Aqua Survey, Inc.

Sediment Vibracoring

Aqua Survey owns and operates more than ten heavy duty vibracoring systems. Vibracoring is considered to be the most cost effective technology to collect large numbers of sediment cores efficiently and with little distortion to the actual core. Three or four inch diameter cores can be collected continuously to a depth of about 40 feet. Sediment vibracores are used extensively for:

• Contaminant characterization
• Geotechnical characterization
• Geophysical data ground-truthing
• Mineral deposit characterization
• Archeological investigation

Barrel liners are typically flexible food-grade polyethylene for contaminant evaluations or rigid polycarbonate for geotechnical samples or high-resolution environmental cores. The flexible liners can be slit with a razor knife, allowing for easy processing in the field or in the lab. A standard 4-inch diameter sediment core yields about 0.5 gallons of sediment per foot of recovered core. A vessel-based field crew can typically collect 8-12 short cores (<8 feet), 6-10 medium cores (8-12 feet) or 4-8 long cores (>12 feet) a day, depending on sampling conditions. We can deploy multiple vibracoring field teams simultaneously.

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Benthic Grab Sampling

Aqua Survey has a wide variety of sampling equipment such as: benthic grab samplers, kick-nets, gill-nets, seines, bongo-nets, plankton-nets, epibenthic sleds, fish traps, trawls, underwater video camera, underwater digital still cameras, lightweight ROVs and other monitoring equipment. Specimen samples are collected, sorted, taxonomically identified and enumerated by ASI professionals. Seagrass beds and coral reefs can be digitally imaged/recorded and this data processed to determine their relative health. Resulting data can be used to support:

• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission studies (FERC)
• 316(b) larval intake studies
• 301(h) discharge variance studies
• 403(c) discharge monitoring studies
• Rapid bioassessment studies
• Environmental impact studies
• Habitat evaluations
• Bioaccumulation studies

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Sub-Bottom Sonar Surveying

Aqua Survey utilizes Sub-Bottom sonar 
echoes to detect and map targets and layering within 
the beds of lakes, streams, rivers, estuaries and oceans. The harder the target or strata, the harder and more resolute the sonar’s echo is to the transducer. 
Sub-Bottom can be used to three-dimensionally delineate contaminated sediment volumes. This technology can also be used to survey a riverbed for buried utilities prior to advancing drilling or vibracoring equipment into the sub-bottom, thus lowering the probability of making contact with or damaging a utility service. ASI uses sub-bottom profiling to 
support:

• Bed strata mapping
• Pipeline/tunnel mapping
• Estimating sediment volumes
• Target detection
• Detection of archeological structures
• Underwater utility markout surveying

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Hydrographic Surveying

Aqua Survey provides board-certified 
hydrographic/bathymetric surveying services worldwide. ASI has vast experience surveying in 
estuaries, rivers, lakes, streams and ponds. Real-Time Kinematic Differential Global Positioning Systems (RTK-DGPS) can be used to provide centimeter-accurate vertical and horizontal control. Hypack Max™ is used for vessel control and tracking. 
Hydrographic sonar equipment emits sounds that travel to the bottom (depth of the water) and then bounce back to the sounder at the surface. The delay
in the sound’s return to the surface is translated into water depth. Bathymetric surveys provide clients with 
an accurate relief map of a pondbed, lakebed, 
riverbed or other area of interest.

Historically, bathymetric surveying was
performed to chart the physical features of water bodies to allow vessels to navigate safely. We perform hydrographic surveying services today to support:

• Dredged materials volume calculation
• Marina management
• Grounding investigations
• Environmental surveying
• Utility markout

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Electromagnetic Metal Detection Services

Aqua Survey utilizes electromagnetic (EM) detection systems to detect and map submerged metal targets. EM detectors are well known for their ability to detect unexploded ordnance (UXO) and treasure. ASI’s EM systems are high powered to maximize their detection range.  EM systems can be towed behind 
survey vessels on floating platforms or submerged 
benthic sleds, to survey up to 6-meter swaths, towed 
by a diver (1-meter swath) or included within the 
nosecone of a vibracoring barrel (4-inch diameter). 
Submersible electromagnetic detectors are used 
to support:

• Munitions and Explosives of Concern Surveys
• Location of lost equipment and cargo
• Mapping of obstructions and hazards
• Location of downed planes and shipwrecks
• Mapping of utilities
• Underwater utility markout surveys

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Taxonomy/Benthic Grab Sampling

To support benthic investigations Aqua Survey can deploy a Smith-Macintyre grab sampler to collect sediment and benthic macroinvertebrate samples.  Once the macroinveretebrate samples are onboard the samples can be prepared with a sieving station to process the samples making them ready for the laboratory to sort and identify.  A drop camera may also be deployed to assist with characterizing what is happening at the water-sediment interface.  Specimen samples that are collected can be sorted, taxonomically identified and enumerated by ASI professionals. Resulting data can be used to support:

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission studies
316 B larval intake studies
301 H discharge variance studies
403 C discharge monitoring studies
Rapid bioassessment studies
Environmental impact studies
Habitat evaluations
Bioaccumulation studies

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Buried Underwater Utilities Can Be Located

The use of markout services to protect utilities buried on land can never eliminate the possibility of a utility being damaged.  However a properly executed markout can greatly reduce the probability of equipment making contact with or damaging a utility.  Urban waterways are riddled with submerged and buried utilities.  Available markout services rarely flag utilities past the banks of a waterway.  “As built” plans for the most part do not exist for the older submerged utility runs in the U.S.  Complicating things further and adding an unacceptable level of uncertainty, pipeline routes have been known to shift from their original placement due to heavy storm surges and other natural forces.

Engineers and project managers should take full advantage of Aqua Survey’s on-water markout services prior to penetrating an estuary bed, riverbed, lakebed or pond bottom. 

Typical tools for on-water markout may include:
•Electromagnetic time domain detection systems (towed benthic sled, diver maneuvered system, float system and Smart-core vibracoring system).
• Sub-bottom sonar survey
• Magnetometer and gradiometer survey
• Side scan sonar survey

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Side Scan Sonar Surveying

Side scan sonar can produce remarkable 
real-time images. Aqua Survey operates single/dual-frequency side scan sonars. Side scan uses transducer-produced pulses of sound emitted from a towfish. The sound waves are emitted at an angle to “illuminate” the bottom. These sound waves bounce off the relief of the bottom and return to the transducer as a sound reflection. Images of the bottom’s relief (e.g., sunken vessel) can be viewed real-time on the survey vessel and are recorded digitally for post-survey 
viewing, processing and mapping. Side scan surveys 
are used to support:

• Environmental assessment
• Waste drum charting
• Channel and berth obstruction surveys
• Unexploded ordnance (UXO) surveys
• Shipwreck surveys
• Lost equipment searches
• Reef evaluations
• Utility mapping
• Bridge support scour surveys
• Underwater archeology
• Obstruction snag charting
• Markout surveys
• Grain size surveys

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Drilling Services

Aqua Survey can deploy a CME-55LC track-mounted drill (or equivalent), a Diedrich D-25 skid-mounted drill, or a portable Winkie drill on several of our vessels. Unconsolidated or moderately consolidated sub-bottom samples can often be collected by vibracoring. Harder bottoms frequently require the use of percussive (hammer) or rotary drilling techniques. During standard drilling, a casing is either hammered or rotated into the bottom to sampling depth. To collect samples at prescribed depths, a split spoon is pushed into the casing and immediately removed and containerized. Unlike a split spoon, a Shelby tube is inserted and then pushed into the casing pipe. Then the sample is allowed to swell in the tube for up to 30 minutes to prevent loss during extraction. After removal, the sample tube is capped and wax-sealed for offsite geotechnical testing. Rotary drilling techniques are utilized to collect consolidated sediment and rock cores.

Vessel-based services include:

• Ground-truthing of geophysical survey data
• Standard penetration testing (SPTs)
• Collection of geotechnical samples (split spoon, Shelby tube, etc.)
• Environmental sample collection
• Use of advance probes (e.g., CPT)
• Collection of rock cores
• Support of Parallel Seismic studies

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Vessel Charter

Aqua Survey owns and operates a fleet of over 20 research / survey vessels that have been customized to support markout, environmental and geotechnical field services. The vessels range in size from a 12-foot amphibious vehicle to our 100-ton, 70-foot long 
flagship, the R/V Robert E. Hayes. All vessels are capable of operating 
in shallow-draft areas. Our vessels are operated by scientists who are United States Coast Guard licensed captains. All crew members are OSHA HAZWOPER 40-hour trained. Our vessels are also used by the motion picture industry as filming platforms.

The following Aqua Survey vessel types are available:

• Class 80-foot Liftboats
• Commercial grade catamaran self-propelled pontoon vessels
• Mono-hulled survey vessels
• Commercial grade pontoon platforms
• Inflatable self-propelled pontoons (Excellent choice for working in remote areas)
• Mono-hulled open support vessels
• Amphibious vehicles

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Grain Size Classification

Aqua Survey utilizes depth sounders and side scan sonar to rapidly characterize the sediment grain size characteristics to economically map surficial grain size of expansive areas. Grain size can be used to accurately predict the potential for contaminant loading. Hypack Max™ software is used for vessel control and tracking. RTK-DGPS or DGPS precision can be achieved for accurate mapping. This technology can classify: Bedrock, Cobble, Gravel, Sand, Silt and Clay.

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Cone Penetrometer Testing

Cone Penetrometer Tests, or CPTs, are a cost effective and dependable method for assessing subsurface consolidation and compaction as well as providing a correlation for stratigraphy, relative density and pore water pressures. Aqua Survey’s R/V Robert E. Hayes has been modified to accommodate various manufacturers’ CPT equipment. With the Hayes’ 5-foot shallow-draft and 75-foot jacking-legs, CPT studies can be performed inshore and offshore. Most units utilize electronic friction cones and piezocone penetrometers. As the cone is hydraulically forced downward through the seabed it causes a failure in the subsurface several inches ahead 
of the tip. During this process resistance and friction 
are measured as the probe is advanced through the
seabed strata.

As with Sub-Bottom Profiling or any other geophysical technique, it is also important to ground-truth CPT data. Typically, conventional boring methods are performed to ground-truth CPT data. This allows for the electronic signature provided by CPT techniques to be compared directly to physical samples.

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Sediment Profile Imaging

Sediment profile imaging (SPI) is a rapid, inexpensive way to collect a vast amount of data on benthic conditions.  SPI equipment is lowered to the bottom to rest on its frame, a camera is then mechanically driven into the sub-bottom and a digital picture is taken. These images can be processed to characterize:

• Benthic community
• Flora and fauna recruitment
• Grain size
• Gas pockets
• Anaerobic/aerobic conditions
• Pre-and-post dredging 
recolonization comparison
• Oil contamination

This system can be deployed from several of ASI’s vessels and is capable of collecting high-quality images of lake-bottoms, riverbeds and seabeds.

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Dredged Material Assessment

Aqua Survey collects proposed dredged material, processes the sediment samples, and preserves them for analyses. Our scientists regularly perform geotechnical, chemical and biological analyses in support of water quality and disposal alternatives studies. Aqua Survey will help clients prepare a sampling and analysis plan to submit for regulatory approval. The following are examples of in-house procedures:

• Solid-phase total organic carbon (TOC)
• Plasticity
• Sieve grain size
• Hydrometer grain size
• Vane shear strength
• Penetrometer
• Immunoassay (e.g., dioxin, PCB, DNAPL)
• Toxicity studies (acute & chronic)
• Bioaccumulation studies (tissue uptake)

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Smart Core Vibracoring

It is often desirable to collect sediment vibracores in areas with known or unknown submerged or sediment buried utilities, unexploded ordnance (UXO), cultural resources or other unknowns to be avoided. Aqua Survey has developed a sediment vibracoring system incorporating electromagnetic transmission and receiver coil technology. This breakthrough technology signals the operator when the nosecone of the core barrel is near a metallic object, allowing the operator to greatly reduce the probability of making contact.

Areas of known military waste often need to be assessed for contaminants leaching into the aquatic environment. The use of the Smart Core™ can safeguard field technicians from UXO during 
coring activities.

The Smart Core™ can collect up to 20-feet of a continuous 4-inch diameter core in a flexible
inner-core liner. Electromagnetic data are viewed real-time and logged simultaneously into a digital file.

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