The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) requires that those involved in the preparation and implementation of Erosion and Sediment Control plans be certified. One can either be a Certified Professional in Erosion Sediment Control (CPESC) or Certified Professional in Storm Water Quality (CPSWQ), or one can be certified by NCDOT. The Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) department at NC State University is in charge of the certification program. There are different levels and related workshops at which one can be certified. Tuesday, I attended the Level IIIa workshop, which is said to apply to “E&SC/Stormwater plan designer(s)”. There is a test at the end to ensure the competency of certificate holders. The results of my test have yet to be announced.
SWAT is a hydrologic model developed by the USDA Agricultural Research Station in Temple, Texas in cooperation with Texas A&M University. Unlike most hydrologic models, SWAT models not only the movement of water, but movement of nutrients as well. As a result, it is a tool widely used to model watershed non-point sources for their contribution to water quality.
The NC Cooperative Extension Service has arranged for the SWAT team to come to North Carolina in order to hold training sessions. There is an introductory course to be held at NC A&T University in Winston-Salem on Monday, November 16th and Tuesday, November 17th. I will be attending this session. Advanced training is to be offered at NC State University on Thursday, November 19th and Friday, November 20th.
The coastline is a most hazardous place to develop. The sands, especially of the barrier islands, are constantly shifting and may be washed away with any large storm. Waves, winds, and flooding from these storms are also a regular danger. Even worse, the mean sea level is on the rise and forecast to increase up to 3 feet in the next 100 years. Sea level rise, of course, threatens to engulf much of the coastline. Despite all this, development is on the increase up and down both of our coasts, as this article in the Miami Herald notes.
Also as the article notes, this is likely to mean expensive measures to save this development. It is certainly likely in urban areas such as Miami and New York. However, what of the huge amounts of development occurring elsewhere along the coastline? It is not very likely that sea walls will be built along the entire East Coast. It would be far too costly. Instead, much of the area is likely to be abandoned. However, is this being taken into account when development is being planned or permitted? It seems quite unlikely, especially when developers are likely to walk away well before their construction will be threatened. Also, the only planning tools being used right now only take into account estimates of current risk based on past events, which will further encroach inland as time goes by. It seems that we are spending our money foolishly and that the coming generations will lose much due to the foolishness of our investments.
It is a bit late in the posting, but Reuters has a story about the low bids that have been coming in on construction projects funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money. They are reporting that bids are coming in 30% below estimates. This is in keeping with observation by the Public Water Supply (PWS) section of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR). The section has been distributing ARRA funds for water projects across the state and bids are most definitely coming in low as a rule.
The article goes on worrying that contractors are bidding below cost to win the projects and will be unable to recover funds because of redistribution of funds. My understanding, however, is a bit different. The PWS funding promises are based on the original estimates. Even though contracts may come in lower, PWS is still liable for the same amount until the project is completed and all change orders have been dealt with. Therefore, so long as there is legitimate cause for a change order, there is still opportunity for contractors to recover costs. The only strings attached that I am aware of are that funding may be prorated according to the portion of work that has been contracted by the February 17, 2010 ARRA deadline and that no work will be compensated that has not been performed by February 17, 2012. As a result, the biggest concern is speed and not compensation.
Hydropower is coming to the Triangle. The Raleigh News & Observer is reporting that Jordan and Falls Lakes, the area’s primary sources of drinking water, are going to be retrofitted for hydroelectric power generation. They should generate enough power for 1,700 and 1,200 homes, respectively. The two projects will contribute to the 12.5% renewable power generation mandate for the year 2021.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that their fair city is implementing a novel strategy to reduce their problems with combined sewer overflows. Instead of making the pipes and wastewater plants larger to handle the stormwater runoff, they are retrofitting Low Impact Development (LID) practices to reduce the runoff in developed areas. There are to be widespread installations of bioretention facilities, permeable pavement, green roofs, and other technologies. The plan will cost $1.6 billion, but it should end up saving money in the end.
“Meandering rivers are common on Earth and other planetary surfaces, yet the conditions necessary to maintain meandering channels are unclear. As a consequence, self – maintaining meandering channels with cutoffs have not been reproduced in the laboratory…” until now. Science Friday, a radio show on NPR, has just posted the following video of the first such model, which has been developed by UC Berkeley researchers.
“Experimental channels <like the one in the video above> are needed to explore mechanisms controlling migration rate, sinuosity, floodplain formation, and planform morphodynamics and to test theories for wavelength and bend propagation. Here we report an experiment in which meandering with near-constant width was maintained during repeated cutoff and regeneration of meander bends. We found that elevated bank strength (provided by alfalfa sprouts) relative to the cohesionless bed material and the blocking of troughs (chutes) in the lee of point bars via suspended sediment deposition were the necessary ingredients to successful meandering. Varying flood discharge was not necessary. Scaling analysis shows that the experimental meander migration was fast compared to most natural channels. This high migration rate caused nearly all of the bedload sediment to exchange laterally, such that bar growth was primarily dependent on bank sediment supplied from upstream lateral migration. The high migration rate may have contributed to the relatively low sinuosity of 1.19, and this suggests that to obtain much higher sinuosity experiments at this scale may have to be conducted for several years. Although patience is required to evolve them, these experimental channels offer the opportunity to explore several fundamental issues about river morphodynamics. Our results also suggest that sand supply may be an essential control in restoring self-maintaining, actively shifting gravel-bedded meanders.”
As of Monday, September 14th, I have taken a temporary post at the the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resouces (NCDENR). Specifically, the position is with the Public Water Supply (PWS) section of the Division of Environmental Health (DEH). I am tasked in tracking and review of applications for funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and, especially, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). I am also tasked with tracking the progress of both the applications as well as the construction projects that result from approved funding. The job is to last no more than 11 months, at which point the State has the option of renewal should they feel the need.
I have recently had the opportunity to extend my modeling capabilities by learning SWMM5. The training that I went through was a web-based course offered by Computational Hydraulics International (CHI), who offers their own SWMM software toolset that goes by the name of PCSWMM. The training included the following SWMM capabilities and uses:
-Hydrologic routing using RADAR, rain gages, or synthetic events.
-Steady state and dynamic hydraulic modeling of piped and open channel networks.
-Event-based and continuous modeling.
-Detention pond design.
-Land use – based water quality modeling and evaluation of best management practices (BMPs).
-Sanitary sewer dry weather flow (DWF) and rainfall derived inflow and infiltration (RDII).
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) requires that those involved in the preparation and implementation of Erosion and Sediment Control plans be certified. One can either be a Certified Professional in Erosion Sediment Control (CPESC) or Certified Professional in Storm Water Quality (CPSWQ), or one can be certified by NCDOT. The Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) department at NC State University is in charge of the certification program. There are different levels and related workshops at which one can be certified. Tuesday, I attended the Level IIIa workshop, which is said to apply to “E&SC/Stormwater plan designer(s)”. There is a test at the end to ensure the competency of certificate holders. The results of my test have yet to be announced.
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