By Don Elly, CPESC, CISEC
The first and most critical best management practices (BMP) for any compliance professional working with a project team to achieve successful project completion with stormwater excellence begins in the design phase. Engaging early with the design professional and contractor in a collaborative effort to produce a well thought out erosion and sediment control (ESC) sequence...
Industry Leader Focuses on Learning and Sharing Knowledge
By Sheryl S. Jackson
As a boy, Earl Norton walked in the furrows as his father and grandfather plowed their farm. “I loved how good the earth smelled, and I didn’t like what happened when it rained and the soil was washed away.”
Little did he know that his childhood experiences would lead him...
By Jon Healy, CPESC
Establishing native grasses, shrubs, and forbs can be challenging. Soil conditions, erosion, and weather can contribute to the challenges, although native plants are designed to succeed even when facing many of these environmental factors. Weed pressure is often the biggest threat to a successful, long-lasting native planting.
Weed pressure can have a negative impact on a native...
Global pandemics do not often present exciting opportunities, but the four recipients of IECA Australasia’s Young Professional Virtual Conference Scholarship had the opportunity to attend IECA’s 2021 Virtual Conference, which had originally been planned as an in-person event in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
The switch to a virtual conference eliminated extra time and costs for travel and accommodations, opening up...
Intentional Reclamation Efforts Improve Environment
By Hal Lunsford, MPA; Stefano Rignanese, MS; Michael C. Korb, PE
What do mine reclamation and butterfly gardens have in common? More importantly, how do they link to erosion and sediment control?
What is mine reclamation? According to the California Department of Conservation, it is “The combined process by which adverse environmental effects of surface mining are...
Erosion Control Training Facility Supports Hands-On Learning
By John McCullah, CPESC
Erosion and sediment control professionals often say—tongue in cheek—that, “The art and science of best management practices (BMP) selection and implementation isn’t rocket science. It’s much more complicated!”
Actually, effective erosion and sediment control work is part tradecraft and part certified professional—someone who has been trained on the complex regulations and...
New Technology and Tools Produce Effective Engineered Systems
By Corey Simonpietri
Positive results to infiltration tests create a wide range of celebratory reactions in the civil engineering community. Tiger Woods-style fist pumps and high-fiving over cubicle walls are justified because there is a lot to celebrate when a project site has the ability to infiltrate stormwater.
Taking advantage of the soil’s ability...
By Judith M. Guido
So much is said and written about leadership, and yet so much is still unknown or misunderstood. I am truly fortunate to be a member of a community of thought leaders who meet regularly with some of the brightest business minds in the world. One such recent meeting was with Alan Mullaly, the former president and...
By Rich McLaughlin, Ph.D
It is no secret that our population is increasingly located in urban areas in and around cities, which in turn were often established adjacent to streams and rivers as a source of fresh water. This has not been a good thing for the fresh water source in most cases. Wastewater, polluted runoff, and industrial discharges, coupled...
By Kenneth Wright, P.E.
An innocuous looking structure to most people, low-head dams have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 recreationists, rescue personnel, dam owners and maintenance personnel.1More commonly known as weirs or diversion ditches, low-head dams are defined by the Federal Register as underwater structures typically 5- to 15-feet high that are designed and built to span a...
