Sinkhole Expert Witnesses

Concord, California

Civil Engineering, Hydrology - Flooding, Sewer, Lateral, Hydraulic Modeling, Groundwater, Weir, Spillway, Culvert, Pipeline, PACP, Stormwater, Hydrogen Sulfide, Septic, Sinkhole, Water treatment, Water intrusion, Drainage, Green infrastructure, Rain garden, Infiltration

Ms. Abadie is a Civil Engineer with a background in hydrology and water resources. She provides root cause and scope of damage evaluations and expert witness services. Prior to joining EDT, Ms. Abadie worked in multiple sectors of water and wastewater: groundwater protection, drinking water treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, urban runoff control, watershed assessment, and asset management. She spent twelve years as a collection system engineer for the City and County of San Francisco where she developed San Francisco’s Combined Sewer Discharge inspection program, installed dozens of flowmeters, walked and crawled through hundreds of miles of sewers, designed two baffles, ran model simulations, investigated flooding claims, oversaw repairs of large underground concrete structures, and pulled a bicycle out of a pump station inlet. Join her for a tour of San Francisco’s most beautiful combined sewer outfall here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11782405/tunn...

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Environmental, Hydrology - sinkhole, groundwater, landslide, drilling, hydrogeology, rockfall, karst, vibration, blast, earthquake, contamination, pipeline, fracking, water, erosion, construction, stormwater, physics, leak, cave

Dr. Bechtel is geophysicist/geologist, and a world-renowned expert on sinkholes. But not just sinkholes; bedrock conditions, caves, water pollution, and all issues related to karst terranes. Dr. Bechtel has 25+ years of experience in the engineering/environmental industry, as well as faculty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, the University of Memphis and the University of Pennsylvania, and is an appointed member of the International Karst Commission. Dr. Bechtel has been an expert in dozens of sinkole or karst-related cases - often related to causes of sinkholes and/or water problems. Dr. Bechtel also has expertise and courtroom experience in Unconventional Oil & Gas, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and fracking-industry-related earthquakes, horizontal directional drilling (HDD), as well as all fields of seismology, seismic hazards, vibration monitoring and analysis, subsidence, soil creep, landslides, rockfalls, non-destructive evaluation of earthen dams and levees, subsu...

Tacoma, Washington

Geotechnical Engineering, Civil Engineering - trenchless, drilling, tunnel, tunneling, pipeline, HDD, microtunnel, auger, boring, pipe, ramming, sinkhole, geology, construction, DSC, differing, horizontal, directional

I am a nationally recognized Geotechnical Engineer and Trenchless Expert. I have been involved with litigation matters involving construction issues related to pipeline installations using trenchless technologies. Qualifications and Accreditation M.S., Geological Engineering, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1996 B.S., Geological Sciences, University of Washington, 1994 California: Professional Engineer (Civil), Cert. No. C74224 Washington: Professional Engineer (Civil), Lic. No. 37412 Alaska: Professional Engineer (Civil), Lic. No. AELC11636 Memberships and Professional Organizations American Society of Civil Engineer (ASCE) • Executive Committee, Pipeline Division, Board member, 10/2024 to present • Manual of Practice (MOP) for Introduction to Trenchless Technologies (new MOP), Committee chair, 9/2024 to present • MOP for Horizontal Directional Drilling (MOP 108) committee member, 2021 to present • MOP for the Direct Steerable Pipe Thrusting (MOP 155), committee member, 2017 t...