Since a tour of the Los Angeles Hyperion Treatment Plant in 1966, I have always been interested in water quality and surrounding issues.  Although the picture to the left documents a potential claim that I have been involved with water quality issues for almost 50 years (note the date in the right margin), my career lapsed for about 15 years shortly thereafter.   My professional experience with water started in 1981 when I was hired as a Research Associate in the Chemistry Department at CU Boulder, developing analytical methods for semi-volatile organics in treated wastewater.  That followed with being institutionalized for 7 years in the Environmental Engineering graduate school whereupon I was released on good behavior with a PhD.
   
Benthica has existed in several forms since the late 1980'€™s.  At the request of other researchers to design and build custom equipment for sediment investigations, €œ"Abysmal Samplers"€ (aka Mudders of Invention) was formed in 1988 and I started my machine shop.  I have designed and built sediment sampling equipment for consulting firms (e.g., PTI Environmental Services, Exponent and Anchor/QEA), industrial clients (e.g., Teck-Cominco and Suncor), as well as universities worldwide.  There are still many situations that require specialized, site-specific equipment (e.g., collecting SO2 gas 100 feet BGS at 220° C, or water samples 1,000 feet down a mine shaft).   However, building equipment is a distraction from working with the data, and I focused on consulting.  Consulting offered little opportunity for research so in 2000 I left consulting to be a Research Professor at Colorado State University.  Unlike consulting, professordom falls short of "a living wage," and in the early 2000's I started up Benthica as a more full-service firm, that does research.
  
Steve Klein, PhD - Principal Scientist