October 2014

Great outreach event or other activity? Let the whole Region know! If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, done charity work, fund raising or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org. See the other Region reports for October If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for October, click on each to view them:   Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section Region 5   Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section   Region 6   New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section Region 7   Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section Region 8   Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section Region 9   Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section Region 10   All International Sections, Branches, and Groups Missed last month's Region 9 update? See the September edition of News Around Region 9 Share this page via social media and email:

REGION DIRECTOR'S REPORT Highlights of October’s ASCE Board of Direction Meeting Jennifer Epp, P.E., M.ASCE, your Region 9 Director, is a member of the Los Angeles Section and is a Water Resources Control Engineer with the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in San Luis Obispo, California. Jennifer represented you at the October 5-6 Board meeting in Panama City, Panama, held in conjunction with ASCE’s Global Engineering Conference 2014. The conference helped commemorate the 100th anniversary of one of civil engineering’s greatest achievements—the Panama Canal. Seeing the massive effort underway to expand the canal, and collaborating on the conference with ASCE’s partner Engineers Without Borders–USA, gave additional meaning to the Board members’ role of guiding the important work of ASCE and the profession. Also participating in this meeting as observers were ASCE’s incoming officers, who were formally installed during the annual business meeting later in the week. This was Jennifer’s last board meeting as your region director. Please welcome Jay Higgins to that role and wish him the best. Among the issues the board addressed are the following: In response to the Board’s examination of ASCE’s policy statements on engineering licensure at the July meeting, the Board approved revisions to a number of policies and adopted new policies on the purpose of the Principles and Practice of Engineering Examination, Flood Risk Management, and Performance-Based Ownership of Infrastructure. Read more on that in ASCE News. The ASCE Committee on Technical Advancement presented its annual report to the Board. CTA covers all technical areas not within the domain of one of the 8 ASCE Institutes. Many of CTA’s efforts involve cross-cutting areas such as forensics, cold-regions engineering, and critical infrastructure. Among its activities this past year, CTA deployed a team to the Philippines to study the effects of Typhoon Haiyan, issued three new standards and nine new publications, and organized the successful Shale Energy Conference. CTA also reported that with a focus on improving infrastructure resiliency, CTA will establish a new division in early 2015, melding three existing technical groups. The new Infrastructure Resilience Division will encompass the Council on Disaster Risk Management, the Committee on Critical Infrastructure, and the Technical Council on Lifelines Earthquake Engineering. In addition, CTA sought the Board’s input on a proposal to establish a new institute on utilities infrastructure systems. The institute would bring together work presently being done within the Pipelines Division, as well as covering utilities and geomatics. As it finalizes its proposal for review by the board in March 2015, CTA was asked to consider whether this new division might cover the full range of technical work done by civil engineers in the utility and power industries.  Amendments to the bylaws to allow for electronic-only elections and additional changes to the election procedures were approved. Declarations to run for the office of president-elect and technical region director are now due November 1, and the election will take place from May 1 to June 1.. Finally, executive director Pat Natale presented his final report to the board as he prepares to retire on December 31. He shared not just this year’s achievements, but reflected on the advances ASCE as an organization has made in the 12 years of his tenure. Pat received a standing ovation as a display of the Board’s appreciation and affection. He will be missed, but the Society is looking forward to working with his successor, Tom Smith, as ASCE moves into a new chapter for the Society’s leadership. For more on the actions taken by the Board, see the story in ASCE News.         Board members are interested in your views on the issues they are considering. To share your views, or other ideas on how ASCE can better serve its members and the profession, please email Jay.

ALL CALIFORNIA SECTIONS Voters to decide on proposition to dedicate funding for water infrastructure Amid the state’s historic drought, California voters will decide whether to approve Proposition 1, which would establish a dedicated funding source for the state’s water supply infrastructure, including is whether to support the sale of bonds to provide financial aid to dam and reservoir owners for improvements or maintenance to meet current safety standards. ASCE is urging a “yes” vote on Amendment 5. The “special purpose revenue bonds” that would be sold to create the loan program would not create additional burdens on the state or on state taxpayers. See ASCE’s Save America’s Infrastructure report for details.    Section website>>

SAN DIEGO SECTION Chair of ASCE’s Pipeline Division Executive Committee elected an ASCE Fellow Randall Curtis Hill, P.E., F.ASCE, principal at RCH Engineering in the San Diego area, has been elevated to ASCE Fellow status by the Society’s Board of Direction. During his 39 years as a civil engineer, Hill has managed complex design/bid/build and design/build/operate projects striving to complete quality projects on time, on schedule, and within budgets. He has a broad range of diversified experience on water conveyance and water treatment projects involving pumping facilities, pipelines, reservoirs, tunnels, flow control facilities, bidding services, site development and right-of-way acquisitions, coordination on environmental issues, feasibility studies, facility plans, aerial and topographic surveys, value engineering studies, construction support services and project start-up services. Discover more about what made Hill worthy of election as an ASCE Fellow in ASCE News.

IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Report rates global best bets for infrastructure investment Hot markets in Asia and the Middle East are still leading the way, and the United States climbs back into the top 10 on a list of the world’s best places to invest in infrastructure compiled by ARCADIS. Explore the ratings in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.

IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Dramatic national memorial honors disabled veterans The nation’s newest memorial is not only a tribute to disabled veterans but also a triumph of design and engineering teamwork. The Disabled Veterans’ Life Memorial Foundation selected a design by Washington, DC-based Michael Vergason Landscape Architects in 2003 from among 20 submissions in an invitational design competition.  Discover how it came together in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.