IRP Water LLC
Consultants in Hydrogeology and Water Resources

Nothing can replace first-hand experience...

... knowledge gained and lessons learned over the course of a long professional career provides insights that can quickly lead to solutions to challenging problems ...

From the US Southwest to Western South America

IRP Water LLC has delivered innovative and practical solutions in water resources engineering and hydrogeology for a wide range of societal problems, including sustainable water resources management at basin and regional scales, conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water, agricultural water management, water rights, mine water management, vadose zone hydrology and recharge, groundwater contamination characterization and remediation, and radioactive waste management

Water is the blood of all Earth's life

From providing potable water supplies, to crop irrigation, to industrial and process water, humanity could not exist without clean water. In addition, the plants and animals in the natural ecosystems depend on a their hydrologic environment. As the human race is the only species with the power to destroy the natural environment, and to permanently alter the hydrologic cycle that sustains life as we know it on Earth, each generation owes it to subsequent generations to adapt to and manage the water resources is a sustainable fashion.To achieve this promise to our children, the communities (from small villages to megacities) that provide water and sanitary service to their population, as well as the agricultural producers that feed the communities, and finally the other industrial activities that provide goods and an economic engine to society, all of these entities must rely on sound advice based on the best science and practical engineering know how to sustainably manage the globe's water resources. This is the goal of resource consulting firms in general, and is the guiding philosophy of IRP Water.

Current and future water-related challenges are location and time specific, and can vary from providing water supplies to rapidly growing communities, addressing competition between cities, agriculture, and environmental water needs to access scarce supplies, to dealing with floods and prolonged droughts, and developing management schemes to build resiliency in the face of climate change, among others.IRP Water specializes in the analysis of hydrologic data, and in the development and application of hydrological models to help understand the nexus between the hydrologic system and the client's problem, and to explore solutions for sustainable water management to support decision makers and operational water managers.

IRP Water Associates

Over the course of a 40 year professional career, IRP Water principal engineer Dr. Jim McCord, PE, has had the privileged to work with extremely creative and competent engineers and hydrogeologists. It began with his older brother John, basin-scale hydrogeologist extraordinaire, providing Jim a Summer initern opportunity on a hydrogeologic characterization program of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve (NOSR-1) in 1980. John continued to inspire Jim as they both moved forward on distinct paths in hydrogeology, with both of them attending grad school in the renowned New Mexico Tech hydrology program. Their collaborations over the decades eventually led to the formation of Inca Road Partners LLC seeking to develop and work together on projects in New Mexico and Peru. John sadly passed in 2021 just as the consulting business was getting off the ground.After leaving academia as a professor in Civil Engineering and Geology at Washington State University in 1989, Dr. McCord spent 7 years working on radioactive waste management issues at Sandia National Laboratories before entering consulting in 1997, working with DB Stephens & Associates as Hydrology Group Leader. He later joined as a partner Hydrosphere Resource Consultants (based in Colorado and New Mexico), who were acquired by Amec in 2007. With Amec he served as Principal Engineer and Technical Director of Water Resources for the Texas - New Mexico region, then later for South America operations until 2018. Over this long career, he always embraced the technical interactions in tackling challenging problems with his colleagues. To this day, Dr. McCord has maintained excellent relations and continues to collaborate with his network of colleagues in the water resource consulting world, including with:
- Envis Peru
- Lynker Technologies
- GSI Water Solutions
- One-Water Hydrologic
- New Mexico Bureau of Geology

Services / Clients

Over the decades, Dr. McCord has work across a number of areas where hydrology and hydrogeology play a key roles in understanding in tackling water managment challenges. Early in his career there was more of a focus on contaminant hydrogeology, and in the last 25 years there has been a greater emphasis on sustainable groundwater managment at the basin scale andmine water management (which itself includes an important contaminant hydrology component). Below is a partial list services offered and of important clients over the years.Sustainable Groundwater Management (Basin-scale groundwater models, Linked surface water - groundwater models, hydrologic impacts of water transfers, crop water use, managed aquifer recharge, water rights, water adjudications) - City of Boulder Colorado, Denver Water, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Tulare Lake Basin GSA, Navajo Nation Dept. of Justice, Renewable Resources Group, Santa Barbara County Water Agency, San Luis Obispo County Groundwater Sustainability Program

Mine Water Management (tailings and waste dump seepage, pit dewatering, acid mine drainage, water balance modeling, mine EIAs) - Freeport McMoran, Barrick Gold, BHP, Codelco, Minera Pelambres, Lundin Gold, Glencore Resources (Antapaccay), Rio Tinto, Mining & Minerals Group, Yamana Gold, Appian Capital Advisory, Osisko Metals

Groundwater Contamination (site characterization, flow and transport modeling, site remediation, radioactive waste management, Natural Resource Damage Claims) - US Dept. of Justice, CSX Railroad, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mineras Activas, Colorado Attorney General, RhoChem, Sandia National Labs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Energy

Water Resource Impact Studies (Environmental Impact Assessments in support of Hydroelectric Projects, Forest Management, Land Development) - US Bureau of Reclamation, US Forest Service, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, ISAGEN Energia (Colombia), Hydroelectric EIRL (Peru), Andrade - Gutierrez Constructores, Saudi Geological Survey

Get in touch

Please contact Dr. Jim McCord, IRP Water Principal Engineer and Hydrogeologist, if you have any questions or need help solving a water resource challenge. He will help identify solutions, and if necessary assist you in recommending the right specialist or team from his many associates.

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