President’s Column

By Susan Gardner

The Section has formed a "pilot relationship" with ASCE National. Typically, an R.H. Thomson Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually. No award was made this year upon the recommendation of the Treasurer because it was felt that the year's earnings couldn't sustain the award. At the fund's inception, a conservative investment approach had been mandated. The RHT Committee looked at strategies used at universities for their scholarships and discovered that National used a similar strategy to maximize return on its Honors and Awards endowments. With Larry Wade's assistance, we were able to co-mingle the RH Thomson funds with the National fund, while still having access to and final control over the principal and its earnings (or losses). (Additions to the principal must be in increments of $5,000 so when we renew our fundraising efforts, that will be a minimum goal!) Other sections would like to form such a partnership, so we are the test case.

Congratulations to the two committees who submitted applications for National's State Public Affairs Grant. The Section was awarded a grant to the fullest extent possible. The Board voted to split the grant request between the Lifeline-and Earthquake Engineering Committee's efforts to inform and educate others about lessons learned by The Taiwan Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (formed in cooperation with the City of Seattle and the University of Washington) and a proposed field trip to Columbia River dams sponsored by the Water Resources Committee. In conjunction with this grant, an additional merit award was received. Contact these committees for further information on these or other activities.

Tom McDonald and Branch representatives attended a Strategic Plan meeting conducted by National. Elsewhere in this issue you will find a synopsis by Tom. It is important to provide prompt feedback once the Plan is available for comment. As Tom says, past ideas that seemed far-fetched have become reality. We need to be a part of the process.

Finally, some opportunities for Section members to participate on the National front--Education Committees have opened up nominations for the following:

• Committee on Technology Curricula & Accreditation: Zone IV member (that's us) with experience as TAC/ABET evaluators.
• Committee on Curricula & Accreditation: practitioner from Zone IV with experience as EAC/ABET evaluators.
• Committee on Student Activities: Practitioner from Zone IV with experience as advisors to Student Chapters/Clubs.
• Committee on Career Guidance: Members from all zones with a demonstrated interest in career guidance.
• Let me know if you are interested in any of these committees.

By Tom McDonald, David Evans and Associates, Inc.

The purpose of the Strategic Planning meeting held in San Antonio, Texas, on January 22, was to include section input into the planning process. Section representatives were organized at tables with other sections mixed throughout the country so that ideas from different sections were shared. The day's focus was on five primary items: Vision, Assumptions about the future, Mega issues, Goals, and Objectives. All the input from this meeting will be available on the ASCE homepage, and will be written about in upcoming ASCE News. I have included a brief overview of the meeting highlights in the following paragraphs.

The current vision statement "Engineers Building a Better Quality of Life" was not the preferred vision statement of the group. In essence, it is dull, and boring. "Making Dreams come True" was one of many suggested that had a very positive response from the participants. Discussion ensued and recommendations for changing the existing one was forwarded to the committee. The word "building" was a hot button that inferred only to construction, and did not include the other aspects of engineering.

Assumptions about the future was a great lively discussion. Some of the ideas were way out there, but if you look at what has happened in the last ten years, they become very real. The five major items talked about were:

• Demographics and Social Values - lifestyles, family balance, work ethics, and the aging population.
• Science and Technology - Advancements, new breakthroughs, innovations - (See IBM's article the other week about moving information at the atomic level)
• Business and Economic Climate - This can go up or down, and what kind of small or large engineering companies will be emerging, Global Vs local
• Legislation and Regulation - Codes, Standards, can these limit the innovation of engineering, increasing regulation increases the cost of production
• The profession - Technology, information, knowledge and economics will continue to be the primary drivers of the industry

Mega Issues - These primary are the overriding issues of strategic importance, which cut across multiple goal or outcome area. These include membership, industry, marketplace, global, relevance, resources and organizational partnerships.

By Felix Kristanovich, PE., Ph.D

The feature speaker is Matthew Davis, an Associate Engineer with Brown and Caldwell. In addition of being a successful watershed and hydraulic modeler, he has helped the wastewater community respond to public concerns about the impact of endocrine disruptors from planned wastewater facilities.

By Felix Kristanovich, PE., Ph. D

The Seattle Section was awarded by the National Section approximately 50% of the funds to cover the expenses of the spring field trip. The field trip will occur one Saturday in the second part of this April. The trip will consist of a day field visit to several Columbia River Dams and will illustrate successes and failures of various fish passage facilities, as well as historical perspective of each unique design.

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Panel: Ron Sims, Bob Drewel, and Doug Sutherland

By Timothy Lowry (ASCE Management In Engineering Committee & American Society for Engineering Management)

The first joint meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and ASEM was very successful due to our distinguished panel of speakers. These speakers were King County Executive Ron Sims, Pierce County Executive Doug Sutherland, and Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel. The three Amigos, as they called themselves, discussed why they formed the Tri-County effort to respond to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing of Chinook salmon in the Puget Sound area. They also discussed the need to determine and deal with the impacts of the ESA listing, what they are doing now, and other possible listings. Water distribution was also discussed followed by questions from the attendees.

Bob opened the panel discussion by saying that salmon don’t recognize jurisdictional boundaries. Fish behave regionally and, therefore, so must we if we hope to preserve and restore salmon and other listed species. This is why the three county executives formed the Tri-County effort. Bob stated, "For centuries, salmon have played a pivotal role in the ecosystem, history, culture, and economy of the Puget Sound region. The stakes are high. Extinction is forever."

When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) first announced they were considering listing Puget Sound Chinook two years ago, public, private, and tribal leaders in the region responded. Collectively, they realized they could spend their time fighting the listing through the courts, as others have in other parts of the country without success, or put their resources and energies into saving salmon. Habitat preservation is critical but the other 3 Hs (hatcheries, hydropower, and fish harvest) are also important. The Tri-County executives are relying on the Federal and State agencies to attend to these issues.

Currently, they are negotiating a 4(d) rule with NMFS and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Under the ESA, a 4(d) rule basically says what actions (storm water management, road maintenance, and habitat acquisition and restoration) are parts of an overall program of recovering a threatened species and allows them to continue consistent with that recovery plan. Tri-County hopes to complete negotiations in the next two months so the draft rule can be published in the Federal Register in April. NMFS hopes to publish the Final Rule in June after public comments and final negotiations.

Bull Trout were also listed as a threatened specie on December 1, 1999. Tri-County plans to negotiate basically the same provisions with the USFWS. The listing of Chinook salmon as a threatened species was the largest listing in a metropolitan area in the United States. Many people have tried to fight such a listing with no success. Doug said one of the first things the Tri-County Executives did was to hold a meeting with a lot of people that have some experience with threatened species listings. It was clear after talking to these people that the best decision was to work with NMFS to develop a good habitat plan for the threatened species and a 4(d) rule. The Service Agencies were pleased with the Tri-County decision. What the Tri-County effort does will set the bar.

Ron said the Tri-County effort convinced NMFS that we can’t do everything immediately but are committed to meeting all their requirements. Once the 4(d) rule is finalized any violation is subject to a third party lawsuit. If found guilty, the County could be prohibited from issuing building permits.

Salmon should not be looked at separately. Salmon is an indicator of water quality but amphibians are also an indicator of water quality and air quality. There are potentially 11 more species that can be listed as threatened. The executives indicated that they will need to address all of these issues if we want to control our own destiny. Water distribution was not considered by NMFS but is also very important and will need to be addressed in the future. The executives hope to have a plan from the water purveyors on how to resolve the water distribution problem. However, fish need to come first.

In response to a question from the audience, Ron said the Tri-County effort investigated the ocean and harvest impacts. Based on the information they had, harvesting was not shown to be a problem. The ocean impacts are harder to determine because they are cyclical in nature. However, habitat preservation must be preserved.

One person asked what private citizens could do on their property to protect and enhance habitat. Ron mentioned that few people actually contact the County about this. If contacted, the County would try to help them. The Counties are currently working on a Habitat Plan for all the major watersheds in the Tri-County area that will identify some of these needs and decide which are most important to address first.

Another member asked about whether the Tri-County effort has brought any Federal or State money into this area. They responded by saying that little has occurred yet. However, Federal funds are starting to be funneled through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for habitat acquisition and restoration projects in the Tri-County area. The State has currently contributed some funding through some small habitat restoration programs.

We offer our sincere appreciation to our speakers. Wouldn’t it be ironic that, when we save the salmon, we really save ourselves?