High Country Hydrology provides water resources engineering services to water users in the Rocky Mountain West. Because we specialize in water resources, we can provide our clients with expertise many other firms are unable to offer.
Our services include:
Water Rights Engineering. High County has provided water rights engineering for large municipalities, environmental groups, and individual water rights holders. We have worked for both applicants and objectors in water court, and have experience resolving differences through both negotiation and court actions. Some of our specific skills include:
● Applications for new rights
> direct diversion, storage, exchanges, instream flows
● Consumptive use analyses
● Changes in points of diversion, location and type of use
● Temporary substitute supply and permanent augmentation plans
● Water rights modeling
● Accounting forms
● Expert witness in Water Court proceedings
Raw Water Planning and Management. It can be difficult to optimize raw water operations for systems with multiple reservoirs and delivery pipelines. High Country can model systems to reveal system constraints and sensitivities, optimum operating schemes, and existing operational bias. As water supplies become increasingly limited due to drought or climate change, we have helped clients prepare by providing:
● Collection system planning and operations
● Raw water system modeling
● Reservoir sizing and operations
● Integrated Water Resource Plans (IWRP)
● “No regrets” drought and climate change planning
Hydraulic Modeling is often required by County, State or Federal agencies to predict specific conditions at particular locations. This includes the depth and velocity of flood waters, inundated areas during natural or man-made disasters, and canal and pipeline flows, velocities and pressures. We have hydraulically modeled projects with a variety of needs, including:
● Hydraulic modeling of bridges, canals and other structures
● Floodplain determination
● Dam break and inundation analyses
● Pipe network analyses
Watershed Sciences. Studying natural stream systems is part art and part science, and High County has experience working in source water areas. We have quantified water supplies in undisturbed natural areas, as well how yield will change as in areas affected by fires and floods. We have predicted changes in sediment loading due to disturbance, and the consequence of that on stream channels and reservoir storage. Some of our specific experience includes:
● Manual and automated stream gauging
● Predicting basin yields
● Prediction of post-fire hydrology, erosion, and sedimentation
● Fire prevention and mitigation of critical infrastructure
● Snow hydrology
● Stream gauge and data logger installation
● Streambed and stream bank stability
Our experience in the legal arena, with regulatory agencies, and with physical hydrology enables us to provide practical solutions in a cost-effective manner, while also ensuring that a solution in one area is rational and reasonable in the other fields as well.
If you need specialized water resources experience, call High Country now to talk about your needs.