Our Team

Hydrologist

MS, Hydrology and Water Resources
University of Arizona, 2018

BS, Geological Engineering
National Autonomous University of Mexico, 2013

Mr. Briseño is a hydrologist with 5 years of experience performing environmental and hydrologic studies. He has significant field experience in soil, sediment and water sampling for a wide range of investigations, including contaminated site assessments and remediation projects in various sites throughout Mexico. His experience also includes geochemistry and GIS spatial data analysis. His current work consists of performing physical and hydraulic property testing on large scale samples and analyzing data. He also has extensive experience in investigating and performing tests on heap leaching optimization. His background in geology and hydrology gives him a comprehensive basis to address a variety of issues in subsurface characterization.

• Laboratory testing for physical and hydraulic properties in porous materials
• Heap leach optimization
• Analysis and modeling of saturated and unsaturated flow
• Field testing of physical and hydraulic properties
• Instrumentation and data collection systems

Environmental Scientist

PhD, Soil, Water, and Environmental Science
University of Arizona, 2009

BS Biology
The George Washington University, 1998

Dr. Banerjee has eight years of experience restoring and reclaiming disturbed desert lands. Her work focuses on mine waste reclamation and riparian restoration. She has experience in a broad range of vegetation, physical and hydraulic soil characterization, and microbial analyses and survey techniques. She has written literature reviews covering a wide range of topics including soil clogging of infiltration basins for wastewater recharge, saline groundwater mitigation and reclamation in riparian environments, and bacterial diversity of desert soil. Her research has included analyzing the bacterial diversity of reclaimed mine tailings, designing and testing experimental mine waste covers, and exploring water conservation and augmentation in the Southwest. Current projects include vegetation, landscape, and erosion monitoring of reclaimed mine sites throughout Arizona and evaluating ore based on physical and hydraulic properties for copper and gold heap leaching.

• Mine restoration
• Ore characterization for heap leaching
• Mine cover system design and performance
• Habitat restoration and revegetation studies
• Vegetation, soil, and microbial analyses and survey techniques
• Water conservation

Hydrologist

MS, Soil Water and Environmental Science
University of Arizona, 2010

BS, Crop Production
University of Arizona, 2008

Mr. Bañuelos has more than 5 years managing and supervising crop production, hydrology, and soil science studies. He has extensive experience in soil moisture and soil salinity monitoring as well as soil and plant fertility assessments. His work focuses on physical and hydraulic characterization of soils for mine reclamation, groundwater recharge, and habitat restoration studies. Specifically, he has characterized soils to determine suitability for use as cover systems on mine waste in a variety of environments from the arid southwest to wetter environments as those found in the Andes Mountains of Peru. He has also assisted with soil and groundwater salinity and soil moisture monitoring at riparian restoration areas on the lower Colorado River. Other expertise includes irrigation system management for golf courses and collection of soil, plant, and water samples to develop effective crop management plans.

• Physical and hydraulic characterization of soils
• Soil moisture and salinity management of arid lands
• Soil fertility and plant nutrition
• Mine cover system performance
• Data analyses and management

Hydrologist

BS, Geology (Minor: Watershed Sciences)
Colorado State University, 2020

Mr. Bistline has two years of experience performing hydrogeologic laboratory and field studies. Laboratory experience includes large scale hydraulic property testing and Rapid Brine Release testing. He has experience with various drilling methods, geologic logging, and various geotechnical laboratory techniques. He is involved in the day-to-day operation of the GSA laboratory and provides support for various field projects.

• Drilling, coring and geologic logging supervision
• Field testing of physical and hydraulic properties
• Laboratory testing for physical and hydraulic properties
• Maintenance of lab and field instrumentation

Environmental Scientist

BS, Environmental Science
University of Arizona, 2013

Mr. Blevens has seven years experience as an Environmental Scientist with several years’ experience managing and conducting hydraulic property tests, geochemical and electrochemical analyses. He has significant experience in conducting heap leach optimization studies for a variety of mines around the world. His background in process improvement, lab management, and QA/QC allows for projects to be completed accurately and on time.

• Laboratory testing for physical, chemical, and hydraulic properties in porous materials
• Laboratory and project management
• Heap leach optimization
• Constructing instrumentation, custom lab equipment, and data collection systems
• Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Staff Scientist

MS, Land Resources and Environmental Science
Montana State University, 2005

BS, Applied Environmental Sciences
Oregon Institute of Technology, 2002

Meg Buchanan has over 15 years of experience working on projects related to mine reclamation and closure, groundwater recharge, riparian habitat restoration, and other soil and water science applications. Her primary responsibilities include data management and analysis, report writing and editing, and GIS and other graphics production.

• GIS mapping and analysis
• Data management, compilation, and analysis
• Literature review and reporting
• Technical communication: writing, editing, graphics

Environmental Scientist, Soil Scientist

MS, Soil, Water and Environmental Science
University of Arizona, 2011

Environmental Science
University of Arizona, 2007

Lindsey Bunting has over 12 years of experience specializing in environmental monitoring, habitat restoration, groundwater recharge studies, mine reclamation and salinity management. She is skilled with soil field assessments, laboratory physical and hydraulic property testing, and data acquisition system management and troubleshooting. Lindsey manages large datasets from over 300 soil, groundwater, and surface water monitoring stations on a daily basis, and also provides expertise in soil biogeochemical cycling and nutrient dynamics in tropical ecosystems. Recently, Lindsey has managed projects including a salinity study for sustainable long term irrigation with reclaimed water, and long term monitoring projects to support groundwater recharge efforts in the upper San Pedro basin. She is the data manager for a large scale soil and groundwater monitoring project to assist with adaptive management of habitat restoration sites along the Lower Colorado River.

• Environmental monitoring system design, installation, maintenance and management
• Data analysis and management
• Soil and groundwater field and laboratory analyses
• Habitat restoration and revegetation studies

Restoration Program Director, Senior Vegetation Ecologist

M.S. Natural Resources Conservation
University of Montana, 1996

Todd Caplan is a senior ecologist with GSA. He has been working nearly 30 years integrating scientific disciplines of vegetation ecology, soil science and hydrology in the design, implementation, monitoring and adaptive management of large-scale river and arid-land restoration programs. Prior to working as a consultant, Todd served as the Natural Resources Director for a 37,000-ha American Indian reservation where he initiated and managed grant funded watershed restoration programs. Since 2002, he has worked as a consultant to support federal, tribal, state and private sector clients with addressing complex watershed management and restoration challenges. His work has included burned area rehabilitation on wildlife refuges in Arizona and New Mexico, developing tropical forest restoration monitoring programs in Papua New Guinea, and leading development of large-scale floodplain habitat restoration designs across the Southwestern US.

• Natural Resources Management & Planning
• Monitoring and Adaptive Management
• Arid Land and Floodplain Ecosystem Restoration
• Riparian Ecology
• Exotic Plant Management
• Revegetation/Bioengineering
• Restoration Construction Oversight
• Grant Writing

Principal Engineer

PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Purdue University, 2003

MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Brigham Young University, 1999

BS, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Brigham Young University, 1999

Nathan Haws is a registered professional civil engineer with over 15 years of engineering experience focused on surface and near surface water management, particularly for the gold and copper mining industry. He has served as project technical lead of the analysis and design of surface mine reclamation; mine heap leach facilities; river stabilization; and surface water risk mitigation in diverse regulatory and climatic environments. Nathan has authored or co-authored several peer reviewed publications and conference papers related to water and solute transport, surface water erosion protection, and heap leach design.

• Surface water hydrology
• Vadose zone hydrology
• Open Channel hydraulics
• Mine drainage master planning
• Riverbank and levee stabilization
• Stormwater management
• Mine reclamation and closure
• Heap leach design

Senior Wildlife Ecologist

M.Sc., Biology, Ecology and Evolution
University of Western Ontario, 2008

B.S., Wildlife Biology, Honors
University of Montana, 2001

Quentin Hays has nearly 20 years of experience as a professional wildlife biologist, including extensive work within the private sector and academia as well as with government agencies and non-profit organizations. His research background and expertise centers on avian ecology and mammalogy, and he has spent much of the past decade focusing on the interaction of wildlife and utility-scale alternative energy facilities. In addition to managing large-scale energy projects, Quentin has managed complex electrical transmission development projects in the Southwest and has provided wildlife-centered consultative support on a number of mining projects. Quentin has also worked extensively with the USDA Forest Service developing survey and management strategies for sensitive wildlife species, conducting post-wildfire monitoring and forest restoration, and continues to work with American Indian tribes in the Southwest to support wildlife resource management.

• Avian Ecology
• Biology and Ecology of Bats
• Interaction of Wildlife and Energy Infrastructure
• Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Species Monitoring and Mitigation Planning
• Ecological Monitoring Design, Implementation and Trainin
• Fire Ecology, Post-fire Monitoring and Restoration
• Southwest Forest Restoration
• Grant Writing

Hydrologist

MS, Hydrology
University of Arizona, 2022

BS, Geology
Oberlin College, 2014

Quinn is a hydrogeologist with 5 years’ experience specializing in the simulation and analysis of hydrologic systems. He has led interdisciplinary multi-year monitoring programs of contaminated groundwater; built and installed sampling systems at the groundwater/surface-water interface in rivers and lakes; and created and managed database systems for tabular and geo-spatial hydrologic datasets. Most recently, he has worked on building and testing deep learning models for groundwater-surface water simulations. He has strong skills in subsurface and surface water modeling and numerical programming tools.

• Analysis and modeling of saturated and unsaturated flow
• Relational database management systems
• Machine learning and data analysis
• Field and lab testing of hydrogeochemical, physical and hydraulic properties