Christopher Heppner Email & Phone Number

I have worked on a wide variety of projects including: groundwater resource evaluations; basin safe yield and water budget analyses; contaminant fate and transport modeling; assessment of remedial approaches for contaminated groundwater sites; hydrogeologic conceptual model development; aquifer test analyses; investigations of DNAPL- and LNAPL-impacted sites; soil moisture accounting and groundwater recharge evaluations; groundwater monitoring program design and implementation; investigation of wastewater disposal and salinity impacts; SGMA groundwater management; and UST remediation with commingled plumes. In addition to working to solve the technical challenges of each project, I have experience in project planning, budgeting, and cost estimation; generation and review of written work products; presentations to technical and non-technical audiences; and business development planning.

As part of the Unsaturated Zone Flow Project, I conducted research on the factors controlling water movement through the unsaturated zone in a humid region underlain by fractured rock. I developed and published a numerical model that uses groundwater level time-series data from monitoring wells to estimate groundwater recharge. I conducted experiments to determine the unsaturated hydraulic properties of soil samples in support of flow modeling efforts.

As a teaching assistant for undergraduate and graduate level courses in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, I ran weekly lab sessions, facilitated discussion of course concepts, and assisted with grading of student work products and exams. As a research assistant I performed data analysis and hydrologic response modeling in support of my lab group's collaborative research efforts and co-authored several journal articles with my colleagues.

As part of a small team of young earth science professionals, I conducted field assessments of bridges over streams in Western Pennsylvania as part of a state-wide project evaluating bridges in terms of their foundation stability. Field work was predominant and involved GPS and total-station surveying of stream channel cross-sections and profiles, inspection of bridge footings and piers for potential problems (e.g., scour holes, woody debris accumulations), and assessment of channel and floodplain conditions. Office tasks included QC and data entry of field data. Working on this project gave me invaluable direct exposure to the wide variety of channel geomorphologies found in the Appalachian Plateau region and the hydrological processes responsible for their formation..

Phd, Hydrogeology

Dissertation: A Dam Problem: Characterizing the Upstream Hydrologic and Geomorphologic Impacts of Dams

Bs With Honors, Geology/Biology