Greetings from my office on a day when we are supposed to have both sunshine and thunderstorms. NPR had a story this morning about the destructive storms in the Midwest this weekend. I reflected on the death, injuries, and destruction of livelihoods. The sheriff noted that many of the dead and injured lived in modular or mobile homes and had no protection. Power was out, which also affects water supplies. The debris will become municipal solid waste. And there are threats of more severe weather later this week. This makes the work that we are doing as EWRI around climate and resiliency even more important.
In the last 3 months, we held one of our specialty conferences, the Operations and Maintenance of Stormwater Systems, and our annual World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. First, thank you to the staff, particularly Mark Gable and Erika Haldi, who, as always, provided an excellent experience for the attendees.
When we weren’t watching for an eclipse in Austin or eating delicious barbeque or looking for bats under bridges, we enjoyed a great program that highlighted both the research work addressing the maintenance of stormwater systems and how this was being implemented by our clients. That is one of EWRI’s strengths – a strong academic community of research with a very practical angle to much of our work. Sessions included “Designing for Maintenance” and “Using Technology to Optimize O&M”. The presenters represented all areas – academics, government, and private consulting/industry. The plenary sessions were great introductions to the work being done by the City of Austin, TxDOT, City of San Antonio, City of Raliegh, and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. I want to give my personal thanks to all of the organizers, speakers, and moderators for an excellent conference! And to the Monkey Junction Total Eclipse Tour, thank you for the evening’s entertainment! (video is on YouTube). I heard many compliments on the conference content and organization, and questions about where and when the next one will be.
Last week, in Milwaukee, we held the annual Congress with the theme of Climate Change Impacts on the World We Live In. We kicked off the Congress with a mini-symposium on Sunday on climate change in the Midwestern US and a great discussion on the impacts of much more highly variable weather on water and environmental systems. Our keynote on Monday, Steve Vavrus, the director of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, followed up Sunday’s symposium with his lecture on Climate Science and How It Informs Future Design Considerations. At lunch on Monday, we were welcomed by the Mayor of Milwaukee, the Honorable Cavalier Johnson, who highlighted the work that Milwaukee is doing to accelerate the replacement of lead service lines. Tuesday’s plenary highlighted the management of water in the Great Lakes region and Wednesday’s plenary highlighted work by the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Milwaukee on managing water and wastewater at the watershed scale. The keynotes ended on Wednesday at lunch with our ASCE President Marsia Geldert-Murphy, who presented Engineering the Future, which highlighted the ASCE emphasis on designs that are climate ready and resilient and that meet the demands of a population that we haven’t met yet. When combining these plenaries with our traditional workshops, tours, and technical sessions/symposia, there was something for everyone and many great chances to connect with old colleagues and meet new ones. The organizing committee and staff did a fantastic job putting this conference together. Again, I heard many compliments on how interesting the topics were and how diverse the speakers and messages were.
We were thrilled at Congress to celebrate EWRI’s 25th anniversary! Our History and Heritage committee found an old photograph from 1888 of the 20th Annual ASCE Convention in Milwaukee and have identified several prominent engineers from that era in the photograph, including the ASCE President. The photograph included several women, including Emily Roebling, as well as at least one Black member of the society. Of course, we all walked to the Women’s Club building and re-created the photograph and let me just say – our diversity is greatly improved! I’m looking forward to creating a diptych for my office of the historic and modern photos of ASCE. And in 100 years or so, another group can return for Photo #3.
As we move into summer, we are looking forward to the ASCE-NOAA Task Force meeting in Reston where we will continue the collaboration around our need for both historical data and projections to design climate-ready infrastructure.
It was great seeing everyone at the two conferences this spring and I look forward to seeing you in the future at other events!