Hydrosphere Staff
B. Talon Newton
Staff Hydrogeologist I/Geochemist
Mr. Newton is a hydrogeologist/geochemist with five years of research and professional experience. His areas of expertise include contaminant transport, stable isotope geochemistry, environmental and applied tracer methodologies, hydrogeochemical characterization, and hydrological field work.
Mr. Newton’s responsibilities at Hydrosphere include groundwater modeling (both flow and contaminant), stream/aquifer interactions, hydrologic analyses, and technical support for both water rights and toxic tort litigation.
Prior to joining Hydrosphere, Mr. Newton’s projects included the use of groundwater modeling to assess the effects of water rights transfers (change in the use and location) on the hydrologic system as a whole and on senior water rights, monitoring shallow groundwater levels along a reach of the middle Rio Grande in the interest of evaluating groundwater /surface water interactions, and the assessment of the effects of groundwater pumping on natural hot springs in southern New Mexico.
Mr. Newton has used geochemical, isotopic, and tracer methodologies (environmental and applied) to study a variety of hydrologic systems including groundwater/surface water interactions along the Rio Grande, the deep vadose zone in the Chihuahuan Desert, and a dual-permeability groundwater system in Northern Ireland. He has used stochastic analytical modeling techniques to assess the transport of uranium and radium in a shallow groundwater system down-gradient from uranium tailings in Western New Mexico. Mr. Newton’s research focused on the use of multiple tracers as a robust method of estimating hydrologic parameters and to assess physical, chemical and biochemical processes.
His work has been presented at a number of regional and national conferences and meetings.
Mr. Newton has a BS and MS in Geology and Hydrology from New Mexico Tech, and is expected to complete his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast early in 2008.