ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS 2021 by STUDIO Gannett

SPECIAL EDITION

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF

ENGINEERS 2021 EDITION

Commitment

RAPID RESPONSE Helping the fight against COVID-19

INVESTMENT Maintaining key infrastructure

GOING GREEN Focusing on renewable energy

HARD AT WORK Supporting current and future engineers

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

CONTENTS

202 1 S PECI A L E D ITI O N

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

32 POWER PLAY When a paralyzing storm hit Texas, the Corps helped keep lights on

JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

FEATURES

AUGMENTING ASSISTANCE Technology provides remote expertise for assessments and inspections

USACE

AIRMAN 1ST CLASS NICHOLAS DUTTON

WAVE OF SUPPORT Climate advocates seek increased emphasis on sea level rise

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

CONTENTS This is a product of

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jeanette Barrett-Stokes jbstokes@usatoday.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jerald Council jcouncil@usatoday.com

20 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

10 14

ISSUE DESIGNER Debra Moore

CHIEF CONCERNS New commanding general discusses people, projects and the pandemic

EDITORS Amy Sinatra Ayres Tracy Scott Forson Deirdre van Dyk Debbie Williams

MODERN MEDICINE Corps partners with Veterans Affairs on modern facility

DESIGNERS Hayleigh Corkey David Hyde Gina Toole Saunders Lisa M. Zilka

BARELY AVERAGE Infrastructure report card shows modest improvement

USACE

16 20 24 26 ON THE COVER

OUT OF THE PARK Final phase of WWII munitions removal underway

NO SHELL GAME Artiﬁcial oyster reefs could aid threatened Gulf sturgeon

STACEY REESE

CLEAN ENERGY

GENERATING POWER Women embrace hydropower leadership roles in Northwestern Division

Record-high water levels ease on the Great Lakes

TURN, TURN, TURN After 75 years, Denison Dam gets new turbines

ADVERTISING VP, ADVERTISING Patrick Burke | (703) 854-5914 ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Vanessa Salvo | (703) 854-6499 vsalvo@usatoday.com

WATER RIGHTS AFFIRMED Corps, Georgia reach agreement in longstanding regional dispute

GETTING CLEAN Support for renewable energy felt beyond military

PANDEMIC RESPONSE

CAREERS & EDUCATION

PHOTOGRAPHS

48 50

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Matt Alderton, Doug Fraser, Adam Hadhazy, Gina Harkins, Patricia Kime, Bob Montgomery, Dinah Voyles Pulver, Robin Roenker, Sandy Smith, Fiona Soltes, Adam Stone

pburke@usatoday.com

WELCOME RELIEF

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 37,000 civilian and military personnel have a wide range of responsibilities, including designing medical facilities for veterans and maintaining hydroelectric power plants. Clockwise from top left: USACE Sacramento District; Leon Roberts; USACE North Atlantic Division; Jess Levenson; Stacey Reese; Christopher Fincham/USACE

mjwashington@usatoday.com

ISSUE EDITOR Harry Lister

NEWS

MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Washington

BUILT FOR THE MOMENT Engineering expertise critical to COVID-19 mission

BIG OPPORTUNITY Small-business outreach boosts agility, diversity of contractors

QUICK STRIKE Corps rapidly built alternate care facilities in key cities

YOU DO WHAT? A look at some of the more unusual USACE jobs

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

COURTING FUTURE ENGINEERS

University partnerships create win-win opportunities

From outreach to internships, Corps is focused on the next generation

FINANCE Billing Coordinator Julie Marco ISSN#0734-7456 A USA TODAY Network publication, Gannett Co. Inc. USA TODAY, its logo and associated graphics are the trademarks of Gannett Co. Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Copyright 2021, USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Editorial and publication headquarters are at 7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108, and at (703) 854-3400. For accuracy questions, call or send an e-mail to accuracy@usatoday.com. Printed in the USA

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Chief Concerns

By Matt Alderton

HEN HE WAS COMMISSIONED with the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a second lieutenant from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1986, Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon was mindful of the many engineers who’d come before him. In September 2020, Spellmon assumed command of the Corps as the 55th chief of engineers. Now, his focus is much more about the present and the future than the past. Immediate challenges include a global pandemic, aging infrastructure that demands attention and investment as well as the effects of climate change. Where to start? USA TODAY asked Spellmon to share his plans, priorities and perspectives.

New commanding general discusses people, projects and the pandemic

You became commanding general in the middle of a pandemic, after a summer of civil unrest and in the midst of an election season. What was it like assuming a new leadership role during such a tumultuous time? SPELLMON: Tumultuous is a good word for the last year. When you factor in our COVID alternate care facilities response, 27 other disaster relief efforts and the record amount of construction we initiated and completed, it was a fast-paced and very challenging year for all of us. In 2020, we had more than 18,700 people providing aid in the wake of 28 disasters, including 10 hurricanes, nine major floods, three wildfires and other severe weather events. Of course, our COVID response was center stage in the media, but each of our relief efforts are important and are executed with care. We never work alone in emergency response missions. We are in support of (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and Department of Defense efforts, working alongside other agencies like Health and Human Services as well as state and local partners. USACE has typically been a $20 (billion) to $22 billion annual business across our recent history when you combine all our programs. But last year, we completed or advanced nearly double that amount of work, a record performance year for us. There’s a great deal more ahead, especially if we see the passage of the recently proposed infrastructure bill. Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon USACE

What are your priorities, goals and objectives for the Corps? I have essentially had the same

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NEWS command philosophy since I was a company commander back in the 82nd Engineer Battalion in Bamberg, Germany, in the early ’90s. It is built on four things: Promote and maintain a positive command climate; advance diversity and inclusion in our formation; deliver the program; and grow our next generation of leaders. The words have changed a bit through the years, but I have always tried to maintain focus on people — our soldiers and our civilian employees. This isn’t something I ever recall writing out in a letter or memo. I talk to it, but more importantly I try to live this philosophy and build on these four actions every day. I encourage all commanders to do the same. It is much less what we say, more so what we do. What were the biggest challenges awaiting you? The Secretary of the Army recently asked me, “What is the Corps of Engineers’ greatest challenge and greatest opportunity?” As I see it, they are one and the same: workload. Our workload and budget execution has increased substantially. I can hire as many engineers and project managers as I need, but I cannot hire additional colonels, generals, senior executives or staff to oversee this work. So our opportunities rest in streamlining our delivery models: delegating decisions to the field where the expertise exists; better utilizing technology to enable performance; and using more contractors and relying on the engineering industry to help us put important infrastructure projects in the ground. The Corps recently received a funding increase to nearly $7.8 billion. How do you plan to allocate those funds? The 2021 energy and water appropriation for civil works is a record amount, and we appreciate that level of funding and confidence. We use this resourcing to provide navigation systems … that handle over 2.4 billion tons of cargo annually; flood risk management infrastructure; municipal and industrial water supply storage at 136 projects spread across 25 states; environmental stewardship, infrastructure and ecosystem restoration; recreation for approximately 262 million recreation visits per year to USACE projects; regulation of waters under federal statutes; and maintaining hydropower capacity of nearly 24,000 megawatts at 75 projects. Congress estimates the annual net economic benefit generated by USACE’s civil works mission to be $89 billion, which over time

LEON ROBERTS/USACE

Spellmon, left, inspects the Chickamauga Lock replacement project near Chattanooga, Tenn., in February with Command Sgt. Maj. Patrickson Toussaint.

USACE

Spellmon tours the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss., in January with Carol Johnson of the Engineer Research and Development Center.

equates to a return of about $12 for every $1 expended. The Corps’ Engineering with Nature (EWN) program has published a second atlas of sustainable projects. What can you share about it? The EWN program is about seeking a partnership between engineering and

nature. Through this partnership that combines and aligns natural and engineering processes so that we can produce more diversified value in the form of engineering, economic, environmental and social benefits from infrastructure investment. Our EWN program has published two books — the EWN Atlases — that

showcase 118 examples of these kinds of projects around the world. For example, we can use dredged sediment from our waterways to restore habitats and increase resilience along our shorelines and coasts. Networks of mangrove forests and wetlands can be used, in combination with other engineering solutions, to address sea-level rise and to reduce flood risks and damage from hurricanes. The second volume of the EWN Atlas was just published, and it details 62 projects from around the world, including 23 USACE projects. One of these projects, led by our Baltimore District, restored Swan Island in Maryland using dredged sediment from a nearby navigation channel that provides access to the towns on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay. Through EWN, a multiagency partnership is currently studying the ability of this restored island to reduce storm and flood risks to nearby coastal communities. We’re collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to collect science and engineering data from this project so we can expand this approach across the USACE enterprise. As the nation moves toward recovery from COVID-19, what did you personally and the Corps more broadly learn from the pandemic? Communication and teamwork were key to our early success constructing alternate care facilities. We created two standard plans — COVID and non-COVID facilities — and we shared those plans with our partners, enabling them to construct additional facilities as well. Working in this manner allowed us and our partners to build more than 30,000 bed spaces across America. There was the added challenge of working remotely at the time, but our workforce rose to the challenge and expanded remote work and flexible scheduling. We’re a stronger organization because of it. Since then, our mission has shifted to supporting vaccination centers. We’ve provided FEMA with design concepts, as well as site and power assessments in support of the federal community vaccination effort. As you know, there are specialized refrigeration requirements and a host of other challenges associated with the vaccine, and we’re proud to be part of that team. CONTINUED

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USACE

Spellmon listens as ERDC’s Christa Woodley, center, discusses acoustic deterrence research for Asian carp in January at the Environmental Laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss.

AIRMAN 1ST CLASS FAITH SCHAEFER

NATI HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Air Force Col. Matthew Jones, 436th Airlift Wing commander, welcomes Spellmon to Dover (Del.) Air Force Base in April.

Spellmon testifies about Corps management of Missouri River flooding at a 2019 field hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in Glenwood, Iowa.

You said that your focus has always been on people. Can you elaborate? Being able to complete our projects on time, at or under budget, and never compromising on quality means we must attract and retain top-notch talent. How do we do that? First, we make USACE a great place to work. ... We rated as the top Army Command with a 68 percent

of great pride for our organization and a valuable tool to attract and retain top, diverse talent. Using best practices from our workforce COVID-19 response, like increased telework, remote work and flexible scheduling, we are charting the USACE workplace of the future. Exploring key areas of people, resources, IT and

response rate on the most recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. We use this vital feedback to better our organization and craft targeted strategies at all levels of the organization to increase workforce engagement and unleash innovation. We rank in the top 100 in the (Partnership for Public Service’s) Best Places to Work in the Federal Government — a source

workspace/equipment, we are placing renewed emphasis on enhancing a culture of flexibility. The end goal of this initiative is not to create a 100 percent virtual workforce, but rather to reinforce an employer brand centered around taking care of people, provide tools for implementation and never comprising on program delivery.

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JESS LEVENSON/USACE

The Corps and the Department of Veterans Affairs are partners in delivering the Canandaigua VA Medical Center project, which will provide a new facility and upgraded health care infrastructure to approximately 65,000 veterans living in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

Modern Medicine Corps partners with VA on state-of-the-art facility

By Robin Roenker

ETERANS IN THE FINGER

Lakes region of New York will soon have access to a fully modernized VA Medical Center in Canandaigua. The goal of the two-phase, $346 million project — underway as a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Veterans Affairs — is to re-envision the 1930s-era, 150-acre VA Canandaigua campus to meet 21stcentury patient care needs.

“When this project is done, pretty much everything that will touch the veterans will be new,” says David Price with the Department of Veterans Affairs in New York, who is serving as the VA’s major project manager, facility planner and chief supply chain officer for the medical center. Ongoing or planned renovations include upgrades to existing building infrastructure and utilities systems, a new chiller plant and electrical substation, modernization of the campus’ administration building and CONTINUED

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“We are all committed to working together to find solutions to any challenges that pop up, so that we can keep the campus up and running to serve veterans of the Finger Lakes area, basically 24/7.” — GERALD DIPAOLA, project manager PHOTOS BY JESS LEVENSON/USACE

Construction work continues on the 84,000-square-foot outpatient clinic at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center. Preserving and incorporating the original building’s 1930s-era facade required significant engineering workarounds.

construction of an 84,000-square-foot, three-story outpatient clinic, which will house primary care as well as a range of VA specialty services, including dental care, dermatology and orthopedics as well as a radiology lab and pharmacy. Campus improvements, started in early 2018 and set to be completed by late 2023, will also include a new community center and eight long-term care cottages that will provide modern, private living spaces to 96 veterans. While some older buildings are being demolished to make way for new construction, as much of the historic nature of the Canandaigua campus as possible is being retained. Most notably, an original 1930s-era building facade was incorporated into the design of the new outpatient clinic — a preservation goal that required significant engineering workarounds.

“Tying in those existing walls led to a number of design challenges,” says David Gerland with the Louisville District, who worked as the Corps’ senior resident engineer on the Canandaigua project until his retirement in March. “We had to work to fit mechanical systems and modern utilities systems — communication, fiber, internet, all those things that of course were nonexistent 80 years ago — into spaces that weren’t originally designed to fit them.” Particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, services to veterans have not been significantly disrupted during the project, thanks to a seamless partnership between the VA Office of Construction and Facilities Management (CFM), the Canandaigua VA Medical Center and the Corps’ Buffalo District, which is overseeing the project with assistance from Gerland and others

at the Louisville District, which has construction expertise. “It was very much a partnering effort between the three agencies,” says Gerald DiPaola of the Buffalo District, who is serving as overall project manager for the Corps. “We are all committed to working together to find solutions to any challenges that pop up, so that we can keep the campus up and running to serve veterans of the Finger Lakes area, basically 24/7.” Drew Downen, senior resident engineer with CFM, even shared office space with the Corps team overseeing the project, helping facilitate easy communication between the two agencies. “I think that’s why the partnership has been so successful,” Downen says. “We didn’t think of ourselves as two separate entities. We worked directly with each other. We could walk across the office

and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this problem to solve. Do you know anything about it?’” Once complete, the Canandaigua campus will directly benefit the estimated 65,000 veterans living in the region. But its enhancements will also allow the VA to better serve veterans across the country, since the campus houses one of three Veterans Crisis Line call centers that assists vets dealing with post-traumatic stress, thoughts of suicide and other mental health issues. The fact that this project directly benefits veterans has made it all the more rewarding for those involved, including David Talbot, a Corps senior program manager who joined the project this spring. “To be able to serve people who served our nation through this work is definitely something that I’m very proud to be able to do,” Talbot says.

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Barely Average Infrastructure report card shows modest improvement

VERY FOUR YEARS SINCE 1998, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. While much of the nation’s infrastructure continues to require attention, the 2021 edition offers some encouraging news: For the first time in 20 years, the ASCE Committee on America’s Infrastructure assessed an overall grade (C-) that was better than a D.

D+

RAIL

AVIATION

BRIDGES

An average of 1.7 million ton-miles of freight per day was transported on the freight rail network in 2018, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, an increase of nearly 31 percent over the past 20 years. The nation’s four largest freight rail operators spent $38.3 billion on capital expenditures between 2017 and 2019, while smaller regional operators reported a $10 billion shortfall for “state of good repair” projects in 2017. Passenger rail — consisting primarily of Amtrak — has a repair backlog of $45.2 billion.

Passenger volume at U.S. airports increased 24.4 percent between 2017 and 2019, while the number of commercial flights increased just 5.2 percent. The area of greatest investment need at the nation’s 3,304 public-use airports — between 30 percent and 50 percent — is for terminal buildings. The Federal Aviation Administration’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems found that funding needs for required terminal expansion or rehabilitation have increased 62 percent since 2019, followed by pavement reconstruction (28 percent) and other capacity-related development (31 percent).

Forty-two percent of the nation’s 617,000 bridges are at least 50 years old, and 7.5 percent (46,154) are considered structurally deficient — meaning they are in “poor” condition — by the Federal Highway Administration. While the number of structurally deficient bridges has continued to decline, Americans take 178 million trips across these bridges each day. A recent estimate for the nation’s backlog of bridge repair needs is $125 billion. Additional estimates show that spending on bridge rehabilitation needs to increase by 58 percent to improve their condition. At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 just to make the repairs that are currently necessary.

THE OVERALL

CIS THE BEST GRADE IN 20 YEARS

GETTY IMAGES

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C-

B-

DAMS AND LEVEES

DRINKING WATER

ROADS

ENERGY

PORTS

Over the last 20 years, the number of highhazard-potential dams — facilities where a failure is anticipated to cause loss of life — has more than doubled to 15,600, or approximately 17 percent of the nation’s 91,000 dams. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that approximately 1 in 7 of those dams (2,300) is deficient. The average age of a dam in the U.S. is 57 years; by 2030, 70 percent of all dams will be over 50 years old. An encouraging note: As of 2018, 81 percent of dams had implemented an Emergency Action Plan, up from 5 percent in 2015. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that $21 billion is needed to improve and maintain the moderate- to high-risk levees in its portfolio, which represents only about 15 percent of the levees in the U.S.

The U.S. drinking water infrastructure is composed of 2.2 million miles of pipe — some of which dates to the 19th century. Even those installed immediately after World War II are approaching the end of their design lifespan. There were between 10 and 37 leaks or breaks per 100 miles of pipe from 2004 to 2017, according to the American Water Works Association. A Utah State University study found an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 water main breaks annually between 2012 and 2018 — equivalent to a break every two minutes. The number of public water systems with health-based violations of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) declined 15 percent between 2017 and 2019, and public water systems that were returned to SDWA compliance increased approximately 7 percent over the same period.

Some 43 percent of the nation’s more than 4 million miles of public roads are in poor or mediocre condition, a figure that has held steady for the past several years. Most of the subpar roads are urban and rural noninterstate; the interstate system tends to be in good condition. Still, the number of vehicle miles traveled on poor roads has risen slightly to 17 percent over the past decade, and deteriorating roads cost motorists nearly $130 billion annually in extra vehicle repairs.

Annual spending on high-voltage transmission lines increased 40 percent between 2012 and 2017, and the state, regional and local utilities responsible for “last-mile” delivery of electricity have increased annual spending on resilience measures by 54 percent over the last two decades, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The share of overall electricity-generating capacity from renewable sources — solar, wind, biomass geothermal and hydropower — increased to 20 percent in 2020 and is expected to reach 22 percent this year, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. More than half of the nation’s natural gas distribution network, which includes 2.4 million miles of pipe, was installed prior to 1960. The nation’s 135 oil refineries were operating at or near capacity in 2019. While production has kept up with demand, outage-driven price spikes are often experienced following extreme storms along the Gulf of Mexico, which has a high concentration of refineries.

Ports and their tenants plan to spend $163 billion on capacity and efficiency enhancements between 2021 and 2025, an increase of about 5 percent from the previous four-year period. There is a funding gap of $15.5 billion for waterside infrastructure such as dredging over the next 10 years, however, and 56 percent of the pavement on intermodal connectors — the portions of roadways that link to the ports — is considered to be in mediocre or poor condition.

D STORMWATER While federal funding has increased and now averages around $250 million yearly, there is a significant and growing funding gap of $8 billion annually just to comply with current regulations. As a result, the expected performance of stormwater systems is declining. Many of the country’s legacy systems — particularly those in densely populated areas — are struggling with high retrofit costs.

D+ INLAND WATERWAYS Recent increases in federal investment and user fees have begun to reverse decades of declining lock and dam conditions, with unscheduled lock closures reaching a 20-year low in 2017. Still, the system has a $6.8 billion backlog in construction projects and ongoing lock closures. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates delays cost up to $739 per hour for an average tow, or $44 million per year.

SOURCE: Report Card for America’s Infrastructure/American Society of Civil Engineers

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ALEX HICKS JR./SPARTANBURG (S.C.) HERALD-JOURNAL

Croft State Park ranger Woody Goodwin stands near a sign warning visitors to stay in designated areas to avoid potential contact with munitions.

Out of the Park Final phase of WWII munitions removal underway By Bob Montgomery

OHN GOSSETT GREW UP in a small farmhouse bordering the Camp Croft World War II training site on the outskirts of Spartanburg, S.C., where his father was an engineer and his mother was a post command driver. At 83, the retired Army colonel still recalls watching from his childhood bedroom window as some of the estimated 200,000 soldiers who trained

there used live artillery fire. “That hill there and all the way back to (the town of) Pauline was maneuver areas, where troops moved and ran tactics,” Gossett says, pointing past the fence line to a field that contains his cattle. “Course, we haven’t had any worry about it. Soon as the war was over, we went right back (to) farming.” The 20,000-acre Camp Croft training site became inactive after World War II, and many unexploded ordnances such as mortar shells and grenades were left

behind — some of them in the more than 7,000 acres that today comprise Croft State Park. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleaned up the areas most frequently used by the public, including campsites, picnic areas, horse trails and the arena. But after $25 million was spent and as years went by, funding to finish the project dried up. Thanks to the persistence of Camp Croft Restoration Advisory Board members like Gossett and Jim Herzog,

U.S. Rep. William Timmons in June 2020 announced the award of a $36.5 million Army Corps contract to finish the job.

SOME MUNITIONS LEFT BEHIND When Camp Croft was active, it had 12 ammunition-training ranges used for small arms, anti-tank rockets, antiaircraft artillery and 60 mm and 81 mm mortars. In 1946, the entire area was declared CONTINUED

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NEWS surplus, and in 1949, the U.S. Army deeded the acreage of what is now Croft State Park to the South Carolina Forestry Commission. It is now under the purview of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Over the years, residents and visitors reported finding hazardous materials that had to be disposed of by the Spartanburg County Sheriff ’s Office bomb squad. Signs posted along trails throughout the park instruct visitors not to venture into unsecured areas. “If you see an object which you suspect to be an explosive device, do not touch it, report it to a park ranger or call 911,” the signs read. “There is a potential for unexploded ordnance to exist at the Croft State Park,” says Billy Birdwell, a spokesman for the Corps’ Savannah District. Birdwell says the Corps has contracted with Weston Solutions of West Chester, Pa., to complete the work in this final phase. Public access to parts of the park will be limited as the work moves forward, Birdwell says. “The remedial action will be conducted all within Croft State Park and consists of vegetation removal, surveying and ... excavation, removal and disposal of potential MEC (munitions and explosives of concern) items,” he says.

“I just don’t believe there’s anything out there that would prevent people from enjoying (the park).” — JOHN GOSSETT, retired Army colonel and park neighbor

SPARTANBURG COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Approximately 200,000 troops trained at Camp Croft during World War II. Here, soldiers fire mortars.

FINAL PHASE BEGINS Last December, the Corps began fieldwork in the final phase of cleanup in a 1,277-acre section of the park; the job is expected to wrap up by the fall of 2022. “I am extremely pleased, as I’m sure all members of the advisory board, the affected property owners and the general public are,” says Herzog, who helped persuade the Spartanburg County Council to support funding of the final phase. “It is also necessary to give credit to Rep. William Timmons and his staff who secured federal funding for this project, which is monumental in its scope,” says Gossett, who hopes when the project is finished it will put an end to speculation that hikers, campers, nature lovers and property owners could be at risk of injury from unexploded munitions. “I encourage people to use the park, use the resources,” Gossett says. “I just don’t believe there’s anything out there that would prevent people from enjoying it. Particularly when this work is done, it will put an end to wild tales.” Bob Montgomery writes for the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal.

ALEX HICKS JR./SPARTANBURG (S.C.) HERALD-JOURNAL

Jim Herzog, a member of the Camp Croft Restoration Advisory Board, inspects a steel bunker at Croft State Park.

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No Shell Game Artiﬁcial oyster reefs could help endangered Gulf sturgeon By Janet McConnaughey

CIENTISTS WITH THE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the University of Southern Mississippi are looking for a way to improve artificial oyster reefs and determine how they affect threatened Gulf sturgeon — big, toothless fish that nose out worms, shrimp and other food from the mud and sand — in the Gulf of Mexico and nearby estuaries. There are nine sturgeon species and subspecies native to North America; seven are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Artificial reefs, which were first used in the U.S. in the 1830s, attract fish for commercial catches and recreational anglers and create hard surfaces where tiny, CO N T IN U ED

Gulf sturgeon researchers pull gill nets from the Pearl River in Mississippi. U.S. ARMY ENGINEER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER

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NEWS free-floating oyster larvae can latch on and grow to marketable size. But because they cover some of the muck where Gulf sturgeon search for prey, artificial oyster reefs have been considered bad for these fish, says Read Hendon, associate director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. That makes it difficult to secure permits for reefs in areas designated as critical habitat for the fish, says Hendon, who is working on the three-year project with research ecologist Safra Altman and fisheries biologist Todd Slack, both of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. “Oyster reefs have been perceived as negative for Gulf sturgeon critical habitat, but is it perhaps the opposite?” Hendon asks. The edges of such reefs — like many areas where one type of habitat changes to another — can have a wider variety of inhabitants and sometimes greater numbers of those species. This might be an overall benefit to Gulf sturgeon, Hendon says. In addition to about 1,730 miles of the rivers where Gulf sturgeon spawn, their critical habitat includes 2,333 square miles of estuaries and ocean off of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi and in part of Louisiana’s brackish Lake Pontchartrain. “The hope is that increased productivity associated with the creation of the new reefs will improve nearby benthic invertebrate productivity, which will positively benefit Gulf sturgeon,” Slack said in a statement announcing the collaboration. Another major thrust of the research is to determine whether adding extra limestone at the start, middle or end of oyster spawning season helps establish the reefs and increase the number of oysters and small creatures living just outside of them. Hendon says the project is structured to be “not just a Mississippi study

READ HENDON

A grid of a proposed oyster reef in the Gulf of Mexico.

— this is something that could be widely used in the Gulf of Mexico and Southeastern United States.” The proposed reef design can be replicated for research, and “We expect that the actual research results will also be applicable to estuarine systems in other states for coastal waters that have similar salinity regimes and other ecological characteristics,” he says. The researchers want at least one set of the reefs in Gulf sturgeon critical habitat, Hendon says. That makes for a difficult balancing act. In the area near Bay St. Louis, Miss., for instance, sturgeon critical habitat is south of the Bay St. Louis Bridge — one of the areas hit hardest when the Bonnet Carré Spillway was opened twice in 2019. Fresh water pouring out of Lake Pontchartrain killed huge numbers of oysters in the Mississippi Sound. The spillway also was opened in 2018 and 2020, as well as two other times in the past decade. The 2019 floods were worst, and similar flooding in the next few years could wipe out half of the experiment. “If it was easy, somebody would already have done it,” Hendon says. Janet McConnaughey writes for The Associated Press.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists capture Gulf sturgeon for study. DEVON RAVINE/NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS

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Shore erosion exacerbated by high water levels on Lake Michigan in 2020 threatens a house in Stevensville, Mich.

Welcome Relief Great Lakes water surge eases after two record-setting years By John Flesher

SPELL OF DRY, MILD

weather has given the Great Lakes a break after two years of high water that shattered records and damaged shoreline roads and homes. Although still above normal, water levels have dropped steadily since last fall and are expected to remain below 2020 levels for most of this year, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers forecasts. The reduction in water levels indicates that “the worst is behind us,” says John Allis, chief of the Detroit District’s Great Lakes hydraulics and hydrology office. “We really shouldn’t be seeing

anywhere near the record highs that we saw last year.” Each of the lakes was down significantly in April from the same month in 2020. Lake Ontario dropped 28 inches, while Lakes Huron and Michigan — which are connected and have the same level — declined 14 inches. Lake Erie fell 17 inches and Lake Superior 6 inches. A decline in water levels that began in the late 1990s and bottomed out in early 2013 gave way to a rapid climb that has eroded shorelines and hammered infrastructure across the region. Records were shattered on all five lakes in 2019 and 2020, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is seeking $500 million for coastal erosion mitigation.

The weather was milder and drier than usual from November 2020 through April, with winter snowfall well below normal. Aside from a February cold snap, the lakes had relatively little ice cover. Low humidity and sunny skies boosted evaporation. “This is one of the drier years we’ve seen in some time,” with large portions of the region considered in a moderate drought, says Jeffrey Andresen, a professor of meteorology and climatology at Michigan State University and Michigan’s state climatologist. While levels will experience their usual spring and summer rise, it began late and won’t pack the same punch as during the previous two years, Allis says.

Officials caution that it’s too early to declare an end to the high-water period, however. And scientists say the warming global climate may produce more abrupt swings in the future. Levels fluctuate reliably with the seasons, but long-term trends that can bring extreme, prolonged surges or drop-offs depend on difficult-to-predict factors such as rain, snow, temperatures and evaporation rates. “Certainly there’s a suggestion based on the recent past that precipitation will go back up again,” Andresen says. “So it’s something we’ll just have to be aware of and be prepared.” John Flesher is an environmental writer for The Associated Press.

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NEWS

Water Rights Aﬃrmed Corps and Georgia reach agreement in decadeslong regional dispute

Lake Lanier GETTY IMAGES

The Associated Press

HE U.S. ARMY CORPS of Engineers and the state of Georgia have reached an agreement that for the first time formally ratifies the rights of two suburban Atlanta counties to use Lake Lanier for drinking water. A Corps-owned reservoir northeast of Atlanta, Lake Lanier was formed in the 1950s by damming the Chattahoochee River and has been used for drinking water for decades. But federal

litigation among Georgia, Alabama and Florida over who gets to use water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system had questioned that practice. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Florida’s most recent water lawsuit against Georgia on April 1. Florida claimed that Georgia uses too much of the water that flows to the Gulf of Mexico via the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. The agreement, signed in late January, dates to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that water supply was an authorized

purpose of Lake Lanier. Part of the agreement, a $70 million-plus water storage contract, allows Gwinnett and Forsyth counties and the cities of Buford, Cumming and Gainesville to pull drinking water from Lake Lanier. Glenn Page, chair of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, says the agreement was “one of the biggest steps that we’ve experienced in securing our water future” in 30 years. Georgia now officially has access to just over 15 percent of the reservoir’s capacity, or 242 million gallons of water

each day when the lake is full. The figure includes existing permits for Buford and Gainesville that were given to the cities in exchange for the land that was flooded to create Lake Lanier. Katherine Zitsch, managing director of natural resources for the Atlanta Regional Commission and a director of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, says the agreement was “a long time coming. This is the water supply we have, and we have to make sure it carries us indefinitely. We feel really good with this contract.”

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Augmenting Technology is transforming assessments and inspections

Assistance

By Adam Hadhazy

s the coronavirus pandemic threatened to overwhelm hospitals in March 2020, policymakers charged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with assessing sites nationwide for temporary conversion to emergency health care facilities. For social distance and safety reasons, some USACE districts limited the number of personnel at these locations by turning to a powerful tool — augmented reality (AR). AR involves overlaying computer-

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MEGAN HOLLAND

An engineer demonstrates a virtual reality application at the Dynamic Immersive Virtual Environment laboratory.

generated perceptual information onto a real-world environment, seen through devices such as headsets and special glasses. Providing AR gear to team members working safely at home and then livestreaming enhanced visuals to these offsite experts allowed smaller teams to assess sites more efficiently, which helped emergency facilities get up and running more quickly. “We found these AR tools were very successfully able to limit the exposure of a lot of team members,” says Jonathan Boone, a research civil engineer with the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the

Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Miss. ITL had already been developing and adapting AR and virtual reality (VR) for a number of Corps purposes, including remote inspections, enhancing building and project design collaboration, enriched training and more. Then the calls started coming in to deploy AR on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19. Boone recalls receiving a text message from Dwayne Weston, the chief of engineering and construction for the Walla Walla District in the Pacific Northwest, asking if the AR capabilities they had discussed at the USACE

Innovation Summit in September 2019 could help with emergency site assessments. The Corps members got right to it, with Boone donning a Microsoft Hololens 2 headset to stream video and augmented graphics to Weston’s computer 2,200 miles away. “We simulated an assessment by inspecting the HVAC system in my home’s attic, as well as the electrical service panel outside,” says Boone. Following the demonstration, ITL prepared the hardware and necessary software applications to ship CONTI NUED

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“

Anything we can model and show in 2D, now we can show in 3D. It’s gamechanging.” — JAMES PETTITT, ERDC computer scientist

MEGAN HOLLAND

DIVE lab researchers collaborate with Corps members who will eventually take the AR/VR gear into the field.

overnight to Weston, Boone says. Other districts soon joined Walla Walla in requesting support, and AR/VR is now in prototype or implementation phase in several other districts, Boone says. Walla Walla has used headsets to visualize 3D renderings of the castings of a compressed air system and a freshly designed crane at the Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake River in Washington and the McNary Dam on the Columbia River at the Oregon/ Washington border. “It’s all about data-informed decision-making, and these technologies really promote that capability,” says Boone. “Our challenge (at ITL) is testing the technology, making sure it makes a difference from a cost or time-savings or safety-related benefit, and then pushing that forward to make a real difference for the nation and the warfighter.”

Technology for Today

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either virtual reality nor augmented reality is a brand-new technology, but the hardware and software supporting both have dramatically lowered in price, while at the same time increasing in sophistication, ease of use and battery life. “Twenty years ago, a VR heads-up display would have required multiple suitcases full of equipment,” says Boone. “Fast forward to 2021, (and) we’re talking about a device that comfortably fits on your head and that can be worn for multiple hours.” More limited forms of AR/VR display technologies are available

and projectable on smartphones and tablets. The range of information that can be displayed in AR and VR is vast — spatial dimensions, material properties, temperatures and pressures. It can even allow users to see through walls, depending on the pre-existing design elements and the real-time sensor data being fed into the system. When it comes to interactive inspections, a digital version of the facility is created from the computeraided design (CAD) drawings standardly used in modern architecture and engineering. Traditionally, that design data has been presented on 2D computer screens. AR and VR allow users to transcend those limitations and experience the actual built environment. “Anything we can model and show in 2D, now we can show in 3D,” says James Pettitt, a computer scientist with ERDC. “It’s game-changing.” Many older structures, of course, were born of printed blueprints and never digitally rendered. Some, such as dams built and managed by the Corps, must be routinely inspected. To utilize AR and VR technologies for these inspections, engineers have used scanning technologies like light detecting and ranging to generate fully explorable, interactive 3D likenesses of the facilities. “We can do some really incredibly detailed scans,” says Pettitt. “We’re getting to the point where you could see a crack in a wall from the other side of the country and get a measurement on that crack.”

Realizing AR/VR’s Promise

eyond assisting inspections and assessments with remote expertise, immersive technologies will better inform initial design and construction. “We’re ‘virtually constructing’ full-scale buildings,” says Boone. Pettitt says future developments may include using artificial intelligence and machine learning in inspections. These programs could flag potential areas of concern that the human inspector can double-check. Other areas of application include extending inspections virtually into hazardous environments, such as collapsed tunnels and other damaged infrastructure. To develop and test these applications, ITL opened the Dynamic Immersive Virtual Environment (DIVE) lab in 2019. There, researchers can collaborate closely with Corps members who will eventually take the gear into the field. The lab, which Boone leads, features multiple stations for AR/VR engagement, a projection floor and a green screen setup for immersive video capturing. A particularly useful piece of equipment is an omnidirectional treadmill that lets users walk freely while immersed in a virtual world — a good way to grow accustomed to the experience of roaming through a simulation. The rollout of AR/VR technology is still in its early stages, but the promise it holds is immense, Boone says. “ERDC and the Army Corps are definitively at the forefront of this revolution. The possibilities are endless.”

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When a paralyzing storm hit Texas, the Corps helped keep the lights on

Power lines against the Houston skyline

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Cattle in a frozen field near Midland, Texas

By Matt Alderton

here are many things one expects to find in Texas: Cowboy hats, cattle and award-winning barbecue come to mind. And no Texas bingo card would be complete without oil wells and

football. But there are at least three things most people don’t expect to find: cold, snow and ice. For more than a week last winter, the Lone Star State was overwhelmed by all three as a massive winter outbreak spread from El Paso to Houston. Between Feb. 11 and Feb. 20, a historic series of winter storms wreaked havoc. On Feb. 15, temper-

atures in San Antonio fell to 9 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 8 degrees. Three days later, Del Rio received nearly 10 inches of snow. Even Gulf Coast beaches in Galveston were frozen. What might have been common in Colorado, CONTINUED

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Michigan or Massachusetts was calamitous in Texas. Not because Texans couldn’t handle the cold, rather, because their infrastructure couldn’t — in particular the state’s power grid, which faltered under the stress of extreme temperatures it wasn’t built to withstand. At one point, at least 4.5 million homes were without power and heat. Desperate for warmth, families burned furniture in fireplaces and slept in cars with the engines running. The extreme conditions contributed to the death of at least 111 people, many of whom died from hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning. And the situation could have been even worse were it not for the efforts and resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

DAM GOOD POWER The national power grid is a complex patchwork of public and private entities that generate, market, purchase and distribute electricity. In the south-central United States, major players include the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which operate power grids in and around Texas; the Corps’ Southwestern Division (SWD), which operates 18 hydropower plants; and the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), a federal agency that markets SWD’s hydropower to the grids that consume and transmit it. Before the February storms, ERCOT, SPP and MISO issued alerts to power producers, warning them of increased demand. As cold weather advanced, they cautioned that end users would be consuming more energy, so grids would need as much power as possible. “ERCOT, SPP and MISO are the folks who make sure the power stays on in the central part of the United States,” says SWD Chief of Operations Andrea Murdock-McDaniel. “All three of them issued alerts, which is sort of an unprecedented thing.” Along with increased demand, grid operators would have to contend with decreased supply because natural gas and coal-fired power plants that supply most of the electricity in Texas are not winterized for icy conditions. Hydropower was therefore critical. “The natural gas and coal-fired plants are the ones giving you constant energy. If those go offline, or if there’s a peak in demand, you need something else to jump in,” says Randall Townsend, chief of public affairs in SWD’s Little Rock District. “When these storms hit, they took away a lot of our supplemental power sources. If your wind turbines are frozen and your solar panels are covered in snow, you’ve got to rely on hydropower.” With power grids under stress, Corps-run

hydropower plants across the region ramped up to help keep Texans warm, including Denison Dam and Whitney Lake — the only two hydropower plants that are connected to ERCOT’s power grid, which supplies approximately 90 percent of the electricity used in Texas. Located on the Red River straddling Texas and Oklahoma some 80 miles north of Dallas, Denison Dam opened in 1944 and is in the middle of a major rehabilitation project. Despite its age, it performed flawlessly, according to Beau Biffle, hydropower chief in SWD’s Tulsa District, which operates the dam. “Our power plants are used for peak operation only during normal times, but during the winter storm event we provided continuous electricity,” explains Biffle, who says hydropower generators are designed to run at a maximum rate — what’s

Power plant at Sam Rayburn Dam and Reservoir in East Texas

known as a 100 percent load rate — but can exceed that in emergency situations, reaching load rates of up to 115 percent when needed. “We offered our customers an additional 25 megawatts on top of our normal 533 megawatts,” he says, “and that’s what we ended up giving. We ran all of our available units 24 hours a day nonstop and had no issues.” Whitney Lake, which was completed in 1953, played a slightly different role. Located 65 miles southwest of Fort Worth, it provides ERCOT with “responsive reserve service,” meaning its generators run continuously but don’t actually produce electricity until they receive a demand signal from the grid. When that happens, they instantly start outputting power. “They can go from zero to 20 megawatts in about 15 seconds, whereas the typical startup

process takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes,” says Thomas Webb, power plant superintendent for SWD’s Fort Worth District, which operates Whitney Lake. ERCOT had to implement controlled rolling brownouts to avoid overwhelming its power grid, Webb says. When it turned power on and off, responsive-reserve power from SWD kicked in to stabilize the grid. “If our machines weren’t able to perform as they did, you could have had a significant uncontrolled blackout or system-wide failure.” Together, Denison and Whitney Lake kept a bad situation from getting worse, according to Murdock-McDaniel, who says ERCOT typically receives approximately 6,446 megawatts of power from SWD on an average February day. On Feb. 16 alone, SWD furnished ERCOT with 23,700 megawatts of power. “During the whole of this event, we generated 40 percent more power than what we normally do in any given period of time, which is quite an increase,” Murdock-McDaniel says. ERCOT wasn’t the only beneficiary of SWD’s capabilities. Hydropower plants in SWD’s Tulsa, Fort Worth and Little Rock Districts provided similar support to SPP and MISO, which serve parts of northwest, northeast and southeast Texas. In the Little Rock District alone, Townsend says, seven hydropower plants produced enough electricity between Feb. 11 and Feb. 17 to meet the average monthly power needs of 104,000 homes. “You can supply enough power for 8,500 homes for an entire year with the amount of power we produced in seven days,” he says. “That means those plants were cranking. That’s a big win for the program and for the people who benefited from it.”

HYDROPOWER HEROES Because of the early alerts it received from ERCOT, SPP and MISO, the Southwestern Division was able to defer maintenance projects that might have taken critical assets offline when they were needed most. Simultaneously, it made strategic decisions about water levels, bringing lakes and reservoirs lower than it otherwise might in order to maximize hydropower output. Most of all, however, SWD attributes its successful response to its maintenance personnel. “We perform maintenance over the life of our units to be ready for times like this,” Biffle says. “We’re willing to do what it takes to staff our plants and maintain them so we can provide service in extreme situations.” Murdock-McDaniel agrees. “We had to have guys on call to make sure everything was running the way it was supposed to,” she says. “We’re not used to ice and snow and cold weather down here, so a lot of those guys decided it would be better to sleep at the plant than to try driving back and forth from their houses and risk ending up in a ditch. That’s

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Whitney Lake Dam

Kerr Lock and Dam

something extra that our people did to be able to be responsive.” On at least two occasions during the February events, intrepid maintenance staff in SWD’s Fort Worth District risked personal safety to keep the power on for their neighbors, according to Webb. In one instance — at midnight on Feb. 15 — a generator at Whitney Lake would not start. “After navigating several inches of ice and snow, and then ice on top of the snow, one of our maintenance guys was able to get into the plant to get that generator up and running,” recalls Webb. Another plant — the Robert D. Willis Hydropower Project in Jasper, Texas — went offline on Feb. 17. “You can only get to this plant by one road, and it was iced over. So we had to arrange for airboats to take my team to the facility by waterway so they could get inside to get that generator back online,”

Webb says. “What’s normally a 30-minute trip took them almost three hours.” Of course, even the most dedicated staff can do only so much. What happened in Texas was a frigid reminder: In order to ensure reliable power during future weather crises, the entities that fund hydropower must invest more money into rehabbing the aging infrastructure that supports it. The Corps’ power infrastructure in the region “performed amazingly well,” says MurdockMcDaniel, who uses an automotive analogy to contextualize the importance of system maintenance. “You’re supposed to change your tires every 50,000 miles, and we just put 50,000 miles on our car in a matter of days. There’s going to be some maintenance required in order to keep things going, and if we don’t get to it fast enough, there’s a risk that things will fail.”

TREVOR WELSH/USACE FORT WORTH DISTRICT; USACE

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AT THE READY 249th ‘Prime Power’ battalion keeps critical infrastructure online February brought freezing temperatures, snow and ice to Texas resulting in massive power outages. Although dire for everyone, outages were especially concerning for critical infrastructure sites like hospitals, nursing homes and fire stations. To ensure they had the heat and electricity needed to provide vital services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) transferred 60 generators to Texas to supply temporary emergency power. In support of that mission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deployed 12 members of the 249th Engineer Battalion — otherwise known as Prime Power — to conduct pre-installation site assessments. “Soldiers on our pre-installation inspection teams go out in two-man teams to do facility assessments. If a facility does not have power because the grid is down, through their inspection they’ll determine all the requirements to bring that facility back online with a temporary generator from FEMA stockpiles,” says Capt. Matthew Glavin, commander of Prime Power’s Bravo Company, which is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. Because the state ended up having all the resources it needed, Prime Power ultimately performed just one inspection in Texas at Lewisville Lake, a recreational reservoir in suburban Dallas that required contingency planning in case it lost power, which it needs for search-andrescue operations. It was a fruitful exercise nonetheless, as Prime Power was able to rehearse its mobilization process as preparation for future events, like hurricanes. “It’s great practice for us. The more repetition we have, the smoother the process is when the call comes again,” says Glavin. “Having a trained-and-ready team standing by to impact affected facilities immediately gives you assurances that you’ll be able to get back online.” — Matt Alderton

Members of the 249th Engineer Battalion’s Bravo Company at a distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas

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‘THE SCIENCE

IS REAL’ COASTAL EXPERTS HOPE NEW ADMINISTRATION WILL FOCUS ON SEA LEVEL RISE By Dinah Voyles Pulver and Doug Fraser

HE ATLANTIC OCEAN POURED

into streets from Maine to Florida during seasonal high tides in fall 2019, and scientists feared it would only get worse. With a new presidential administration, climate experts and government officials have reason to hope for help combating the problem of rising sea levels. “We’re eagerly looking forward to change and action that will assist states in preparing themselves and their residents,” says Ann Phillips, a retired Navy rear admiral who serves as special assistant to Virginia’s governor for coastal adaptation and protection. “It all starts with acknowledging climate change is happening and the science is real.” While it’s still unclear what form this action will take, the need is obvious, with increased flooding fulfilling scientific predictions about rising water

temperatures and melting ice sheets. High-tide flooding occurs on average twice as often in coastal communities as it did 20 years ago, federal data shows. A 2020 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration included 19 locations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that tied or set new records for flood days in 2019, including Miami, Savannah, Ga., Charleston, S.C., and Annapolis, Md. With sea levels nationally up 1.1 feet relative to 1920 levels and rising, flood days are forecast to increase exponentially. Coastal officials hope to see a new wave of cooperation, financial assistance, coordination and support in their battle with the sea, but the specifics of how President Joe Biden intends to carry out campaign pledges to address climate change remain unclear. As of early April, the $35 billion earmarked for building technology to tackle the climate crisis was the only part of the president’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan that might directly

help mitigate the effects of rising sea levels. As a candidate, Biden pointed out the threat of rising sea levels to coastal military bases. In his first week in office, he signed an executive order creating the Civilian Climate Corps Initiative, modeled after the Great Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, to protect and restore vulnerable coastal ecosystems such as wetlands, seagrasses and oyster reefs. Phillips and others say they’re encouraged by Biden’s appointment of former Secretary of State John Kerry and former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy to White House-level advisory positions on climate policy. Biden’s public remarks have also stressed that climate and energy projects create jobs. He said in December 2020, “We can put millions of Americans to work modernizing water, transportation and energy infrastructure to withstand the impacts of extreme weather.”

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Phillips suggests the administration should quickly fund federal agencies to “collect and analyze the most current data to make projections and funding decisions,” especially when it comes to things like road improvements and utility systems. More frequent flooding in recent years reallocates money earmarked for maintaining roads and water and sewer systems, making it more difficult to prepare for the future, Phillips says. In Virginia, for example, nine major flood events in 2018 and 2019 caused $1.6 billion in damage. “We’ve seen more water — hightide cycles that are higher and they last longer,” she says. Additionally, a recent study by the Johns Hopkins University 21st Century Cities Initiative and the American Flood Coalition estimated that investing $1 billion in projects to prevent or manage flooding would create 40,000 jobs.

The study also looked at counties that had received large payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program. It found that if 10 percent of the $450 billion spent on flood insurance payments since 2005 had been put into building stormwater retention areas or other projects that would make buildings, roads and utilities resistant to or safe from future flooding, 1.8 million construction and retail jobs could have been created and flood risk would be significantly reduced. Such paybacks for protecting property can far surpass the initial costs, says Kelly Kryc, director of conservation policy and leadership at New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. She cites two court-ordered projects to clean up Boston Harbor that cost $4.7 billion, and a 2018 ScienceDaily.com study that estimated the value of the restored ecosystem at $30 billion to $100 billion.

Thinking of coastal resilience projects as an investment against future disaster relief costs may be essential to meeting needs, scientists say, as demand already far outstrips funding. In 2017, the National Coastal Resilience Fund awarded $13.8 million to 19 projects, not quite 10 percent of the money requested among 167 proposals, Kryc says. Funding more than doubled to $34 million this year, but the demand remained 10 times the amount of available money. “These were projects that were shovel-ready and demonstrably effective,” Kryc says. As of January, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had a backlog of $98 billion in congressionally authorized unconstructed water resource projects for which funding has not been fully appropriated, according to the Congressional Research Service. “At that rate we’re never going to

get there from here,” Phillips says. Scientists also hope the Biden administration will encourage federal agencies to include resiliency and the protection of at-risk communities in development plans. Such policies were underway during former President Barack Obama administration but were never adopted, Phillips says. Without them, projects remain skewed toward more valuable properties that produce greater tax revenue. Obama-era recommendations for elevating facilities, roads and other projects based on predicted water levels also were never enacted. Beefing up those standards could help drive states’ departments of transportation to take definitive measures to address sea level rise, says Jason Evans, executive director of the Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. CONTINUED

October 2019 king tide in Tuckerton Beach, N.J. GETTY IMAGES; ROB AUERMULLER

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Having such rules in place can help ensure that new development is built with higher sea levels in mind, says Daniel Moon, president and executive director of the Environmental Business Council of New England. For example, billions have been spent on new office and apartment buildings in Boston’s Seaport District, one of the city’s fastest-growing and trendiest sections. Many conform to newer coastal flood resilience guidelines — based on projected sea level rise of 40 inches during the next 50 years — with heating and other critical systems on upper-level floors. But buildings that allow water to pass through the first floor without causing significant damage don’t help residents navigate flooded streets, Moon says. “The Seaport community was a huge missed opportunity.” Tougher federal flooding standards could compel changes to private development, scientists say. In early January, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Association of State Floodplain Managers filed a petition to try to prod the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set stronger

standards for building in flood plains and protecting against future flood risk. According to Evans, if the National Flood Insurance Program limited federal payouts and started telling people they’re on their own if they build in a hazardous location, “That would probably drive the conversation on retreat and on not advancing as much into vulnerable areas.” Evans works with local governments along the coasts of Georgia and Florida in safeguarding stormwater systems against intruding ocean water and placing new public buildings in safe locations. He says federal officials need to move quickly in taking sea level rise into account when planning federal projects in coastal regions. If federal funding for high-dollar construction projects were contingent on planning for sea level rise, that would make a big difference, Evans says. “It’s really overdue. We should have been doing it 25 years ago.” Doug Fraser writes for the Cape Cod (Mass.) Times; Joey Garrison contributed to this story.

MIC SMITH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A pedestrian walks by a flooded Market Street as a king tide rolls into the popular tourist shopping area in Charleston, S.C., in November 2020. The Corps is working on a $1.75 billion proposal to build a sea wall along the city’s peninsula to protect it from storm surge during hurricanes.

LYNNE SLADKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A pedestrian walkway along the Miami River is flooded during an exceptionally high tide in September 2019. Low-lying neighborhoods in South Florida are vulnerable to seasonal and storm-related flooding.

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| SPECIAL EDITION

PANDEMIC RESPONSE 44

STANDING UP

Expertise critical to rapid facility deployment

BRANCHING OUT

Corps boosting contractor diversity, agility

‘FLASH TO BANG’

Delivering hospitals and vaccination centers

INVESTING IN SMALL BUSINESS The Engineering and Support Center’s Ofﬁce of Small Business Programs distributed more than $800 million to contractors in 2020.

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE

WILFREDO LEE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Army Corps of Engineers mobile command center stands outside the Miami Beach Convention Center, which the Corps transformed into a hospital in April 2020.

Built for the Moment Corps planned, erected and repurposed pandemic medical facilities

By Adam Stone

HEN ANTHONY TRAVIA GOT the call to begin

designing ad hoc field hospitals at the start of the pandemic, he understood the significance of that moment. “Your country only calls you once a decade or once a generation, and you’ve got to be listening,” he says. As division chief of the Medical Center of Expertise at the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Ala., Travia had a team ready to hit the ground running, with the specialized expertise that would be needed in support of a

rapid medical build-out. “At the time, I was thinking: ‘Our country needs us, and we can provide a service that will make a difference,’ ” he says. Through the spring and summer of 2020 USACE brought that expertise to bear. Travia says his team helped to design and deliver approximately 40 alternate care facilities in an effort to provide additional emergency care capacity around the nation. “One of the major challenges during the onset of the COVID-19 response was to anticipate the needed increase (in) medical capacity and bed space,” says Damon Penn, assistant administrator of the response directorate at the

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which called on the Corps for support. “The U.S. Army Corps quickly formed and deployed assessment teams to work with the states to determine alternative solutions for additional beds and medical care,” Penn says. “At the request of the states, they developed a series of options to quickly increase the capacity of state and local medical systems, providing patient care for victims that would otherwise have been turned away.” Experts say the Corps was uniquely situated to fulfill the role. “The Corps of Engineers has the skill sets and the legislative authority to respond to issues of critical national significance that require an engineering and construction response,” says William Lang, chief medical officer for concierge medicine practice WorldClinic and a former director of the White House Medical Unit. “They can do it without a lot of the red tape and bureaucracy that can be involved in typical government construction projects.”

SPECIAL EFFORT Corps leaders saw early on that COVID-19 would require a special effort in support of medical needs. When news first broke of a new, highly contagious virus, “We saw a pandemic potential, and we began thinking about what facility support could be provided for public health or the delivery of clinical care,” Travia says. Fortunately, the Corps specializes in just that kind of know-how. As the Army’s go-to entity for medical construction, “We are the health care architects and engineers,” Travia says. “We are the subject matter expert for all things that are medically unique.” It takes specific expertise to design a medical facility. “When you think about the box where health care takes place, it has to be conducive to providers delivering a clinical standard of care. That means understanding the virus, how it spreads, how it affects the body, how clinicians will treat it,” Travia says. In addition, the spaces themselves are inherently complex. “You’ve got to have emergency power as well as appropriate infection control. That means the architects get involved, (as well as) mechanical engineers to look at heating, ventilation, air conditioning, air filtration,” he says. “There’s also a fire safety requirement, and of course ‘code blue’ communications.” And all the complex coordination was

STEPHEN BAACK/USACE

U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center personnel conduct an alternate care site assessment in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in April 2020.

amplified by the need for speed, says David Braidich, technical team lead and mechanical engineer with the Corps’ Medical Center of Expertise. “We had to build in weeks what normally takes months and years,” Braidich says. “We had to come up with solutions that not only met all the safety and health requirements and medical performance requirements, but could be built incredibly fast.” Fortunately, “We’re uniquely qualified to not only know what’s required, but to be able to know where we can find alternatives and equivalencies to speed up the processes,” he says.

MASSIVE PUSH To meet the coronavirus challenge, the Corps’ medical construction team conducted nearly 170 site assessments, looking for suitable locations for impromptu facilities, and they consulted on hundreds of other projects in various stages of development. “I couldn’t count the number of calls our staff fielded,” Travia says. In some cases, success meant understanding where it was strategically safe to relax standards. “In a regular hospital, for instance, CONTI NUED

“The greatest success ... was that the nation never lost confidence in the ability of our health care system to meet the challenges when it came to this overwhelming influx of COVID-19 patients.” — DAVID BRAIDICH, USACE Medical Center of Expertise

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE

STEPHEN BAACK/USACE

Members of the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center conduct a site assessment in Jacksonville, Ala., last spring.

every room would have a fire sprinkler system in it, and there would generally be backup pumps, alternate pumps, alternate routes for the water to get to the sprinklers,” he says. With the alternate care facilities, that wasn’t always possible. “We would say, ‘You have to have sprinklers, but we can cut out all of the system redundancy,’” Travia says. The Corps has always been tightly intertwined with health care response, Lang says. “The motto of the Army medical department is to conserve the fighting force, (and) it’s well known that

the best way to get people back to battle is through good health care treatment,” he says. “The way you deliver good treatment is to build and develop good hospitals and other health care facilities very, very rapidly. That’s what the Corps does.” Even as concerns recede around the need for emergency surge capacity in the nation’s health system, that same expertise has found new outlets in support of pandemic-response efforts. Having designed alternate care sites in Los Angeles County, “We then transitioned right into the mass vaccination

“The Corps of Engineers has the skill sets and the legislative authority to respond to issues of critical national significance that require an engineering and construction response.” — WILLIAM LANG, WorldClinic chief medical officer

centers under the new administration’s COVID response,” Travia says. All these efforts served not only to meet an immediate medical need, but also to bolster national morale in a time of crisis. “We had to establish public confidence that we could handle this,” Braidich says. “The greatest success of our program was that the nation never lost confidence in the ability of our health care system to meet the challenges when it came to this overwhelming influx of COVID-19 patients. To me, that’s the core of the whole thing.”

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE

Big Opportunity Small-business outreach boosts agility, diversity of contractors

DIVERSE SYSTEMS GROUP

Keith Scott, left, says the Army Corps’ Office of Small Business Programs helped his company land a contract with the Department of Defense.

By Adam Stone

LTHOUGH IT’S A SMALL

business, Atlanta-based Accura Engineering and Consulting Services provides construction management for some very big clients: the U.S. Army, NASA and the Department of the Interior. It was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that helped open the door. “I came in new with no federal experience,” says President and CEO Prashanthi Reddy. “I did an Army Corps

small-business open house for upcoming opportunities and they gave us time that day to present our qualifications to one of their contracting officers. They also offered workshops where we learned about how to do business with the Army. We needed to do that before we could successfully run some of these contracts.” In fact, the Corps makes small-business success a priority — a particularly important economic lifeline during the pandemic. At the Corps’ Engineering and Support

Center in Huntsville, Ala., Rebecca Goodsell heads up the Office of Small Business Programs, which helped steer more than $800 million in work to small businesses in 2020. “Small businesses are typically more agile. They can respond quicker in case of an emergency, and they’re local,” Goodsell says. “I teach the importance of small-business participation in utilization through increased dialogue and outreach.” Those efforts include industry days, where small businesses can learn about

opportunities, as well as workshops and other outreach aimed at helping small businesses navigate the complex landscape of government contracting. Goodsell engages with a wide range of firms with expertise to support the Corps’ mission. These include construction, technology and energyrelated companies, as well as firms that handle medical equipment and supplies. She says the Corps benefits from the participation of these smaller companies, many of whom are ready to go above and beyond for the chance to

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE

STEPHEN BAACK/USACE

Brandy Wilkerson meets with potential contractors at a small-business forum.

USACE

ACCURA ENGINEERING AND CONSULTING SERVICES

Office of Small Business Programs’ Rebecca Goodsell is presented an award in 2018.

Accura Engineering manages construction on the East Branch Dam in Pennsylvania.

fulfill a government contract. “They want to learn. They want to do a good job, and they want to grow,” Goodsell says. The Office of Small Business Programs helped Keith Scott get a foot in the door. As CEO of Diverse Systems Group in Bethesda, Md., he delivers health information management systems to the Department of Defense — thanks in part to support from the Corps. “They provided a forum for us to be able to articulate our value offering,” Scott says. “They looked at where we had

that is very significant.” In recent years, Goodsell has seen growing awareness of the value that small businesses bring to the table, and an expanded willingness on the part of military contractors to engage with the small-business community. “We’ve had a cultural change,” she says. “In 2010, our prime awards for small businesses were $466 million. In 2020, we did over $824 million. Now people come to me daily, asking: ‘How can we include small business in this?’ ” The Office of Small Business Programs

come from; they looked at our pedigree, and they gave us an opportunity to present our capabilities.” The Corps’ support “took us from being just a pebble in the ocean — something that would never get noticed — to being something much more visible,” he says. Those military contracts have helped shape the trajectory of Diverse Systems Group’s growth. “It’s a very big deal for a small business to get work with the Department of Defense,” Scott says. “For us to get a contract with the largest agency within the federal government,

is looking to expand its efforts, to pull in more disabled-veteran-owned businesses, as well as more firms located in what the Small Business Administration defines as Historically Underutilized Business Zones — areas with low median household incomes or high unemployment. “In some of these suppressed areas, business owners are not sure how to navigate the government,” Goodsell says. “It’s the same with the disabled veterans — they may just not know how to get in. We want to help them.”

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE

Quick Strike Army Corps rapidly built alternate care facilities in key cities By Sandy Smith

HE U.S. ARMY CORPS of Engineers had built hospitals and managed disasters before. But this was different. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the Corps was a key link in the rapid rollout of alternate care facilities (ACFs) in cities like Chicago, Detroit and

Nashville, Tenn. “We were transitioning to a near 100 percent telework mode. At the same time, we had this huge mission put in front of us,” says Col. Paul Kremer, the deputy division commander who led the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division (LRD) operations while his commander, PENELOPE CARROLL; USACE GREAT LAKES AND OHIO RIVER DIVISION

CONTINUED

The Corps constructs an alternative care facility at Chicago’s McCormick Place in 2020.

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PANDEMIC RESPONSE Maj. Gen. Robert Whittle, was on loan to Washington, D.C. “How are we going to take care of our people, while knowing that our mission was to take care of the American people? We had to find a way to do it.” It meant taking calculated risks, being flexible and using only volunteers for the mission, despite the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. In those first few months, Kremer slept in the basement whenever he was at home to protect his wife and six children from possible exposure. Joseph Savage, LRD’s regional business director, purposefully overstaffed his teams by one-third. “I thought we would have so many COVID-19 cases in our staff that I needed redundancy,” he recalls. Corps personnel and contractors adhered to social distancing and masking requirements, and there wasn’t a single coronavirus case on any of LRD’s job sites. But there were plenty of challenges. The same shortages of personal protective equipment that affected every industry and household applied, but there also were shortages of medical gases and piping — critical as the Corps stood up the ACFs — and construction materials. “We respond to crises all the time: hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires. Never have we ever responded in the capacity where we were being hit at different frequencies, at almost every district across the United States,” says Steven O’Hara, LRD senior regional construction engineer. “Typically, we could borrow labor from another region. In this crisis, we couldn’t do that.” Perhaps the highest hurdle, however, was the sheer scope of the rollout and the fact that there was no blueprint; lessons were quickly applied and shared across projects. In Chicago, the McCormick Place convention center became one of the country’s first ACFs. In the Detroit area, two sites were initiated; the first, a conversion of the 723,000-square-foot TCF Center, was completed in just nine days. The second, at Suburban Collection Showplace convention center in Novi, Mich., became the first ACF within the LRD to accept coronavirus patients; most other facilities were designed to handle potential overflow of non-COVID-19 patients. Nashville offered yet another anomaly. While many cities had converted convention centers into ACFs, Nashville’s Music City Center would have been “too expensive and expansive” for the cases

anticipated, says William T. Anderson, a civil engineer with the Corps’ Nashville District. Instead, an unused floor of Nashville General Hospital was converted for the purpose and another floor was remodeled. An operating hospital facility brought new challenges. “We were all aware of the risks to impacting a critical care facility during the pandemic,” says Eric J. Pagoria, construction branch chief for the Nashville District. Extra precautions were taken to ensure the safety and comfort of existing hospital patients. “Several creative measures were taken to make the build possible,” says Mason Carter, the lead contracting officer’s representative on the Nashville General project. One such step was an “all-night operation to bring in building materials via crane,” Carter says. “We engineer solutions for engineering’s toughest challenges,” says Nicholas Zager, chief of planning for the Detroit District. “That rung true to this mission. We had the resources, the expertise,

USACE GREAT LAKES AND OHIO RIVER DIVISION

An emergency operations vehicle is positioned outside an alternative care facility, top, and supplies await deployment within a makeshift hospital.

the contracting mechanisms, and it was amazing to see.” It also raised the Corps’ visibility with the public, who may only encounter the Corps’ mission through its recreational

facilities. “We do a lot of work overseas, building hospitals and schools, and we love doing that,” Whittle says. “It was really cool to be doing this for the American people.”

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CLEAN ENERGY 56

POWERING UP

Women embrace hydropower leadership in Northwestern Division

EFFICIENCY BOOST

Lake Texoma’s Denison Dam gets new turbines

SUPPORTING RENEWABLES

Corps’ clean energy efforts extend beyond military installations

GOING GREEN The Army Corps of Engineers supports approximately 170 renewable energy projects, ranging from wind turbines to parking lots covered in photovoltaic cells, to reduce costs and bolster resiliency.

GETTY IMAGES

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CLEAN ENERGY

Generating Power Women embrace hydropower leadership roles at all levels of Northwestern Division

Ice Harbor Lock and Dam in Washington DAVID G. RIGG

By Fiona Soltes

EMALE REPRESENTATION IN LEADERSHIP often refers to

executive-level and supervisory positions. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division is encouraging women to lead at all levels of the organization. The Portland, Ore., Seattle and Walla Walla, Wash., districts encompass the Corps’ top three hydropower-producing entities, and all offer leadership opportunities in a wide range of roles. “One of the best feelings is knowing that ... you’re really valued for your skills,” says Jeannette Wilson, operations

project manager at Lower Monumental Lock and Dam in Kahlotus, Wash. “Our organization does really well at that.” Wilson, who spent the last year as a centralized control program manager, discovered her love for hydropower as an Army officer; her commander put her on rotation to see the breadth of the organization. “I’ve been lucky with mentors, both men and women, to get the career goals and guidance I needed,” she says. Though not an engineer herself, she enjoys collaborating with a diverse group to handle the dam’s complex operations. Victoria Martin, mechanical engineer at the Hydroelectric Design Center (HDC) in Portland, likes the sense of teamwork she hadn’t experienced outside the

Corps. “In HDC, we all work together to ensure we deliver the best product possible. If you have a design concern or question, everyone is willing to help.” Another bonus: HDC works with multiple Corps districts across the country, providing an opportunity to travel and learn. At the Corps, 836 employees provide direct support to the hydropower business line in the Portland, Seattle and Walla Walla districts; 64 of them are women. Jeanne McDaniel, a power plant shift operator at Albeni Falls Dam in Idaho, has found that commitment has been CONTI NUED

Victoria Martin USACE

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CLEAN ENERGY

“One of the best feelings is knowing that ... you’re really valued for your skills. ... I’ve been lucky with mentors, both men and women, to get the career goals and guidance I needed.” — JEANNETTE WILSON, operations project manager, Lower Monumental Lock and Dam

the key to navigating what is still a male-dominated field. “Mainly it is the willingness to do the job, no matter how dirty, hard or time-consuming,” she says. McDaniel is responsible for the equipment and the safety of personnel, as well as projectwide security. Operators work around the clock and have decision-making duties on night shifts and weekends, when no operations or maintenance chief is present. “I have a strong sense of responsibility for doing the right thing and being outspoken when things are not correct,” McDaniel says. “I like the challenges some days can bring, and that there is always something different going on. Every day you can learn something new.” That sense of responsibility also extends to home: McDaniel raises cattle,

pigs, chickens and turkeys; she also cans produce, gardens and operates a snowplow. She’s proud of all she has accomplished, and says for those willing to “work hard and go the distance,” Corps trades and craft positions are awesome. Teresa Casper, an electrical engineer at HDC who recently earned a professional engineer license, credits the women of the Corps — especially those who paved the way at HDC — for encouragement and guidance. The Corps puts “a lot of emphasis on certification, and encourages us to work towards this professional goal,” she says. “I am an active listener and try to dive into a project head-on, because I think that is the best way to learn. Senior engineers with many years of experience passing on their knowledge and the training

provided by HDC also help me do the best I can at a job.” Jamie Howard, deputy chief of the Walla Walla District operations division, says the people are decidedly the best part of her job. She sees a “high level of knowledge, professionalism and varying skill sets within USACE,” and says the Corps’ support for leadership abilities at all levels, mentoring opportunities and open collaboration between disciplines and missions has been invaluable. “I have a greater confidence in my own abilities, talents, strengths, but also have identified some limitations and blind spots,” she says. Pushing herself ultimately led to her current role — and now she can further develop leadership, mentoring and collaboration opportunities for others.

Jeannette Wilson

Jeanne McDaniel

Teresa Casper

Lower Granite Lock and Dam in Washington BRIGIDA SANCHEZ

Jamie Howard HANNAH MITCHELL; USACE

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CLEAN ENERGY

Turn, Turn, Turn After 75 years, Denison Dam gets new turbines

STACEY REESE

Turbine number two at Denison Dam, in foreground, has been retired and placed on display to educate the public on the workings of a hydropower plant.

By Gina Harkins

HEN THE U.S. ARMY

Corps of Engineers began dismantling the underwater turbines at a lake on the Texas-Oklahoma border, Jacob West was shocked they were still running. The massive turbines that create hydropower for nearby communities are typically replaced every 30 to 40 years in the private sector and about every 50 years for federal projects, says West, a resident engineer with the Corps’ Tulsa District. The pair at Lake Texoma’s

Denison Dam had been in use since the 1940s. “It’s a testament to the maintenance staff that they have here at the plant and their abilities to keep everything working properly for so long,” West says. “Some of the metal pieces were rusted and corroded. It was still safe, but not very efficient.” The Tulsa District is nearing completion on the $44.3 million replacement project at Lake Texoma, which was built during World War II to help prevent flooding in the region, but the turbines at the Denison Dam powerhouse produce energy for surrounding communities.

Work on the project began in 2014, and the first turbine was replaced last May. The Corps started work on replacing the second unit in October, West says, and celebrated the 75th anniversary of the powerhouse in April. That hydropower the turbines create proved vital this year when a series of devastating winter storms hit Texas in February, leaving millions in the state without power after the grid became overwhelmed. Texas is the only state in the U.S. that operates on an isolated grid, making it difficult to draw power from other areas. Power produced from the turbines at

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CLEAN XXXXX ENERGY

NEW TURBINES GENERATE

MEGAWATTS OF POWER DAILY SOURCE: USACE

STACEY REESE

Ranger Jeremy Harvey and a young fisherman at Lake Texoma.

Denison Dam is distributed to Rayburn Electric Cooperative in northeast Texas, West says, along with East Texas Electric Cooperative. Even with just one of the new stainless steel turbines running at the Lake Texoma plant when the winter storm hit, West says the Corps was able to step up production to generate more power than usual. The ability to do that shows the value in investing in new and more efficient turbines, he says. “Hydropower provides that peak capability. When demand is really up, we are able to turn on our units and within a matter of minutes get everything synced

to the grid. We are able to provide power pretty quickly,” West says. The Corps required that the new turbines be able to generate more electricity while using the same amount of water. Voith Hydro of York, Pa., was awarded the contract to do the work on the turbines. “The old units were putting out 40 megawatts pretty regularly,” West says. “These will be able to put out on an everyday basis 44 (megawatts), but be able to surge up to 48 or 50.” In addition to the turbines, new gas-insulated transformers needed to be installed, electrical equipment was

“It’s a testament to the maintenance staff ... and their abilities to keep everything working properly for so long.” — JACOB WEST, resident engineer, Tulsa District upgraded and some pipes were replaced. Most everything was in rough shape from being submerged for three-quarters of a century, West says.

One of the original turbines is now on display along the Red River, one of Lake Texoma’s primary water sources. West says the goal is to give the public some perspective on how much work the turbines carried out in nearly 75 years. A sign at the display site says turbine two generated nearly 8.5 million megawatthours of electricity over its lifespan as more than 25 trillion gallons of water passed through it. Lake Texoma is one of the 50 largest lakes in the U.S. and one of the most popular federal recreation facilities, averaging more than 6 million visitors annually.

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CLEAN ENERGY

Getting Clean Corps plays crucial role in delivering sustainability solutions By Adam Stone

T ARMY FORT RILEY in northcentral Kansas, recent energy conservation upgrades promise to shave $4.3 million a year off the power bill. That would not have been possible without help from the Army Corps of Engineers. “This gave us a contracting vehicle to accomplish some things we wouldn’t have been able to do on our own,” says Fort Riley’s energy manager Michael Kerr. “These are detailed contracts, they are complex, and we need to be very thorough in order to protect the government. The Army Corps provided that level of technical expertise.” In fact, experts at the Army’s Engineering and

Support Center in Huntsville, Ala., assist with a wide range of sustainability initiatives, helping the Army to implement renewable energy, as well as to save on energy use and bolster the resiliency of its installations.

SUPPORTING THE ARMY The Army has approximately 170 renewable energy projects on installations including parking lots covered in photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. “Army’s congressionally mandated goal is to be using 25 percent renewable energy by 2025, and we try to provide the tools to help them implement projects to meet those goals,” says CONTI NUED

JOHN PRETTYMAN/U.S. ARMY

Army Corps resource efficiency managers utilize the latest in renewable technologies, like this wind turbine at Tooele Army Depot in Utah, to increase energy efficiency and resiliency at Army installations worldwide.

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CLEAN ENERGY

“It’s hard to underestimate the importance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ support for renewables.” — DANIEL LEVINE, director, Avant-Guide Institute

USACE

Workers install the 8.5 megawatt-per-hour battery system at Fort Carson in Colorado. The Engineering and Support Center’s Energy Savings Performance Contracting program coordinated the project, which is designed to reduce peak electricity costs, especially during the summer.

Engineering and Support Center energy division chief Jonathan Winkler. These projects aim to reduce the carbon footprint and pare back the overall energy bill. They also support the Army’s ability to continue meeting its missions even in the face of changing circumstances. “If an installation is obtaining a hundred percent of their electricity from a local utility provider, and that utility provider goes down, that impacts the mission,” Winkler says. “Historically, the approach has been to put generators in all over the place, but that takes eons, and then you can have logistics issues. Can you even acquire the fuel to run the generators?” Wind turbines and solar systems

help ensure installations can remain operational. “Renewable energy, when placed on-site particularly, creates energy independence for a facility, which can be particularly important for a military installation,” says Tony Abbott, professor of environmental science and studies at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. The less dependent a military installation is on fuel-supply lines, “the more resilient it is to extreme disruption.” The Corps has a number of tools on hand to help bring such projects to fruition in support of the Army’s facilities needs, including energy savings performance contracts and utility energy services contracts. With these and other vehicles, the Corps can generate third-

party funding for energy-saving projects: Vendors pay the upfront cost of the upgrades, and the Army pays it back over time through regular utility payments. “In that way, there is a net-zero cost to the government on those types of contracts,” Winkler says.

GREEN AMBITIONS Experts across a range of disciplines say the Corps’ support for renewable projects and energy efficiency is key to driving the Army’s green ambitions, and can help raise the overall awareness around sustainable energy. “(The) Corps investment in renewables stimulates innovation in the sector,” Abbott says. That matters for the military’s long-term strategic security. “While fuel

may be cheap and plentiful now, history shows that shortages are inevitable, often when least convenient.” Moreover, as the Army embraces renewable solutions, it moves the needle in the overall energy marketplace. “From a trends perspective, the military’s embrace of renewables enshrines those technologies as key to the future of energy. It means they are widely accepted by the public and politicians and is proof positive that the tipping point has tipped to the point of no return,” says Daniel Levine, director of the Avant-Guide Institute, a trends consultancy. “The American military has a long CONTINUED

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CLEAN ENERGY history as a trends leader and are often behind the invention of new products and materials,” Levine says. To the degree that it helps advance that agenda in the Army, “It’s hard to underestimate the importance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ support for renewables.” Energy sector executives also point to the Corps’ unique expertise in supporting such efforts. “Given the large number and wide range of existing and proposed environmental projects the Corps leads, they will certainly be able to use their experience to effect new renewable energy projects,” says Shane Long, director of engineering for power and thermal management solutions provider Delta Electronics. “Evaluation of environmental impacts and benefits of project alternatives are recognized as a standard part of the Corps’ practice,” Long says. “Since these projects will be long-term and ongoing, the Corps’ involvement will provide momentum for the growth of renewable energy.”

SPECIALIZED SKILLS

STEVE ELSTROM/U.S. ARMY

Dan Troyer, Fort Riley project manager for Southland Energy, inspects the control panel for the radiant heating system in a unit maintenance facility. The centrally controlled heating system is a conservation measure completed during recent upgrades.

At Fort Riley, that expertise helped to deliver a range of energy-saving upgrades during a recent round of renovations. Some buildings at the base date back more than 130 years. For this phase of upgrades, engineers looked at any system older than 15 years. In those buildings they put in place various enhancements, including new HVAC controls, LED lights and modernized aerators meant to throttle the flow of water from faucets. The Corps’ skill set helped make all that possible. “They work with many installations across the Army, so they have people who can be a little more precise in how they approach these things,” Kerr says. In those specialized cases, the Corps can recommend products and programs for military installations and can assist at various stages of design, such as feasibility studies, cost estimating and contractual details. With a renewed emphasis on green energy at the highest levels of government, there are widespread expectations that more such projects will soon be undertaken. Winkler says the Corps will be ready to meet the need. “I think the workload is likely to go through the roof,” he predicts. “But we have used the last couple of years to refine our processes, to become more efficient. Right now, we are a well-oiled machine.”

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CAREERS & EDUCATION 70

UNIQUE JOBS

Corps offers a wide variety of career options

FOCUS ON STEM

Partnering with universities creates win-win

FUTURE ENGINEERS

Early outreach helps develop the next generation

OFFICE WITH A VIEW Don Davis works for the Engineer Research and Development Center’s Geospatial Research Laboratory and spends much of his time in the ﬁeld.

USACE

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CAREERS & EDUCATION

You Do What? A look at several interesting Corps jobs amount of chemicals to remove sediment, repairing any systems that break HETHER IT’S PROVIDING in the process and ensuring adequate CLEAN drinking water to production. the residents of WashTravis Turnage, a water treatment ington, D.C., developing operator who has worked third shift an app to improve the for the last couple years, says he loves nation’s flood and hurricane response the responsibility and variety that the or traversing the jungles of Colombia for overnight shift brings. “You just don’t data, many of the tasks carried out by the think that there are people working in Corps’ 32,000 employees each day are the middle of the night at a plant that distinct and interesting. Here are three is working 24 hours a day to make sure places where Corps staffers are making what is coming out of your tap is safe.” their mark: The Washington Aqueduct draws water from the Potomac River at two points SUPPORTING LIFE IN THE northwest of downtown Washington — NATION’S CAPITAL Great Falls and Little Falls — and screens As most of Washington, D.C., sleeps, and treats it. After it is disinfected the third shift at the Washington Aqueand tested for purity, the water goes duct, managed by the Corps’ Baltimore to customers in Washington as well as District, ensures there is enough clean Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties. water to meet the morning Both Bermudez and demand. Turnage say they chose With a skeleton crew “I love being able third shift for the challenge that usually includes of running a large facility to … give people four workers, the 10 p.m. with just a handful of coto 6 a.m. shift bears an workers and for a schedule fresh water, the enormous responsibility, that gives them plenty of maintaining and monitortime with their families. source of human ing a system that delivers Turnage said he often life. It affects 135 million gallons gets home in time to take of water each day to children to school and everybody and be- his residents and businesses then sleeps until they in the District of Columbia ing able to be part return; Bermudez says his and northern Virginia. schedule allows him to of that process is “In the morning when help with his kids’ homeyou wake up, you can be work and attend sporting amazing to me.” sure you are going to have events in the afternoons — TRAVIS TURNAGE, the best water possible and early evenings. water treatment operator, and that it’s safe,” says Eli They both say they Washington Aqueduct relish their jobs as public Bermudez, a chemist and senior water treatment servants. operator at the aqueduct. “I love being able to … “But we also contribute to national give people fresh water, the source of security — we have the water for the human life. It affects everybody and Pentagon, for the FBI, the CIA, (Departbeing able to be part of that process is ment of) Homeland Security, all the big amazing to me,” Turnage says. buildings in Washington.” THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT While the other shifts have a full cadre To geospatial professionals, the of maintenance personnel, engineers, idea that anyone was still using paper water and reservoir monitoring workers, or digital databases that could not be third shift does these tasks themselves, walking the facility to monitor the water and filtration systems, adding the correct CONTINUED By Patricia Kime

CHRISTOPHER FINCHAM

Travis Turnage tests a water sample at the Washington Aqueduct.

CHRISTOPHER FINCHAM

Senior water treatment operator Eli Bermudez reviews data at the aqueduct.

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CAREERS & EDUCATION

USACE

Engineer Research and Development Center physical scientist and cartographer Don Davis uses GPS on a mapping expedition of George Washington National Forest.

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CAREERS & EDUCATION

“We now are seeing the value of geospatial technologies and having these visual interactive tools to represent information on a map.” USACE

Julie Vicars helped develop an app for sharing data collected during the exploration of sites for COVID-19 alternative health care facilities.

accessed by government partners like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which works closely with the Corps during natural and human-made disasters, made no sense. Several years ago, Julie Vicars helped upgrade the Vicksburg (Miss.) District’s technology through the development of an electronic portal that gave 1,100 Corps employees the ability to input, store and access mass amounts of data on floods, hurricane response and water management. “We now are seeing the value of geospatial technologies and having these visual interactive tools to represent information on a map,” says Vicars, who trained as a cartographer. Following development of the portal in the Vicksburg District, Vicars was called on to build an app to support four of the Corps’ public works and engineering emergency support function (ESF#3) missions, including temporary housing, debris and infrastructure assessment. Before development of the app, Corps personnel were making most of their post-disaster assessments — such as where to place temporary housing, the condition of services, infrastructure and the landscape — on paper. Now,

— JULIE VICARS, Corps cartographer

armed with a smartphone or tablet, inspectors can enter their assessments into a database which can be seen by Corps professionals across the country. “The Corps had been using this technology at the district level for the last five to seven years … but ESF#3 just never had been converted over,” says Vicars, who spent nearly 10 years in the private sector working in civil engineering, where she created digital flood insurance maps. As a contractor for FEMA, she completed maps for much of Louisiana; after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she remapped much of the southern portion of the state. “When I decided to leave the private sector and kind of expand my horizons with federal service, it was a very easy transition to move to the Corps of Engineers,” she says. The pandemic provided Vicars with another opportunity to shine: Appointed to a national geospatial task force for COVID-19, she was given the assignment of producing and executing apps to support response — primarily keeping track of structures that could be converted into alternate care facilities in the event that local hospitals USACE

CONTINU ED

Vicars addresses a 2019 civil military emergency preparedness workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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CAREERS & EDUCATION

USACE

ERDC geographer Richard Curran mounts a mobile lidar sensor on top of a vehicle during a data collection exercise in Indiana.

were overwhelmed. Vicars created the app in six hours, and it launched the next day to thousands of users. Vicars worked to ensure that all the end users received support and guidance for the app — a task she performed while battling her own case of COVID-19. “It was a very tiring, exhausting few weeks. But it worked out in the end. And it was well worth it,” she says.

BUILDING A 3D BATTLEFIELD The Corps is often in the news for its role in civil works and military construction, making it easy to forget that its employees are also dedicated to supporting Army combat soldiers. At the Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geospatial Research Laboratory at Fort Belvoir, Va., physical scientist Don Davis, geographer Richard Curran and cartographer Chris Gard are using all the tools available to improve soldiers’ battlefield awareness by mapping and modeling urban environments where troops may be called to duty. Using GPS, light detection and ranging (lidar) instruments and cameras, the trio is building 3D maps and models that show not only the exteriors of buildings but the interiors and the subterranean features. “Looking at a map on Google Earth, you have the x and y (axes), you have latitude and longitude, and you have elevation. If you look at a top of a build-

ing, you have that rooftop, but there’s also ceilings and floors, and tables and chairs and doors and windows. How do you represent that environment in a usable way for our war fighters?” Curran says. The trio’s work has taken them to the jungles of Colombia and to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. They have scanned the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, lugging their heavy equipment up a 120-foot ladder for a birds-eye view. They have partnered with municipalities to map unoccupied urban places, always tweaking their systems and using the latest commercially available technology and sensors to build more detailed digital models and maps. The team spends a great deal of time generating reports used by other Army researchers and industry partners to build and adapt technology prototypes and sensors. In 2017, Davis and Gard were recognized for using technologies such as terrestrial and handheld mobile scanners to ensure that GPS surveying is accurate. “Our research projects are made up of multiple tasks and teams that are addressing those tasks. Don and I are on a building mapping and modeling task that’s part of a larger project effort,” Curran says. “What is interesting working at this organization is that we have colleagues who work with other labs that have applications to the same technology.”

“If you look at a top of a building, you have that rooftop, but there’s also ceilings and floors, and tables and chairs and doors and windows. How do you represent that environment in a usable way for our war fighters?” — RICHARD CURRAN, ERDC geographer

USACE

Don Davis uses a terrestrial lidar instrument on a mapping expedition.

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Relationship Building University partnerships beneﬁt students and the Corps

USACE BALTIMORE DISTRICT

Civil engineer Fontaine Jones of the Corps’ Baltimore District works with students during a Career Connections program in 2014.

By Robin Roenker

ORY WILLIAMS MAKES IT a point to be a fixture at college job fairs, where he can talk to students about careers in engineering — particularly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Williams, chief of the geotechnical engineering branch in the Corps’ Memphis District, says his visits help build

relationships with college and university STEM programs, where students are often unaware of potential careers with the Corps. “Our goal is to hire highly qualified civilians from diverse backgrounds,” says Williams. “The better we can get at relationship building with universities and professors, the better chances we have of getting really high-quality students to hire.”

NATURAL PARTNERS Like Williams, many members of the Memphis District have fostered collaborations with engineering programs at the University of Memphis and Memphisbased Christian Brothers University (CBU), in particular. Corps members have assisted CBU in its development of a new Surface Water Institute, which provides hands-on hydraulics and water resources training

for its students. They also have provided technical assistance on groundwater research projects with the University of Memphis’ Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER), among other projects, says David Berretta, a retired Corps member now working as a civil engineer with the Memphis District. “Our relationships with the local universities are solid,” adds Berretta, who

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USACE MEMPHIS DISTRICT

Cory Williams visits with students at Christian Brothers University in 2019 to discuss career opportunities with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

has taught water resources courses for the University of Memphis in the past. “We get along great together.”

RECRUITING DIVERSITY Across the country, Corps districts are working to build new and stronger partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other educational institutions that serve a diverse student body.

“We take diversity, equality and inclusiveness seriously,” says Col. Zachary Miller, commander and district engineer of the Memphis District, which plans to increase its recruiting efforts at HBCUs in Tennessee and Mississippi in the coming months. “Diverse and inclusive organizations are more effective organizations,” Miller says. “When you bring diverse thinking styles and backgrounds and viewpoints

together, it has a positive impact on the solutions and the innovation of whatever you deliver.” In Baltimore, civil engineer Fontaine Jones is involved in outreach at her alma mater, Morgan State University, the largest HBCU in Maryland. She also frequently leads presentations about the Corps and its mission at Johns Hopkins CONTI NUED

“Once you help people understand what it is that we do, you can see it spark the interest on their end.” — APRIL FALCON-VILLA, deputy chief, geotechnical branch, New Orleans District

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STUDYING NATURAL INFRASTRUCTURE In late 2020, the Army Corps announced a partnership with the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems to form the Network for Engineering with Nature (N-EWN). The goal of the collaboration is to accelerate the use of natural infrastructure in public and private sectors. Application of “natural infrastructure” might include reconnecting rivers with their floodplains to reduce flooding downstream or protecting reefs, mangrove forests or natural marshes to work as “speed bumps and shock absorbers to reduce

the impact of storms,” says Brian Bledsoe, a professor in UGA’s College of Engineering who specializes in resilient infrastructure. Recently, UGA students and faculty have been involved in projects at Tybee Island, Ga., to create a “living shoreline” rich with oyster reefs and salt marshes, which can help prevent shore erosion. While the Engineering with Nature initiative began in 2010, the recent launch of N-EWN will establish a formalized headquarters at UGA for groups interested in “leveraging natural systems

and processes as a more intentional part of our infrastructure development,” says Todd Bridges, national lead for the Engineering with Nature initiative and a senior research scientist for environmental science based at the Corps’ Vicksburg (Miss.) District. While based at UGA, N-EWN also incorporates the Corps’ collaborations with the University of Florida, the University of Oklahoma, Arizona State University and others, Bridges says. Through these partnerships, N-EWN will support research,

education and on-the-ground project applications to encourage the development of new engineering standards that incorporate innovative, natural and sustainable systems into their design. “There is such enthusiastic passion among students to find ways to reconcile traditional means of building infrastructure and (concepts behind) engineering with nature,” Bridges says. “It’s very heartening from my vantage point, when I come in contact with these students and their faculty at universities across the country.”

HOLLY KUZMITSKI

Researchers from the Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory monitor conditions at a 12-acre marsh on Drake Wilson Island off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, where dredged sediment has improved habitats for a variety of species.

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“Our goal is to hire highly qualified civilians from diverse backgrounds. The better we can get at relationship building with universities and professors, the better chances we have of getting really high-quality students to hire.” — CORY WILLIAMS, chief of geotechnical engineering, Memphis District

ENGINEER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Todd Bridges, national lead of the Engineering with Nature initiative, lectures to University of Georgia students in 2019. The initiative, based at the school, also includes Corps partnerships with several other universities.

University’s STEM summer camps, which attract high school students from diverse backgrounds. Jones found her calling in engineering through the recommendation of her high school counselor, and she hopes to help pay that forward by encouraging students, particularly girls, to consider engineering as a profession. Through her career in the Corps, Jones’ engineering skills have taken her around the world, working on projects in Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Kenya, Tanzania and more. She sees her volunteerism at Morgan State, Johns Hopkins and Baltimore elementary schools — where she often leads toothpick and marshmallow bridge-building exercises — as a way to help open young students’ eyes to the rich array of engineering opportunities

within the Corps. When talking to university students, in particular, Jones emphasizes the Corps’ internship and recent graduate program opportunities, which she says helped jump-start her career. “You get to rotate for two to three years among the different USACE departments, and I even had the opportunity to go overseas,” she says. “It is an excellent program, which I recommend to a lot of young people.”

DISPELLING MISCONCEPTIONS April Falcon-Villa, deputy chief of the geotechnical branch in the New Orleans District, has found success recruiting at HBCUs and national conferences of Black and Hispanic engineers. Falcon-Villa has primarily recruited at colleges in the New Orleans region,

but in the past several years, she has widened the circle to include HBCUs in other areas of the country. The effort is paying off. “We have found very talented candidates from this outreach that we would not have normally been privy to,” she says. “We recently hired some candidates from colleges like Spelman and Jackson State University who have hit the ground running with their contributions. I am very proud of the diverse group that we have working in our branch.” Part of opening students’ eyes to potential careers is dispelling misconceptions many of them have about what it means to be part of the Corps. “A lot of folks are very surprised to learn that I am not in the military,” Falcon-Villa says. She relishes opportunities

to speak to university students about the Corps’ mission and diverse civilian engineering opportunities — including flood-risk reduction projects along Lake Pontchartrain, which the New Orleans District is tackling now. “Once you help people understand what it is that we do, you can see it spark the interest on their end,” she says. Williams agrees. Staffing booths at college job fairs, he says, allows him to have one-on-one conversations with students about what the Corps is and what it does — and affords the opportunity to correct many students’ misconception that you must enlist in the Army to be part of it. Williams says he enjoys the chance to “plant the seed that the Corps is a really good place to work.”

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JENNIFER MOORE

Volunteers from the Far East District Korea Program Relocation Office and the Construction Surveillance Resident Office engage with students during a 2019 STEM event at Humphreys Central Elementary School in South Korea.

Courting Future Engineers From STEM outreach to internships, the Corps focuses on the next generation

By Adam Hadhazy

HE U.S. ARMY CORPS of Engineers has been

developing and training engineers since its founding in 1802. Through its ongoing STEM education outreach to young people, the Corps carries on this tradition by inspiring the next generation of problem-solvers. These efforts start in kindergarten and progress through collegiate-level internships, inculcating the approaches, skills and can-do attitude of professional engineers. One significant prong of the Corps-wide STEM efforts CONTINUED

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CAREERS & EDUCATION is the partnership formed in 2013 with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). DoDEA is a federally operated, K-12 system that educates the dependents of military and civilian DOD personnel, which encompasses close to 70,000 children in nine U.S. states and territories and 11 foreign countries.

HELPING HANDS

U.S. ARMY

Robert Ayoub was a fire protection engineering intern with the Transatlantic Middle East District. As part of his internship, he traveled to Fort Wainwright in Alaska to inspect a high expansion foam discharge system.

In South Korea, members of the Corps’ Far East District, based at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, collaborate with faculty and staff at Humphreys Central Elementary School. The partnership culminates annually with an event in May, during which nearly every student rotates through stations focused on various STEM disciplines. “It’s a great experience working with the kids, seeing their eyes light up and the wheels turning in their heads,” says Dennis Headrick, STEM coordinator for the Far East District. “The kids get so excited about these topics, and for our STEM volunteers, that sort of positive feedback makes them feel awesome about engaging.” Hands-on activities have included the classic egg drop experiment, where students construct protective structures to prevent eggs from cracking, as well as fashioning rubber band-powered helicopters, connecting electrical circuits and building bridges with craft sticks. Headrick notes that bridge building is a particularly popular activity. The students increase the bridge load gradually — for instance, by adding stones — “until they fundamentally understand what the breaking point would be,” he says. “It’s surprising to them once they find it. They want to see (the bridge) just last forever.” Another popular activity has kids design their very own dream houses. Headrick says that practical matters, such as remembering to include bathrooms, often have to be pointed out, and that walking children through this process exposes them to the comprehensive design process that engineers must follow. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 event to be held virtually, but it was still a success. More than 300 children attended digitally, watching a mix of prerecorded experiments and live demonstrations. Students were encouraged to perform some experiments at home, and an “ask the engineer” Q&A session included Corps members and CONTINUED

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ANTWUAN PARRISH/USACE

Far East District operations officer Capt. Heathra King leads a student through an experiment during a 2019 STEM event at Humphreys Central Elementary School in South Korea.

volunteers from the 11th Engineer Battalion based at Camp Humphreys. The 2021 event is expected to include some live activities, but with social distancing and personal protection protocols in place. “It will be a different dynamic, with the kids not learning from home as they were last year,” says Headrick. “We’re excited for even more engagement this year.”

ENGAGING OLDER STUDENTS The Far East District has recently expanded its outreach to Humphreys High School. Engineers are volunteering weekly to assist with the school’s STEM club activities. Stateside, the Virginia-based Middle East District — a subordinate element of the Transatlantic Division that has a presence in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman — seeks to connect students with the Corps through a high school internship program that focuses on STEM fields. Garrison Myer, a civil engineer and the Transatlantic Middle East District’s (TAM) high school intern program coordinator, says TAM has developed strong relationships with the school districts around Winchester, Va., and

FAR EAST DISTRICT/USACE

Due to COVID-19, the Far East District’s 2020 STEM event was held virtually, with more than 300 Humphreys Central Elementary School students attending online.

school coordinators are submitting résumés and statements of interest from eager students. “These students are so sharp and driven it can almost be intimidating working with them,” says Myer. “It’s great to be able to meet with them,

answer their questions and spark their interest in the Army Corps of Engineers.” The internship program is unpaid, but it can lead to job opportunities within the Corps. “We can hire these really stellar up-and-coming individu-

als who love and know our work,” Myer says. Within three weeks of starting as a fire protection engineering intern at TAM in summer 2019, Robert Ayoub had the opportunity to travel with Corps engineers to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, to inspect an aircraft hangar’s high expansion foam discharge system, and then to another mission in Puerto Rico. “My internship has helped me immensely in my education and career training,” says Ayoub, a 2021 graduation candidate from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Fire Protection Engineering. “I have been able to gain so much knowledge from all of the engineers, from all disciplines I have worked with.” Courting, supporting and encouraging future engineers at every level is a vital element of the Corps’ mission to provide public engineering services in peace and war, strengthen the nation’s security, energize the economy and reduce risks from disasters. “It’s invigorating, wonderful, and most of all hopeful,” says Myer. “Most teenagers — and a lot of adults — don’t know what we do and how simply awesome and diverse our mission is.”

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