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Why do I need a Water Resource Evaluation?
Water is essential to life—and also to business. Whether manufacturing food or silicon chips, compacting cars or developing cosmetic lines, industries all over the world have discovered the benefits and risks associated with water entering and leaving company-owned facilities.
However, plant managers and business unit executives often lack the time, resources and expertise to make informed decisions concerning water use at individual facilities. A full-scale Water Resource Evaluation of an industrial facility, or of a business unit comprised of multiple facilities, can expose these benefits and risks.
We can help you assess:
- Opportunities
- Historic and potentially valuable water rights.
- Existing but unclaimed waste stream trading credits.
- More cost-effective water and wastewater treatment technologies.
- Qualification for industry standards certifications.
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- Vulnerabilities
- Undertreatment of process or domestic water supply.
- Overcharges and hidden charges by a water supplier or wastewater disposal service.
- Permit non-compliance.
- Cross-connections between potable and non-potable water systems.
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A Water Resource Evaluation, in the form of a final confidential report, provides a detailed and immediate “to-do list” for a facility to optimize and ensure regulatory compliance of its water and wastewater systems. The report also suggests ways to ensure long-term water supplies and environmental sustainability, promoting a beneficial and profitable relationship with the local community.
At Integrated Resource Management, Inc. (IRM), we are proud to be an industry leader in the production of Water Resource Evaluations. Our clients’ activities range from food processing to aggregate mining—spanning all major sectors of the economy. We have saved our clients millions of dollars by alerting them to important water-saving technologies and potentially crippling regulatory violations.
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How does IRM conduct a Water Resource Evaluation?
IRM’s client-based consultation service includes both informal and formal interaction—all confidential and geared toward improving and integrating your company’s water management strategies.
IRM will first sit down with plant management and personnel to discuss water issues and request needed documents. Then, we will conduct a thorough onsite inspection of your entire facility property—inside and out—to determine every point at which water enters and leaves the premises, and what happens to it in-between. Often, even at this initial stage of the evaluation, we make discoveries and offer advice that can immediately save your company unnecessary expense or regulatory exposure.
Following the visit, our team of expert researchers and writers will combine first-hand knowledge of the facility with documentation, both provided by your company and found in the public domain, to draft a detailed, comprehensive report on all aspects of water resource management at your facility. The report will include:
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IRM finding an abandoned well
during an onsite inspection.
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- An Introduction and Executive Summary
- A list of Specific and General
Recommendations
- The Report Body with separate chapters covering
water and wastewater opportunities, valuations and vulnerabilities, as well as additional environmental,
political, waste stream trading and grant and loan opportunities.
- Multiple Appendices offering a facility overview,
background information, a directory of contacts,
an electronic document files log, and a report
bibliography.
- A CD-ROM containing electronic (PDF) copies of
the entire report, the Executive Summary and
relevant documents.
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The report will give plant management and company executives a complete picture of an individual facility’s water resources, covering all of the following areas:
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- Quantity
- Volume of water obtained from all groundwater wells, surface water diversions and/or municipal water
connections on the property.
- Costs for source water acquisition and wastewater and storm water disposal, including expenses for
onsite treatment, equipment maintenance and permit fees.
- Water rights, allocations, permits, judgments, requirements, leases and agreements associated
with the facility property and/or activities.
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- Quality
- Sampling and treatment of the facility’s water, wastewater and/or storm water.
- Security of the facility’s water systems from potential vandalism, sabotage or terrorist activity.
- Local water body, watershed and groundwater basin issues that impact facility operations.
- Infrastructure
- Schematics of the facility’s various water in- take, storage, usage and disposal systems.
- Fire protection system coverage and maintenance.
- Cross-connection and backflow prevention, including adequate meter-service and/or internal protection devices and a facility-wide Cross-Connection Control Program
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Taking a water sample from
a client's water system.
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