causes of the problems and provide long-term solutions. 

Swift preparation of EA helps keep project on tight schedule

On behalf of the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s Energy Environmental Review and Analysis (EERA) unit, Barr compiled a first draft of the environmental assessment (EA) for the Iron Pine Solar Project in Pine County, Minnesota. The project would develop a 325-mw solar energy generating system with a one-mile 230-kv high-voltage gen-tie line.

Barr’s initial work included reviewing the applicant’s application, the project’s public record and comments received, and the project’s scoping decision. Barr then prepared an EA template and style guide (defining key project terminology) for EERA’s review. Barr’s team of environmental specialists then worked swiftly to help EERA compile the complete the EA and associated maps. 

At the conclusion of the EA, Barr assisted in reviewing the project against the specific criteria the commission would be required to weigh in their permit decisions for the site permit (solar facility) and route permit (gen-tie line).

Barr’s assistance and ability to draft the EA for EERA within eight weeks helped keep the project on schedule. The commission issued the permit in July 2025. 

In 2019, the state of Colorado passed a law requiring certain power producers to submit “clean energy plans” for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with generating electricity sold to consumers. 

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved the first such plan, prepared by Xcel Energy, in 2022. One element of the plan was converting Xcel’s Pawnee generating station, in the state’s northeastern region, to burn natural gas instead of coal while maintaining its 505-megawatt capacity. 

Barr is contributing to the repowering project by designing a wastewater treatment system that will provide the water-reuse opportunities and water-volume reduction needed to preserve the facility’s zero-liquid-discharge operation. 

The new treatment system had to overcome a complex challenge: achieving compliance with environmental regulations while (1) removing significant amounts of dissolved solids and scale-forming compounds from the water so it could be reused for plant operations, and (2) reducing the volume of wastewater reject to prevent off-site overflow, which would eliminate the need to construct additional evaporation ponds. 

Barr engineers evaluated several treatment technologies and chose the one that maximized water recovery. We helped Xcel procure water and wastewater equipment and developed detailed designs for the remaining components. 

Our overall work as the owner’s engineering consultant includes:

The conversion project will be completed by the end of 2026.

Identifying and evaluating opportunities for improved stormwater management

Barr performed an existing conditions analysis that showed most of the land within the Capitol Area receives no stormwater treatment, nearly 70 percent is covered in hard surfaces, and a sizable portion of runoff flows into the nearby Mississippi River untreated. We helped facilitate a stormwater workshop with project stakeholders, including small-group discussions of water quality and quantity issues and opportunities for innovative stormwater management. Using outcomes from the workshop, Barr helped develop a set of stormwater management goals and guidelines for future projects, followed by the siting and development of conceptual designs for four district stormwater systems.

Barr developed stormwater modeling and completed a triple-bottom-line analysis to evaluate the environmental, social, and financial benefits for each of the four proposed district stormwater systems. Then, working with the CAAPB on the Capitol Mall Design Framework project, Barr helped advance the stormwater concepts with a focus on the Capitol Mall. For more information about this effort, see CRWD’s webpage about the project.

The 330-acre Capitol Area District in downtown Saint Paul is home to the Minnesota State Capitol. With several large redevelopment and capital improvement projects being planned for the area, the Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD), in partnership with the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board (CAAPB), hired Barr and Young Environmental to help understand the area’s water quality and quantity challenges and to identify green infrastructure opportunities for improved stormwater management. These included the potential for district stormwater management systems, which capture and manage stormwater across multiple properties.

Because disposed materials containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) enter the waste management system, landfills are considered passive receivers of PFAS. In 2022, a group of 48 landfill owners and operators hired Barr to organize and help implement a study to obtain reliable and consistent data regarding the presence and concentration of certain PFAS in groundwater at Minnesota landfills.

This innovative study provided the participating facilities flexibility in utilizing site-specific sampling methods and crews within a thoughtful study framework. We generated a robust dataset, backed by site-specific information, to examine corresponding upgradient groundwater quality data with land uses and downgradient groundwater quality data with landfill waste types and liner statuses.

Study

Each of the 48 participating landfills developed site-specific sampling plans, collected two rounds of groundwater samples from their selected monitoring wells, and provided site-specific details to inform the evaluation of the study data set.

Barr provided sampling guidance to the participating facilities, coordinated with a certified laboratory for the analysis of all the study samples using consistent analytical methods and reporting limits, prepared online surveys to collected supporting information from each facility, conducted the PFAS data quality review, and prepared the study report. The participating landfills, monitoring wells, and groundwater sample data were maintained under confidentiality.

Results

The study categorized upgradient PFAS concentrations by area land use categories and downgradient PFAS concentrations by landfill waste types and landfill liner status. The study results showed that:

Final report

Barr’s final published report provided the participating landfills with a better understanding of how groundwater conditions compare with those at other solid waste facilities in Minnesota. The Minnesota Landfill Coalition has shared the report within the solid waste industry and regulatory agencies to advance understanding about the effectiveness of solid waste facility practices.

Click here to read the final report.