Employee Spotlight: Patrick O’Neill – High Res Hero
In July 2012, Patrick embarked on his journey with Vertex Environmental as a Field Technician and Project Manager. Working at a smaller, private company meant that he had to wear many different hats and play multiple roles. His career quickly advanced and he soon progressed to serving as the main High-Resolution Site Characterization (HRSC) operator in Canada and eventually managing Vertex Environmental’s largest In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) remedial injection program at the time.
Patrick’s HRSC work took him to sites located from coast to coast across Canada, eventually covering over 9,000 m of vertical probing with the HRSC tools and collecting invaluable site characterization data for clients along the way before passing the torch and training a new batch of HRSC operators at Vertex Environmental.
Patrick on one of the second tours of duty in Goose Bay operating the HRSC tools
High-Resolution Site Characterization has evolved under Patrick’s guidance, becoming an integral part of many environmental projects in Canada. It began as a simple delineation supplementary approach, providing detailed subsurface data logs coupled with GPS coordinates. Today, the HRSC tooling is utilized on complex sites with multiple applications, transforming the way the environmental industry operates. Incorporating the resulting large amounts of data into the remedial design process has been one of the best innovations at Vertex Environmental for developing and executing sustainable remedial solutions for clients.
Although HRSC services have been a large part of Patrick’s career at Vertex Environmental it’s not his only duty, or environmental passion for that matter. Patrick also spends plenty of time looking at sites requiring remediation. His initial interest in Vertex Environmental was the offer of executing and managing in-situ remediation projects. Since joining Vertex Environmental, Patrick has witnessed an incredible evolution. Everything from new and emerging contaminants, improved remedial amendments, technological equipment advances and even smarter application and delivery methods. Implementing new technologies in the Canadian environmental industry to tackle what were once complex issues has been somewhat of a consistent and a quite enjoyable trend at Vertex Environmental!
Patrick after a hard day in the field hanging out with Paul Bunyan
Fast forward to 2023, and Patrick now stands as the Manager of the Research & Characterization (R&C) Division at Vertex Environmental. This division combines the HRSC services together with Vertex Environmental’s in-house treatability testing laboratory where bench-scale testing, remedial design optimization and quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) testing activities are completed.
From the very beginning, Patrick felt that working at Vertex Environmental would be an amazing opportunity. Whether he’s in the field completing an ISCO injection to clean up contaminants in the subsurface or presenting a case study at a national conference, Patrick finds satisfaction in each day’s work being a key part of the team of professionals at Vertex Environmental.
Patrick looking somewhat older but much wiser today
Patrick sees his journey at Vertex Environmental as one of comradery and continuous improvement. His dedication, knowledge, and passion have helped to reshape Vertex Environmental and its ability to leverage information to make smarter decisions for clients. For any in-situ remedial or HRSC needs, there’s no better person to contact than Patrick. He can be reached at patricko@vertexenvironmental.ca.