Leonard Rice Engineers, Inc., (LRE) has provided leadership in consulting services related to planning, managing, and developing surface water and groundwater resources throughout the Western United States since 1970. In May 2019, LRE expanded to provide these services across the Midwest by establishing an office in the Twin Cities.
Joining the office are Dave Hume, Senior Project Manager and Vice President of Midwest Operations; Mike Plante, Lead Hydrogeologist; and Roscoe Sopiwnik, Senior Environmental Scientist. Dave, Mike, and Roscoe were colleagues at Leggette, Brashear’s and Graham, Inc. (LBG) and subsequently WSP following WSP’s acquisition of LBG in 2017. The LRE Midwest team will continue to partner with engineering firms and municipal, rural water, industrial, and agricultural clients to address their groundwater supply and resource needs.
Dave is a licensed professional geologist in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Missouri with 30 years of groundwater consulting experience. He began his groundwater-focused career in Minnesota in 1990 after completing his M.S. in Geology from with an emphasis on hydrogeology. He worked as a hydrogeologist for Delta Environmental Consultants until the mid-1990s focusing on remedial investigations of petroleum and other industrial contaminants in soil and groundwater. He then moved from consulting to Unisys’ Corporate Environmental Affairs Group where he worked again as a hydrogeologist on superfund and RCRA sites across the country. In 2000, Dave joined LBG as project manager and lead hydrogeologist supporting contaminant remediation and groundwater supply projects across the Midwest. Dave spent the ensuing almost 20 years developing and expanding the firm’s groundwater supply and resource management practice, most recently as a supervising hydrogeologist for WSP.
Mike is a licensed professional geologist in Minnesota and Texas and a Geographic Information System Professional (GISP) with over 20 years of environmental and water supply consulting experience. After graduating from the University of MN in 1996 with a B.S. in Geology, he worked as an offshore geophysicist with Schlumberger (Houston, TX) responsible for 3D seismic data processing. Mike joined LBG as a hydrogeologist in 1999 and supported environmental characterization and remediation projects, facility response planning, emergency response, and groundwater supply projects across the Midwest. While at LBG, Mike completed a Master of Geographic Information Science (MGIS) degree from the University of MN (2003), expanding in-house GIS expertise in the Midwest as LBG’s GIS Coordinator; most recently, Mike was a supervising hydrogeologist with WSP. In his role at LRE, Mike works to expand LRE’s water-supply services in the Midwest and increase LRE’s GIS capabilities. As an avid GIS user, Mike continuously strives to find new ways to apply GIS, spatial analysis, and geospatial modeling to solve groundwater related issues and provide understanding to challenging hydrogeology projects.
Roscoe is a GISP, with over a decade of experience providing diverse hydrogeologic and GIS consulting. After graduating from Macalester College in 2006 with a B.A. in Geography, Environmental Science, and Geology, he joined LBG in 2006 as an Environmental Scientist with a focus on hydrogeology and GIS. While at LBG, Roscoe obtained his MGIS degree and Master Minor in Water Resources Studies from the University of MN (2012), and helped grow LBG’s Midwest hydrogeology-centered GIS spatial analysis capabilities. More recently, Roscoe was a senior environmental scientist for WSP. Roscoe’s role at LRE focuses on project management and providing hydrogeologic and GIS services to help grow LRE’s presence in the Midwest. As a GIS professional, Roscoe is passionate about applying GIS spatial analysis and geospatial modeling to solve challenging groundwater sustainability related issues.
As members of MWGA, Dave, Mike, and Roscoe regularly attend MGWA’s semi-annual conferences to maintain awareness of current trends and hot topics within the groundwater community, and frequently present at groundwater-focused and GIS conferences.
RSS - Posts