Throughout my life, I have always been passionate about construction, environmental stewardship and teamwork. The work I do with WSP USA is at the nexus of these three areas with a focus on protecting our natural resources in a way that benefits communities and our environment.
I remember as a kid we spent hours building small dams in neighborhood creeks or sandcastles on the beach, just to see who’s lasted the longest before washing away. It has been amazing to pursue projects that still bring me the same joy and intrigue as a kid playing in the backyard. Rest assured that my engineering process is much more refined at this point in my career, as our communities rely on the projects we design.
Young, Growing and Full of Potential
Development is a cornerstone of a healthy economy, and development in North Carolina shows no sign of slowing as our industry works to manage the process. Stream restoration, culvert retrofits, watershed management and stormwater treatment are all essential components of development and can help ensure the accessibility of clean natural resources into the future.
As the water resources lead for our Raleigh, North Carolina office, I am involved in all phases of WSP’s pursuit and delivery process for local projects. My primary responsibilities fall into three general categories: production, project management and business development.
Our water resources team in Raleigh is relatively young, growing and full of potential, and I spend a lot of time working directly with team members to make sure that we are winning new work and delivering quality products for our clients. I am excited and motivated by the opportunity to grow our project base according to our interests and particular skillsets.
Understanding Stormwater Management
I am deeply motivated by opportunities to better our local communities. Stormwater and environmental management is a historically underappreciated and overlooked component of society’s infrastructure that’s becoming increasingly more prevalent.
Take for example water/sewer infrastructure. Most people understand that they pay for those amenities to expand and maintain a system of pipes, pumps and treatment facilities. In some cases, stormwater conveyance infrastructure can be just as extensive, and often without the same funding sources.
Stormwater management is an area of practice that goes unnoticed if the systems are operating well, and I hope that our communities can continue to develop an understanding and appreciation for how our stormwater systems interact with the natural environment.
Infrastructure Projects and Innovations
The projects that I work on include watershed assessment and restoration, design of stormwater conveyance infrastructure, municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) program support and stormwater quality/quantity management.
One of our larger, recent design efforts in Statesville is a large North Carolina Department of Transportation highway project with a budget exceeding $200 million. The project includes approximately eight miles of roadway improvements and associated drainage conveyance modifications, as well as three Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain crossings.
I had a primary role in the hydraulic design and permitting of the project, ensuring the project did not cause an increase in flood elevations and that the roadway drainage system provided a safe facility for travel.
I also contributed to the design and construction oversight of a large-scale stormwater control measure constructed in Iredell County, which has received significant recognition from the industry for its design configuration. The practice is a first-of-its-kind measure that employs principles of treatment that are found in nature at a much smaller scale.
The measure imitates an oversized riffle/pool structure that’s typically observed in smaller natural streams, and this practice realizes water quality benefits due to infiltration, slope protection, anaerobic nutrient removal and filtration.
This design approach will frame the modeling and analysis process for similar scenarios, and the slope protection measure we utilized — specifically the articulated concrete block mattresses — is becoming more common in areas of high stress, where prevention of erosion is critical.
Additionally, the 1D hydraulic modeling we performed inspired a lot of discussion about how similar measures might benefit from 2D modeling in the future, and the scale of the project is unique and may serve as a gateway in “supersizing” other conventional stormwater control measures.
Safeguarding Urban Resources
One of the biggest challenges I hope to overcome is our approach to mitigating environmental impacts. The current process often allows impacts in urban areas to be offset by restoration in rural agricultural areas. As such streams, wetlands or buffers that are more likely to be viewed, visited and enjoyed by citizens of a community can be removed and the benefits of mitigation may only be realized by cattle and the surrounding cornfields.
I have been lucky to contribute to urban restoration projects of all sizes. The largest mitigation projects typically occur where land is cheap and restoration is easy, and while these projects have value, I do not believe the benefits truly negate the losses in terms of societal benefits such as recreation.
There are other significant hurdles that our society faces, and for drainage engineers, climate change and sustainable development are the biggest in terms of cost and impact. But in my experience, allowing residents — especially children — access to natural resources within their urban community, is the best way to raise awareness and support for proper development.
I believe that if we transition to a model that values, protects and restores resources in our urban areas, then the positive impacts will be significant.
Project Priorities
Stormwater management is a common topic in discussions regarding environmental justice, as stormwater systems in disadvantaged areas do not always receive the same amount of attention as those in wealthier regions. Sadly, this is often a case of the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
Flooding, aging infrastructure and degraded natural habitat are historically more common in low-income communities. We are consistently working with our clients to address these problems across the state of North Carolina, and we work hard to ensure that equity in design is applied, both in terms of project selection and design characteristics. In fact, WSP launched an Equity Center of Excellence in February of 2022, to unlock access for underserved communities.
Additionally, equitable education regarding stormwater issues is extremely important. Educational signage, outreach programs and stakeholder involvement is more critical in lower-income communities to ensure an understanding of priorities, design and maintenance requirements.
It is important that input is encouraged and received from all members of our communities so that projects are prioritized based on their context and individual merit, rather than which project is the “squeakiest.”
Design Storms
In the stormwater realm, one of the most prevalent strategies to improve resilience and become Future Ready® revolves around the selection of design storms, which estimate the frequency and severity of storms that hit an area within a particular time frame. The global climate has contributed to more frequent and more intense rainfall events, so extra attention is being given to the careful selection of a design storm that may even exceed dated, local standards.
Civil engineers are familiar with calculating risks, and it is not always feasible to design for the most extreme event that could possibly occur. Instead, we select an event with a reasonably low likelihood of occurrence. This may be as infrequent as a one- or two-percent chance of happening in any given year. However, the events corresponding to these percentages have changed and it is critical to change our approach as well.
A scenario that previously had a one percent chance of occurring may now be occurring with a once every ten years (10 percent chance). The process of calibrating our design criteria is extremely critical in our work and has encouraged us to coordinate more closely with climate experts and engage in broad discussions with our clients.
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