Comite Resources regularly conducts environmental assessments of areas to document baseline conditions, to quantify damage by human activities, and to determine potential impacts of a planned project. Examples of these assessments include the impacts of canals, spoil banks and dredging, the quantity and quality of hydrologic inputs, and the effect of invasive fauna and flora. Comite Resources has completed over thirty feasibility studies to determine if specific wetlands would be suitable for receiving secondarily treated municipal effluent (see Assimilation Wetlands). The feasibility study describes hydrology, soils, vegetation, and fauna, along with assessment of surrounding landscape use, expected nutrient loading rates, and occurrence of protected flora and fauna, or archaeological and/or historical sites. Once a project is complete, monitoring is typically required, which Comite Resources carries out for a variety of projects. Below is a complete list of environmental parameters that we can include in any environmental assessment or monitoring plan.

Water 

  • Quality - nutrients, sediments, heavy metals, P&PCP and other contaminants 
  • Hydrology - water level, flux, flow patterns, hydroperiod, etc.  
  • Spatial analysis of nutrients, sediments and other constituents in waterways using flow-through technology 
  • Submerged aquatic vegetation surveys 

Vegetation 

  • Ecological characterization – species composition, density, biomass, etc. 
  • Forested and emergent wetland annual productivity 
  • Tissue analysis for heavy metals and other contaminants 
  • Control of invasive exotic plants 
  • Carbon sequestration potential  

Soils 

  • Soil type, bulk density, and organic matter/carbon content 
  • Heavy metals and other contaminants 
  • Wetland soil accretion & surface elevation changes (i.e., feldspar & SETs) 

Air 

  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions quantification, management plans & verification 

Wildlife 

  • Nutria monitoring & control 
  • Endangered Species Surveys
 
  • Avian census surveys