Partner Bios

Allen Comeskey, MS, CPG

Allen has been involved in water supply hydrogeology and exploration since 1979.  During this time, he has earned a reputation as an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated scientist who is committed above all else to accuracy, credibility, and honesty.  Allen’s extensive career in water supply hydrogeology includes 10 years with the North Dakota State Water Commission, where he logged 50,000 ft of borehole per year (lithologic and geophysics) while conducting community and county water resource exploration and delineation and wetlands water budgets.  He is proud to have been a critical part of the exploration and mapping of North Dakota’s vast network of hidden lakes aquifer systems. Prior to joining Ground Water Science in 1996, he worked with Earth Data and LBG Inc. on wellhead protection and contaminant delineation projects throughout Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and New England. 

Today, Allen employs his considerable training and experience to solve a variety of challenges related to the delivery of public water supplies and related environmental engineering challenges.  He is an expert on the subjects of aquifer systems and water well design and construction, aquifer modeling, pumping test analysis, and the use of GIS and image analysis in aquifer exploration.  

He is well-known by municipal clients as a reliably thorough and detail-oriented project manager in the construction of large-scale wells and other groundwater production facilities.  He is a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG) by the American Institute of Professional Geologists and a Registered Professional Geologist in the states of Indiana and Pennsylvania.  He is a co-author, along with business partner Stuart Smith, of Sustainable Wells: Maintenance, Problem Prevention, and Rehabilitation (CRC Press, 2009, update in the works).

Allen earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Geology from Bowling Green State University in 1978 and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Geology from The University of North Dakota in 1993. To connect with him on LinkedIn, click here!

photo Stuart Smith

Stuart Smith, MS, CGWP

Stuart’s interest in ground water (groundwater) dates back to his teenage years when, while pulling and setting pumps for his father’s rural Ohio plumbing business, he literally had the black and brown products of well microorganisms on his hands.  Later, that experience led to his pioneering work in the application of biofouling testing methods in groundwater system analysis. He also listened to the water cascading in the rock wells of his Ohio home country and wondered about the flow of water underground. Today, Stuart is one the nation’s foremost experts on the diagnosis and treatment of well problems and performance deterioration, and well and wellfield asset management.  He is a Certified Ground Water Professional (CGWP) by the National Ground Water Association, a Registered Geologist with the Commonwealth of Kentucky (he would have an Ohio registration if there were one), and has been consulting in the ground water field since 1983. 

In addition to his consulting career, he has also worked for the National Water Well Association (now NGWA), developed the curriculum and instructed ground water science and technology at Wright State University (where he developed portions of the WSU IRIS distance-learning hydrogeology training program), and taught biology courses and advised hydrogeological engineering projects at Ohio Northern University.  He has spoken on well maintenance and asset management, rehabilitation, and microbiology topics in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England, Tanzania, Slovenia, Jordan, and throughout North America.  In recent years, he has become active in the effort to equip professional water sector capabilities and to develop water supplies in Tanzania and other developing countries. He is currently also a partner in a water management and construction company, Ground+Water Tanzania Ltd. and its Ohio-corporation affiliate Earth Water Services Africa LLC.

He is the author or co-author of numerous works, including contributions to well maintenance and rehabilitation practice, most recently in book form, he and Allen Comeskey have contributed Sustainable Wells: Maintenance, Problem Prevention, and Rehabilitation (CRC Press).  He is also a coauthor of both the 1992 Australian Drilling Manual and the 1997 edition of its successor, Drilling (CRC Press), a major contributor to AWWA’s Manual M21, Groundwater (two editions) and ASCE’s recent Hydraulics of Wells text, and a principal author-editor of NGWA’s Manual of Water Well Construction Practices, as well as contributing to the Water Well Journal, National Driller, GeoDrilling International and other publications.

Stuart earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with majors in Biology and Earth Science from Wittenberg University in 1977 and a Master of Science (MS) degree from The Ohio State University in 1984. To connect with him on LinkedIn, click here!