A Full Range of Services

Clearwater Hydrology (CH) offers consulting hydrology and water resources engineering services to natural resource, parks, water management and flood control districts, municipalities, private developers, engineering, ecological and planning firms, and public interest groups. The firm’s engineering and earth sciences staff specializing in engineering hydrology, hydrogeology, estuarine and riverine hydraulics, fluvial geomorphology and stream and habitat restoration science provide expert technical services and environmental assessments, CEQA analysis and EIR support.

Stream Stabilization and Restoration, including flow frequency assessment, development of hydraulic geometry relationships, sediment transport analysis, design of structural and biotechnical bank stabilization measures, fish passage design and application of the principles of hydraulic engineering and fluvial geomorphology to the design of restored channel reaches with stable channel cross-sections and functional low flow channels and floodplains. In conjunction with these design tasks, CH will also take a project from the preliminary design phase through the permitting process, ensuring that all resource and regulatory agency and municipal permit requirements are met. CH has prepared dozens of Joint Aquatic Resource Permit Applications (JARPAs) in support of client projects involving stream stabilization and restoration construction.
Since 1985, CH and its Principal have designed and supervised the construction of 60 stream and wetland restoration projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. This depth of experience informs all aspects of our restoration design work, and allows us to better emulate the form and processes of natural streams in varied terrain, often under challenging and complex site constraints.

Services including rainfall, peak flow and runoff volume assessments for urbanizing areas; hydraulic analysis and design of culvert and storm drain systems; and design of engineering measures for peak flow reduction and water quality enhancement (e.g. infiltration trenches, vegetated swales, in-line contaminant trapping systems, stormwater detention basins and other BMPs

Services include flood frequency analysis, evaluation of flood risk, flood water surface profile analysis and floodplain boundary delineation, sediment transport and bridge scour analysis and design of engineering measures for flood control (e.g. small reservoirs, flood bypass systems, stormwater detention basins, channel modification and floodproofing measures).

Services include evaluation of rainfall, infiltration, runoff and snowmelt, surface-groundwater interaction, erosion, sedimentation and fluvial geomorphic processes in wildland settings under a range of applied land use conditions, such as timber harvesting, grazing and vegetation management activities.

A range of services including collection of water samples for lab analysis, analysis of data and report writing, mitigation measures to limit impacts to water quality from urban development and design of LID features (e.g. biofiltration swales, in-line filtration, subsurface storage, and stormwater detention and retention basins) to limit site runoff and treat urban stormwater.

We provide one-, two- and three-dimensional modeling of river flow, stream flow, reservoir circulation, and tidal circulation in lagoons and estuaries under a range of meteorological and inflow forcing conditions for analysis of flooding area, dead zones, sediment transport, stratification, and water quality concerns related to salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, contaminants, and nutrients.

Well installation and shallow groundwater monitoring services; field infiltration testing; site water balance modeling; analysis and modeling of shallow groundwater interaction with ponds, vernal pool and stream channels; depth-duration-frequency assessments of wetland ponds for habitat characterization; computation or field assessments of “ordinary high water” in drainage channels; preparation of Joint Aquatic Resource Permit Applications (JARPAs) for projects involving construction or disturbance of streams and wetlands; and assistance to environmental planners and biologists in the preparation of Mitigation and Monitoring Plans, and Long Term Management Plans for projects under US Army Corps of Engineers’ jurisdiction.

Services include excavation and grading plans, water balance studies, ponding depth-duration-frequency relationships, tide frequency analysis, real-time monitoring of tide cycles, tidal and site benchmark surveys, computer simulation of site ponding and tidal inflows/outflows, and hydraulic design of regulating structures (e.g. weirs, culverts or levee breaches) for stormwater or tidal inflows and outflows.