13JJUS Army Corpsof Engineers,

Vol. 25 * No. 2 * February 2001

Chief affirms engineerimportance; createswage-grade champion

In the short time I've been the Chiefof Engineers, you have told me somethings that are important to you, thingsthat keep you in the U.S. Army Corpsof Engineers. First and foremost, youwant to make a difference. Next, youwant to be proud of your organizationand what it stands for. And you wantopportunities to grow in competenceand as a person.

I've made some recent decisions,and put some changes in action, in re-sponse to what I've heard you say.These decisions are important to yourfuture and to the future of the Corps asan organization. Collectively, these de-cisions are driving our "refreshed"Vision document and the USACECampaign Plan that you will put intopractice on March 30.

As we roll out these plans andchanges, you will note the high value Iplace on three things - teamwork and Lt. Gen. Robeeffective project management, techni- Captain of Sical excellence, and investing in people. by Donna ShThese early decisions relate to engi-neering and construction, and to the wage-grade em-ployees of our Corps.

The Corps' Strategic Vision is to be the "World's Pre-mier Public Engineering Organization." To attain ourVision, we must be absolutely grounded in world-classengineering and construction capability. But I couldn'tsay that to you with a straight face when my Engineer-ing and Construction (E&C) Division is located in theKingman Building at Fort Belvoir, Va. That's about 20miles from the rest of Corps Headquarters at 441 G Streetin Washington, D.C.

So I decided to change that. E&C will soon relocatelock, stock, and barrel to Corps Headquarters. On Jan.4, I visited the E&C Division to discuss this changewith them. I know it's a hassle for the 60 E&C folks,who moved there just a few months ago, to move againso soon. But as I told them, the pendulum has swung toofar toward project management and away from engineer-ing, and needs to swing back toward a more balancedposition. I asked them to trust me on this decision, forit's the right thing to do for the organization.

Please don't misunderstand - I am no less dedicatedto project management. The project management busi-ness process is the standard business process of the Corpsof Engineers, and will remain so. But this move is thefirst of several strategic actions we will take during mytenure as Chief of Engineers to elevate the importanceof the engineering community in the Corps.

Now I'd like to turn from the engineers for a momentto the Corps' wage-grade employees. You are a lot likethe infantry and other combat arms of the Army. Thevast network of wage-grade employees do much of the

,rt Flowers, Chief of Engineers, talks to Ernie Carlson,an Francisco District's debris boat Raccoon. (Photoepard, San Francisco District)

real work of the Corps of Engineers. You operate ourlocks, dams, vessels, boatyards, and recreation sites.You are often the only impression the public has of theCorps and of our Army.

You present an excellent image, and many of you re-ceive top-flight support from your supervisors and or-ganized labor groups. But, unlike many of the Corps'professionals, you do not have a peer champion in CorpsHeadquarters to look after your welfare. I've decided tofix that by assigning a new role to the USACE commandsergeant major, the role of wage-grade employee cham-pion.

Command sergeants major perform an important lead-ership role in the Army. They represent the interests ofenlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers directlywith the commander. When Command Sgt. Maj. Rob-ert M. Dils reports for duty in February, I will task himto work closely with the wage-grade employees to un-derstand your needs and aspirations, and to support youunder my direct authority.

In the future there will be other situations, in otherfields and functions, that demand I place a "mark on thewall" to demonstrate how much the Corps' future rideson having good people, motivated to do the right thingsvery well. These changes, and the ones we will make inthe future, will fine-tune our organization so that youcan continue to excel.

Essayonsl

ROBERT B. FLOWERSLieutenant General, USACommanding

10 Years AgoCorps had

major role inGulf War

(Editor's note: Ten years ago this month, alliedforces invaded Iraq and Kuwait, the final act of adrama which had occupied the world's attention eversince Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1999. In about100 hours, the U.S. and its allies decimated one oftheworld's most powerful armed forces, endingSaddamHussein 's bid to become a regional superpower andcontrol the Middle East oil supply.

Many Corps people, military and civilian, servedin the Persian GulfduringDesert Shield and DesertStorm. Many others supported their efforts State-side. This article chronicles the Corps'involvementin the Gulf War.)

The Persian Gulf War began with Iraq's invasionof Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990. Iraq's leader, SaddamHussein, ordered the invasion and occupation of Ku-wait with the apparent aim of acquiring that nation'slarge oil reserves. On the same day, the Middle East/Africa Projects Office (MEAPO) and South AtlanticDivision (SAD) activated their emergency operationscenters.

Aug. 3- The United Nations (U.N.) SecurityCouncil called for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.

Aug. 6- The council imposed a worldwide banon trade with Iraq.

Aug. 8-Hussein formally annexed Kuwait as aprovince of Iraq.

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the potential threatit posed to Saudi Arabia prompted the U.S. and itsWestern European North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion (NATO) allies to rush troops to Saudi Arabia todeter apossible attack. Egypt and several other Arabnations joined the anti-Iraq coalition and contributedforces to the military buildup, known as OperationDesert Shield.

Hussein built up his occupying army in Kuwait toabout 300,000 troops. Units of the 8 2

"d AirborneDivision were the first to take up defensive positionsin Saudi Arabia against possible attack from Iraqitroops massed on the border.

Aug. 10-Headquarters of the U.S. Army Corpsof Engineers activated its crisis management team.

Aug. 18 - The first Corps civilian, MEAPO'sBen Wood, deployed to Saudi Arabia. He was thefirst civilian engineer on the ground.

Aug. 14-Lt. Col. Charles Cox, MEAPO DeputyCommander, and four Corps civilian team membersdeployed to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, to establish aCorps forward operating element to support U.S.forces in the Persian Gulf.

Aug 17- The Dhahran Area Office (DAO) openedin support of the U.S. Army Forces Central Com-mand. The MEAPO Personnel Office established afamily assistance program to help the families of de-ployed employees cope with the departure of theirloved ones.

Continued on page eight

2 ENGINEER UPDATE February2001

Insights

'Looking for love inall the wrong places'

By Col. Lowell MooreChaplain, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers

While visiting Northwest Division not long ago, Ipicked up a local newspaper on my way to a restaurantwhere I planned to enjoy my breakfast and see how myfavorite football team did the preceding weekend.

I was sorely disappointed by my team, so I turned de-jectedly to the front page to see if there was anythinghappening in the world that might warm my heart andmake my lukewarm coffee taste a little better than Drano.What was on the front page was even more depressingthan the shameful scores in the sports section.

So I wandered aimlessly through the paper looking forsomething that might help me forget the bad news on thefront page, the abominable scores in the sports section,and the fact that my coffee is now ice-cold.

Then I found it - the personal ads! There were pagesof them! One read:

"Elizabeth Taylor look-alike (43) with a passion forlife in quest ofa man (35-45) who is confident, emotion-ally and financially secure. Respond, xxx-xxxx. "

Another one read:"I don't lie. Honest, funny, attractive, sensitive, car-

ing, male 42, willing to take care ofyou in LTR/mar-riage. Just call, xxx-xxxx. "

And there were hundreds more.

Commentary

At first I was amused by these strange, fiunny ads. Someactually made me laugh even more than the comic sec-tion. But as I continued to read, the humor gave way to avery sobering thought. I was laughing at what was prob-ably some very lonely, hurting peoples' effort to find love.The more I thought about it, the more I realized thatthese personal ads were actually more depressing thanthe headlines and the scores on the sports page. Herewere pages and pages of people who were looking forlove, but looking in the wrong place.

As I continued to read, the ads began to speak to meand Igot two clear messages. First, there is a deep hungerin our world for love and acceptance. And second, manypeople are at a loss as to where to look for true love. I amaware that we all need someone to care, someone to bewith, someone to share our dreams, someone to walk inthe park with, someone to love us. This is a legitimateneed, and it is not confined to those who place ads in thepersonal section of the paper. It is universal.

I am also aware that, in addition to the legitimate needfor romantic love, we all have an even deeperhunger fora love that transcends our romantic desires. This need isnot quite as near to the surface of our emotions as ourneed for romantic love, and cannot be expressed in a one-inch ad in a local paper, but it is just as real. It is aneed forlove that meets the deepest need of our soul, and we oftendon't know where to look.

The good news for this Valentine's Day is, the GreatLover of the world, God, has placed His own personal adin His book, the Bible. He has declared how much Heloves each of us, and that He has made his love availableto all His children.

I invite you to read about it for yourself. John 3:16 andEphesians 2:4 are good places to start, but don't stop read-ing until you find the answer.

Well, if you still don't have a Valentine's Day card foryour special someone, better rush down to the card storebefore all of the good ones are taken. You don't want toget stuck with a leftover with smudges, wrinkled corners,and a stupid saying. And, if you need a little extra help,you might consider a flower or some candy.

Have a HappyValentine's Day, and remember the great-est love of all.

(The views in this article are those ofthe author and donot reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. ArmyCorps ofEngineers, the Department oftheArmy, theDepartment ofDefense, or the U.S. Government.)

'Invisible' is no way for anyone to liveBy Alexander Kufel

Pacific Ocean Division

One of the harshest things I ever experi-enced as an individual was being ignoredas a human being. I don't mean simply notpaid attention to. I'm talking about whenone is not seen when one walks down thestreet; not acknowledged in any way asoccupying the same planet. In such an en-vironment, it doesn't take a genius to con-clude that whatever opportunities life of-fers to others are not necessarily availableto you.

I have experienced such invisibility, andit had a sobering effect on the assumptionsI made about the lives of others. I hadn'tgiven it much thought until then, and itcaught me by surprise. I escaped undam-aged; I could make a choice whether or notthis would be my way of life. But as I lookaround America at the beginningofthe 21stcentury, I'm convinced that such conditionsstill exist, and that others do not have theluxury of making the choice I did.

My teenage neighborhood in upstateNew York, just outside of Buffalo, wasmade up mostly of longtime residents of

German or Slavic descent. Outsiders werea curiosity, but no particular group was anymore unwelcome than another.

My link with the world was radio. Lateat night, I listened to WKBW, broadcast-ing jazz and soul music from downtownBuffalo.

Shortly after I turned 18,the legal drinking age in NewYork then, a young blacksinger named Nancy Wilsoncame to town. She was per-forming in a bar downtown.Life in Buffalo was dividedclearly along ethnic lines,neighborhood by neighbor- /hood, and this bar was in for- /bidden territory, euphemisti-cally called "the inner city."

But my curiosity got thebetter of me. I just hadto seeWilson and hear her for my-self. I couldn't find anyone to go with me,so I went alone.

I got off the bus and crossed the bound-ary street with some trepidation. It wasearly evening and there were lots of peopleout and about in the neighborhood. I

ENGINEER UPDATE is an unofficial publication under the provisions of AR 360-1. It is publishedENGINEER UPDATE is an unofficial publication under the provisions of AR 360-1. It is publishedmonthly by offset for the Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Editorial views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Corps of Engineers or the

walked several blocks toward the bar wasand realized with astonishment that peoplewere notnoticing me. They absolutely didnot see me at all. I don't know ifI was soout of place that people were just beingpolite and trying not to stare, or ifI was

experiencing discriminationfor the first time. But duringthat walk to the bar, Ididnotexist. I became invisible.

At the crowded bar, Iwasserved abeer without beingeither challenged or ac-knowledged. Nobody paid

J anyattention to me.Nancy Wilson was beau-

tiful, and I had a great timelisteningto her first set. Theband took a break and Ms.Wilson walked toward thebar. People made room forher. She looked right at me

and said, "I'm starved. This place doesn'tserve food. Is there any place decent to eataroundhere?" I stammered that there wasan Italian restaurant several blocks away."Take me there," she said.

Nobody seemed to notice as I floated

out the door with her hangingonto my arm.Itoocurredto me duringthe smalltalk overspaghetti that Ihadn't a clue why she choseme. In retrospect, it may have been rebel-liousness on her part; maybe I was youngenough to seem "safe." At any rate, shedidn't break any more rules of the day andallowed me to pay for the meal.

When we returned and she started hernext set, she dedicated her first song to"Alex." Nobody turned to look to see whoAlex was. They all knew, and Alex didn'tbelong. Alex didn't exist.I went back in that bar and others in the

neighborhood several times after that, rev-eling in the freedom and safety that camewith invisibility. After all, I always hadmy real life to return to. Oncein awhile adrunk would break the silence and ask,"What the hell are you doing here?"

Eventually I stopped going. I grew dis-couraged with the knowledge that an enor-mous portion ofAmerica's population wasconsidered invisible on a daily basis. Likethem, there would be no problems as longas I didn't ask to be included. It was noway for a person to live then, and it's noway to live now.

Address mail to: EDITOR, ENGINEER UPDATE, CEPA-C, Washington, D.C. 20314-1000. Telephone(202) 761-1808. Photographs are U.S. Army photos unless otherwise credited. Available on theIntemet at http://www.hq.usace.army.millcepa/cepa.htm.

Department of the Army. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Commander, USACE ................................................Lt. Gen. Robert B. FlowersActing Chief. Public Affairs .......... .......... ............... Lt. Col. Eugene Pawlik, Jr.

Deadline for submitting articles is the 15th of the month preceding publication. Subscriptions are Chief, Command Information..........................................George E. Halfordavailable free of charge but must be requested in writing. Circulation: 35,000. Editor................................................................... .................... Bernard W. Tate

February2001 ENGINEER UPDATE 3

'Dragon Slayer' neutralizes super-fuelThey called it the "green dragon" for its deep green,

super-hot flame. There was nearly 1,900 pounds ofpentaborane, a highly volatile 1950s super fuel, atRedstone Arsenal, Ala., and no one could easily disposeof it.

Enter the Mobile District team of Marlene Nester,project manager; Doug Webb, chemist; and RickKendrick, on-site manager. "In July 2000, we completedthe destruction of almost 1,900 pounds of pentaborane,"Nester said.

The project dates back to March 1996 when "RedstoneArsenal requested that Omaha District obtain a rapid re-sponse contract to dispose of the pentaborane cylinders,"Nester said.

There were some delays getting the project underway,so in August 1998 Redstone Arsenal requested that Mo-bile District take over the project. "In September 1998,Mobile District awarded the pentaborane contract,"Nester said. In March 1999, the district awarded a taskorder for a treatability study.

In February 2000, Redstone Arsenal received a permitfrom the Alabama Department of Environmental Man-agement for the on-site treatment using a remote-con-trolled system.

The four, 800-pound cylinders, along with severalsmaller canisters of pentaborane, were the last knowngovernment stockpile of the chemical. "They were de-stroyed using an innovative, water-based, remote-con-trolled processing system," Nester said.

Redstone Arsenal and project manager CraigNorthridge of the Environmental Directorate, teamedup with the Alabama Department of EnvironmentalManagement, Mobile District, and environmental con-tractors led by Vista Technologies, Inc., of Huntsville,Ala.

A legacy of the Cold War, pentaborane was producedduring the 1950s under both Air Force and Navy con-tracts as part of a boron hydride "super fuels" effort topower advanced, high-speed bombers and, later, mis-siles and rockets. Before execution of this treatmentand disposal project, the pentaborane had been storedon Redstone Arsenal for years since no safe treatmentmethod existed.

In a recent memo to Mobile District, Maj. Gen. JulianSullivan Jr., Commander of the U.S. Army Aviation andMissile Command, said "We made significant strides overthe past few years in developing and implementing a safetreatment method. Support from the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers throughout this process was instrumental inthis project going forward safely and successfully. Thesupport Mobile District personnel gave during the treat-ability study phase, preparation for full-scale treatment,and duringtreatment, brought great credit upon them andthe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."

Sullivan presented letters of appreciation to the Mo-bile District team for their support in the complex effort.

"The successful completion of this pentaborane treat-ment marks the first time that a large-scale, non-detona-tion treatment of pentaborane has been performed,"Sullivan said. "This is significant as this new systemproved to be the safest, most efficient, and most environ-mentally friendly method of treatment/disposal. Thisprocess now provides an alternative to open detonation,which in many cases, is not a true option due to safety orenvironmental issues."

Difficulties in handling pentaborane became evidentduring its production and use, and led to it being aban-doned as a viable fuel. Unused pentaborane stocks inseveral hundred cylinders remained mothballed in stor-age for almost three decades at Edwards Air Force Base,Calif., Redstone Arsenal, and various research facilitiesaround the country.

Cylinders at Edwards AFB were detonated in the desertlast year, but this was not an option for Redstone Arsenalwith its proximity to populated areas. Since pentaboraneis extremely toxic nature and burns with a deep greenflame on contact with air, it is nicknamed the "greendragon."

Since no proven safe large-scale treatment systems for

Four pentaborane tanks are relics of 1950s rocket programs. (Photo by Craig Northridge, RedstoneArsenal)

--

A remote-control set-up handled the actual neutralization process, which combined the volatilepentaborane with water to produce hydrogen gas and a mild solution of boric acid. (Photo by CraigNorthridge, Redstone Arsenal)

pentaborane existed, the Mobile District team identifiedthe information necessary to design a system, oversaw apilot study to provide the necessary information, designeda full-scale treatment system, implemented that system,and successfully completed treatment of the pentaboraneon Redstone Arsenal.

Integrated Environmental Services, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.,a specialized subcontractor, designed the full-scale treat-ment system and successfully operated the remote-con-trolled system. They setup near the secured bunker wherethe pentaborane was stored and destroyed the chemicalby combining it with steam under controlled conditions.

The process converted pentaborane into hydrogen andboron. The hydrogen was vented from the system whilethe boron combined with water to form a harmless solu-tion of mild boric acid. This system, dubbed "DragonSlayer" by its designer, uses only water to attain com-plete chemical conversion.

After a six-month effort that began at Redstone Arse-nal, Ala., last February, 1,747 pounds of pentaborane

was successfully destroyed.The project goal was to dispose of the pentaborane to

meet waste disposal laws in a safe and environmentallyconscious manner, Army officials said. Direct contactwas limited to the moving and handling of the cylinders.Personnel attired in gas-tight suits took cylinders fromtheir storage location and placed them into a sealed, envi-ronmentally controlled chamber. Air was removed fromthe chamber, and replaced with nitrogen to minimizechances of air leakage into the cylinder or connectingpiping during processing.

An extensive array of sensors and air sampling equip-ment monitored all aspects of the operation, includingambient air quality to ensure the system was operating atpeak efficiency. The team's work has made this processavailable to safely treat any remaining pentaborane foundin the U.S. It has already been used in Houston.

(The public affairs offices of the U. S. Army Aviationand Missile Command, and Mobile District contributedto this report.)

4 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001

Omaha unearths old buried dynamiteBy Sheri HronekOmaha District

Some 60 years ago, workers buried cases of dynamitein a remote field in South Dakota. The dynamite was leftover from building roads and dams in the northern plains.That was the 1930s, and burying was an accepted way todispose of unused explosives.

Today, unearthing those buried munitions was the taskof the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Nancy Mueller, community involvement coordinatorfor EPA's Region 8, says this project is a first. No one hadever encountered the such a large quantity of buried dy-namite. According to an eyewitness in the 1930s, 146cases of dynamite and 40 boxes of blasting caps wereburied in a field near what is now Agency Village, hometo about 600 members of Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakotatribe.

QUestions. The problem of searching for the dy-namite was compounded by the uncertainty of the exactlocation. There is no record of the disposal from morethan 60 years ago, and it is still uncertain whether theWorks Projects Administration (WPA), a federal agencyat that time, buried the dynamite. (The WPA existedfrom 1935 to 1943 to deal with unemployment in theGreat Depression. It undertook many constructionprojects throughout the U.S.)

The EPA and the Corps also could not be certain of thetype of dynamite. Some guessed that the dynamite wasWorld War I vintage, which was made of black powder.However, the search had to be planned for the worst-casescenario, so the EPA and the Corps planned their approachassuming the dynamite was made of nitroglycerin.

The drama that unfolded in Agency Village last Augustrequired complete evacuation of the tribe members, whohad to leave their homes for one week while the Corpsand its contractor, IT Corporation, looked for the buriedexplosives.

The tribe handled the logistics of the evacuation. Whenefforts to locate the dynamite failed, the project team de-cided to set off an explosion in the trenches that had beenexcavated, and the resulting secondary explosions yieldedtraces of the buried dynamite. It had been composed ofblack powder, which returns to its natural state.

"It would have never gone off without something likethat," said Dave Butler, the Corps' Explosives and Ordi-nance Safety member of the team. "It would have stayedin the ground. You could dig right through it, and youwould never know it was there."

They found evidence of the old dynamite only foundafter reviewing videotapes of the explosion and noticingan orange center in the black smoke.

The project started when Nathan Thompson, a tribemember, reported the dynamite burial to the tribal coun-cil. Thompson had been one of the crew who buried thedynamite in the 1930s.

SaWrd. The council then approached the EPA."We act on all citizen's reports," Mueller said. "It's

not unusual to act on the tip ofjust one person. Once westarted looking, we called the Corps in and did some elec-tromagnetic surveys, which seemed to corroborate thereport."

Mueller noted that the Corps does "a lot of work for usin these removal actions. They are our rapid response,our technical consultants." The Corps, she said, has con-tract mechanisms in place and can react quickly. "Givenwhat we were faced with, everything went well. I thinkthe Corps responsiveness was great. Jim O'Neill, (CorpsRapid Response project manager) did an outstandingjobcoordinating everything and keeping everyone happy."

The first meetings with the Corps were held in the sum-mer of 1999.

"We undertook the initial survey with three differentpieces of electromagnetic equipment and ground penetrat-ing radar to see what we could find," said O'Neill. "Wefound one good-sized anomaly beside a concrete founda-

Al Meyers, IT Corp.(left); Joe Nolan, OmahaDistrict; and Wayne Sisk, Army EnvironmentalCenter, examine dirt for traces of old dynamite.(Photo courtesy of Omaha District)

tion that we believe was one of the bunkers they used.However, it was difficult to find any trace. The dynamitewas buried in wooden crates, and there's not a lot of me-tallic mass associated with them. There would not bemuch for instruments to look for. One instrument usesground resistivity (its resistance to the flow of electricity)to locate previously excavated areas. But with the timethat has passed, the freeze/thaw returns the ground to itsnatural state, and the fainter any image is."

Thompson told them that three holes were dug for theexplosives - 82 cases of dynamite in one; 64 cases in asecond; and the 40 boxes of caps in the third.

Because the initial survey was inconclusive, the Bu-reau of Indian Affairs (BIA) arranged for a bomb dogfrom Grand Forks Air Force Base. "The dog hit in thethree areas, but he couldn't pinpoint the location," O'Neillsaid. Bomb dogs detect nitrates in explosives and sincefarmland may have been treated with nitrate fertilizer,the dog's findings were inconclusive.

Excavation. The next step in the search involvedexcavation. Remote-controlled equipment dug 10-footdeep trenches. By diggingtrenches, the search could covera larger sampling area. Since Thompson indicated theholes were about 12 feet deep, a stack of cases that largeshould be found at the 10-foot depth. A camera on theequipment allowed them to watch the process; video-tapes were made and reviewed to be sure nothing hadbeen missed.

Butler, representatives from IT Corp., andcrewmembers stayed in a bunker about 1,000 feet fromthe digging site to supervise the process. Eighty-two casesof dynamite, if accidentally exploded, could leave a hole70 feet in diameter and about 24 feet deep.

"We couldn't dig very deep very fast because of thepossibility of nitro, which is more sensitive and easily

The community college in Sisseton keeps a senseof humor about the search for the old dynamite.(Photo courtesy of Omaha District)

detonated during excavation," O'Neill said. "We basedeverything we did on the worse-case scenario to ensuresafety." As a safety procedure, an ambulance remainednearby, and the local hospital was notified of the project.

Another major safety factor was the evacuation of thefamilies from the area "The tribe played a major impor-tant role in this project," Mueller said. "They were ac-tively involved in the whole evacuation process, and theytook care of their people. That lifted a huge burden offusso we could focus on the more technical side of theproject."

Evacuation. "We had Plans A, B and C," saidJake Thompson, tribal council vice chairman. The tribestarted planning the August evacuation in the spring andorganized six committees to handle transportation, secu-rity, food, lodging, medical, and housing. They trans-ported the elderly, families and children, and belongings,boarded up windows on all homes, protected propanegas tanks, and secured the area for the week that the mem-bers were elsewhere. The tribe also found the temporaryhousing, using motels and emergency housing, and madearrangements for food for the relocated members.

The tribal police worked 16-hour days to patrol AgencyVillage, sometimes riding horseback or on bicycles tohave silent patrols.

The EPA will reimburse the tribe for move expenses,and for any damage to the homes.

COCeaati. Although leaving their homes for aweek inconvenienced residents, the outcome was posi-tive for everyone involved. "Everyone came together,Indian folks and non-Indian folks, just being folks," saidJake Thompson, related to the man who brought the dy-namite to the tribal council's attention. "There were nodisagreements, and they had the highest remarks for ourpeople. The Corps can be proud of the people they sentover; they deserve recognition from their department."

"I've never been treated so well in my life," said But-ler. "The people on the reservation are very nice people."

BIA environmental engineer Roy Pulfrey said he was"impressed that the federal agencies and the tribe workedtogether well, that so many groups could get together andagree. I was also impressed with the tribe's evacuationplan, and with their housing authority for doing all theinspecting, boarding up windows, protecting propanetanks, providingtemporary housing, health needs, and feed-ing the people. They were organized and did them well."

Jake Thompson summed up, "It's a real positive event.I'm proud to be part of the whole thing. It was a first classoperation. The federal agencies and the tribal govern-ment worked hand-in-hand, and everyone was treatedequally. I have the highest respect for them."

(Sheri Hronek is a contract writer for Omaha District.)

February 2001 ENGINEER UPDATE 5

NavigationKeeping the Nation's Harborsand Waterways Operational

Navigation mission is old, continuingBy Chuck Parrish

Louisville District

Army engineers have had a presence on the Ohio Riverfor 200 years, assisting in surveying, mapping, and plan-ning and constructing navigation facilities to assure safeand efficient movement of commerce and people.

History

The history of Louisville District is rooted in the roleit played in developing navigation projects on the river,notably those built at the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville,Ky. There, in its natural state, the river dropped 26 feetin just over two miles.

The first canal and locks around the Falls were com-pleted in 1830. Since then, they have been enlargedseveral times. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as-sumed jurisdiction at the Falls in 1874 and removed alltolls on the movement of goods.

The Canalization Project on the Ohio was completedin 1929, resulting in 50 locks and dams along the entireriver; the project at the Falls was named Lock and DamNo. 41. In the 1960s, the canal was widened to 500 feet,the old wicket dam replaced with a non-navigable dam,and a 1,200x110-foot lock built. The 600x110-foot lockremained. During this period, the project was renamedMcAlpine Locks and Dam in honor of WilliamMcAlpine, Louisville District's only civilian district en-gineer.

McAlpine

Now, at the beginning of the 21stcentury, the districtis undertaking another project to improve navigation atthe Falls. Construction is underway on a second1,200'x110-foot lock to replace two antiquated, ineffi-cient locks. The joint venture of Morrison Knudsenand Lane Construction will build a cofferdam and re-move the old locks during the next two years. Anothercontract will be awarded to build the new lock and ac-cess bridge across the locks on to Shippingport Island.

The project is scheduled for completion in 2007 at acost of $276 million. The cost is borne 50/50 by con-gressional appropriations and the navigation industry.Towing companies pay a tax on diesel fuel that goes tothe Inland Waterways Trust Fund, from which alloca-tions are made to support key navigation projects in thenation.

There are several challenges to building at this site inthe heart of the Louisville metropolitan area. Not theleast is public safety. Shippingport Island is the site of ahydroelectric plant and Louisville District's Repair Sta-tion, and a popular location for fishing, jogging, andbicycling. The only access to the island is by two bridgescrossing the locks that are in the middle of the construc-tion and used for haul routes.

So the public's use of the island is now closelyguarded. Also, close communication is required withthe lockmaster and his staff, since construction is takingplace near the existing 1,200-foot chamber, which mustremain open at all times since it is the only route fornavigation through this strategic location.

Another issue is the need to minimize the impact of

This artist's rendering shows what the new Olmsted Locks and Dam 17 will look like. (Graphic courtesyof Louisville District)

noise, pollution, and traffic on the nearby communityof Portland.

These complexities have been addressed in a series ofmeetings with local officials, the public, the towing in-dustry, small businesses, and minority contractors. Thisprocess has produced relationships which enabled theproject to move forward.

Traffic calculations reveal it would take a semi-truckevery 15 seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on anearby interstate to carry the same cargo that movesthrough McAlpine locks each year. The new lock iscrucial to the safe, efficient movement of cargo on theOhio River at Louisville.

Additional information on the McAlpine project isavailable at www.usace.army.mil/cd/mcalpine.htm.

Olmsted

Three hundred sixty miles downriver from the Falls,Louisville District is building the largest civil worksproject in its history, the Olmsted Locks and Dam, 17miles above where the Ohio empties into the Missis-sippi River.

Olmsted will replace Locks and Dams 52 and 53, thelast wicket dams on the Ohio River, which were built in1928-29. Half of the $1 billion project will be paid bythe navigation industry, and the project is scheduled forcompletion in 2010.

This strategic location is called the hub of the Ohioand Mississippi rivers system. Barge traffic movingbetween the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, andCumberland rivers must pass through the Olmsted site.

More tonnage passes this point than any other place inAmerica's inland navigation system.

The Olmsted project will have two 110-x1,200-footlock chambers on the Illinois shoreline. The dam willhave five tainter gates, a 1,400-foot navigable pass sec-tion of steel wickets, and a fixed weir section.

When raised, the wickets will maintain the requirednavigable pool upstream to the Smithland Locks andDam, as well as to Kentucky and Barkley locks on theTennessee and Cumberland rivers. When river flowsare sufficient, the wickets can be lowered to allow traf-fic to move over the dam without passing through thelocks. This reduces delays caused by locking throughthe system.

Rick Schipp, resident engineer at Olmsted, listed twochallenges at the project. The cofferdam in which thelocks are built is nearly a quarter-mile wide and a half-mile long. Also, at this location there is an annual 45-50 foot fluctuation in the river elevation. In addition,because of the site's proximity to the New Madrid Fault,the design called for extensive use of reinforced steel inthe concrete, requiring challenging construction tech-niques.

The locks are nearing completion. They were filledwith water last fall, and the cofferdam is being removed.Subsequent work includes building and placing the float-ing lock approach walls; building the dam with innova-tive in-the-wet methods; and building a boat ramp forthe community of Olmsted, Ill.

The Olmsted project overview and constructionprogress photos are available on the web atwww.usace.army.mil/olmstead.

6 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001

Ned Durden, left, waits with divers Glenn Bacon and Burt Moore for a cargo Dive officer Walt Lanier gives last minute instructions to diver Burt Mooreship to pass before continuing their dive in Brunswick Harbor. and stand-by diver Glenn Bacon.

Camaraderie, adventure, good payDive teams handle Corps' toughest extra duty

Article by Nancy GouldPhotos by Jonas Jordan

Savannah District

The water in Savannah and Brunswick harbors isblack and thick, like split-pea soup. Suspended sedimentin the water creates a darkness so impenetrable that adiver can become disoriented as he makes his slow de-scent, the glow from his flashlight doing little to lightthe way.

In the 25-year history of Savannah District's diveteam, the group has performed many difficult tasks inthe inky waters of those harbors, the Intracoastal Wa-terway and Kings Bay Harbor. Their work ranges frominvestigating reported obstructions to scoping outanomalies on the river bottom - a requirement of thecultural resource clearance process before widening ordeepening work can begin.

"Diving gives me an adrenaline rush," said BurtMoore, a dive team member who says that on more thanone occasion he's bumped into a live object that swamaway from him. "In a way, I'm glad I can't see what'sdown there!

"When we're crawling on the bottom, blindly grop-ing for what we need to do our work, we're in constantcommunication with the surface crew through an um-bilical line hooked to our helmet," Moore added. "Wedepend on them and the monitoring equipment for sup-port and direction."

Diving is an additional duty. Each team member hasnormal job duties and responsibilities; they dive onlywhen their special skills are needed.

Walt Lanier, thedistrict's dive officer dur-ing most of the team's ex-istence, has led more than350 dives in all kinds of

S - water, supervising fellowdivers and coordinatingall aspects of each mis-sion. The dive team per-forms most of their inves-tigative dives in water upto 100 feet deep; they alsowork as dive inspectorsfor contract dives.

Lanier said, "When-ever the district uses con-

Navigation tract divers, a districtdiver inspects the opera-

Gary Sego tends diver Burt Moore.

tion to ensure compliance with federal regulations, andto make sure things are done right." Added Gary Sego,assistant dive officer, "We tend to be really tough in-spectors because we dive andwe know the regulations."

Dives requiring underwater construction or demoli-tion and those in excess of 100 feet are performed bycontract because a decompression chamber is requiredat that depth.

Besides working in the Savannah and Brunswick har-bors and surrounding areas, the team performs dives atthe three hydropower plants maintained by the district- Hartwell, Thurmond, and Russell. Lanier said thatworking at the lakes is easier and less dangerous becausethere is visibility, and no current to contend with.

As team leader, Lanier manages all dives. "We al-ways have a pre-dive conference and plan everythingbefore each mission," he explained. "We review draw-

ings, what we're going to do, how we're going to do it,and we carefully go over procedures for mishaps -something that has paid off since we've had no lost-timeaccidents in the dive team's history.

"It's been fun, but some aspects of the job are bigchallenges," continued Lanier. "Maneuvering in theSavannah Harbor is one. My kid brother, who paysmoney to jump from airplanes, says there's no way he'ddo it. It's not for everybody; there are risks."

In the past, the team used self-contained underwaterbreathing apparatus (scuba) for all their dives. But nowregulations require them to use surface supplied air withcommunications whenever the dives are deep or the vis-ibility is limited. This is accomplished with an umbili-cal line that is physically attached to the diver's helmet.The umbilical line carries both the air hose and the in-tercom wire. The intercom allows the diver to tell thoseon the boat how he feels and if he needs to come up - abig advantage over scuba Another advantage is that thediver does not have to worry about running out of air at60-70 feet under water and making an emergency trip tothe surface. And should the diver get tangled or needassistance, another diver can be sent down, descendinghand-over-hand along the umbilical line to the troubleddiver.

Formed in 1976, the dive team consisted originallyof three volunteers, then grew to 15. Now it has eightmembers, all from Operations Division. Why do theseemployees who already have full-time jobs take on thisextra responsibility? The reasons vary. Some like thechange-of-pace, some the unique challenges of divingfor the district, but most just enjoy diving.

Sego, a long-time team member, admits it's been agood way to earn extra money through the years. Al-though the work is tough and the water cold, it payswell.

Divers earn premium pay for performing hazardouswork. "It's interesting work at times," said Sego, recall-ing that in 1985 the team recovered 100 Confederateshells and other relics from the wreck of the sunkenironclad Georgia.

"I also like working with the guys on the team," con-tinued Sego. "We have a good group. There's camara-derie and trust among us - something you need whenyou're under water and your lifeline is monitored byyour teammates working topside."

Lanier confesses that for himself and a lot of the guys,being on the dive team is something of an ego trip. Butego aside, the primary motivation to stick with itis their love of diving.

February 2001 ENGINEER UPDATE 7

Survey team battles cold, Murphy's LawBy Paul Machajewskiand Peter Verstegen

St. Paul District

(Editor's note: Many of the Corps' people workoutdoors, facingthe worst nature can throw at them aspart oftheirdailyjobs. This article details how one crewaccomplished their mission despite Minnesota weatherand Murphy'sLaw.)

The old hotel was gone, so was the maple tree. Tworeference points to survey a project site had vanished.But the survey crew from St. Paul District did not needdirections on where to go next.

"The last time we were up here, back in January 1997,there was an old rundown hotel standing nearby," saidJim Marquardt, survey technician with the winter sur-vey crew. The old hotel had been a survey referencepoint.

"Up here" is northern Minnesota at Lake of the Woods,a 1,485-square-mile lake about 10 miles from the Cana-dian border. Marquardt plus Mark Scholl, a survey tech-nician, and Kevin Ressie, a small craft operator, made upthe crew. In early January they performed a project con-dition survey on the Warroad Harbor Project on the south-ern shore of Lake of the Woods.

The survey was part of St. Paul District's navigationmission. The district maintains navigation projects muchlike road crews maintain highways, and builds breakwa-ters or jetties to protect homes and businesses from waves.Other navigation improvements include deepening andwidening harbors so that watercraft can move safely.

The Warroad project is a shallow-draft harbor sevenfeet deep, and the crew was there to measure sedimenta-tion.

"According to the books, our benchmark should be2.6 feet from the 14-inch maple tree next to the hotel.The benchmark's gone too," said Marquardt.

Using a metal detector and digging through the ice andsnow did not pay off, and the crew determined that thebenchmark was either buried or destroyed when a nearbycasino parking lot was built.

So the crew put their land survey expertise to work.They drove snowmobiles out on 30-inch-thick ice dotted

I

The survey team shot a baseline across the ice, then used an ice auger to drill holes to take hydrographicsurveys. Snowmobiles were their standard mode of transportation. (Photos courtesy of St. Paul District)

with scattered fishing shacks. Then they surveyed a one-mile baseline from the shore of Warroad Harbor onto thefrozen lake. Once they established that line, the crewused an auger to drill through the ice every 10 feet alongthat line, took water depth measurements, and recordedthem.

As odd as it sounds, winter is actually the best seasonto do such work.

"Winter conditions provide better information, bettercontrol, and help workload distribution," said DanKrumholz, operations manager for the Channel and Har-bors Project. "Surveyors can measure points on the ice,which is stable, and much better than bouncing around ina boat. Measurement is more precise. In some caseswhere we can't use global positioning, land controls offermore accurate recordings of water depth."

But the weather causes problems of its own. Duringthis survey, the temperature was five degrees below zerowith a wind-chill of about 20 degrees below zero. Thewater temperature was 31 degrees.

"Safety is always first on any job," Ressie said. "Inthese conditions, we all need to be extra careful." Scholladded, "We watch out for each other concerning frost-bite and windburn."

The survey crew wore special flotation survival suits,which protected them from the cold and wind. The suits

would have also protected them ifthey had broken throughthe ice. "You never know when you're going to gothrough," Ressie said. "These suits provide us with theprotection we need."

Although the conditions sound harsh, they were actu-ally fairly mild.

"Survey crews have encountered ice thickness up to 48inches, and experienced air temps of minus 30 belowzero with wind-chills of minus100," Krumholz said.

And, oddly enough for a hydrographic survey, theyalso had to worry about flight safety. The frozen naviga-tion channel also doubles as a winter landing strip forsmall aircraft, and pilots need a smooth lakebed for land-ing. So the crew has smoothed out the piles of ice left bytheir auger either with a flat-bottomed airboat that glidesover snow and ice, or with an ice-rake pulled behind asnowmobile.

The survey information gathered on this trip under re-view at the project office in Fountain City, Wis., to deter-mine if dredging will be necessary to maintain the accesschannel to Warroad Harbor.

The survey information also benefited area residents."They like to know how thick the ice and how deep thewater is," Marquardt said. "It helps them decide if theice is thick enough for their pickups, and which lure touse for ice fishing."

System gives detailed view of waterwayBy Penny Schmitt

Wilmington District

When we were kids, those computers on "Star Trek"used to spit out complicated answers pretty fast. But theygave Mr. Spock words and numbers. The Geospatial In-formation System (GIS) that Wilmington District uses tohelp manage the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW)is more like that giant-screen view of the galaxy on thebridge of the starship Enterprise.

The GIS images displayed on the district's computerscreens can zoom down onto a 36-foot-wide bridge span,or pull back for a 300-mile long view of the waterway.The types of information (called themes) vary from nu-merical data, to aerial photos, to U.S. Geological Surveymaps, to microstation design files that show details likemile markers and channel centerlines. When users accesslayers of information, they can put together and print mapsthat show a variety of features.

Solving problems

All this information helps Wilmington District to man-age the waterway effectively. "We can use data to solveproblems from our desktops," said Richard Lewis, GIScoordinator for the district. "For example, maps show themost current hydrographic survey data. That can tell usexactly where dredging is needed."

At the same time, navigation staffcan find the best placeto dispose of dredged material. "Here's a map of RadioIsland, one of our disposal areas near Morehead City,"Lewis said. "The map shows that Disposal Area 34 was

surveyed last August, and currently could receive up to170,000 cubic yards of material."

The amount of data available in the system is hard toimagine. Wilmington District's boundaries include 308miles of the waterway, from the North Carolina-Virginiastate line to Little River Inlet in South Carolina Along theway, the database records information about side chan-nels, turning basins, inlets, bridges, 222 early dredgedmaterial disposal sites no longer being used, 87 active dis-posal facilities, and many other features.

Users can zoom in on the waterway anywhere from milemarker 34 at the NC -Va. border to mile marker 338 inSouth Carolina. And the story is not over at that point.Eventually, the entire length of the waterway to St. Johns,Fla., will be included on the GIS. "We're part of SouthAtlantic Division, and we are looking for regional man-agement opportunities," Lewis said. "The AIWW GIS isa wonderful tool for management across boundaries."

Future directions

Lewis highlighted several future directions for the GISthat are already under development at Wilmington Dis-trict. "The current GIS tables were developed to includeunits from all side channels, connecting channels, and thechannels for the North Carolina State Ports at Wilmingtonand Morehead City," he said. "Thus, the database caneasily be expanded to include these projects."

"We've recently added digital information on colonialnesting waterbirds, which use some of our inactive dis-posal areas for nesting," Lewis added. Since North Caro-lina is home to many species of waterbirds, some endan-

gered, the Corps' contribution to protecting nesting sites isimportant.

Another planned addition to data is a new theme show-ing survey data that tracks the controlling depth of chan-nels over time. "It'll allow us to continuously monitorshoal development," Lewis said.

Sister programs

Maintaining a safe right of way is another important job.Lewis pointed out an image of a private pier extendinginto the waterway channel. "We can also use digital aerialphotography, along with the right-of-way theme in our da-tabase and informationfrom the Real Estate Office,to find and correct en-croachment problems."

The AIWW GIS hasseveral sister programswithin the district as well. "-"FEMA Flood Ways, U.S.Geological Service roaddata, National WetlandsInventory Maps, and De-partment of the Army Per-mit locations are all part ofour Regulatory GIS,"Lewis said. "We intend tointegrate the two systemsso that information from Navigationeach will be available inboth systems."

m

101A1*c

8 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001 February 2001 ENGINEER UPD

From devastation of war, Corps helped bring peace, order

Corps and Kuwaiti engineers inspect damage to a Kuwaiti government building. Almost all of Kuwait's government and municipal infrastructure washeavily damaged during the Persian Gulf War. (Photos by Jonas Jordan, Savannah District)

Continued from front pageMEAPO headquarters in Winchester, Va., also es-

tablished a deployment program for all volunteers thatincluded area and safety orientations, NBC (Nuclear,Biological, and Chemical) training, and medical exams.The program was so successful that it was, at the time,considered the model for civilian deployments.

Aug. 22- A MEAPO team with 11 members de-ployed to Dhahran.

Aug. 31 - Col. William Miller, MEAPO com-mander, deployed to Saudi Arabia to open a Corps of-fice in Riyadh to support U.S. Central Command(USCENTCOM).

By the end of August, about 100,000 U.S. troops hadarrived in Saudi Arabia.

September

Hussein, after occupying Kuwait for one month, calledfor a holy war against the U.S. and other countries op-posing him. He later threatened to destroy the oil fieldsof the Middle East and draw Israel into a war if Iraqfound itself strangled by U.N. sanctions.

The governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreedto devote billions of dollars to underwrite the Ameri-can military deployment, now estimated at about150,000 troops.

The Corps continued to augment its regional contin-gency construction management team in Saudi Arabia.This team combined and prioritized the requirementsfor construction and real estate for all armed forces inthe theater.

Sept. 2-Miller and Cox met with the director ofthe Saudi General Directorate of Military Works andUSCENTCOM officials to discuss support to opera-tions in the region.

Sept. 12-The Corps awarded $12 million in ser-vice contracts for field showers, burnout latrines, wash-stands, and aircraft sunshades.

Sept. 28-The first major construction contract tosupport Operation Desert Shield was awarded, a $26million contract for life support areas.

October

After two-and-a-half months, the U.S. embargo be-

gan to damage Iraq's economy, shutting down oil ex-ports, inflating consumer prices, and closing factories.

Oct. 9-Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. sent a let-ter to President Bush requesting assistance.

Oct. 17-Maj. Gen. James Ray, Director of Mili-tary Programs, and his team arrived in Riyadh to nego-tiate the host nation support agreement with the SaudiArabia government. The agreement provided for SaudiArabia to support U.S. forces, substantially changingthe Corps' role in supporting Operation Desert Shield.For new construction, the Corps prepared a requirementpackage and materials list to be turned over to the SaudiJoint Forces Support Unit for award, with the Corpsproviding quality assurance.

Oct. 31 -The agreement was signed, and the Saudigovernment made its first payment to the U.S. for $760million.

November

Nov. 1 -The Corps had completed 97 lease actionstotaling more than $90 million. MEAPO assumed fullresponsibility for recruiting Corps personnel for DesertShield. More than 700 Corps members in 65 careercategories volunteered to deploy to Saudi Arabia.

Nov. 7-U.S. President George Bush announceddeployment of additional U.S. forces.

Nov. 29- The U.N. Security Council authorizedthe use of force against Iraq unless it withdrew fromKuwait by Jan. 15, 1991.

December

Dec. 18- USCENTCOM tasked MEAPO to de-velop a cost reimbursable contract to be awarded by theGovernment of Japan/Gulf Peace Fund for engineer-ing and construction services to support OperationDesert Storm.

January

By January 1991, the Allied coalition reached 700,000troops, including 540,000 U.S. personnel, smaller num-bers of British, French, Egyptian, Saudi, and Syrianforces, plus several other national contingents. ButHussein refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait,

Kuwait and American engineers inspect the Kuwait Parliament Building. From left to right are MohamedKharafi, a contractor; Col. David Peixotto, Commander of the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Office; Dr.Ibrahim AI-Shaheen, Minister of State for Municipal Affairs; and Bader AI-Qabandi of the Minister ofPublic Works. (Photo by Jonas Jordan, Savannah District)

Grafetti on a building sums up Kuwaiti feelings about American intervention in the Persian Gulf War. (Photo byJonas Jordan, Savannah District)

and maintained that it would remain a province of Iraq.Jan. 8-Lt. Gen. Henry Hatch, Chief of Engineers,

met with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Shaheen, Deputy Director ofthe Kuwait Task Force, to discuss Corps support to thereconstruction of Kuwait.

Jan. 4-The Corps received the first formal requestfrom the government of Kuwait for emergency manage-ment assistance.

Jan. 14 - The Corps accepted a $46.3 million For-eign Military Sales case to provide 90-day emergencyassistance to Kuwait.

Jan. 15- Col. Ralph Locurcio, Savannah Districtcommander, was named commander of the KuwaitEmergency Recovery Office (KERO). He and othersfrom throughout the Corps worked out of an office atMEAPO to build a task force of Corps employees trainedand ready to deploy to Kuwait as soon as the countrywas secure.

The Persian Gulf War began on Jan. 16-17, 1991,with a massive U.S.-led air offensive against Iraq thatcontinued throughout the war. During the next fewweeks, this aerial bombardment (Operation DesertStorm) first destroyed Iraq's air defenses, then attackedits communications networks, government buildings,weapons plants, oil refineries, bridges, and roads.

Jan. 28 - A KERO advance party deployed toDhahran, where contracting actions and logistical pur-chases for the reconstruction were completed.

February

By mid-February, the Allies had shifted their air at-tacks to Iraq's forward ground forces in Kuwait and south-ern Iraq, attacking and destroyingtheir fortifications andarmored vehicles.

Feb. 24 - The Allies launched a massive ground of-fensive called Operation Desert Sabre northward fromnortheastern SaudiArabiainto Kuwait and southern Iraq.

4 Within three days, Arab and U.S. forces retook KuwaitCity in the face of crumbling Iraqi resistance.

Meanwhile, the main U.S. armored thrust drove intoIraq some 120 miles (200 kilometers) west of Kuwaitand attacked Iraq's armored reserves from the rear. ByFeb. 27 these forces had destroyed most of Iraq's eliteRepublican Guard units after the latter tried to make astand south of Basra in southeastern Iraq.

By the time that Bush declared a cease-fire for Feb. 28,Iraqi resistance had completely collapsed.

The Allies lost about 300 troops in the conflict. Thereare no official figures for Iraqi losses. Estimates of theIraqi troops in Kuwait range from 180,000 to 630,000,and estimates of Iraqi military deaths range from 8,000to 100,000.

Feb. 28-As a result of a reorganization, MEAPOwas renamed the Transatlantic Division. (Itwasrenamedagain as the Transatlantic Programs Center [TAC] in No-vember 1995).

March

March 8 3-4 -At the request of the Kuwaiti govern-ment, the contracting process was expedited, and eightcontracts were awarded to support the emergency recov-ery program before the Corps' entry into Kuwait City.

March - About 40 Corps employees and 40 Ku-waiti engineers drove from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait Cityto begin providing emergency assistance. The team per-formed damage surveys and assessments and managedemergency repairs for Kuwait's shattered infrastructure.

The emergency phase lasted 90 days - electricity wasrestored, water supplies were reconnected, the sanitationsystem became partially operational, roads were cleared,and airport operations were restored during daylight.

Recovery

Following the emergency phase, the Government ofKuwait requested that the Corps remain to assist withpermanent infrastructure recovery, which included addi-tional work in these areas, plus substantial repairs ongov-ernment and public buildings.

The majority of the civil repair work, totaling about$330 million, was completed by August 1992. Duringthis time, the Corps assisted with the emergency recon-struction of Kuwait's two air bases.

The present

Today, TAC's efforts in Kuwait focus on providingdesign and construction expertise to the Army and AirForce, which use facilities in Kuwait under country-to-country agreements. About two dozen Corps people workin Kuwait. The Installation Support Office provides op-erations and maintenance services to the Army Directorof Public Works at Camp Doha, and to the Air ForceBase Civil Engineers atAlJaber and Al-Salem air bases.

The Kuwait government has awarded contracts for aninstallation being built for U.S. Army use south of Ku-wait City, and the Corps is providing quality assuranceduring construction.

(Much of the information in this article came fromTAC newsletter archives and from 1999-2000Britannica.com. The TACPublicAffairs Office also con-tributed to this article.)

Gulf War hadits own lingo(Like all major conflicts, the Persian Gulf War had

a unique lingo. Many Corps people served in theGulf, call yourselfa Gulf War veteran ifyou recog-nize these terms from 'WarSlang, "byPaul Dickson.)

Bedrock-Giant U.S. tent city in Saudi Arabia.Bigred- The brutal desert sun.Chocolate chips - Desert camouflage uniform.Cultural bonding officer - An officer with the

job of preventing soldiers from offending Saudis.Desert Shield bar- A heat-resistant chocolate

bar produced by Hershey Foods.Emerald City - King Khalid Military City in

Saudi ArabiaEscan Village-Quarters for troops in Riyadh.Goat rope- A confused situation.Go chemical - To use chemical weapons.Good to go - Fit; competent; ready to perform.Grunt-An infantryman.Hair on fire - Excited.Highway ofDeath - The road from Kuwait to

Iraq where allied aircraft destroyed hundreds of Iraqivehicles. Also called the "Killing Fields."

Hoo-Ahl-An all-purpose expression of enthusi-asm for almost any situation where the speaker is aliveand well. The signature call of U.S. ground forces.

Humvea/hummer - High-mobility multi-pur-pose wheeled vehicle. The successor to thejeep andthe most common vehicle in the Persian Gulf.Hunker down - To take cover during an attack.Jeddahb gin - Bootleg booze made from potatoes.

Terrible stuff, but welcome in a culture where alco-hol is forbidden.

JB-Joint Information Bureau; established in ma-jor hotels to brief the press.

Jihad- Muslim holy war.Kevlar- Synthetic fabric used to make armor.Kick- A kilometer (1,000 meters, .62 mile).K-mart - Kuwait.

SA- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Liferjuice - Coffee.Life support area - A military base. This

Pentagonese was familiar to Corps personnel, but sel-dom used by soldiers.

MOPP-Mission-oriented protective posture,i.e., full chemical protective gear including gas mask

Mother ofall battles -Saddam Hussein's termfor the ground war. This "mother of all cliches" be-came the first great catch phrase of the 1990s.

M E- Meal, Ready toEat. The standard Ameri-can field ration.

No due - Confused or lost.Not a problem - A positive expression, refers

to getting the job done.Provide Comfort - The air operation to drop

relief supplies to Kurdish refugee camps in Iraq.Purple suiter-A military person assigned to a

joint services command.Q-8 - Kuwait.Saddam Insane - Saddam Hussein. Also called

"Saddy," "Sammy," and the "Baghdad Buffoon."Sandbar-Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, from their

sandy terrain.Scud-A Russian-made ballistic missile.Shield-107-The Armed Forces Radio station

operating in the combat zone.Slimed- To get hit by chemical weapons.Stormin' Norman - Gen. Norman Schwarz-

kopf, the U.S. commander.Turn'n'burn - Rapid refueling and rearming of

an aircraft, often without turning off the engine. Re-ferred to any action carried out quickly.

Wadi-A dry river gulch in the desert which canflood quickly during a rain.

Web gear- Tools and pouches carried on webbelts, and the belts themselves.

ATE 9

10 ENGINEER UPDATE February2001

Seattle rebuildscentury-old jetty

By Patricia GraesserSeattle District

At the south end of what is now OceanShores, Wash., the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers set out a century ago to tamethe Pacific Ocean. To provide a less haz-ardous route for shippers to enter GraysHarbor ports, the Corps sought to forceharbor outflow into a single channel thatwould self-scour with its own volume andvelocity.

To direct harbor outflow, Seattle Dis-trict built the south jetty at Westport in1902 and the north jetty at Ocean Shoressoon after. By 1910, the Corps had com-pleted a north jetty, originally 10,000 feetlong and an elevation of plus five feet meanlower low water (+5 mllw). Between1910 and 1913 the Corps extended thejettyto 17,200 feet, and in 1916 the Corpsraised its height to +8 mllw. During 1941and 1942, an 8,228-foot section was builtto +20 mllw.

After decades of ocean waves, the jettydeteriorated. By the 1970s, the north jetty

required major maintenance. In 1976, thedistrict performed a huge rehabilitationproject, placing 120,000 tons of eight-tonrocks and 80,000 tons of 14-ton rocks.

By 1999, the average height of the jettyhad fallen to between 16 and 20 feet, andgaps developed where the elevation was+ 14 feet or below.

Over time, the harbor entrance has losta significant amount of sediment from theareas north and south of the jetty, accord-ing to a design analysis by Eric Nelson, adistrict hydraulic engineer. The protec-tion once afforded by the sandbar has beenlost, and ocean storm waves approachingfrom the southwest now pound the northjetty.

In the severe winter of 1999, stormwaves more than 20 feet high widened anddamaged areas of the jetty and loweredportions of the top elevation to + 13 mllw.The Corps advertised a major rehabilita-tion project last April and awarded a con-tract last July, originally for $6.2 million,to Roglins, Inc., a local contractor.

Before beginning construction, the

A mobile crane places a 14-ton stone wnile a neavy trailer brings in anotnerone. (Photo courtesy of Seattle District)

Corps and Roglins resolved public con-cerns regarding the project's potential im-pacts to local roads. Trucks would be haul-ing huge, heavy rock along seven miles ofcity roads, and the city's residents didn'twant to suffer potential consequences.

To dispel worries, Seattle District andthe contractor negotiated a deal in whichRoglins would smooth some existing dipsin the road before hauling began, andwould be responsible for repairing haul-ing damage to the roads during and afterconstruction.

This season's rehabilitation project in-cluded placing 57,100 tons of class A (14-ton) rocks and 10,400 tons of smaller stone.

Congressional funding for the rehabilita-tion work ended up short of the originalcontract - down to $4.3 million. Never-theless, the rehab brought a large sectionof the jetty up to a height of +23 feet. Theadded height won't prevent flood damage,but it should reduce the volume and in-tensity of water overtopping duringstorms.

Rock hauling wrapped up at the begin-ning of January, according to project man-ager Mark Howard and resident engineerBill Brooker.

"The city is real pleased," said Howard."And for all the concerns beforehand, wereceived no real complaints."

Float-in technology used to extend lockBy Steve Wright

and David ConleyHuntington District

Extending the auxiliary lock chamber at Greenup Locksand Dam on the Ohio River would have been easier andperhaps less expensive using float-in technology. Theobstacle was the river's depth, according to design engi-neer David Conley.

"Bedrock at Greenup is 15 feet below the lower poolelevation and we need a minimum of 25 feet to float-in the(concrete) lock wall extensions," Conley said. So Hun-tington engineers chose a different approach to extend theexisting auxiliary 600-foot lock chamber another 600 feetwith minimal disruption to Ohio River navigation traffic.

They plan to use lift-in technology. The chamber wallswill be built on-site using 125 pre-cast concrete buildingblocks and wall panels, and the district proposes to liftthem into place with a 350 to 400-ton floating crane.

The lock chamber extension will extend the landwardauxiliary lock wall 600 feet and the middle wall betweenthe two lock chambers 145 feet, and includes a new mitergate on the downstream end of the extended chamber.

The primary element of the extension is towers that are21 feet square, 36 feet high and spaced 11 feet apart. After

these towers are placed andfilled with concrete, the ex-

Stended lock chamber wallsare developed aroundthem. The tower is a pre-cast building block weigh-ing 325 tons, although theheaviest piece is not solid.It has a hollow frameworkdivided internally by one-foot thick walls into fournine-foot-square chambersor shafts 36 feet long. Theexternal walls of the 21-foot square tower are also

avon a foot thick. As a result,Navig ation framework towers weighonly 25 percent of what

they would weigh without the four hollow shafts. Thismakes them easier to lift and place.

Before placing the towers, an average of three feet ofcracked, fractured, or weathered bedrock is excavated. Thetower is lifted in by the floating crane and placed withinthe wall alignment. The horizontal placement accuracy isplus or minus 12 inches. The towers will have four hy-draulic legs for vertical positioning. These hydraulic legswill compensate up to three feet for vertical alignment.

Concrete placement. Once the tower is aligned,sandbags will be placed around the base to seal the bottomof the tower. The first concrete lift of five feet will plugand seal the base of the structure and grout it to the bed-rock. This concrete will be placed underwater using thetremie (pipe-in) method.

The second placement will fill each shaft in a single 31-foot lift. At this point when the shafts or chambers arefilled, and the tower mass will increase from a 325-ton pre-cast framework to 1,200 tons. In total, 23 towers will bebuilt to complete the chamber extension- 17 on the land-ward wall, four to the middle wall, and two end or bull-nose towers to complete each of the walls.

Pre-cast wallpanels. Each pre-cast tower willhave corbels or extensions to which wall panels will beattached. The pre-cast wall panels with correspondingcorbels are 32 feet long, 40 feet tall, 1.5 feet thick, andweigh 150 tons. These corbels allow the towers to have ahorizontal placement of plus or minus 12 inches. Thewall panels serve two functions. They form the lock cham-ber wall, and they act as stay-in-place formwork for con-crete lifts. The final alignment of the wall panels must bewithin plus or minus half an inch to form a smooth cham-ber wall. The panels will also contain wall armor andrequired items like mooring bits.

Once panels are fastened to the towers by the corbelextensions, the area between the towers and panels will befilled with tremie concrete. Typical construction woulduse several 10-foot thick horizontal lifts of concrete. Butthe district plans to rotate the lift to form a single eight-foot-wide, 30-foot-tall vertical lift to fill the cavity. Afterthis, the remaining cavity will be completed with conven-

tional cast-in-place concrete. With the extended lock wallscomplete, new miter gates will be installed.

This lift-in method of building lock walls provides im-portant cost-savings benefits. Since the lift-in approachcan be accomplished underwater, there are considerablesavings in eliminating a cofferdam. Cofferdams are steelsheet walls that form a dam around a construction area inthe river. The water behind the walls is pumped out soconstruction can take place in the dry. Eliminating thecofferdam alone saves $15-20 million. More important, acofferdam would close both chambers for two to threeyears, causing severe impact to the shipping industry.

The only remaining alternative is to build a new lockchamber landward of the existing chambers. This wouldcost about $350 million. So, using new in-the-wet buildingmethods cut the cost of the Greenup project in half.

Another cost-saving feature is that lift-in constructionallows a series of short closures, instead of one long clo-sure. Current plans call for two 27-hour, five 40-hour, andseveral 12-hour closures. After each closure, backed-upbarges will lock through before the next shutdown.

A second state-of-the-art construction feature of theGreenup lock chamber expansion is the extension of theapproach walls. These walls extend beyond the lock cham-bers to shield tows from river currents and to help align thetows so they can enter the lock chambers.

Floating ConcM e. These will be permanent float-ing concrete walls. The walls will be built of concretebox-like pontoons. These walls will range in length from250 to 1,300 feet long, 38 to 42 feet wide, with a height of15 feet. The internal pontoon structure is a series of water-tight chambers 20 feet long.

The floating walls will be held in place by two pylons,one at the existing lock wall and the other at the nose pier atthe far end of the wall. The pylon height is set eight feetabove the 1937 flood of record. This allows the floatingwalls to rise and fall with the level of the river. Four float-ing walls are proposed - a 1,300-foot upstream middlewall; a 1,300-foot upstream guard wall; a 1,135 foot down-stream land wall, and a 250 foot downstream guard wall.

If the project starts on schedule, construction could be-gin in FY03. The cost projection is $175.5 million.

February2001 ENGINEER UPDATE 11

Winter ice is major problem in locks;CRREL models examine solutions

By Andrew TuthillCRREL

The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., allow deep-draft vessels to pass from Lake Superior to the lowerGreat Lakes and St. Lawrence River system. Althoughthe locks are closed to winter-long navigation, opera-tors face serious ice problems when the locks reopen inearly spring.

Broken lake ice pushed ahead of downbound shipscan make it difficult or impossible for the vessels toenter the locks. Existing solutions such as locking theice separately through the main lock or an adjacentsmaller lock result in delays and increased costs to thenavigation industry.

Models

A physical model study conducted at the Cold Re-gions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL)examined a range of alternatives to improve ice passageat the Soo Locks. Engineers built the 1:36 scale physi-cal model in CRREL's Refrigerated Research Facility.This model included the 1,200-foot-long, 110-foot-widePoe Lock, the adjacent 800o80-foot MacArthur Lock,plus the upstream approach canal.

Model tests evaluated the performance of high-flowair curtains to deflect broken ice accumulations awayfrom the entrance to the Poe Lock. Air curtain arraysand point source bubblers were also tested for breakingice jams in the upstream approach of the MacArthurLock, and high-flow point source bubbler arrays weredeveloped in the model to relieve ice congestion in frontof the downstream miter gates of the Poe Lock. Re-searchers also tested a model water cannon for clearingice and breaking jams.

Deflectors

Of the alternatives tested in the model, the deflectorcurtain has the greatest potential for relieving the ice

The vessel Stewart J. Cort travels through Poe Lock under heavy Ice conditions. (U.S. Army photo byAllen Jewell)

problems at the Soo Locks. Deflecting heavy ice accu-mulations was possible in the model only ifa relativelyice-free receiving area was maintained in the approachto the MacArthur Lock. Additional compressor capac-ity would be needed to deflect thick accumulations ofice, and a diffuser manifold resistant to vessel propellerwash would have to be installed in the wet.

Model tests demonstrated that adding two high-flow,point source bubblers would relieve the ice congestion

Ice pushed ahead of a model vessel is deflected by an air curtain into a model of the MacArthur Lockapproach. (U.S. Army photo by P. Keene)

in front of the downstream miter gates of the Poe Lockand reduce the need for gate fanning. One bubbler wouldbe located at the gate nose, and the second 60 feet infront of the gate nose. The point source bubblers wouldoperate together with the existing miter gate recess bub-blers.

To maintain an ice-free receiving area for ice deflectedfrom the entrance to the Poe Lock, ice must be flushedthrough the MacArthur Lock. Although currently notfeasible in the prototype, skimming surface water andice over the emergency bulkheads of the MacArthurLock was an extremely efficient ice clearing method inthe model.

Prototypes

Jams in the tapering portion of the MacArthur Lockapproach hinder ice conveyance into the MacArthurLock chamber. To solve this problem, point sourcebubblers were located at intervals along the channel sidesand deployed sequentially from downstream to upstreamto dislodge the jams.

Last winter during a lock dewatering, point sourcebubblers were installed in front of the downstream mi-ter gates of the Poe Lock.This March, when thenavigation season re- .opens, CRREL engineerswill be at Soo Locks tomonitor their perfor-mance and compare pro-totype and model results.

At this point, if theearly winter weather isany indication, thereshould be some seriousice conditions during theearly part of the 2001navigation season.

(Andrew Tuttle is are-search engineer with NavigationCRREL.) Navigation

12 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001

NavigationKeeping the Nation's Harborsand Waterways Operational

Miss. River copes with major oil spillBy John Hall

New Orleans District

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played a multi-part role in helping the Coast Guard, navigators, andgovernment scientists cope with one of America's larg-est oil spills since the Exxon Valdez made history in1989.

The 890-foot tanker Westchesterspilled 544,400 gal-lons of Nigerian crude into the Mississippi River afterstriking an unknown object on Nov. 28, about 57 milesdownriver from New Orleans.

New Orleans District's contributions included:* Supplying data to help the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) track the oil'ssubtler movements.

* Deploying a sonar-equipped boat to scan for ob-jects that may have ruptured the Westchester, and to re-survey bottom contours.

* With traffic halted on the Mississippi, the districtre-routed one-and-a-half months' worth of ocean-boundships through an already busy Corps lock in 24 hours.

Cooperation"This port benefited by such quiet, behind-the-scenes

cooperation from many agencies," said J. Ron Brinson,president of the Port of New Orleans. "The Corps ofEngineers helped navigation return to normal inAmerica's greatest port complex and aided the environ-mental work as well."

The outbound ships used the Industrial Canal Lockin New Orleans to reach open water via the MississippiRiver-Gulf Outlet, a 70-mile-long, Corps-built water-way.

"On Nov. 29-30, we handled 27 lockings [the aver-age] in 24 hours, plus six ships. This is 50 percent moreships than we normally have in a month," said DavidLabruzzi, the head lock operator.

Only mini-ships can use the lock's 625-foot chamber,but passing them takes 45 minutes, almost twice the

time required for the inland barges and towboats thatare the lock's main users. Larger ships, including someturned away by lock operators, were forced to remain atriver wharves or anchorages until the Coast Guard re-opened the Mississippi.

Sonar boat

The Westchester spill occurred near Port Sulphur.Around the area, the W-46, one of the district's surveyboats, searched with side-scan sonar and determined wa-ter depth with hydrographic survey equipment.

"We didn't find anything that could have been thecause of the ship's hull rupture," said GregoryBreerwood, Assistant Chief of Operations. "We diddetermine that the bottom contours are the same asshown on hydro charts and used by pilots. The shippingchannel is wide and deep, and there has been little changein the river bottom in the area for a long time."

Helping NOAA

Within 10 days, most of the oil was stranded on shore-lines within 10 miles of Fort Jackson, or 18 miles belowthe spill. In addition to dispersion, some of the light oilwas evaporating.

That left a major, potential hiding place that worriedpeople from NOAA's Hazard Materials Response Divi-sion in Seattle, Wash. - How much oil was going to thebottom through a process known as sediment scaveng-ing? Oil molecules can attach to sedimentary particlesand sink.

"We needed data" to understand how dispersion,evaporation, and scavenging were divvying up the oil,NOAA's Marc Hodges said. "As temperatures and sa-linities increase, both dispersion and scavenging in-crease."

New Orleans District's Hydraulics and HydrologicBranch helped track down the data. Rodney Mach cor-related chloride concentrations and flows along the riverthat helped NOAA to determine surface salinity. AndJerry Gogreve came up with historical data and localexpertise about the seasonally low river flow at the time.

"Based on this data and real-time observations, wewere able to rule out concerns about significant quanti-ties of oil being lost subsurface," Hodges said.

Another significant Corps contribution helped dealwith the oil's being stranded at the outset by the highesttide for two weeks to come. The Corps' "importantinformation provided the Incident Command with po-tential timing on when stranded oil might be refloated,"said NOAA's Debbie Peyton.

ResultsBy Dec. 28, hundreds of workers were completing

the Coast Guard's clean up. Oil was blamed for thedeaths of seven birds, and wildlife people cleaned 13more. Recovery crews collected more than 555,000 gal-lons of oil emulsified with water and 2,218 tons of oilysand.

The tanker Westchester struck an obstacle and spilled 544,400 gallons of oil into the Mississippi River. (Photos courtesy of New Orleans)

February 2001 ENGINEER UPDATE 13

High-tech system saves lives, propertyCommunities along two flood-prone

river systems in West Virginia are turningto Pittsburgh District for innovative early-warning systems to save lives and protectproperty. Working with the West VirginiaOffice of Emergency Services, the districthas shown that non-structural alternativescan reduce flood damages at far lower costthan large-scale reservoirs. In 1988, thedistrict implemented a linked system ofstream and rainfall gauges, plus comput-erized forecasting software, along theCheat River. Now, another system hasbeen designed to serve in the Tygart RiverBasin, with completion in late 2001.

Both systems provide from six to 10additional hours of warning of floodcrests, enough time for local governmentsto plan building and street closings orcomplete evacuations. For some smallcommunities in the steep mountains ofNorthern West Virginia, this extra warn-ing time can mean the difference betweenlife and death.

Engineers have long realized that mas-sive flood control reservoirs are simplynot feasible for protecting small commu-nities such as Belington and Philippi,W.Va. Cost-benefit studies generally can-not support such large constructionprojects, and residents understandablywant protection now, not in the 9 to 15years that it could take to build a dam.Often, suitable locations for dams do noteven exist in the rugged mountains.

For Philippi and Belington, the currentlimited system of National Weather Ser-vice (NWS) rain and river gauges can notprovide sufficient flood warning, sincethreatening conditions in the remote head-waters may still go unnoticed. Last Feb-ruary proved this when a 10-year floodevent crested before residents could movethemselves or belongings to higher ground.

To help solve the problem, PittsburghDistrict turned to technology it used a fewyears ago in the Cheat River basin, also inWest Virginia. Fully designed and builtin just 18 months for $500,000, thedistrict's first such system has been fullyoperational since March 1998 and in-dcludes state-of-the-art integration into theNWS's Integrated Flood Observing andWarning System (IFLOWS).

When a similar system is in place in theTygart Basin, local emergency officialswill receive improved forecasts and up-stream condition reports. Also, they willhave expanded capability to compute theirown, more accurate flood forecasts.Coupled with flood inundation mappingrecently completed by the Cold RegionsResearch and Engineering Laboratory,this valuable tool will help them assesspotential flooding and initiate emergencyoperations.

As part of this new flood warning sys-tem, the district developed a computerhydrologic model of the Tygart Basin,using the Corps' HEC-HMS software todetermine average travel times betweenthe selected stream-gauge sites. The modelwas calibrated against past floods, usingexisting unit hydrographs and stage-dis-charge curves where available. In remoteheadwaters, synthetic unit hydrographsand curves had to be developed.

Implementing the newer system will bea genuine team effort, involving the U.S.

High-tech stream gauges (left) and rain gauges with radio transmitters arepart of an innovative non-structural flood damage reduction project in WestVirginia. (Photos courtesy of Pittsburgh District)

Geological Survey, NWS, the state Emer-gency Office, and the cities. Reconnais-sance field visits by Corps hydrologic en-gineering technicians were a critical linkin locatingpotential stream-gauge sites inthe Tygart Basin headwaters. Attachinggauges to existing state highway bridgeswhere possible simplified real estate re-quirements.

Another major effort involved locatinghilltop sites for additional radio repeaterstations, so that signals from the newgauges can be relayed across the region.Once identified, the NWS conducted ra-dio-path studies to confirm that the re-peater sites were adequate.

The cost of the proposed system is esti-mated to be $600,000. It falls under Sec-tion 581 of the 1996 Water ResourcesDevelopment Act, which authorized aminimum of 100-year-flood protection in

certain communities and basins in southcentral Pennsylvania and northern WestVirginia

Eventually, levees and floodwalls willbe built in Philippi and Belington underSection 581. However, the warning sys-tem offers a critical extra measure of safetyfor the short term. Over the long haul, itwill provide basin-wide enhanced warn-ings, and can make a life-or-death differ-ence in the cities, if the design flood isexceeded and levees are overtopped.Other nonstructural measures planned in-clude raising some homes above the 100-year level in areas not enclosed by leveesand floodwalls, and buyouts are a possi-bility, if feasible.

West Virginia is the cost-sharing spon-sor of the flood-warning systems. Al-though they were designed primarily tobenefit Belington and Philippi as directed

by Congress, the sponsor can easily ex-pand its coverage to benefit many othercommunities in the Tygart Basin at rela-tively minimal extra expense.

To improve accuracy in predicting theflood crest, the district proposed placingfour new stream gauges in the Tygart head-waters. Seven existing stream gauges willbe upgraded into the IFLOWS network.Two new radio repeater sites will be es-tablished to supplement four existingones. All of the new and upgraded streamgauges and the new radio repeaters willalso receive winterized rain gauges.

The new and upgraded equipment willhave redundant communication systems,which are necessary because storms candisable communication when it is mostneeded. Besides two-way radio connec-tion to the IFLOWS backbone, there willbe satellite linkage to the NWS Geosta-tionary Orbital Environmental Station,plus telephone communication.

The Corps will purchase new computerworkstations for the two cities and theBarbour County emergency managementoffice. A computerized capability will bedeveloped to identify which structureswill be affected by flooding and when, sothat automatic warnings can be given, pos-sibly by phone or even cable television.

As the project's local sponsor, West Vir-ginia will be responsible for maintainingthe new gauges and radio repeater stations.The NWS will continue to maintain theexisting IFLOWS rain gauges.

Based on the experience in the CheatRiver System, local emergency managersare satisfied with its performance to date.In fact, word of Pittsburgh District's ex-pertise in this field has reached beyondthe region. A delegation from Poland re-cently visited the district for advice fromCorps hydrologic and hydraulic engineerson a potential similar flood warning sys-tem for the Oder River system.

(This article was a joint effort in Pitts-burgh District.)

New technique saves bulkheadsBy Ed Voigt

Philadelphia District

A European innovation made its NorthAmerican debut Oct. 19 on the Jerseyshore alongthe Point Pleasant Canal. Thisinnovation, which has been in use in Eu-rope for a number of years, is called DZI,or Dry Setting Installation. Essentially aminiature, mobile cofferdam that replacesthe work of divers, the DZI allows dryinspection and maintenance of submergedstructures - in this case, the steel sheetpile bulkheads that line both banks of thecanal as part of the Philadelphia District'sNew Jersey Intracoastal Waterway navi-gation project.

At the heart of the DZI are its patentedsteel-and-rubber teeth custom-designed tofit different bulkhead shapes, that get at-tached to the one open side ofa three-sidedrectangular box. When the box is low-ered into place by crane with the open sideagainst the face of the bulkhead, the rub-ber pads on the teeth form a tight seal withthe bulkhead. A submersible pump then

removes all the water from inside the box,leaving a safe, dry space for inspectors andskilled trades to do their work.

DZI is the property ofAcotec, N.V., aFinnish company incorporated in Bel-gium. Acotec's main business is inspec-tion and repair of steel sheet piles, whichthey are doing as the district's operationand maintenance contractor at PointPleasant in response to recent public con-cerns about the bulkhead's integrity.

This first U.S. use of DZI allowed Phila-delphia District and Acotec to do twothings at once. The first was run a com-parison between sand and water blastingto see which cleans bulkheads better andfaster. The second was test anotherAcotecproduct, Humidur, an epoxy-based pro-tective coating that can be submerged im-mediately after application.

"We have Humidur applications inEurope that have been holding off dete-rioration for more than 20 years," saysAcotec U.S. representative DavidSciacchitano.

"DZI does several things for us," said

project engineer Tom Heary of Civil andStructural (C&S) Section. "Most impor-tant, it allows for much more accurate in-spection than even the most experienceddivers can perform. Not only can weclearly see the condition of the bulkhead,we can also take full advantage of elec-tronic thickness gages that tell us wherethe steel is about to wear through.

"Along with accuracy comes speed,Heary continued. "Setup time is morethan compensated by the ease of inspect-ing and making repairs in the dry versusunderwater. And of course the dry condi-tions make for faster and better results."

"The combination of DZI and theHumidur coating offer the district a tre-mendous cost-saving opportunity," saidC&S Section Chief Tony DePasquale."The bulkheads at Point Pleasant arereaching the end oftheir effective lifespan(they range from 25 to 35 years old), butthis new approach can extend that lifespanwith spot repairs instead of replacement.The long-term savings to the district?Somewhere upwards of $25 million."

14 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001

Kansas engineer is part-time rocker

Randy Kuznlakowski plays lead guitar with theLost Dogl rock band.

Article and PhotoBy George Hanley

Kansas City District

In the world of rock and roll, lead guitar is the pointman for solos and is always in the limelight. He's the onewhose music is most prominent on the recordings, whogets in all the photos. It's a position that most people haveprobably fantasized about, even if only briefly.

Randy Kuzniakowski, a civil engineer with Kansas CityDistrict, is living that fantasy, even though he would bevoted least likely to be a drug-free Jimi Hendrix. The 11-year KCD veteran is quiet and deliberate - good quali-ties for an engineer, but not a great fit for a career pathfamous for outrageous behavior.

The Lost Dog! Bandtraces its name to two sources -Kuzniakowski's habit oftaking in stray dogs, and the signsfound on every subdivision's lamp poles- "LOST DOG."Lost Dog! Is currently a four-piece band playing in theKansas City area. They play most popular rock-and-rollcover songs from the 1970s up through today's music.Other band members are Kent Allen on the keyboard,Jim Hillard on bass, and Paul Allen on drums. "Of allthe members, I have the least playing experience," saidKuzniakowski. "I feel lucky to have hooked up with thegreat group of players that comprises Lost Dog!"'

The trail to local fame has not been short, easy, or evenprofitable. It has been a labor of love that began inKuzniakowski's teen years. He just played with friendsand at parties for 10 years or so, and experienced a renais-sance in 1995 when he hooked up with a keyboard player.That was the bare-bones beginning of Lost Dog!

Kuzniakowski played his first professional gig (the paywas free beer) in suburban Lee's Summit, Mo., two daysbefore leaving for a year to work on a master's degree atVirginia Tech.

Professional engineers (even star professional engi-neers) don't get much chance for the kind of raucous adu-lation that rock stars get. Kuzniakowski's professionalengineering career began with the district in 1989 as anintern freshly minted at the University of Missouri atRolla. He rotated through various divisions, with hisbiggest project being construction oversight for a buriedcollector system for seepage through the foundation atKanopolis Dam. For several years, he worked on theBrush Creek Project in Kansas City, and he is currentlyworking on a remediation of the stilling basin at WilsonDam.

So Kuzniakowski has done well as an engineer, butthose projects offered few (if any) opportunities to be thecenter of attention or adulation. It's 'way different play-ing lead guitar for Lost Dog! Band. "I'll never forget thefirst time the band was flashed," Kuzniakowski said.According to one member of his retinue, Kuzniakowski"has developed a troupe of adoring female fans who faith-fully attend the Lost Dogs!gigs just to see him play."

Despite all the attention, Kuzniakowski still sees rockand roll as a hobby. "I do this just for fun," he said."Engineering pays a lot better at this point in my life."

That could change overnight. The group has alreadyrecorded an original song, " Under," for friends. A sup-porter believes Kuzniakowski is "one of the hottest andmost attractive guitar players on the Kansas City musicscene. He is destined for rock star fame."

Corps man plays champion handballArticle and Photos

By Bill PeoplesNashville District

Whack! Whamp! Uggah!A man dressed in a white t-shirt, red

shorts, eye protection, and fraying leathergloves flings himself across a hardwoodcourt to hit a small blue ball as he avoidsrunning into his opponent or the wall.

Well, most of time. The "Uggah!"washim slamming into the wall.

While many Corps employees prefermilder recreation, Dave Hendrix, teamleader for the Flood Plain ManagementServices Section, is a handball player. Hegets his exercise whacking a small ballaround a court 40 feet long, 20 feet wide,and 20 feet high, with a back wall 12 to 14feet high.

Hendrix is very good, having recentlywon the Tennessee State Handball Tour-nament in singles and doubles for his divi-sion.

"I've been playing since my freshmanyear in college," said the 43-year-old en-gineer. "I was trying to find a phys edclass, and handball was the only thingopen. I really enjoyed it and had a knackfor playing it. I play in the B level, whichis the next level down from the Open levelwhere the professionals play."

Handball is one of the oldest ball gamesand can be traced back to the baths ofRome. As the name implies, you hit theball with the palm of the hand, althoughthe back of the hand can be used. Glovesmust be worn to prevent moisture fromaffecting the ball. The immediate fore-runner of the modern game was developedin Ireland about 1,000 years ago. In the

(Left)Dave Hendrix demonstrates his power serve. (Right) Hendrixconcentrates as he catches the ball off the back of the court.modern game, the ball, the four-wallcourt, and the scoring system was devel-oped in the 1800s, and came to Americain the 1880s.

The ball is made of rubber, measuresalmost two inches in diameter, and weighsabout 1.5 to 1.75 ounces. The game isplayed to 21 points, and requires a combi-nation of skills that few other sports de-mand.

"You have to have good hand-eye coor-dination," said Hendrix. "You have to beable to use both hands. You need a com-bination of dexterity, speed, endurance,power, flexibility, and quickness to cutshots offthe wall. It's also a mental game.You have to anticipate, based on the shotyou hit, what the other guy will be able to

do, and what do you need to do next. Ittakes both physical and mental abilities towin."

Since racquetball came along, there arefewer handball players around, saidHendricks. In Nashville, there are about45-50 who play regularly, and most ofthem play at the Downtown YMCA."I try to play twice a week," said

Hendricks. "If I'm getting ready fora tour-nament I'll throw in a couple extra times.My body can't stand more than two orthree real hard days. The joints don't lastas long as the rest of you does."

Hendricks has been playingin handballtournaments since college and says it isjust his competitive nature. As in anysport, how one practices and plays in a

tournament are different."In tournament play, you spend the first

part of the first game figuring out what theother guy's weaknesses are," said Hendrix."Ifyou ever get somebody that has a weakspot on the court, in tournamentplayyou'llhit it there every time. You're playing towin and win as easily as you can. You canplay as many as five or six matches in aweekend. We play the best-out-of-threematches. If you keep them down to win-ning those first two games, it is really im-portant as the weekend goes on. The big-gest difference between tournament playand everyday play is that in a tournamentyou find the other person's weakness andhit it there every time. In practice, I'llwork on a variety of shots and so will myopponent."

When he's not playing basketball, golf,and handball, Hendrix is the floodplainmanagement expert for Nashville District.According to Hendrix, floodplain man-agement has grown rapidly as more op-portunities open up to provide these ser-vices to more people, so the tenacity hehas developed playing handball pays offin his job.

Hendrix's next athletic challenge in-volves kids.

"I want to help start a youth programfor handball at the YMCA inMurfreesboro," said Hendrix. "There arefewer and fewer people playing the gameand there are not that many places to play.It's such a great game that I want to helppass the sport along to others. In that vein,if there's anyone out there who wants toplay or learn handball, I'd be more thanhappy to help them get started and workwith them."

February 2001 ENGINEER UPDATE

Around the CorpsEngineer Dinner

The annual Engineer Dinner hosted by Lt. Gen. Rob-ert Flowers, Chief of Engineers, is set for Feb. 22 at6:30 p.m., in the Fort Belvoir Officers' Club. The costis $34 per person, and RSVPs must be received by Feb.14. Dress is Army mess dress or Army blue with bowtie for military, and black tie optional for civilians. Thisinvitation is open to all active duty, reserve, NationalGuard, and retired engineer officers. For more infor-mation, please call the Protocol Office at (202) 761-0045 or 1220.

Cost Engineer of the YearKaren Schofield of Planning/Engineering in New En-

gland District is theCorps' Cost Engineer ofthe Year. The annualawardis given to one costengineer, military or ci-vilian, in recognition ofhis or her contributionto --

the cost engineering pro-fession.

Schofield was recog-nized for her contribu-tions as a member of thenational subcommitteesresponsible for develop- Karen Schofield is theing the TRACES Unit Corps' Cost Engineer ofPrice Book, and M32, the Year. (Photo courtesythe next generation soft- of New England District)ware for cost-estimating.

She received the award at the Tri-Services Cost Engi-neering Committee Conference in Las Vegas.

Project delivery awardTwo Huntsville Center teams were recognized at the

recent Corps' Project Delivery Team Conference in Se-attle. The Energy Savings Performance ContractingTeamearned the Project Delivery Team Merit Award, and theRussian (chemical demilitarization support) Team earnedan honorable mention.

The Energy Savings Performance Contracting Teamserves 48 customers. The team works in partnership withits customers, Corps districts, and contractors to lever-age private investment in infrastructure improvementsthat produce energy conservation savings. The resultingenergy cost saving is shared between the governmentagency and the contractor.

The Russian Team has the mission ofjump-startingthedestruction of chemical weapons for the Russian Federa-tion. The team is helping the federation design and builda facility to destroy chemical weapons. They operateunder the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, cre-ated in 1991 to reduce the threat from weapons of massdestruction produced by the former Soviet Union.

New environmental newsletterThe first edition of The Corps Environment is now

available for Corps employees and others interested inthe Corps' environmental work.

The 16-page quarterly publication, a product of theDirectorate of Military Program's Environmental Divi-sion, focuses on the environmental work performed bythe Corps as a whole. It is a combination of two formerCorps publications, The Restoration Reporterand theOrdnance & Explosives Environment.

The first issue, which came out in mid-January, is avail-able in print, through e-mail to Corps employees, and onthe worldwide web at http://hq.environmental.usace.army.mil/newsinfo/The_Corps_Environment.pdf. It also is available on theDefense Environmental Network and InformationeXchange, DENIX.

The next issue is slated for April. To contribute an

article, contact Kimberly Gillespie, editor of The CorpsEnvironment, atKimberley.C.Gillespie@HND01.usace.army.mil.

RescueJoe Stutzer, an electrical repairman at Foster Dam in

Portland District, was walking across nearby Green Pe-ter Dam when he spotted someone in the water and rusheddown the embankment to his aid.

Leo Billman, driving by on the road that crosses thedam, parked his car, and also went to help. He foundStutzer helping the man keep his head above water, butunable to pull him onto the steep, rocky shoreline. Stutzerasked Billman to keep the victim's head above water, thenran to the dam to call other crew members to help.

The Foster Dam maintenance crew (who were work-ing at Green Peter Dam that day) got rope, a stretcher,and blankets, then went to help. Billman was still sup-porting the man when they arrived. Ray Bonneville, BillSmith, and Stutzer tied the man onto the stretcher, andthe rest of the crew stayed above the bank to pull thestretcher to safety.

The man was in his 80s and had been fishing whenrocks underfoot slipped and he fell into the reservoir. Hewas cold, slightly disoriented, and had a minor cut on hishand, but otherwise appeared in good condition.Bonneville and John Gross drove the man to the SweetHome fire department and left him with the paramedics.

Hammer AwardsCharles Korhonen, a research civil engineer with the

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory(CRREL), and National Public Lands Day, have receivedthe Vice President's Hammer Award. The award recog-nizes government workers or teams who put customersfirst, empower employees, cut red tape, and get results.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) faced a dilemmaat the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant near Chattanooga,Tenn. The concrete floors in its ice-storage rooms hadheaved from frost and needed repair. But the work had tobe done under tight time constraints during a nuclear re-fueling outage, and at minus eight degrees centigrade.Ordinary concrete cannot cure under those conditions.Shutdown of the ice-storage rooms was not acceptable,since each day down cost $1 million in lost revenue.

Korhonen, working with TVA, Singleton Labs, and aprivate material and concrete construction consultant,developed a concrete that could be placed, consolidated,finished, and cured at below-freezing temperatures.

"This technology could extend the concrete construc-tion season by several months in much of NorthAmerica," said Korhonen. "Currently, the U.S. construc-tion industry spends about $1 billion dollars per year forheated enclosures to place concrete at below-freezingtem-peratures. Much of that could be saved by adopting thisnew low-temperature concrete."

The Corps and eight other federal agencies, plus theNational Environmental Education and Training Foun-dation, developed National Public Lands Day (NPLD)into a nationwide celebration. The event takes place onthe last Saturday in September. Federal land managersdesign hands-on projects for volunteers who build trailsand bridges, make facilities handicapped accessible, im-prove buildings and wildlife habitat, remove invasiveplants, restore shorelines, protect cultural resources, andperform many other projects.

NPLD has grown from one agency (Bureau of LandManagement), three sites, and 700 volunteers in 1994, tonine agencies, more than 250 sites, and 30,000 volun-teers last September.

Flint RiverDetroit District recently rehabilitated the inflatable

dam on the Flint River. They replaced the mechanismused to maintain the Flint River's water levels by remov-ing the Fabridam and installing a new Obermeyer dam

V.H. Easterwood, Midlothian Water District (left);David Setzer, mayor of Midlothian; HaroldBarnard, Trinity River Authority; and Col. GordonWells, Fort Worth District Engineer, hold theprepayment of the water district's $29,279,879.96debt for water storage at Joe Pool Lake in Texas.The river authority is the local sponsor for the lake,and committed almost 40 percent of its watersupply to the water district, which provides waterto Midlothian. The water district pays the riverauthority for the water, and the river authoritypasses the payment to the Corps. The prepaymentis thought to be the first in the Corps. (Photo byDebbie Bronson, Trinity River Authority)

for $604,000.The Obermeyer system uses a row of steel panels sup-

ported by inflatable air bladders. By controlling the airin the bladders, the upstream water level can be adjusted.The mechanical and electrical systems in the undergroundvault on the north bank will also be upgraded.

The inflatable Fabridam was installed in the late 1970sunder a Corps contract. Flint, Mich., operated it for thepast 20 years to maintain summer water levels in the riverto protect the downtown. But the Fabridam was in poorcondition and required replacement.

ArtifactsNot everything old is junk; some things are consid-

ered valuable antiques. That includes some lock equip-ment built at the turn of the last century and still in usein Pittsburgh District. A few navigation structures be-longing to the district were placed in service almost a

century ago, and the me-chanical equipment isstill in operation. But asthe locks are rebuilt, oldequipment is replacedby new.

Lock 5 on the Allegh-eny River was built be-tween 1920 and 1927and opened for opera-tion in 1927. Because ofits age, the district andthe Pennsylvania StateHistorical PreservationOffice agreed that Lock

Some of the 75-year-old 5's equipment should beequipment from Lock 5 preserved and dis-will be displayed in a played.museum. (Photo courtesy DASCO Inc. got theof Pittsburgh District) award to rehab electrical

and mechanical equip-ment and repair concrete at Lock 5. The company sal-vaged the 75-year-old hydraulic system, including a wa-ter-driven turbine and shaft, pumps, and other relatedequipment.

The equipment is currently in storage while formalagreements are finalized with the state and the Allegh-eny-Kisky Historical Society in Tarentum, Pa., whereit will be displayed.

16 ENGINEER UPDATE February 2001

'There's an angel on the mountain'Corps biologist rescues injuired hunter

By Dutch MeierWalla Walla District

The injured hunter didn't know exactlywhen the stranger appeared next to him.Hit in the leg by an accidental shot, DavidShield was locked into pain and prayer.He couldn't see clearly through the pain,so all Shield knew was that someone wasthere to help, and that he seemed calm,confident, and compassionate.

"I remember thinking to myself,'There's an angel on the mountain,"'Shield said.

The "angel" was from the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers.

Hunting accident

A freak accident while deer hunting onOct. 14 wounded Shield. He and his wifeand son were crossing a fence like the hunt-ing safety courses recommend, with therifles on safe and lying on the ground. In-vestigators speculate that one rifle slid onthe wet ground, disengaging the safety andpulling the trigger, firing the .308-caliber,bolt-action rifle. From a range of abouttwo feet, the bullet and muzzle-blastripped most of Shield's left calf muscleaway from the bone.

Pain and prayer

Disoriented by pain, in shock fromblood loss, Shield immediately started topray. "It wasn't a prayer for myself, butfor my family. I asked for help because Iwas afraid I might never be able to takecare of them again. I thought I was prob-ably going to lose my leg, but I was reas-sured and hopeful because I knew the an-gel was an answer to my prayers.

"He just seemed to appear from out ofnowhere," Shield continued. "He imme-diately reassured me I was going to bealright. I vaguely remember that he tookstock of the situation and helped my wifeand son. Then he helped her get me down-hill more than a half mile so I could getmedical attention. When we got to thebottom, suddenly, as quickly as he hadshown up, he was gone. I didn't knowwhere he went; he just disappeared."

The 'angel'

The "angel" was Phil Fishella, a waterquality biologist in the Hydrology Officeof Walla Walla District.

"I was huntingup in the hills along theSouth Fork of Coppei Creek in southeast-ern Washington around mid-morning,"Fishella said. "I'd stopped to take a breakand have a quick snack when I heard ashot. Hunters know the sound of impact,and that's what I heard. I thought to my-self that someone had just gotten their deer.

"But almost immediately afterward, Isaw thisyoungboy running down the hill,"Fishella continued. "I waved to him andhe ran over to me. He said he needed helpbecause his dad had just been shot. Natu-rally, like anyone would, I went to see if

Phil Fishella (left) meets Lori and David Shield. Fishella helped rescue David Shield after Shield was shot in ahunting accident. (Photo courtesy of Walla Walla District)there was anything I could do. When I gotthere, his wife was trying to stop the bleed-ing and comfort and help her husband."

Lori, Shield's wife of 15 years, was giv-ing first aid to slow the blood loss whenFishella arrived. Thirteen-year-old An-drew ran back down the hill to find some-one who could call for help. He foundanother hunter with a cellular phone whocalled 911, which sent a helicopter,sheriffs deputies, and ambulances.

But none of them would find Shield,because he was on the South Fork ofCoppei Creek, while emergency respond-ers were searching near the North Fork,about six miles away.

Down the mountain

Meanwhile, Fishella helped Lori getShield down the hill.

"I helped her get him up," Fishella re-called. "We propped him up between us.He held onto the sling of my rifle for sup-port, then the three of us started down thehill. On the way, I wanted to keep himtalking to us. He wanted some water andto lie down. I didn't think that was a goodidea, so I used the promise of water as anincentive to keep him moving. We talkedabout anythingand everythingto keep himgoing. At some point, I told them I workedat the local Corps office, and that this wasmy first hunt in Washington since movinghere earlier this year."

Near the bottom, two other hunters

took over for Fishella and helped Lori getShield into their four-wheel-drive.Fishella quietly left them at that point, andthe other two hunters rushed Shield andhis family to St. Mary's Medical Centerin Walla Walla.

At the hospital, doctors in the emer-gency room stabilized Shield and rushedhim to an operating room. Despite themassive trauma, there was little tissue lossand surgeons were able to reattach the tornleg muscles. Then they placed Shield on award for observation.

Shield's 38th birthday was the day afterthe accident. A nurse asked him, "So whatdo you want for your birthday?"

"All I want is to regain the use of myleg," Shield replied.

Recovery

He got his wish. Shield endured six daysin the hospital and two more surgeries forskin grafts. He was discharged on crutcheswith a prognosis that his leg would healwell enough to walk on. The doctors wereright; Shield can now walk normally. OnDec. 11, he returned to his regular job asthe meat department assistant manager ina local grocery store.

Through it all, Shield remembered hisprayers for his family, and the stranger onthe mountain. Shield was still half-con-vinced the stranger had been a genuineangel.

Fishella, in the meantime, finished

hunting season without taking a deer andquietly resumed his daily routine. He saysfirst aid training he has taken through theCorps helped him respond to the emer-gency, but takes no credit for his assistance.

"The real credit goes to Dave and hisfamily," Fishella said. "I'm glad I couldhelp them, but they really came togetherin that situation."

Detective work

Being a modest and low-key man,Fishella told no one about the incident,and kept his anonymity for several weeks.But Shield and his family were determinedto find their Good Samaritan. They re-called a few vague details from the con-versation while moving down the moun-tain. The key was the mystery man's men-tion of where he worked.

They began their search by contactingWalla Walla District to see if anyone couldtrack down the person who aided them,and some checking quickly pinpointedFishella. When asked, he acknowledgedhe was the man the Shield family sought.They quietly met on Dec. 8 in his office.

"We were really glad to get a chance tothank him for helping us," Shield said."Who knows how things might have comeout if he hadn't been there when weneeded someone? I got to meet my 'angelfrom the mountain' and shake his handand tell him how much I appreciated ev-erything he did for me and for us."