Aaron Orechwa

About Aaron Orechwa

Mr. Orechwa has 16 years of experience as an environmental engineer and radiation scientist. During this time, he has developed expertise across diverse segment strategies in a variety of fields including mine remediation, site characterization, health physics, project management, and water resources engineering. He specializes in environmental monitoring and radiological surveillance for the characterization of remote abandoned mining sites, particularly sites located on tribal lands. To date, at more than 120 radiologically impacted sites in 15 states and two countries, Mr. Orechwa has led, managed, and/or performed field investigations of abandoned uranium mines, uranium mills, ore transfer stations, hazardous waste sites, oil and gas facilities, military sites, and sites related to nuclear testing and nuclear power facilities. He has also conducted and supported engineering related activities and field services work at non-radiological sites across the country, including legacy metal and gold mines. His expertise spans radiological site characterization, statistical analysis of environmental systems, regional background study design, geographic information system (GIS) geospatial techniques for hydrological and erosion modeling, geostatistical analysis, exploratory data analysis, innovative sampling techniques, remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for conducting radiological surveillance, probabilistic data analysis, and technical report writing. Mr. Orechwa has managed projects as large as $7 million and he provides consulting and oversight services to a number of commercial clients, law firms, and government agencies—including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He currently serves as technical lead and mine rock radiation investigation expert under the RAES contract for EPA Region 9. Mr. Orechwa is technical lead for 53 abandoned uranium mines and mills now undergoing assessment and or cleanup and he is also providing oversight for EPA on another 180 uranium mines in the Navajo Nation. Finally, Mr. Orechwa currently supports all three uranium mines listed on the National Priorities List (NPL) as a radiological specialist and environmental engineer (Jackpile Paguate, Midnite Mine, White King/Lucky Lass).

Experience

1. Project Environmental Engineer Vi

   Tetra Tech

   Nov 2015 — Present · Fort Collins, CO, US

Education

• Humboldt State University

  B.S., Environmental Resources Engineering

  2006

• Colorado State University

  M.S., Civil and Environmental Engineering

  2015

Skills

• Remediation
• Environmental Compliance
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Environmental Monitoring
• Hydrology
• Hazardous Waste Management
• Soil Sampling
• Soil
• Technical Writing
• Hydraulics
• Rcra
• Water Balance Studies
• Erosion Control
• Environmental Awareness
• Waste Management
• Environmental Engineering
• Hec-Ras
• Gis
• Water Treatment
• Phase I
• Environmental Management
• Sustainability
• Radiation Safety
• Proposal Writing
• Groundwater
• Environmental Permitting
• Feasibility Studies
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Water
• Water Quality
• Stormwater Management
• Arcgis
• Autocad
• Environmental Science
• Engineering
• Permitting
• Environmental Management Systems
• Civil Engineering
• Mining
• Project Management