Menso de Jong

Senior Geologist

Expertise:

Dr. Menso de Jong supports water resource needs on a wide range of scales, from groundwater and surface water resource evaluations and development for single parcel water systems to basin-wide planning, monitoring, and operations. Menso routinely evaluates existing water resources projects, works closely with clients to develop approaches for resource development, provides scientific support and oversight during new well construction, and conducts technical field and analytical work in support of aquifer characterization. His environmental assessment experience includes coordination, planning, and reporting during all phases of investigation, remedial excavations, and compliance and closure monitoring and sampling. Menso also has managed watershed health investigations involving bacterial sampling and abiotic tracers, anthropogenic contamination source studies for impacted groundwater and surface water bodies, and monitoring of surface water flows in groundwater-dependent watersheds. He frequently utilizes combinations of field measurements, autonomous data loggers, geophysical methods, historical research, and geochemical data to investigate groundwater-surface water interactions in complex hydrologic systems.

Dr. de Jong's experience overseeing groundwater well drilling operations throughout California spans the complete timeline of well construction from siting studies to construction oversight and testing, including geologic logging, geophysical log interpretation, well design, pumping tests, and water storage and management. He has worked on wells drilled via hollow stem auger, direct push, sonic, air and mud rotary, and reverse circulation techniques in both alluvial aquifers and in fractured bedrock. His projects have included single-parcel water systems, large municipal wells and agricultural wellfields, single and multi-completion monitoring well projects, angled borings, and wells sited at challenging locations requiring advanced conceptualizations of subsurface structural geology. He has contributed to well siting and water resource evaluation studies in numerous technically challenging and regulation-constrained environments, including groundwater-surface water interaction studies, well siting on parcels straddling multiple jurisdictional boundaries and in locations containing zones of contamination-impacted groundwater.

Professional Credentials and Academic Background:

Professional Geologist California, No. 9944

PhD, Earth Science, University of California Santa Barbara, 2020
MS, Geology, California State University East Bay, 2014
BS, Earth Science, California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, 2011