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Maxim Technologies
Reclaiming the West
All photos courtesy Maxim Technologies
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, mines flourished in the western U.S. as miners extracted hard-rock minerals like gold and silver from the earth. People flocked there looking for riches, and economies and towns boomed. Then as years went by, the mines became spent, and towns died as quickly as they rose to life.
But the environmental destruction and pollution that mining companies left behind as their legacy didn't disappear so fast. Even today, engineering firms are busy devising solutions to the problem and bringing the landscape back to life. One such firm is Maxim Technologies.
Gary Fischer, project manager and office manager for Maxim's Helena, Montana office and a civil engineer with a specialty in water engineering, describes one project that epitomizes Maxim's involvement in mine reclamation. "As one of the largest projects, and the reason I came on with the company, we've been doing the engineering design and construction management for a site here in Montana called a streamside tailings Superfund project. It's the removal of mine waste and tailings from the floodplain and stream of Silver Bow Creek and the complete reconstruction of the floodplain and stream and placing the wastes in a reasonable repository."
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Maxim Technologies boasts nearly 400 employees in 27 offices throughout 15 states in the West and Midwest. All the offices engage in some combination of construction materials testing, geotechnical engineering, and environmental work. Clients include county, state, and federal agencies; mining, wood products, petroleum, recycling, utility, transportation, agricultural, and waste management companies; contractors; and developers.
"We have a core group of geotechnical engineers involved with all kinds of subsurface investigations, foundation evaluation and recommendations, slope stability analyses, dam design, and retaining walls," Fischer says in describing the engineering work Maxim does. "And then we have environmental engineers, and they do a broad range of things. A lot of times they're involved in developing remediation systems for petroleum cleanup sites." The environmental work can also involve hazardous waste as well as natural resource efforts focusing on biology sciences and water-related issues.
"We've also got civil engineers," Fischer continues. He points out they don't do much of the usual municipal-type engineering like water and wastewater facilities or site development. "We've focused our engineering capabilities in water resources, primarily in dam design, stream restoration, and anything related to hydrology or hydraulics."
To aid in carrying out such work, Maxim engineers are supported by a staff of field and materials testing technicians, geographic information system (GIS) analysts, database specialists, socioeconomists, and statisticians. Staff members also include specialists in hydrogeology, hydrology, geology, soil science, geochemistry, chemistry, toxicology, botany, biology, and fisheries.
Such resources come to bear extensively in mine reclamation projects because of their complexity and duration. As Fischer says in describing the Silver Bow Creek project, "It's ongoing. The company was involved in the remedial investigation and feasibility studies since the mid 1980s. Then we went into the design aspect and the actual remedial action around 1997. Construction started in 1999. This is to reclaim 26 miles of the stream and floodplain and millions of yards of tailings."
The tailings are deposits laid by flood events early in the 1900s that came from the Butte Hill area, a large mining district in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Several tailings dam failures occurred, and large washouts from floods washed material into Silver Bow Creek, where it has remained ever since. According to Fischer, "This initiative is to clean that up. Streams where there are tailings are basically dead, and they'd like to get it back into a viable fishery. We're working on the design for that."
Fischer adds that not all Maxim's mine work involves such huge projects. "A lot of our work, too, centers around a lot of the smaller abandoned mines in the national forests up in the mountains, and we work with the forest service on those projects."
Maxim started life as a small engineering firm in Dallas, Texas. The journey to its present form as a major player began when Northern Testing Laboratories and Stiller and Associates in Montana merged in the early 1980s, bringing together Northern's construction materials testing and geotechnical engineering capabilities with Stiller's environmental work. That company soon joined with Chen Engineering of Colorado to become Chen Northern. Later, that entity, along with many others across the nation, was purchased by Huntingdon, a British company, as they gobbled up many environmental engineering firms and testing labs. Then in 1996, Maxim Technologies bought Huntingdon's U.S. companies and sold some of its properties, keeping a core group in line with its own offerings. In 2001, Tetra Tech purchased Maxim.
In this age where engineering firms constantly evolve, Maxim continues to do just that. "We're expanding into more of a natural resources market," Fischer reveals. "That would cover things like performing services to do resource management plans for federal agencies, environmental permitting involving NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act), and doing environmental impact statements for federal agencies and mining companies and oil and gas companies." But while the avenues for doing the work may change, Maxim's core skills remain largely the same, allowing them to continue working on reclaiming western lands, one mine at a time.
Snapshot
Company: Maxim Technologies
Type: Consulting engineering and environmental firm
Location: Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, 27 offices throughout 15 states in the western and midwestern U.S.
Website: www.maximusa.com
Contact information for submitting resumes:
Mail or e-mail to:
Anita Carrico
Human Resources Dept.
350 N. St. Paul, Suite 2600
Dallas, TX 75201
acarrico@maximusa.com
Outlook for hiring engineers:
Gary Fischer, project manager and office manager for Maxim's Helena, Montana office, describes the firm's overall engineer demand as "moderate. A lot of times it's project driven. As a general rule, we're steadily growing in the engineering field, but not at a real rapid pace." In the last eight years, his office has brought on five new engineers. "These are balanced between geotechnical, environmental, and water. Recently, the emphasis has been more on geotechnical and environmental engineers. Companywide, it varies."
"Having experience in the consulting industry is pretty important," Fischer says in describing qualifications the firm seeks in engineers. "The ability to understand the permitting processes and interact with permitting agencies is real important." But he adds, "There are times we look for entry-level people to build up a program."
Maxim uses several methods of recruiting engineers, Fischer reveals. "A lot of times, we'll do an intercompany search through Tetra Tech, and we've been successful in that. We also use online services like Monster.com." They advertise in local newspapers also. "Probably the most successful way we have is by word-of-mouth. If we can get people other employees know, then we're far ahead. They can make a good judgment as to whether they'll be a good fit, rather than just going off a resume.
Progressive
Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
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