The LimnoTech story

When the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, Time magazine described it as the river that “oozes rather than flows.” Around the same time, Lake Erie was declared “dead.” These and other events helped spur a national commitment to clean water.

It was during this time that Paul Freedman and two other University of Michigan researchers formed a consulting company with the goal of becoming “players” in solving the nation's water quality problems. This was the beginning of LimnoTech, formed in 1975.

Throughout the ensuing years, LimnoTech and its staff have been committed to helping clients make the best decisions for the protection and restoration of the water environment. Below is a brief history that shows how we have progressed in tandem with the evolution of our field—often leading the way.

The 1970s: Using models for decision support

The 1970s brought a surge in environmental awareness and a flood of new environmental legislation, calling for more informed analysis to justify expensive control measures. At the same time, computers were becoming accessible tools for engineers and scientists. During this decade, LimnoTech was a pioneer in applying new models to help municipal utility managers make difficult and expensive decisions about combined sewer overflow (CSO) control and wastewater treatment requirements. LimnoTech continues to be viewed as a national leader in this field today. In the 1970s, LimnoTech led the way in:

  • Development and use of dissolved oxygen and eutrophication models to aid in defining need for technology improvements for wastewater treatment plants
  • The first simple sewer overflow models to support strategies for the control of combined sewer overflows
  • Helping several communities create comprehensive plans to manage their wastewater. One of these communities was Washington, D.C., a client we've served for three decades
The 1980s: Toxics concerns and new technologies

Toxic chemicals emerged as a significant concern in the 1980s. LimnoTech became a nationally recognized leader by addressing new issues in surface water and groundwater for both conventional and toxic pollutants. Staff at LimnoTech developed some of the earliest models of the fate and transport of PCBs, DDT, and other chemical contaminants in the Great Lakes to evaluate problems and potential solutions in Saginaw Bay, Lake Michigan, and Lake Ontario. Groundwater pollution from spills of toxic solvents was also a concern. Here, too, LimnoTech applied innovative modeling and computer analysis to analyze problems at high-profile Superfund sites.

During this decade, the growing use of desktop personal computers allowed LimnoTech to focus on making the technology from computer simulation more accessible to decision-makers. We were pioneers in the development of user-interactive PC models, graphic interfaces, GIS database management and display programs, probabilistic models, and other innovations addressing surface water and groundwater challenges. Computer modeling and analysis became standard tools for decision-making in our industry.

The 1990s: Focus on holistic approaches

In the 1990s, attention turned from cleaning up individual sites and controlling point source pollution to more holistic approaches to prevention and restoration. A relatively new concept of watershed management received greater emphasis, along with the regulatory counterpart, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). LimnoTech led local and national efforts to promote innovative scientific approaches for developing more effective priorities for water quality protection and restoration.

Besides site-specific applications of watershed assessment tools, staff at LimnoTech organized several national conferences, contributed hundreds of presentations and papers, and developed numerous innovations in modeling. During this period, LimnoTech was also responsible for numerous state and EPA training workshops, new models, and technical guidance manuals, all focused on advancing the use of models to support effective watershed management.

Expanding our national reputation, LimnoTech was in the forefront of:

  • Large-scale ecosystem restoration strategies related to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, and Chesapeake Bay
  • Restoration of other high-profile sites like the Florida Everglades
  • Recognition that chemical pollution was not always the sole, or even primary, obstacle to environmental restoration (In 1993, LimnoTech produced a landmark study that demonstrated the importance of invasive species, habitat loss, and hydraulic and hydrologic modifications on the lakes.)
  • Development of the first models to consider the effects of invasive zebra mussels on everything from algae to PCB concentrations in fish
  • Reexamination of dredging as a universal strategy for contaminated sediment sites
  • Provision of technical support leading to the first Superfund closure under natural attenuation
  • Integration of technical advances into projects involving risk assessment and groundwater remediation
The 2000s and Beyond: Sustainable and Affordable Solutions

In urban areas, communities are struggling with how to solve expensive CSO, sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) and wet weather pollution issues with sustainable approaches they can afford. LimnoTech has been active in promoting cost-effective watershed approaches and “green” technologies to pollution control. LimnoTech employees have contributed to the dialog on sustainability through numerous presentations and professional activities.

Today we are still dealing with the legacies of pollution from contaminated sediments and sites. In this regard, LimnoTech has been a national leader with numerous scientific advances for assessing solutions, including complex computer models, research on creative remediation approaches, and environmental forensics, such as radioactive dating, chemical fingerprinting, geostatistics, and experimental studies on settling and re-suspension.

As new environmental challenges emerge in the years ahead, LimnoTech will continue to play a leadership role, helping our clients make informed decisions while enhancing and protecting our water environment.