McClure Engineering Co., a civil and structural engineering firm headquartered in the Des Moines area with an office in Fort Dodge, has added environmental, GIS, and water resources to its portfolio of engineering and infrastructure services under the banner of its new environmental team.

“Adding this service is a natural fit for McClure,” said Dustin Leo, CEO. “Our vision of making lives better encompasses our purpose of developing safe, sustainable, and healthy communities where people and economies can thrive. The protection of our land, air, and water resources and the ecosystems they support is crucial to ensure high quality of life for many generations into the future and is a top priority for our people and our clients.”

McClure’s environmental team will provide three primary service areas — water resources engineering, environmental services, and GIS.

Water resources engineering will include:

• Stream restoration and river works

• Urban water quality practices

• Agricultural water quality practices

• Urban stormwater management

• Dams, lakes, and ponds

• Water quantity and quality modeling

• Floodplain modeling / permitting

Environmental services will include:

• Environmental permitting

• Wetland delineation / design / restoration

• Stream assessment (geomorphic and regulatory)

• Upland ecological restoration

GIS will include:

• Geographic data analysis and mapping

• Floodplain mapping

• Infrastructure mapping

• Asset data management

“We’re demonstrating our intentional emphasis on sustainability,” said Gary Brons, vice president of water. “Water quality isn’t a new buzz word, but it is becoming more and more important in all our water engineering projects. We’re excited to add many talented and technical individuals to the McClure team that are dedicated to the sustainability of our planet.”

Aaron Gwinnup has joined the McClure team as team leader — environmental. He brings 15 years of engineering experience and more than 20 additional years in construction and project management.

Gwinnup’s engineering experience includes consulting and academic facets. He worked at the Iowa Institute for Hydraulic Research for three years researching phytoremediation and Midwestern water quality issues. His master’s thesis investigated Midwestern flooding and its impact on the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone.” He joined expeditions to the Gulf twice, to help measure the dead zone in 2008 and to collect oil-soaked salt marsh samples during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

His consulting career has included a wide range of projects including stormwater BMP design, stream, prairie, and wetland restoration, hydraulic modeling and dam modification, floodplain mapping and permitting, and major civil works such as landfill construction, park development, and conventional stormwater design. He has worked in 10 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and has been retained by state agencies, cities, counties, watershed management organizations, and also private entities and NGOs in the implementation of hundreds of water-resources and ecological restoration projects.