Alipio joined the team when Ecometrix and Calder Engineering Ltd. merged in 2021, continuing his work as a Project Designer. When we sit down to speak with him, he says, “My desk is full of projects.” While that’s true, it’s also a culmination of expertise he’s built over more than three decades.
Our Project Designer Alipio Abanto Florida working on rock characterization of the Cuajone open pit mine in 2001.
Alipio’s journey into environmental consulting began with the completion of a master’s degree in hydraulics engineering. “At the beginning, I thought I would go into medicine but loved the idea of learning technical skills, like being a mechanic or civil engineer. I was lucky that I jumped into hydraulic engineering because I love it, still today.”
Since then, he’s worked in countries across the world, on too many projects to list here. His studies took him to the former Soviet Union, where he completed a master's degree and worked at the university as an assistant before returning to his home country of Peru. There, he worked for the Ministry of Agriculture on projects related to hydraulic engineering, irrigation, and water intake with a specific focus on feasibility projects.
Then he moved into the mining industry, gaining experience in construction and inspections of civil engineering projects while collaborating with mine geologists on rock characterization, drilling programs, and environmental projects like river rehabilitation. During this time, he continued honing his skills with several other consulting firms.
Throughout all of it, he got a powerful sense of the impact of water, and how its challenges should be solved in a way that’s both integrated and holistic. Therein lies the foundation of our Integrated Water Services approach, which addresses all aspects of the source, nature, quantity, and quality of water in the natural environment.
Alipio monitors blast rock fragmentation with a seismographer back in 2000.
“Water is everywhere,” Alipio says. “Fortunately, in Canada we have plenty but to keep the environment safe, the storm water in a modified development needs to be managed and treated before sending it into the environment. There’s a lot that needs to be done before achieving those goals.”
Since moving to Canada, he’s also been involved in solving challenges he wasn’t familiar with in South America. “We don’t have stormwater ponds in Peru,” he notes. “We don’t treat the storm water; we send it directly to the creeks. Something else I learned here was septic system and fish passage design.”
While all that history and experience is important for his work at Ecometrix, he’s both conscious and passionate about his contributions to the engineering industry as a whole.
“I want to better our work as engineers,” he says. “People try to cut corners and that’s not engineering. I’m very meticulous. That’s something I want to keep improving in future. Collecting the information needed to do the job properly. That serves the client but also, importantly, when we’re passing the project on. I want to get my drawings to a level where they’re useful for not just regulators and municipalities, but those using them for construction.”
In his free time, Alipio likes to walk trails in nature along rivers, creeks, and ponds, making a point of doing so every evening after work. He also loves home renovation, landscaping, and furniture carpentry projects.
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