Help for Landowners!

Pacific Watershed Associates Inc. (PWA) is a full service environmental consulting firm that specializes in supporting rural landowners with sustainable development, natural resource conservation, and environmental restoration needs. PWA includes a staff of 25 full-time professionals with proven expertise in northern California geology, hydrology, soil conservation and natural resource management issues.

Frequently, PWA is called upon by landowners who are faced with a need to respond rapidly to problems associated with improper grading, road construction, stream alterations and other soil disturbing activities. At PWA, we excel at developing cost-effective treatment prescriptions as well as providing technical oversight to ensure that mitigation strategies are implemented successfully.

We’ve helped numerous clients that find themselves subject to water quality violations, Cleanup and Abatement Orders (CAO) and other land use violations levied by regulatory agencies in response to unpermitted grading and road building activities.  These include site preparation for future property development, construction of fire breaks, access roads, site pads, vineyards, stream crossings and earthen dams (irrigation/stock ponds).

At PWA, we pride ourselves on finding common ground solutions to resolve environmental issues. In many cases, we're able to work with  landowners by utilizing their heavy equipment, labor, and other available resources to reduce the cost of compliance and acquire retro-active permits for unpermitted property improvements.

Specifically, PWA's expertise includes supporting our clients with:

• Clean-up and Abatement Orders
• Cease and Desist Orders
• Section 1600 Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement Violations
• Section 401 Water Quality Certification Violations
• County code violations for grading, wetland, streamside management  zone, and water quality related impacts
• Emergency Erosion Control Plans
• Long Term Erosion Control Plans
• Adaptive Management Plans
• Monitoring site and water quality conditions
• Communicating with, and Reporting to, Regulatory Agencies
• Failure and Forensic Analyses (identifying cause(s) and impacts (if any))
• Expert Witness Services

Examples of our work are presented in the Emergency Erosion Control and Tomki Creek featured projects as well as in the  Tomki Creek and Outlet Creek Before and After Project Photos.

PWA also offers a wide range of services supporting rural property development including:

• Percolation testing and leachfield design for septic systems  (click for more information...)
• Well site development
• Water quantity and quality testing
• Erosion control planning and stormwater management
• Construction site planning and implementation, including technical oversight of BMP installation
• Geologic hazard evaluations
• Ranch and rural road planning, inventory, and analysis
• Road and driveway construction, upgrading and storm-proofing

For more information about how PWA can help you, call us at (707) 839-5130 to schedule a free consultation.