Status of engineering geology in North America and Europe1

Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

Status of engineering geology in North America and Europe1 Allen W. Hatheway a,2, George M. Reeves b,3 a Professor of Geological Engineering, Department of Geological and Petroleum Engineering, 129 McNutt Hall, University of Missouri–Rolla, Rolla, MO 65409-0230, USA b UK and European Contributor, Lecturer in Engineering Geology, Geotechnical Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

Abstract 1995–1996 has been informally declared as a watershed year for the United States in many ways. Pervasive change has been the tenor of the times and engineering geology has not escaped what the nation faces. In particular, the nation has run out of easy money and the Congressional elections of 1994 empowered a majority of new members expressing fiscal accountability. Accordingly, agencies have been given reduced budgets and programs have been slashed or removed, early retirements have been accomplished and reductions in force (RIFs) have been concluded among personnel. Priced competition for professional work reached a new and regrettable peak of use and industries struggled with successive waves of both corporate acquisitions and ‘‘downsizing’’ of stang. In the UK and Europe, drought conditions developed and became more severe during 1995. The first land link between the UK and Europe since late glacial times (the Channel tunnel rail link) developed full working schedules. The input of geotechnical engineering into this prestige international project was further demonstrated by a final series of major conferences and publications (Byrd, 1994; Institution of Civil Engineers, 1992, 1993, 1994). The major downturn in ‘‘normal’’ civil works, and the associated preparatory geotechnical investigations, for roads, redevelopment and housing, etc. continued, with many smaller site investigation and associated specialists either ‘‘downsizing’’, being subsumed into larger groups, or going out of business. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords: engineering geology; North America; Europe

1Author’s note: This first attempt at summarising the International Engineering Geology year is of necessity biased largely to the North American scene, with a small input of UK and European events and issues. The authors’ accept full responsibility for this and can make no apologies apart from repeating their to-date informal appeals for further help and input for future year’s e
orts. Constructive criticism, discussion and comment on this summary and the forthcoming 1996 review (ibid, in press) will be much appreciated, but o
ers of help, contributions of material to be included, and even o
ers for co-authors in specific geographic areas would be gratefully received. It is hoped and intended to make this annual summary a truly international review of the applied geology/geotechnical year which will become an authoritative and complete picture of the year’s major events. G.M. Reeves, December 1996. 2E-mail: [email protected] 3E-mail: [email protected]

192

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

1. Noteworthy events Right out of the starting gate, nature spoke with authority in delivering up the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake on 17 January 1995 at Kobe, Japan. A good number of American earthquake engineering specialists were in Japan at the time, attending a technical workshop. The event was adequately covered, but mainly by geotechnical engineers (Holzer, 1995). Some 30–50 km of ground rupture were among the early reports of a magnitude of about Richter 7.0. As Holzer points out, this was ‘‘the most expensive earthquake ever to occur’’, and is a close geologic analog for response behavior at Oakland, California. In the UK, the Secretary of State for the Environment called in the planning application from UK Nirex Ltd. (the company responsible for developing deep geologic disposal of Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste — ILW ). This had been made to Cumbria County Council for a Rock Characterisation Facility (RCF ), an essential first step to the development of an underground repository, at over 500 m depth, in the Silurian Borrowdale Volcanic Series rocks below the Cumbrian coast of the English Lake District. A major public inquiry commenced in September 1995 on this proposal and continued into 1996. Work continued throughout 1995 on recovery of lost ground and progress on the Heathrow Airport express railway tunnel. This major collapse of an area in the centre of the airport, being tunnelled using NATM (New Austrian Tunnelling Method) techniques, caused major disruption at the airport and in the Heathrow Express project. It brought into question the suitability of NATM in London Clay and the accusations that NATM was neither, ‘‘New’’, ‘‘Austrian’’, or a viable ‘‘method’’! A major reinstatement project using foamed concrete injected into collapse areas, traditional cast iron segmental lining, and the use of Sprayed Concrete Lining (SCL) methods in selected areas, allowed the project to proceed. This work is now being progressed by main contractor Balfour Beatty, being supported by piling work from Stent Foundations, with a major supporting instrumentation and monitoring contract being carried out by Soil Mechanics Ltd. The recovery

work involves the construction of a 60-m diameter co
erdam, the construction of six new shafts, and the use of two massive £750 000, 8.4-m diameter Dosco shields for bolted segmental lining installation. Causes of the collapse still remain obscure, but the bill to the project’s insurance will be in excess of £50M. Despite the operation of the Channel Tunnel gaining momentum from the Folkestone terminal to France and beyond on the TGV and on the European rail network, the British Channel Tunnel Link construction project (from Folkestone to London) only started in late 1995 with a completion date planned for late 1999. Geotechnical and foundations work on the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy was suspended in the summer of 1995 due to the discovery of previously unknown old foundations. The Tower Commission, charged with the plans for saving the tower decided to turn o
ground freezing equipment causing a further 2 mm movement southwards in one day. Additional lead weights placed on the tower steadied this movement. The discovery of a man-made ‘‘conglomerate’’ of boulders, rocks and bricks, bound together by lime mortar, and now pinned to the structure by 135 steel sleeves used for a grouting operation carried out in 1934, has necessitated a re-evaluation of the tower stabilisation programme. The Commission is therefore re-assessing the feasibility and benefits of both the intermediate anchoring and the proposed long-term solution of ground beam and anchors. Construction of the ‘‘Great Belt’’ (Storebaelt) crossing tunnels and bridges in Denmark continues, with the earlier tunnelling problems using machines from James Howden Ltd. of Glasgow, largely overcome. Work continued on replacing tunnel segments damaged by a fire in the partially completed tunnel in June 1994. Contracts for DKK5.2M (£640M ) were let in July 1995 for the 3.7 km Øresund immersed tube link between Denmark and Sweden. This will be the largest immersed tube in the world with 20 prefabricated elements. Amid a plethora of take-overs, mergers and ‘‘consolidations’’ in British consultants and contractors, one of the oldest established companies,

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

Binnie and Partners (set up in 1890 and now with 1200 employees) became part of the Black and Veatch Environment Group (founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1915 and with 4900 sta
in 45 world-wide oces). Other notable changes in companies are detailed later. Back in the USA, early in the year, with geologic conditions thoroughly proven the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill, to infill the abandoned Mohave Desert open pit mine of the late Kaiser Steel Company, went to a state of reduced activity with waste giant Browning Ferris Industries withdrawing support. The world class project was to have received a unit train (100 cars) per day of southern California municipal refuse. The pit itself was not the source of all heartache, as the project required a massive haul and transfer network to bring coastal-city garbage to railheads. The project was a model of geologic site characterization assisted by AEG Past President Richard J. Proctor. Excess spring rainfall, in the usual California fashion, combined with the well-known negative geotechnical characteristics of the Pico and Monterey Formations, caused the La Conchita landslide, on 4 March. Remarkably, only seven of the 200 odd lots of this 1920s development were damaged or destroyed as the frontal mass of the blu
s dropped about 150 m vertically. Movement was preliminarily judged to have occurred along a known ‘‘active’’ bedding plane fault (California Division of Mines and Geology) separating the two geologic units. Los Angeles’ new METRO system, pushing (by digger shield) its first twin tunnels along Hollywood Boulevard, was plagued in 1993 by isolated loss of ground and pavement settlement. On 22 June 1995, the phenomenon worsened with alignment–readjustment and consequent re-mining of less than 30 m of the Hollywood Boulevard segment resulting in collapse of the Boulevard and formation of a pit. The location was in weathered Pliocene weak rock of the Puente Formation, closely overlain by Quaternary Alluvium. The worrisome southern California phenomenon of collapse-prone, air-entrained mudflow soils is now known to exist along this right-of-way and the fragile 1915-era utility infrastructure has su
ered three major earthquakes (1933, 1971, 1994).

193

As a result of pre-litigation settlement negotiations in August, the City of Chicago settled damage claims against it by 14 businesses, two colleges, and one State agency, for April 1992 flood damages stemming from contractor-induced flooding of downtown utility tunnels from punch-through of driven piles placed along the Chicago River channel. AEG Past President Ted Maynard, in his career capacity as Chief Geotechnical Engineer for the City, had fought valiantly to convince responsible City ocials to act on the moment to stem the break, but to no avail. A sad failure story was linked to disregard for engineering geological advice. We are looking forward to an explanatory ‘‘white paper’’ in this journal from the engineering geological establishment of Chicago. 1995 saw completion of the 17-y e
ort to construct the Rocky Mountain Pumped Storage project in Northwest Georgia by Oglethorpe Power Corporation. Dicult site conditions included dealing with cavernous limestone and excavation of an extensive cuto
trench for the 300-m wide concrete gravity dam. Details of the famous Tennessee Valley Authority battles with karstic dissolution via grouting surely were reread with interest on this project. During September, the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS) Topographic Division came under a Congressional plan for privatization and sale to the highest bidder. That threat was followed by the total abolishment of all activities involving field survey activities of all manner, which included geologic work by the remainder of the Survey. Removal of funding would have been accomplished as an amendment to the Budget Reconciliation Act. Some last-minute scrambling by the Association of State Geologists managed to remove the death threats. We are reminded of the 1854 words of Illinois lawyer (and law partner of Abraham Lincoln), Hannibal Hamlin, ‘‘No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session’’. In the UK, the British Geological Survey became a target (along with many other Government laboratories and central services) for a ‘‘prior options review’’. This Civil Service ‘‘gobbledegook’’ refers to plans to sell o
such organisations to the private

194

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

sector, and/or commercialize such activities as has been done successfully with the Ordnance Survey ( Topographic maps), the Coal Industry (now completely privatized in the UK with massive closures of mines in 1995) and British Rail. The year was marked in the UK by a further significant downturn in general civil engineering as well as specialist civil work, along with the e
ects of a more tangible meteorological drought (in water resources terms) which tightened its grip, especially in Yorkshire, towards the end of the year. In a UK year which saw the setting up of the Environment Agency in April 1996 (a successor of the former River Authorities–Water Authorities of the past and the National River Authority of the 1980s and early 1990s) in the last months of the year a fleet of over 650 tanker trucks transported water by road over 150 miles from Northumberland to West Yorkshire at a cost of over £2M per week from mid November to well into 1996. Plans in the UK to set up a Register of Contaminated Land (one of the stated aims of the Environment Act of 1991) were shelved by the Department of the Environment led by fears of ‘‘planning blight’’ in ‘‘brown-field’’ and similar areas of the UK designated for redevelopment.

2. Conduct of the profession Another of the more visible aspects of the profession in the USA has been the continued displacement of the more senior, pre-retirement (age 45–65) engineering geologists toward practice as individual consultants. This has been driven, of course, by the down-sizing ethos of replacing higher salaried personnel with upward promotion from the ranks of middle management. Much of the turmoil was due to uncertainty in Federal procurement of professional services associated with its regulatory programs and the now-pervasive adherence by owners to selection of consultants with undue influence based on consideration of cost (bid shopping). Many takeovers and company rationalisations in both the consulting and contracting areas of geotechnics in the UK and Europe also saw a

spate of ‘‘early retirements’’ and job moves. A number of French and American buyers were interested in taking over consultancies. For example, Rust acquired Applied Geology Ltd., Welsh Water took over Acer Group — formerly Freeman Fox. Amongst contractors, Amec successfully avoided a takeover by Kvaerner of Norway and Bechtel bought into NW Water Engineering. Utility companies such as Welsh Water, Lyonnaisse Des Eaux and Compagnie General des Eaux of France, were especially aquisitorial. Chartered Status (Cgeol.) developed in stature within the UK and elsewhere for professional geologist members of the Geological Society. A listing of over 1600 CGeol members is included in ‘‘The Geologist’s Directory’’, 8th edition, compiled and edited throughout 1995 by G.M. Reeves and published by The Geological Society in January 1996. Full details of Geological Society activities, membership and a complete UK guide to geology in industry, government and academia is included in this publication (see Reeves, 1996).

3. The United Kingdom 3.1. Legislation The Coal Industry Bill was brought into the legislation with little or no ammendment, despite significant presentations in the House of Lords by the Coalfields Communities Campaign and the Geological Society (especially by Professor Desmond and Mrs. Louise Donovan and George Reeves). The Environment Bill was similarly treated. It is high time that the British Parliament consults at an early stage all the relevant professional organisations involved when changes in legislation in specific technical areas are considered.

4. The United States 4.1. U.S. government In the USA, both State and Federal governments were in a state of directional confusion. The annual

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

national deficit had reached such proportions that no longer could fiscally competent observers, the taxpayer, or the Congress, stand by and authorize continued spending without constraint. The result was a massive attempt at correction of the root problem, previous bureaucratic over-stang and prioritization by Congressional pork-barreling. The e
ect has been chaotic, from Washington to the field. 1995 was the year that everybody in engineering geology felt the pinch from reduction in government, both by stang and budget. In late November, USGS bureaucrats sought to raise the level of awareness of the public by closing its regional Map Centers, at a loss of revenue of some $50 000 per day, just to make a statement against the Congress in its inability to reach a settlement with the President. 4.2. Federal With the beginning of Fiscal Year 1996 (1 October 1995), the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) had run the course of its early retirement program (400 respondants) and had completed a reduction in force (RIF ) of 525 professionals, concentrated in the Geologic Division. The number originally was targeted at about 720 positions, so the final count was heralded as something of a relief. Prior to the RIF, a program of realignment of some 200 personal job descriptions resulting in abrupt demotions and/or reassignments within the remnant of the engineering geologic structure at the USGS. Some of this saved funding was said to be earmarked for sending Survey geologists back to the field once again …. Traditionally, the largest employer of American engineering geologists, the Army Corps of Engineers, was under RIF pressure during the year. Geologists were not selected for special attention, yet natural attrition was allowed to carry on a slow degrading of engineering geology as a management-sponsored professional discipline. Geology Sections at the 13 governing Corps Divisions were decimated in the no-replacement policy, and at this writing only three Divisions were still sta
ed with supervisory geologists (Missouri River [James Zeltinger], Ohio River [ Wayne Swartz] and South Atlantic [ Tim Pope]).

195

Travel funds previously authorizing coordination and technical visits to the field, from the Oce of Chief of Engineers (OCE), were scuttled and the famous hand of guidance represented by early Chief Geologists Ed Burwell (the first so appointed, in 1945; serving 1945–1957), the late Robert Nesbitt (1957–1969), Gordon Prescott (1969–1974), and Lloyd B. Underwood (1975– 1980) were not felt. At year’s end Michael J. Klostermann, Chief of Geology at the St. Louis District ( long-time AEG member, former St. Louis Section Chairman, and UM–Rolla adjunct lecturer) was tapped to fill these large shoes. Klostermann has accepted the position with an enthusiasm toward reintegrating Corps Geology by frequent telephone contact to the field. Geologists are still at all 33 Corps Districts, but they are increasingly hired and placed within sta
s other than the Geology Section of what has traditionally been known as the Geology and Materials Branch (also ‘‘Geotechnical’’ and ‘‘Foundations’’). Forty-five separate Corps of Engineers activities were employing geologists. On 21 September the Congress voted cost-cutting legislation to ‘‘abolish’’ the U.S. Bureau of Mines, established in 1910. Some of the functions are to be transferred to the USGS with the details to be worked out by the termination date of 31 December 1995. To AEG/GSA–EGD member (and Past EGD Chairman) Rhea Lydia Graham, falls the unwelcome task of managing the disestablishment, as she is the last Director and the first woman (African–American, at that) to hold the appointment. Physical assets will be transferred to the universities at which the centers have operated. The Rolla center, for example, will become the new home of the University of Missouri Environmental Trace Substances Laboratory, which has been moved from Columbia, Missouri, to Rolla. The Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA) had about 11 000 employees in 1995. Traditionally understa
ed in terms of the workload assigned through Federal Law under Title 40 ( The Environment), by October, the Agency had undergone some shifting of jobs in which a
ected personnel were given the option of accepting new duties at often vastly decreased salary grades, or

196

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

separation from Federal Service. At the same time, however, some new technical specialist positions were created, to move faithful and productive managers back into advisory slots from which they could implement policy as based on cumulative experience. Rumours of a large RIF were floating about the Agency by October 1995. In the Agriculture Department, the same selective retention of engineering geologists was going on in the U.S. Forest Service, which now has healthy geologic programs in relatively few National Forests. Activity is linked, of course, with decreased timber production nationwide, as a result of influences by environmentalists who consider logging to cause unacceptable impacts on wildlife. The same situation is occurring to engineering geologists within the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service ( USNRCS), following its name change of 1993 from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service ( USSCS ). USSCS begin its engineering geological stang at its creation in 1933 and has a strong 60-year productivity in the application of engineering geology to the siting, design, and borrow procurement for small dams and in erosion control and sediment engineering in general.

strom of legislative reviews, continued justifications and a general move further into soft-money programs wherein people are hired and retained only for reason of providing specific services to other government agencies. State surveys of California, Illinois and Utah come to mind as maintaining their usual high output of products designed to apply geology to the public betterment. California’s Seismic Safety Commission has become proactive under the acting chairmanship of Richard McTalley and AEG members Jim Slosson and Je
rey Johnson. In Texas, the Bureau of Economic Geology, funded at about $200 000 000 and at about 90% soft money, had moved from the notably successful retiring State Geologist William Fischer to incoming Noel Tyler. The traditional Texas connection with national geologic and legislative a
airs remained in place in Washington, D.C., with former petroleum geologist Marcus E. Milling serving as the new Executive Director of the American Geological Institute (AGI ). Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT ) has begun to place responsibilities for geotechnical work on city and counties receiving State-aid assistance in transportation projects, all as a means of downsizing local involvement.

4.3. State organisations 4.4. USA Regional and Local Clearly the intent of the fiscally reoriented Congress was to send all manner of responsibilities back to the States. Social activists were outraged that without uniform Federal requirements for spending on specific issues or contributions of returned tax moneys, that many programs would die or that what Federal funds accompanied them would be spent unevenly at the hands of State legislatures. The legislatures cringed at having to take over highly visible national programs to the detriment of their own spending priorities. The result was that legislators were hacking away at any program perceived to be unpopular or technical enough to be poorly understood by themselves and the taxpayers. Hence, science programs, such as the State Geological Surveys, were in jeopardy far beyond their usual struggle for the diminishing dollar. State Geological Surveys were caught in a mael-

Regional scientific and technically oriented agencies generally were created with Federal money for planning associated with development across counties and between metropolitan areas of adjacent States. Their impetus came largely from Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Transportation (DOT ) grants of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs, that were designed to create agencies but not to sustain them financially. The agencies generally have produced a good selection of cooperative research reports that served, at a minimum, to create a mechanism for progress between cities facing the stresses of moving people and stimulating commerce for the purposes of creating jobs. Employment of geologists has always been available in these sectors, though those who sought and took these positions soon learned that they

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

were faced with performing on a far broader field than their own science. In summary, Government, as an arena of practice for engineering geologists, was not overly attractive in 1995. Gone were many of the traditional perquisites of Government work. In its place were heightened anxiety over job security, the need to justify one’s personal existence on the payroll, produce on short notice, and somehow raise the annual funds for your own job position. As government scientific service becomes more of a high-risk/low-paid occupation, capable and dedicated employees will be dicult to find and retain. The up-side of this fact is that every government opening in environmental regulation, as well as with university teaching, are flooded with battered veterans of the public sector, often turned loose only for the fact that over-forty professionals cost twice as much to maintain as those at entrylevel. Competition for government jobs, mainly at the State level, is intense and the pool of highly qualified applicants is at an all-time high since the oil-company layo
s of the 1960s and 1970s. Those outside government may think that this matters little. When they come to encounter a lessthan-dedicated and less capable regulator reviewing their permit application, attitudes may change. We hope that the attack of political candidates and oce holders will somehow not destroy the will to serve at the agencies. In our opinion, the average USEPA sta
er and those of the State regulatory agencies, are already individually faced with about twice the level of work assignable for completion in a 40-h working week. Most State and Federal agencies have curtailed out-of-State travel and the continuing educational process at the State level has just about ceased.

5. USA consultants Large firms and single practitioners alike, were faced with a 1995 practice where there was not enough work to make anyone ‘‘fat’’, so to speak. Distinctly apparent were the successes of the very small (a few people) firms which were able to carve out most of the lower-level (projects budgeted at less than $20 000) work formerly enjoyed by local

197

oces of larger firms. Small-firm activity was heightened by top-to-bottom layo
s, such as at the largest earth science and engineering consultant, Dames and Moore, just prior to issuance of its publicly-traded stock, early in 1993. Many of these casualties were capable of hanging their own shingles locally, thereby presenting more competition to their former firms. Most (i.e. about 80%) of the new, small firms were owned or sta
ed by talented persons displaced, at some time, from larger firms. Marketing activities consumed major amounts of resources and attention by the consultants. Key to this e
ort were the ‘‘intelligence’’ activities of searching for forthcoming projects and in the longterm cultivation of friends and friendly attitudes among clients and potential clients. Bottom-line ‘‘MBA’’ attitudes toward procurement of consulting services remained a serious concern among marketers, who found the least expensive proposals to be selectively chosen over the most technically qualified consultancy. Prospective clients claimed that all consultants invited to prepare proposals were equally well qualified to perform the work. Employers were looking for all manner of attributes among entry-level sta
candidates. A good many of these attributes are skills and attitudes that are not directly embedded in academic curricula, but which are easily enhanced by the classroom and social contacts at universities. The most successful candidate had a ‘‘fire-in-the-eye’’ zeal, clearly expressed desire to work, humble self confidence, an ability to express the applications of learned technology in common conversation, evidence of good report writing skills. Also on the list of desireable assets was computer literacy at the program-running, word-processing and graphics level, competence at public speaking, a believable willingness to go where the work is, and a clearly-expressed desire to go straight to the field to get on with the recognized two years of drillrig, backhoe and basic mapping experience. Those with undergraduate grade point averages of less than 3.0 (on 4-point scale) will have to work connections in order to escape the re´sume´-screening process and appear for judgment as based on the employer’s observation of personal attributes.

198

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

At the end of the academic year a few of the oil-patch firms began to appear at a few of the university campuses. AMOCO, for instance had severely curtailed its recruiting visits, retrenching to a very short list of campuses. The oil-field service companies had reappeared in the search for field representatives. Consulting companies increasingly scrutinized expenditures of all types, including support for professional society activities. Je
rey Keaton (AGRA Earth and Environmental, Salt Lake City) reminds us that increasing selection of consultants on the basis of cost has reduced the importance of professional society activities as a marketing tool to demonstrate qualifications. This likely is a forewarning of forthcoming financial diculties for the professional societies.

gists. Each year brings more and more opportunity for geologists to provide all manner of services in these firms. Nearly all of the firms have, in some way, moved as far as they can into environmental restoration work, even at the risk of o
ending former clients among the environmental firms. Buyouts were still occurring in this field, though corporate images are blurred because of geotechnical expansion into environmental work. Notable has been the acquisition activity of Earth Technology Corp. ( ERTEC ), which itself moved into non-technical management in a 1992 internal takeover. AGRA, with Canadian interests, has the same appetite and has been able to e
ectively compete on the worldwide market due to a liberalized marketing and contractual philosophy not generally available to U.S. firms.

5.1. Architectural/engineering (A/E) firms

5.3. Environmental firms

Most A/E firms were in a non-growth or shrinking situation as owners were hesitant to engage in expansion until the position of Congress was made clear in terms of the approved Fiscal. At year-end the Federal Government was running on emergency appropriations. The Clinton Administration’s general restraints on authorizing work startups on environmental restoration projects also slowed enthusiasm. Layo
s went on at the larger A/E and environmental firms, but were limited mostly to those working in the public sector. Firms limiting their practice to the private sector or to the public sector — minus the USEPA, were still respecting the need to maintain stang and to accept lower profits or asking sta
to take some form of lowered remuneration until approval of the Federal Budget. Notable among mergers was Parsons– Engineering Science (formerly Ralph M. Parsons and Engineering Science, both of Pasadena, CA) in its acquisition of Gilbert Commonwealth in March, bringing the former strongly into the power market.

Corporate mergers and acquisitions continued. Engineering News Record (23 October 1995), for instance, reports one environmental-business pundit as claiming that 20 of the top 60 firms had experienced mergering or acquisition and that serious talk of this was a
ecting 25 of the remaining 40. This activity was accomplished as a means of expanding corporate operations into new regions with a goal of expanding market share. Nearly all of the older firms were originally created under opportunities tied to the first Federal Clean Water Act (1948) in which the United States took the world lead in building an infrastructure of waste water treatment to cleanse the nation’s rivers. A younger stratum of firms followed with enactment of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (1965), and the three major solid and hazardous waste acts of 1970 ( Resource Conservation Act), 1976 ( Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; RCRA) and 1980 (SUPERFUND). Considerable work was underway in meeting the RCRA Subtitle D ( The Solid Waste Landburial Rules; e
ective 9 October 1993) for design of liners and leachate collection systems for sanitary landfills. Geologic input remained essential in site and materials characterization. Contrary to expectations, the rush to site and construct a large number of rail-haul sanitary landfills had

5.2. Geotechnical firms Geotechnical consultants continue to have an ongoing and essential need for engineering geolo-

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

given way to just a few such projects, with the unexpected appearance of a rash of permit applications for expansion of existing landfills (Fig. 1). A long-term trend toward internal self-suciency of geological and geotechnical capability at Waste Management, Inc. ( WMI ), had been underappreciated by the consultants. By 1990 it was estimated that WMI was spending about $80 000 000 per year in consulting fees. This was too large an expenditure not to catch the attention of company fiscal ocers. The trend toward development of strong internal capabilities had begun in 1988 when WMI acquired 22% (raised to majority in 1990) of Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc., holders of RUST International Corp. This was followed by the 1990 purchase of Sirrine Environmental Consultants (Greenville, SC ) and the 1991 Wheelabrator purchase of Donohue Associates (Sheyboygan, WI ), a major geotechnical–environmental force in the north–central states. In 1992, WMI merged Sirrine and Donohue and in the following year merged them with its purchase of RUST Environment and Infrastructure as a unit of the newly named holding company of Waste Management Technologies ( WMX ). During these reorganizations, WMX interests had purchased well-known regional geotechnical firms, especially W.A. Wahler Associates, of Palo Alto, CA, and Dunn Geoscience Corp., already holders of Behre– Dolbehre, the premier mining consulting firm. With its engineering and geological infrastructure in place early in 1993, WMX withdrew from use of regional consultants and project work was quickly funneled to the comprehensive in-house team. The ripple e
ect of layo
s among the traditional WMI consultants was tremendous and recovery rehiring has not yet appeared.

5.4. Individual practices in the USA Corporate purchases, mergers and reorganizations have left uncomfortable life-long brands on numerous members of the profession. Engineering geologists, as a group, probably contain more staunchly independent thinkers than other professions, except, perhaps mineral exploration geolo-

199

gists. 1995 was another watershed year for a largerthan-usual number of departures to small practice, often those more highly-compensated individuals with 30 or more years of experience, as caught by downsizing. Many of these new sole practitioners are uniquely fitted to success in the bid-shopped world due to their low overhead and wealth of experience. As they are victims of the times in one sense, let us welcome them as strong competitors in the new practice of ‘‘leaner and meaner.’’ Furthermore, the new breed expanded and contracted by ‘‘job-shop’’ (hourly) employment of other unaliated, yet displaced and experienced geologists. Gnawing away at project work from the bottom-up, the small practitioners could engage and profitable produce work at a lower cost than the established firms and were e
ectively competing for budgets under about $15 000. The small-practice bidders still have one overly compelling marketing advantage when the client stood still long enough to learn that most the project work was being executed and managed by experienced, senior people, high on the learning curve. Those most dangerous projects (hillside lots in southern California) were holding up at about $3500–$4000 for low-budget, minimal-exploration scopes of work, rising to the $6000–$8000 range for lots with recognizable problems. The jobs that no one wants to take, rife with potential liability, still go for $10 000–$15 000 and most owners of these lots are not sophisticated enough to understand the cost rationale for the required exploration and testing. Seemingly, those most willing to pay for adequate investigations are insurance companies and attorneys interested in gaining the truth and an edge in the process. Despite the lull in construction-related assignments, many sole practitioners found themselves in demand as expert witnesses. A downsided economy often brings lawyers out to redress what they perceive to be injustice to clients, frustrated by the anger of seeing property values decline against hopes of long-term capital gain. Notable was resurrection of the already-tried Malibu Big Mesa landslide of Los Angeles County, California, teampitting more than 25 senior engineering geological consultants.

200

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

5.5. International markets International projects also have become much more competitive. The downward trend of American participation began some 20 y ago with the Carter presidency, in which the Federal Government enforced a national participation based on traditional American values, which often are suciently di
erent from host country mores to result in non-selection. Strong competition is being felt from Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Canada. Foreign governments increasingly ‘‘look favorably’’ on proposals that include financial grants or loans from the consultant home government. American consultants and A/E firms are severely hampered by Federal policies on such grants. 5.6. Priced competition for professional services Intense priced competition for professional work was fully in place. This truly regrettable and o
ensive manner of client selection of consulting services based largely on a guaranteed price for completion (‘‘bidding’’, ‘‘bid-shopping’’ or ‘‘commodity shopping’’) has resulted from a 20-y degradation of the fee structure following the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court Decision in the United States vs The American Society of Civil Engineers. Prior to 1972, the ASCE Canon of Ethics held priced competition and any e
orts to supplant the services of a retained consultant as unethical. Other professional societies fostering codes of ethics, including the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG), were in agreement and one by one, these were brought down by U.S. Justice Department legal suits. AEG’s litigation was settled in 1985 in capitulation and with a requirement for courtmandated revision of its Code of Ethics removing all restrictions for bid competition for professional work. A common owner bid-shopping ploy is to invite priced proposals and then mine through the submittals to select a ‘‘first target price’’ and then pit the contenders against each other with a shortfuse requirement to resubmit reduced ‘‘bids’’ in a matter of hours or days, before rationale drives o
those players who still have a shred of common

sense and an aversion to the professionally risky process of chiseling for price. Downside e
ects of priced competition have led to two forms of response by those forced to abide by this practice ( Hatheway, 1995). First of all, even ethical and caring consultants must plan to do the absolute minimum of work necessary to achieve the stated goals of the client. The alternative is, of course, to decline to take the case on the basis of personal expertise or inadequate funding. Work o
ered or performed to raise the level of assuredness from a bare minimum of acceptability will result in a budget that will be exceeded by less cautious (conversely, more adventurous and often less competent) competitors. Scope of Work statements written by the consultant must be explicit and tight, in order to avoid later client or attorney misinterpretation of what constitutes its deliverables. Secondly, some consultants skillfully word the Scope of Work statement so that later field and laboratory data will provide that basis for an expansion of the bid-shopped budget. ‘‘Low-balling’’ was rank in the geotechnical field; often background geological data data gathering is sacrificed in order to garner the more lucrative grading contracts and at the follow-up construction laboratory and field testing. Federal agencies were instructed in 1972 to employ negotiated-price contracts under the provisions of the Federal Brooks Procurement Act. By 1995, 35 State legislatures had placed similar acts on the books, but the job of policing renegade, bid-shopping Federal and State agencies remains a constant source of concern. Opposing negotiated selection are posturing politicians who separately charge PAESAR-adherant agencies with ‘‘wasteful’’ selection of consultants by other than lowbid, allegations made to reach the ears of tired, voting taxpayers. Reasonability in selection of consultants is yet to be found within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the earliest adherents to selection on the basis of qualification, with negotiated budgets (price). The long-term PAESAR (Professional Architect– Engineer Selection and Retention) process, so long championed by ASCE, is yet to be found, albeit with tattered edges, in these two monoliths.

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

PAESAR involves identification of a reasonably larger number of previously qualified consultants to receive the Request for Proposal (RFP), followed by selection of a shortlist of qualified firms who are then invited to propose. Ranking of the respondants is based on a weighted list of factors selected by the agency, on the basis of its ‘‘Part A’’ narrative presentation of its understanding of the project and its suggested Scope of Work, and the top-ranking firm is then invited to negotiate. The proposal naturally carries a ‘‘Part B’’ proposed budget remaining sealed during the ranking process. Prior to appearing for the budget negotiation, the agency reviews costs and the topranked consultant must defend or adjust any contested line item or base cost. Should the agency and the top-ranked consultant fail to agree on the budget the firm is released from the selection process and the second-ranked firm is invited to participate. Fortunately for those with narrow and well-defined geological specialties, ‘‘sole-sourcing’’ can still be carried on, in the face of demonstrated need. Solidly engaged in thwarting bid-shopping remains ASFE (formerly the Association of Soil and Foundation Engineers), of Silver Spring, Maryland. ASFE is now ‘‘the association of engineering firms practicing in the geosciences.’’ Its goals are wholly laudable from this standpoint as well as from its long-term and primary e
orts to promote loss prevention through liability awareness. The Institute for Professional Practice (IPP) is now in its 20th year of educational service to geologists and engineers through an intensive sixmonth mail-correspondence course and an even more intensive three-day conclave in which professional people are shown the way to smarter management professional practice techniques. Graduation from IPP, along with professional registration, is becoming the threshold requirements for ownership participation in consulting firms and a downright ‘‘must’’ for the individual practitioner. Since its inception in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA) has neglected to participate in PAESAR and, consequently, selection of its successful consultants is clustered around the Washington (D.C.) Beltway

201

and in the cities of its major laboratories, notably Cincinnati, OH. So strong is the USEPA adherence to price-shopping that one or two out-of-town coach-class air fares will kill a proposal. USEPA makes odious round-robin calls to its contenders soliciting ‘‘best and final’’ o
ers (‘‘BAFOs’’) of lower and lower budgets, even after formal submission of priced ‘‘proposals.’’ Throughout USEPA contract negotiations are managed by purchasing specialists who are uninformed of the nature of consulting engineering and science, while the actual technical project managers for the contracts are unable to influence the selection. USEPA contract reports can be seen to represent the result of bid-shopped selection; lack of external peer review, virtually no original art work, hardly ever a photograph, generally no field work, and typically incomplete reference citations. The most notorious of successful USEPA report contractors are firms hiring low-paid entry-level sta
ers who then collect the input information through telephone interviews. Nevertheless, in an otherwise vacuum of technical resources, USEPA is to be commended for putting a massive array of materials before us, since its Cincinnati-based research operation (now Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, as a third name in 12 y) began its program to provide documentation for site and waste characterization and remedial engineering for hazardous wastes, back in 1983. Practitioners, especially engineering geologists, are at professional risk not to be familiar with these publications as part of their base of competence. In the north–central States, bid competition often takes the form of ‘‘discounting’’ of a demonstrated budget requirement to engage in work that will favorably reduce owner risk on a project. The range of 15–25% percent has been seen, with the high end representing no profit at all for completed work. 5.7. Employment situation in the USA Needless to say, the overall employment situation was not bright. Jobs were to be had, but networking was required to identify them and then to compete with the line at the door. Business in general, faced with the high overhead of today’s

202

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

demanded benefits packages, was strongly avoiding the over-50s and was relying heavily on ‘‘job shops’’ (temporary employment agencies) to fill positions on hourly contract bases, or by keeping yearly hours below the legal limits of Federal and State requirements to pay social benefits. Small firms used the ‘‘grapevine’’ to gain hourly assistance from known geologists, often those with a more securely employed spouse. Most benefit packages touched at least 30% of salaries and were therefore easy marks for cost reduction. State agencies, in particular, frequently resorted to contract hiring in order to meet successful softmoney contracts while keeping below legislatively mandated FTEs ( Full-Time Equivalents) as stang ceilings. Companies no longer flocked to the campus. In the midwest, Burns and McDonnell, consulting engineers and scientists, of Kansas City, Missouri, continued to host their traditional familiarity night with faculty and faculty-nominated students, at 11 selected universities. Fallout-hiring was to be highly competitive and that company openly acknowledged that it wanted this opportunity to meet young engineers (geological included ) not only from the standpoint of hiring, but also to establish a good corporate impression among those attending. With the situation as fluid as it is, caring faculty devoted more time and e
ort with individual graduating students in their employment searches. ‘‘Warm’’ calls to old friends in the profession were augmented by ‘‘cold’’ calls to potential employers not previously identified, were helpful for student introductions. Corporate downsizing still left many companies yet with a need to place entry-level engineering geologists in the starting positions to counter the eventual negative e
ects of a broken chain of career progression. Smart consulting companies are still requiring evidence of at least 2 y of field work as ‘‘learning the trade.’’ Charles A. Spiers, Corporate Technical Manager of Hydrogeology for Parsons Engineering Science (PES ) reminds us that 20 interviews are held with screened, qualified entry-level candidates as a basis for hiring just one sta
geologist. Even with this care in selection, PES presumes that today’s general lack

of academic preparation for acceptable geologic field work mandates that the company must teach those techniques to its incoming geologists. Missouri State Geologist J.H. (‘‘Jim’’) Williams recalls the words of his earlier predecessor Dr. Tom Beveridge that field mappers ‘‘are born, not made’’. As Jim notes, that the Association of State Geologists, in its successful Congressional push to fund more USGS and cooperative geologic mapping, found that capability to exist only with a relatively few ‘‘diehards’’ and generally was viewed as a lost art and with widespread disinterest within the Survey management.

6. British universities Reverberations from the Earth Science Review of the late 1980s continued to be felt. Applied Earth Sciences outside of the ‘‘New’’ Universities (the former Polytechnic and Technical Colleges) continues at a reletively low ebb. It can be generally stated the ‘‘Black Smokers’’ form a more important part of most geology undergraduate courses than courses such as Engineering Geology, Hydrogeology, Soil Mechanics, and Rock Mechanics. This is all well and good, and ensures the well being and continuation of Masters programmes in these subjects, but sheds a poor light of ‘‘real world’’ geology into the lives of most UK undergraduates. Stalwart e
orts will nevertheless continue in this regard! NERC and other research funding is nevertheless continually misguided and misdirected, in many applied geologists’ opinions.

7. American universities Research funding reached a new low at most American universities. Seismology takes the lion’s share of research funding, fewer, larger grants dominate over smaller and more diverse work, and mathematically-oriented studies win hands-down over traditional geologic field work and failure case-history research. Consequently, grant-seeking has become more innovative and less successful in general. Industry is assailed at every instance by

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

hungry professors, and such must be the case in the new world of competition. Industry can claim good bargains in campus research today, although academic researchers are regarded by industry as generally incapable of meeting deadlines. Even with the continually rising overhead charges (now typically at 50%), the bottom dollar is cost-e
ective, considering the reasonable fringe-benefits charges (typically 25% for faculty; none for graduate research assistants), and the relatively lower hourly representation of salary. Large and prestigious campuses still are not feeling the pinch, due largely to a massive ‘‘old boy’’ network within the USGS and the NSF. Yet, the awards remain large and consequently relatively few in number. Industrial geologists, independents, and small-campus faculty with good ideas have a slim chance indeed in this arena. The first word released of the new EPA Ground Water Remediation Technology Center at the University of Pittsburgh was after its mid-year creation as the news was jealously guarded let others wish to compete in what appears to have been another inside-job, sole-source selection. Tenure remains the goal struggle for junior faculty. More realistic campuses realize that ‘‘high rollers’’ in grantsmanship are few and far between and that $35 000–$50 000 research grants are not to be sneezed at in these days. Quality in the finished product here may lead to more funded research than a large, poorly completed product. Hence, student evaluations of faculty performance are now given considerable credence in the tenure equation, as are the broad and traditional considerations of publications and public service. High quality faculties still make good choices in tenure track positions. They also must assist or share research funding with their tenure-track colleagues. Within engineering geology and geological engineering, selection of new faculty is hampered by the fact that we are not producing enough qualified doctoral holders to satisfy the needs for stang. It is our observation that nearly any engineering geology or geological engineering opening will result in 40-–100 applicants, all holding doctorates, but resulting in a desperate struggle to identify a short list of five candidates who would recognize a rock (if they were sitting on one, so to speak)

203

or who are capable of field geologic data collection and mapping. By shear numbers, most geological engineering faculty candidates are from other fields of engineering and are approaching engineering geology as a place to practice applied mathematics through computer simulations of geologic phenomena for which they have poor comprehension. We were pleased to see considerable activity at the AEG 1995 Annual Meeting from Dr. Scott Burns (BS, MS, Stanford, 1969 and 1970; Ph.D., Colorado at Boulder, 1980), now in his fifth year as replacement for retiring Leonard Palmer, longtime engineering geology activist with Portland State University. In the past, not all campuses with strong engineering geological anities have elected to maintain their earned respect on retirement of recognized leaders. An example is the University of Washington, which decided not to replace on the 1975 retirement of Professor Howard Coombs. Fortunately, Washington’s Civil Engineering Department recognized the geological shortfall and engaged consultant Richard W. Galster, former student and philosophical descendant of Coombs, who has been teaching a yearly course in engineering geology (based on his own 40-y practice) to civil engineering graduate students for the past 10 y. For most geological engineering departments, this was the sixth year for which the Senior Design Experience (‘‘Capstone’’) course was taught as a requirement of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET ). Most of the 12 departments in the United States were in step early with their entry, as specific course outlines were up to departments to devise. Mandatory teaching of the course for graduating seniors began in 1993. Encapsulated in one course is the design process, faced with considerations of ethics and professionalism, history of engineering geology as a profession, an understanding of the technical literature and its defined and implied standards, guidelines, and protocols of technical–professional work, conduct of professional careers, preparation for professional registration, liability consciousness and loss–prevention concepts, report writing and oral briefings, critical-path scheduling, the sequence of proposals, negotiations and contracts, along with the necessary program design, cost

204

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

estimation and budgeting. The product goal is clear: produce a young professional who is ready for chargeable work on Day One and who will carry foremost a profound respect for professionalism. For geological engineering departments where a critical mass of registered professional engineers are not present on the faculty, ABET generally remains unmerciful during in its 3-y inspection visits. An enlightened consultant–academic concept was fostered by the down-under component of Woodward–Clyde in its creation of the The Woodward–Clyde Chair in Environmental Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Cost sharing for the new position has the selected professor working up to 25% for the donor. This was the 1947 relationship between Law Testing Co., of Atlanta, Georgia that brought George Sowers to Georgia Tech and which resulted in an supremely successful geotechnical combination over nearly 40 y.

8. Geological Society of America Foundation Following the generous 1993 gift of consulting hydrogeologist Dr. John F. Mann, Jr (La Habra, CA), this year consulting Quaternary geologist and soil stratigrapher, Dr. Roy J. Shlemon (Newport Beach, CA) created an endowment for Applied Quaternary Geology, with the GSA Foundation. Roy’s plan is for each of the six GSA Sections to support an ‘‘industry mentor’’ to visit university classrooms on a yearly basis to deliver some of what is missing in today’s academic coverage of applied geology. The program activates in 1996 and should prove popular now that most faculty operate on a thousand dollars or less for reimbursed travel per year.

9. Engineering Geology Foundation Out of a concern for establishment of a means for endowment of practical research in engineering geology and for conduct of activities related to professionalism, a small group of dedicated practi-

tioners had brought the Engineering Geology Foundation ( EGF ) into its first full year of activity. The first Board of Directors of EFG remains John W. Williams (AEG Past President, 1988, San Jose State University, CA), John W. Ivey (AEG Past President, 1980, Amuedo and Ivey, Denver, CO), Richard W. Galster (AEG Past President, 1983, Consultant, Seattle, WA) and with Gerald S. Grainger (Southern Company Services, Atlanta, GA) replacing retiring member George Sowers (Law Engineering Co., and Georgia Inst. Technology, Retired ). EGF provides an Internal Revenue Service Rule 401.C6, non-profit basis for tax exemptions for monetary and library gifts. A significant monetary contribution was received in 1995 from June Lemke and AEG Past President (1970) Richard Lemke ( USGS, Retired). EGF may be reached through AEG headquarters. In addition to receiving and disbursing funds for conduct of research, EGF sponsors an Archives of Engineering Geology, which is housed at AEG headquarters at Sudbury, Massachusetts. The Archives hold an extensive collection (some 10 000 items) of books, papers, maps, project reports and other technical documents and in this year became operational as an entity able to provide facsimile copies of literature. With the year-end donation of Lloyd B. and Peggy Underwood, of Lloyd’s extensive library, nearly 2400 kg of engineering geological and allied technical literature were donated and shipped to the Archives during 1995. Archives holdings are cataloged on a list available from Association headquarters. Additionally, the Archives maintains a continually updated Bibliography of Engineering and Environmental Geology, the first edition of which will be available in early 1996 at a very nominal cost in both paper copy (800 pages) and as three Microsoft Word computer diskettes (3 MB) at year’s end. More than 16 000 citations for the Bibliography have been identified on the basis of representing materials useful to the practice of all aspects of engineering geology. The U.S. National Committee for the International Association of Engineering Geology ( USNCIAEG) came under the chairmanship of C.C. Mathewson in 1995 and continues to struggle with ways in which to increase its rather small

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

(180) membership. USNCIAEG is virtually unknown to most practicing engineering geologists but membership can be facilitated by contacting its U.S. chairman at Texas A and M University. The excellent Bulletin, now in its 25th year, is one of the benefits of membership. Historically, North Americans have not traveled to IAEG members nor have they, regrettably, been involved in this worthwhile European-dominated group. Provinciality, strongly coupled with on-going diculty for Americans to receive international travel support, appear to be the root causes. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE ) continues to work toward its original 1990 recommendation of then-President John A. Foght, Jr., to create an geoscience umbrella group to accomodate the former geotechnical firms who are now broadly competing for all manner of geoscience work. An organizational report is due from several task groups in 1996. A new society dealing with rock mechanics was formed as the North American Society for Rock Mechanics (NASRM ), made up of geologists and engineers engaged in tunneling and the use of underground space. One of the compelling reasons for creation of NASRM was the 1994 disestablishment of support for the U.S. National Committee for the International Society for Rock Mechanics ( USNC–ISRM ).

10. Computation Computer literacy has fully arrived for most engineering geologists. Even those of us who are strongly field-oriented (‘‘concepts’’ people vs ‘‘number crunchers’’) cannot ignore the wordprocessing, graphics, and data management benefits of computers. 1995 was the year in which three important facets of computation seemed to become manifest. Data management activities now can be reduced by computer to minutes instead of days, and the results are better and more reliable when designed to meet quality assurance requirements. It comes to mind that equal-area stereonet plotting of points-to-poles of strikes and dips of various types of discontinuities ( joints, bedding, foliation, shear

205

planes and faults) is a time-consuming and errorprone task requiring close review for adherence to quality. Computer codes, such as have been developed by Rockware (Golden, CO) break these dayslong tasks down into a matter of an hour or so. Computational presentations are outstanding and often in color, thus negating the additional cost for separate drafting of results into report graphics. Price competition influences now demand that such computation be employed as a cost-saving edge. Rockware now o
ers the useful RockPack II slope stability routines developed by AEG member Chester Watts (Radford University, Virginia). Software prices became truly reasonable in 1995, especially in terms of time savings and because vendors continually upgrade their products. This year we found that Zip-A-Dip ( Eugene, Oregon) no longer o
ers their durable and a
ordable equalarea stereonets because no one buys them anymore. A sad but predictable death from computerborne obsolescence! Development of computer codes by practitioners is a myth. Programming is an art for programmers, and those engineering geologists who hold the belief that they can compete with the applied mathematicians soon find that they are neglecting the remainder of their professional identity just in order to keep up with the bullet-speed of program enhancement. Further, those who have their own proprietary codes are likely to have their work called for review in court as ancillary to some legal case, at which time they must turn over their entire code for inspection by the opposition. Accordingly, by 1995, those who have proprietary codes make use of them internally, but transfer the results into parameter-sharpened runs of public domain codes (mainly those of the U.S. Geological Survey in geohydrology and the USEPA in geohydrology and environmental engineering). A recent vendor’s catalog of geohydrological computer codes o
ers 132 separate o
erings. Pleasingly, the catalog contained mainly public-domain codes that had been made more user friendly and which contained enhanced graphics. A third, and unexpected, development has been the detail to which the Internet has infiltrated our profession. On-Line Catalog of Library

206

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

Collections (OCLC ) will locate useful literature references and interlibrary loaning has become even more responsive. Bibliographic entry work is still plagued by inconsistencies in citations and quality of abstracts, but the gaps in breadth and depth of recovery diminish rapidly for years following 1970. Bibliographic retrieval, however, is now a standard of care in the conduct of our professional work. Of all the services it is the American Geological Institute GeoRef that is the most complete, useful, and a
ordable. AGI is to be commended for its decades-old investment in taking over the historic world-class USGS bibliographic e
ort and more lately committing to the compact disc (CD-ROM ) format.

11. Literature Outstanding among the year’s developments was the transfer, in its 31st year, of the Bulletin of the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG) into the joint AEG/Geological Society of America (GSA), as vol. 1 of Engineering and Environmental Geoscience, ( E and EG). The new journal now reaches nearly 5000 individual readers and many libraries, worldwide. The two societies are represented by co-editors, Norman R. Tilford ( Texas A and M University) and John R. Sharp ( University of Texas at Austin). Transportation Research Board was to have released its Landslides; Investigation and Mitigation. The volume was in press for 1996 as of this writing. As with its predecessors (Special Reports 29 [1958], and 176 [1978], this volume will surely go out of print quickly. You are urged to obtain yours. The previous volumes are now available through UMI ( University Microfilms, Inc.) of Ann Arbor, Michigan. AEG’s Special Publication no. 6, Perspectives in Paleoseismology, was edited by Leonardo Seva (ANPA, Rome, Italy) and David B. Slemmons (Mackay School of Mines, Reno, retired, and consultant, Las Vegas, NV ). The collection of papers represents the proceedings of a 1995 Rome conference (Seva and Slemmons, 1995). Utah Geological Association issued its Environmental and Engineering Geology of the

Wasatch Front, a collection of 40 benchmark papers collected and edited by AEG member William R. Lund, Deputy Director, Utah Geological Survey (Lund, 1995). Organized as a guidebook, the volume addresses state-of-the-art topics facing most practitioners, regardless of geographic location. The surprise of the year was Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi River Valley: representing the careerlong involvement of Roger T. Saucier, of the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg. Saucier, 1994 has followed the pioneering work of Harold N. Fisk (1944) and this dual volume (text and atlas) is the 50-y update and extension of Fisk’s widely acclaimed work. Another early sell-out ($25) is predicted, for the report, which covers the entire lower Mississippi River Valley and with strong technical transfer potential for fluvial characteristics of many other larger rivers. California’s ever-present justification for engineering geology, its faults, has been prominently recognized with the monumental 1994 revision, by Charles W. Jennings, of his 1975 fault map, now in five printings and sales of more than 20 000 copies (Jennings, 1994). The new map, Fault Activity Map of California and Adjacent Areas; With Locations and Ages of Recent Volcanic Eruptions, comes with a 92-page explanatory text that warrants a strong ‘‘guidelines’’ status as an important body of literature for all those who would strive to remain current. Rising prices for government publications has this single map at $20, but it’s a bargain. Krinitzsky, 1995 (Past Chairman of EGD), of the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, issued the 106-page summary of his past 22 y of personal and contract-supervised work in engineering seismology. Report 29 of the series State-of-the-Art for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States, is entitled Selection of Earthquake Ground Motions for Engineering. With this one book in hand you can now make the complete trip from collection of geologic data to specifying the necessary design parameters for seismic-withstand design. There is no better source

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

and none that touches the necessary completeness of geologic input. West, 1995 in practice and teaching (Purdue University) for more than 30 y, has produced Geology Applied to Engineering 1995) as an inspired way to teach introductory geology to both engineers and all other non-geology majors. Terry includes what is important in discovery about geology and how it can be put to use in ways that a
ect our daily lives. A laboratory guide is also available. The Geological Society of London, through its Engineering Group, issued the tenth and eleventh in its excellent series of Engineering Geology Special Publications, ‘‘Engineering Geology of Construction,’’ (the Proceedings of the 1992 Annual Conference in Manchester, Geological Society of London, 1995a) edited by M. Eddleston (Northwest Water Engineering, UK ), J.C. Cripps ( University of Sheeld), and M.G. Culshaw (British Geological Survey), and ‘‘The Engineering Geology of Waste Disposal,’’ edited by S.P. Bentley, of the University of Wales (proceedings of the 1993 Conference, Geological Society of London, 1995b. The Third European Engineering Geology Conference was organized by the Group in association with its Belgian and other European counterparts in September 1994 at Liege University. The Special Publication on ‘‘Modern Geophysics in Engineering Geology’’ is in press. The Society encourages applications for membership and can be reached by FAX at 44-(0)171-439-8975. Those engaged in environmental site and waste characterization and remedial engineering are faced with a broad and di
use array of oncoming technical literature. By far the major funder of useful literature, the USEPA began, in about 1992, to place much of its shorter contributions in technical journals of environmental engineering. Today these citations, along with numerous USEPA reports and guidance documents, are listed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce. By reading the semi-monthly releases (usually in excess of 100 pages, with more than 450 abstracts), the hazardous waste practitioner can manage to

207

deal e
ectively with the incoming government literature.

12. Environmental regulatory activities Environmental regulation continued to dominate the entire practice of engineering geology in one way or another. Most firms employing engineering geologists felt compelled to vie for a broad base of professional assignments, but it was generally the tenor of their environmental regulatory work that controlled their economic health. President Bill Clinton’s administration, then in its third year, did not provide compelling evidence of activity above that of the preceding administration of George Bush. If anything, Ms. Carol Browner, the initial and incumbent Clintonappointed USEPA Administrator, was not prone to push enforcement actions against Potential Responsible Parties (PRPs) at uncontrolled hazardous waste sites or in cost–recovery actions against PRPs, initiated after completion of site remediation at orphaned SUPERFUND sites. Environmental consultants su
ered the ripplee
ect of long negotiations with non-technical contracts administrators for joint ventures. Some are selected on an elegant array of joint-venture companies and subcontractors, but then must pray for individual work orders to arrive. In the meanwhile, the assembled sta
s are shifted around between scraps of work in an e
ort to maintain qualified personnel long enough to gain some chargeable work. High-dollar contracts (often measured in hundreds of millions of dollars) do not materialize in the form of tangible work authorizations before layo
s are forced. These multi-partner contracts routinely experience bickering over allocations of work to be shared. The Federal Government is over-enamored with sophistication of program organization, when a policy of numerous small contracts administered by the various State environmental agencies may be a better approach and a smoothing e
ect for consultant stang, along with providing fair competition for those outside the energy–industrial complex.

208

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

12.1. Risk-based alternate action levels Risk-based Alternate Concentration Limits (ACLs) seemed to reach a critical mass. Industry was strongly advocating exposure-scenario studies in which the most likely receptors would trod the most likely pathways to become a
ected by wastes found at individual sites. With this trend of generally adhering to an acceptable mortality of one person in one million (1.0 E-6) from each type exposure, the maximum concentration level of each key chemical parameter is becoming the acceptable thought concept rather than to adhere to standards for cleanup. These new, site-specific ACLs deal with the representative threats for the most mobile, most toxic, most concentrated and most persistent of site contaminants. If these ACLs are to be applied honestly, ethically, and correctly, a very high quality of site geologic characterization will be necessary in order to identify the geologic anomalies and discontinuity pathways by which the on-site waste may have left the original source areas and migrated to places at which humans or the water supply may be a
ected. 12.2. Voluntary cleanup and the USEPA brownfields initiative Sensing the Congressional fervor to return more government to the States, USEPA Administrator Browner put into motion the dual downloading concepts of Voluntary Cleanup and the Brownfields initiative. Voluntary Cleanup Programs ( VCPs) had been quickly set in motion by many States. VCP generally was a write-your-own prescription for industry-led site remediation. Conducted within a loose framework of RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) regulations, VCP was workable and administered with significant freedom on the part of the State, with only cursory oversight by USEPA Regions in the formative stages of Administrative Orders on Consent (AOCs) under which the terms of cleanup are selected. USEPA Administrator Carol Browner focused heavily on the innovative Brownfields concept of seed-money (and that is all that it has been)

funding to cities for start-up work on their own high-priority, non-SUPERFUND cleanups of blighted urban industrial areas. St. Louis, selected from the first five such awards, in August, chose a 26-block area for Brownfield site and waste characterization for the proposed tax-incentivedriven Martin Luther King, Jr., Industrial Park. It is hoped that the Park will bring in desperately needed employment to the inner city. Unfortunately, $200 000 for such a project is, indeed, a drop in the bucket … 12.3. Defense department remediation activities Knowledgeable pundits in the remediation circuit generally gave the U.S. Air Force the highest Defense Department marks for technical excellence and sound innovation. This ranking was followed by the Army, with the Navy in third place, just raising its anchor, so to speak. The Air Force had transitioned through its numerous ‘‘studies’’ of the applicability of remedial technologies and was funding only work that was directly remediationoriented. The Corps of Engineers was still handling a good deal of Air Force work in actual supervision of remedial construction, leaving the Air Force high technologists to pursue implementation of those technologies proven to their satisfaction. Comprehensive Long-Term Environmental Action Navy (CLEAN ) is the program of the Naval Facility Engineering Command (NAVFACENGCOM ) for nationwide remediation of contamination on naval stations. Typical of the e
ort is the part awarded to Jacobs Engineering Group, Pasadena, California, for facilities from Los Angeles south to San Diego and east to the New Mexico and Nevada borders. More than 250 task orders have been written to Jacobs for work at 32 facilities in the first 2 y of the contract (1993–1995). Each task must be budgeted, negotiated, monitored and reported separately. Typical contaminated sites are landfills, underground storage tanks ( USTs), fuel and solvent leaks and fire-suppression training areas. By way of criticism, we are not yet seeing tangible evidence of lessons learned or technology transfer coming out of the Air Force or the Navy, through NTIS. The Army’s applied research folks

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

at Waterways Experiment Station, Cold Regions Engineering Lab, and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds activities are making their findings available to the rest of the remedial engineering professions. Here and there, State geological surveys were vying for and receiving practical assignments in the Department of Defense (DOD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC ) program. A case in point here has been the Missouri Geological Survey’s practical environmental assistance to the U.S. Air Force in silo-closure of the intercontinental ballistic missile field surrounding Whiteman Air Force Base. U.S. Department of Energy ( USDOE ) remediation activities remained on high, yet indecipherable level of activity for practitioners outside the environmental–industrial complex. In the fall of 1995, Savannah River Project had released some 4500 of its mammoth contingency of 16 000 workers thought necessary to fight pollution with paperwork. Hints of layo
s were heard from many other of the 55 polluted DOE complexes. NTIS continues to notice citations and abstracts of DOE-funded reports, a few of which are ultimately useful to practitioners. Many, if not most, DOE reports are designed to cover only half the distance toward the solution, and to serve as the justification for the next contract, and by nature are highly theoretical and equally speculative. DOE has, on the other hand, continues to fund compilation of a large number of guidance documents dealing with how to respond to USEPA regulations and the SUPERFUND provisions of the National Contingency Plan (NCP). Some of these have merit for application in other areas of hazardous waste regulatory compliance. In the final analysis, DOE’s right and left hands never meet and there is virtually no evidence of any internal technology transfer and lessons learned sharing. Routine reinvention appears to be the order of the day for all DOE activities.

13. Radioactive waste management in the USA Management of the nation’s commercial radioactive utility generation (High-Level ) wastes has

209

su
ered significantly from an intense competition between environmentalists, politicians and bureaucrats. Engineering and scientific activities are buried well into the environmental–industrial complex grown up through DOE and the institutional encumberances have permeated the entire process. Quite apart from the emburdened high-level process is the ongoing Low-Level repository process, simply tasked by the Congress to the States. 13.1. Low-level wastes In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed the LowLevel Waste Policy Act, by which responsibility for siting, design, construction and operation of disposal facilities would be the responsibility of the States. Regional compacts, between States, was the specified method of accomplishing this task. Fifteen years later the intent has not been met and the program is notable for its lack of success. Compacts have been formed, modified and dissolved. Several States have elected to go in alone and some compacts are no longer regional, with partners stretching across the breadth of the nation ( For example, the partnering of TX, ME and VT, now proposed to the Congress as the tenth compact). The Sierra Blanca site, in the remote west Texas Hudspeth County, has already been selected. Favorable results are now being experienced by the Southeast Compact (States of AL, FL, GA, MS, NC, TN, and VA) to the North Carolina Low-Level Waste Management Authority. North Carolina has agreed to spearhead the e
ort and the State Low-Level Waste Management Authority will begin deliberations on the proposed siting package on 24 January 1996. Former member State South Carolina left the compact on vote of the Legislature in the Spring and also voted to reopen the only operating LLW disposal site, at Barnwell, to wastes from other states. In July, Pennsylvania (with DE, MD and WV ), abandoned its regional site selection process as lead State for the Appalachian Compact, has determined to seek statements of interest from individual communities, to act as host. Previous siting surveys have eliminated 75% of the State from consideration. New York, after receiving its

210

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

statewide siting study from Golder Associates (Redmond, WA) had to close its doors in the Spring, on losing funding from the Legislature. Golder’s results favored shale, salt and limestone sites. California’s proposed site, in Ward Valley, eastern Mojave Desert is now in the capable hands of Jack K. Lemley, who was involved as a civil engineer in the construction of the ( English) Channel Tunnel. The site emerged from a State Court of Appeals on 5 October, with approval of its licensing application, granted in September 1993 by the State Department of Health Services. It yet remains for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to actually transfer the 1000 acres of public land, and California Representative Brian Bilbray introduced legislation (14 September) to compell Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt (himself a geophysicist; later lawyer) to make the transfer. This action was to no avail as Sen. James Exon (NB) removed the rider on the basis of a Senate operating rule. Illinois and Kentucky, to operate their own search and have identified 26 siting criteria through Chem–Nuclear, Inc., and its subcontractors, Golder Associates, Inc., Hanson Engineers, Inc., and Morrison Knudsen Corporation. Regulation is provided by the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety. The Central Interstate Compact is made up of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Three uniform factors emerge from our review of LLW siting activities: (1) There is no national coordination, information release or technology transfer e
ort; (2) All e
orts are opposed at each and every step by environmentalist groups; (3) There is a strong break between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of supporting nuclear energy and its waste management. Only Chem–Nuclear Systems and U.S. Ecology, Inc. (Division of American Ecology Corp.) have remained interested in serving as contract operators, a chancy and expensive proposition considering the slow pace of site licensing. The LLW siting e
ort is overseen by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Wastes, of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the Committee has not taken an active and helpful stance.

13.2. High-level wastes Congress, in 1987, moved to scuttle the 12-y orchestrated search of 36 States for optimal siting of one or more deep geologic repositories throughout all regions of the country. Seizing on the minimally populated and previously contaminated Nevada desert, Congress dictated that the Yucca Mountain area of the Nevada Test Site, one of the nine final candidates, would become the focused target of confirmatory studies, due to be completed before the scheduled suitability decision is made in 1998. Originally (1982) Congress had stipulated that the HLW repository would be open for use by the nation’s 109 nuclear reactors in 1998; DOE now puts that opening date at 2010. During 1995, the program was occupied with pushing the 7.6-m test tunnel down into densey welded tu
of the candidate repository horizon, the Topopah Spring Member of the Paintbrush Tu
Formation. Direct observation will be made of the host rock physical and engineering characteristics, as well as to verify favorable contentions developed about the groundwater regime. Test alcoves are being excavated by drill-and-blast or by Albine roadheader equipment. In its e
ort to identify sources of spending reductions to suit the need to reduce the spiraling national debt, the U.S. Congress reduced the DOE High-Level Waste Program by 40%, resulting in about 875 personnel layo
s by year’s end. Still the Congress, it its distrust of demonstrated DOE management practices, refuses to release funds from the impounded taxes levied on the utility industry, now growing at about $600 000 000 per year. In the UK, a White Paper on Radioactive Waste Disposal Policy was published by HM Government (Cmd 2919, Review of Radioactive Waste Management Policy; July 1995). This included recommendations on current LLW, ILW and associated waste disposal research, as well as introducing the requirements for new HLW site selection and disposal research. 14. USA public safety activities In general, the Federal government has removed itself from funding public safety activities,

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

especially of a geologic nature. The Army Corps of Engineers did release a six-volume summary of lessons learned from the great Missouri River Basin and Mississippi River Floods of the summer of 1993. Future public safety activities likely will occur only a knee-jerk responses to individual natural catastrophes. The National Science Foundation’s Southern California Earthquake Center ( University of Southern California), in cooperation with the U.S.G.S., has issued a 32-page handbook, Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country. The booklet has been distributed to all public libraries south of San Luis Obispo. The theme is that ‘‘Earthquakes are inevitable, but the damage from earthquakes is not.’’ For consultants at the local regulatory level, the onus remained on the consultant to develop a sincere and trusting relationship with the reviewer. Otherwise there will quickly develop the situation in which the consultant is asked to provide assurance (taboo words) of a risk-free situation prior to approval. This, of course, cannot be done by anyone! In southern California regulatory circles, ‘‘risk’’ is not codified for judgmental treatment by the permitting ocial. Hence, if such a concept rises, often the reviewer will shunt the application to a safe hiding place rather than to face taking a stand that may later prove to be ‘‘politically incorrect.’’ Relief is on the way in those communities and local jurisdictions who hire third-party consulting firms to assist the sta
reviewer in handling risk-related judgments. Applicants, of course, pay for the third-party review.

15. Professional registration 1995 was the year of a demonstrable increase in professional registration of geologists by the States. Illinois (signed into law in September), Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri passed enabling legislation, bringing the number of states registering geologists to 23. Missouri’s e
ort went right into establishment of a Board headed by John D. Rockaway, Jr. ( University of Missouri–Rolla) already was reviewing grandfathering applications received before the deadline of 30 September 1995.

211

Wisconsin’s new board is chaired by senior hydrogeologist Joan Underwood, of RUST Environment and Infrastructure, Sheboygan. California added Certified Hydrogeologist to its existing Geologist, Geophysicist, and Certified Engineering Geologist titles in 1994 and conducted its first hydrogeology examination in 1995. Grandfathering was not allowed, creating a need for several senior members of the California practice group to volunteer not to become so certified but to provide the first examination to a limited number of applicants, who were, in turn, responsible for compiling the second, broad examination (1995). Arizona, under sunset pressure, dropped the registration category of Geophysical Engineer in 1995. Continuing Education Units (CEUs), originated in about 1970 as a means of validation for e
orts by some boards of registration for professional engineers. CEU’s were being required in geology only by the South Carolina Board. Six units must be demonstrated in each 2-y renewal period. The Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG) is to be thanked for providing the substantial intellectual means by which enabling legislation can be drafted and by which the newly established boards can draw up regulations and format their examinations. Currently there are 15 ASBOG member States, the most recent to join were Missouri and Wisconsin. The national geologic examination developed by ASBOG is now being given regularly in the fall and spring for member States. The two-part examination, Fundamentals and Principals and Practices, is continually updated. Questions also are continually reviewed to assure clear exposition and that they are appropriate for testing. The ‘‘national’’ examination is intended to serve two purposes; first, to represent the profession as a whole, and second, to assist in the concept of reciprocity (AKA comity or the basis for acceptance between States, without the need for an additional certifying examination). Individual engineering geologists work in many States and undertake a multitude of tasks. ASBOG registration support operates on the concept that applied geology is a national and international profession. Professional registration is designed for one

212

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

purpose only, to form the basis for protection of the health, safety and welfare of the public. Legislatures, constantly looking to identify laws for sunset review, must be convinced that State Boards have e
ective enforcement capabilities and that protection of the public remains the sole raison d’etre. AEG Past President (1994) Robert E. Tepel (Santa Clara County Water District, CA) has spent the last 5 y in collecting, analyzing and writing the history, rationale, philosophy, and substance of professional registration of geologists. In 1995 the Association published his edited, revised, and expanded collection of AEG Newsletter column articles in the form, Professional Licensure for Geologists: An Exploration of Issues, Special Pub. no. 7 (Tepel, 1995). The book surely will become the standard reference for continued professional registration e
orts. As with all other aspects of governmental regulation, established boards have been under strong legislative scrutiny in ‘‘sunsetting’’ reviews by politicians recognizing the citizen call that enough is often too much. Probably the toughest fight has been over the past ten years in California, where geologist registration encompasses all of the best arguments for continuance. So far, the board here has held its own, but not without broad informational support from practitioners. In the UK registration as ‘‘Eurogeologist’’ ( Eurogeol ) and for Chartered Status (Cgeol.) developed in stature in Britain and elsewhere for professional geologist members of the Geological Society. A listing of over 1600 CGeol members is included in ‘‘The Geologist’s Directory’’, 8th edition, 1996 published by The Geological Society in January 1996.

16. Standards, liability consciousness and loss prevention Doing the job right the first time remained the best protection from liability. Potential legal and financial penalties associated with errors and omissions (E and O) in the conduct of practice plagued all professions. In the face and arena of priced competition, every engineering geologist, in one

way or another, had to cope with producing more for less and doing it better than ever before. In this connection, the AEG News, under the new editorship of Abdul Shakoor ( Kent State University) moved ever further into o
ering regular columns written to pass information relating to achieving quality in practice.Hatheway, 1992a,b produces a quarterly column, Perspectives, dealing with technologies and issues of professional practice of engineering geology.

16.1. Quality America has a noble but unrealistic fetish with quality, especially as applied by clients to the design professions. Clients want quality, but they want quality at ever-lower cost. Latest in the quality fads is Total Quality Management ( TQM ), best defined and applied as an attitude, not another formal overlay of supervision and onerous paperwork designed to give the client a ‘‘warm and fuzzy’’ at no extra cost. Clients should know that quality comes from selection of qualified and experienced consultants and from openly negotiated fees. Achievement of quality in the design professions has always been tied to selection of properly motivated, qualified people working under fair conditions of employment. Bid-shopping does not comport with quality. True professionals are more interested in quality than are many clients. Far better the client selects consultants for quality and then negotiates a fee based on a clear understanding of the design and performance objectives and site characteristics. Parsons–Engineering Science internally funds TQM as a loss-prevention measure and spends from a dedicated overhead budget funded at something less than it analyzes as its potential liability exposure. Money spent on improvement of sta
competency and attitude toward the work product is tracked against a special overhead charge termed ‘‘rework’’, as uncompensated e
ort spent to produce work satisfying client needs. Fourteen internal Technical Committees (‘‘Disciplines’’ in some firms) and managed by chairmen selected for competence, sponsor transfer of new technology.

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

17. Techniques and technology In practice, we now continually look for better ways to provide more accurate and reliable data, to do so at a lower cost, and (thirdly) to improve the often gruelling field conditions for engineering geologists. Techniques are mainly the methods (standards, guidelines, and protocols) by which we conduct the work and technology generally refers to our equipment (hardware). 17.1. Geoarcheology For two vastly di
erent reasons, the study, prediction, and recovery of evidence of historic to ancient human activity has taken on a whole new perspective. By 1995 these e
orts could be discernible in two major areas, industrial and cultural. The latter remained a small market, especially in view of local requirements for Native American ancestry on many projects. 17.2. New technologies Several helpful technologies of exploration have appeared on the scene and reached proven reliability for applications for which they are capable of meeting. Details of most of these can be had by forwarding the Reader Inquiry Card found in each issue of the AEG News. Mobile field penetration probes of several varieties were capable of push technology to recover soil, pore water and vapor analyses in underconsolidated and normally consolidated, finer-grained soils. Department of Defense sponsored SCAPS (Site Characterization and Analysis Penetrometer System) penetrometer units were fielded at several Army and Navy activities, notably Engineer Districts of the Army. These impressive large truck–tractor vans bring in real-time assessments of soil type, engineering characteristics, groundwater samples, and presence and relative concentrations of major groups of chemical contaminants in the subsurface. As with the smaller van-mounted modules there are substantial limitations to use at industrial sites (metal and concrete debris) and in dense soils or units with rock fragments larger than pebbles.

213

In the realm of remediation of groundwater contamination, pump and treat technology was routinely pronounced too costly in terms of the excessive times to meet formerly enthusiastic predictions of achievement of Action Levels of cleanup concentrations. The geologic factor responsible for the shortfall on performance was the clay mineral behavior of fine-grained (cohesive) soils, in which electrostatic molecular forces restrained the desorption of bipolar contaminants and in-situ concentrations went asymptotic at higher concentrations than Action Levels. Groundwater modeling underwent severe criticism and introspection, mostly in costly litigation over cleanup of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Under fire, the most prevalent and damning criticism was the improper use of boundary-conditions and unrealistic or quality-flawed data files. One successful modeler–critiquer has developed his own ‘‘Robo-Cop’’ evaluation routine to statistically roam the opposition data files and detect apparent inconsistencies amounting to non-linear, step functions in magnitude measurements. Equally incomprehensible is the thankfully dying concept of the equivalent porous medium, as representing reality in groundwater movement in fractured rock masses. Actual evidence of actual discontinuities is neither sought nor adequately collected, and borehole packer test measurements are made without regard to the selection of actual, fractured borehole increments. These improper borehole packer tests are euphemistically employed to sidetrack fluid outflow to the mythical pores of the packer increment skin, rather than to the relatively high-velocity tabular fluid transport pathway represented by the actual discontinuities. The ‘‘windows’’ concept of computer programming, developed for the Apple computers, had fully spread throughout the new generation of IBM–DOS machines. Vendors of groundwater flow and contaminant transport computer models had developed and marked, a wide array of highly user-friendly codes. The Rumbaugh computer modeling organization, having left Geraghty and Miller, brought out Winflow and Wintran, both operating in Microsoft Windows. The new generation of programs were a
ordable (many at less than $1000), ‘‘friendly,’’ and equipped with a vast

214

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

selection of color-keyed graphic portrayals. ‘‘Garbage in–garbage out’’ however, became even more likely and the warning to crank the programs only with plausible geologic parameters and boundary conditions is even more applicable. Properly utilized, the graphics can be formulated throughout the process as an additional means to apply ‘‘sanity checks’’ to the computation. Under the pressure of priced competition, these programs were capable of providing report-quality graphics at the end of each approved run. USEPA continued to promote the development and acceptance of innovative technologies through its SITES (SUPERFUND Innovative Technologies Evaluation Strategy) program. The program was in its tenth year in 1995, during which it became abundantly clear that site geologic factors control the ultimate performance and acceptability of each of the new technologies. 17.3. Former manufactured gas plants (FMGPs) and coal-tar sites Within the field of hazardous waste site remediation, coal-tar residues and associated production wastes from incomplete combustion of coal finally surfaced as a reality. The Industrial Revolution was fueled by coal and lit by coal gas. Production of manufactured gas extended well into the 1960s in areas then not served by natural gas pipelines. By 1995 a rash of site development activities brought to view (and smell ) unanticipated and unwanted coal-tar residues. Not surprisingly, the disclosures often occurred in the urban renewal or transport corridor projects falling on the railroadside of the Central Business District of Anytown. Here was the traditional manufactured gas plant; as close as possible to downtown (short transport distance for the gas pipes) and at the railroad (supply of coal ). Brewed up along with the illuminating and heating gas was a complex array of toxic chemicals (some carcinogenic) of variable densities and water-solubilities. In fact, the gas works created or imparted all of today’s highconcern hazardous waste groups, save the halogenated organics. Each FMGP (former manufactured gas plant) is wholly unique among the 4 000 or more (senior author’s estimate) kindred plant

sites or their cousins, the gas producers, producer gas engine sites, and the railroad passenger car gas (Pintsch) plants that dotted America. Uniqueness of each FMGP stems from two factors, the parameters of gas manufacture and site geology.

18. Continuing education By 1995 we had achieved an enviable world position in the diversity and frequency of short courses and other forms of continuing education. The CEU (Continuing Education Unit) movement has been entirely successful over the past 20 y and most of the many courses had this as an option, usually at a slight surcharge for the paperwork involved in certifying attendance. Licensure boards, however were mainly unconcerned about this demonstration and attendance remained at the discretion of those who wanted to learn or wanted to learn in the pleasing locations of some courses. The issue is not a dead one, however. It is my prediction that CEU activity will come to be a natural part of most registration qualifications within a decade. The technical short course market had matured into a highly competitive situation in which the greater number of potential attendees was strained by the lessened funds for travel and fees and the increasing number of organizations o
ering the courses. Most society technical meetings have the courses, a
ording additional training at no additional travel expense, save a night or two of lodging. Short course dominance was lodged between E3 ( Environmental Education Enterprises, of Columbus, OH ) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. No o
erings in traditional engineering geologic subjects were on the market. Missouri– Rolla, the 1960s creator of the geoscience concept of short courses, had folded its tent with the retirement departure of geotechnical professor Norbert O. Schmidt, who re-erected at the University of Florida, Gainesville, from which geotechnical speciality courses in exploration, testing, instrumentation and grouting still were being o
ered.

A.W. Hatheway, G.M. Reeves / Engineering Geology 47 (1997) 191–215

Acknowledgment ‘‘The year that was’’ constitutes a unique experience for all of us individually. None of us had the supreme ‘‘cat bird’s seat’’ of observation. We were assisted greatly by pre-submittal reviews, completed at my request, by Edwin A. Blackey, Jr., ( Executive Director, AEG and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, retired ), Charles D. Hubbard (Braun Intertec, Inc., Richfield, MN ), Je
rey R. Keaton ( VP, AGRA Earth and Environmental, Salt Lake City, UT ), Mavis D. Kent (Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Portland), William R. Lund (Deputy Director, Utah Geological Survey), John H. Peck (SAIC, Las Vegas, NV ), Razi Quraishi (Jacobs Engineering Group, Pasadena, CA), Hugh S. Robertson (Robertson Geotechnical, Inc., Westlake Village, CA), J. David Rogers (President, Rogers/Pacific, Inc., Pleasant Hill, CA), Roy J. Shlemon (Consultant, Newport Beach, CA), William K. Smith ( USGS, Golden, CO), Charles A. Spires (Parsons Engineering Science, Atlanta, Georgia), Owen E. Swanson (ChemNuclear, Inc., Raleigh, NC ), and J. Hadley Williams (State Geologist of Missouri; first to return his most penetrating comments!). As we intend to make this written pilgrimage each year, we encourage contact by readers who are willing to contribute to subsequent e
orts (e-mail at [email protected] and George. [email protected]). Postscript In our first attempt at this annual summary, the European/UK/Rest of the World content of this report is, of necessity, much abbreviated compared with reporting of North American activities. Strong objections to this should be forwarded with copy for future reports (and/or o
ers of help as associate editors or contributors), preferably via e-mail, to either author.

References Byrd, T., 1994. The Making of the Channel Tunnel. Thomas Telford Ltd. New Civil Engineer/TransManche Link.

215

Geological Society of London, 1995a. Engineering Geology of Construction. In: Eddleston, M., Cripps, J.C., Culshaw M.G.( Eds.), Eng. Geol. Spec. Publ. no. 10, 420 p., ISBN 1-9897799-28-4. . Engineering Geology of Waste Disposal. In: Bentley, S.P.( Ed.), Eng. Geol. Spec. Publ. no. 11, 576 p., ISBN 1-897799-46-2. Hatheway, A.W., 1992. Perspectives no. 10, Standards, guidelines and protocols; keeping our house in order. AEG News 35 (1), 26–28. Hatheway, A.W., 1992. Perspectives no. 11, The technical standards of engineering geology; most unwritten, yet they are in place and should be observed. AEG News 35 (2), 27–29. Hatheway, A.W., 1995. End the evils of priced-competition: Forum commentary. Civil Eng. Magazine 65 (11), 6 Holzer, T.L., 1995. The 1995 Hanshin–Awaji ( Kobe), Japan, Earthquake. GSA Today 5 (8), 154–156, 165, 167. Krinitzsky, E.L., 1995. Selection of Earthquake Ground Motions for Engineering: Report Paper S-73-1, State of-theArt for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Geotechnical Laboratory, Vicksburg, MS, July, 106 p. Institution of Civil Engineers, 1992. Special Edition — The Channel Tunnel; Part 1 — Tunnels. Special Edition—The Channel Tunnel; Part 2 — Terminals. Special Edition—The Channel Tunnel; Part 3 — The French Section. Jennings, C.W., 1994. Fault Activity Map of California and Adjacent Areas; With Locations and Ages of Recent Eruptions: California Division of Mines and Geology, Geol. Data Map no. 6, 1:750 000, with 92-page explanatory text (major revision of the 1975 Fault Map of California, in five printings and more than 20 000 copies in sales). Lund, Wm.R. ( Ed.), 1995. Environmental and Engineering Geology of the Wasatch Front: Utah Geological Association Publ. 24, 541 p. (40 individual papers, available from Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, UT ). Reeves, G.M. (Ed.), 1996. The Geologist’s Directory, 8th ed. Geological Society of London; GSL Publishing House, Unit 7, Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Lande, Bath BA1 3JN, UK, FAX 44-01225-442836. Saucier, R.T., 1994. Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi River Valley: Non-series report prepared for The President, Mississippi River Commission, Vicksburg, MS, 2 Vols. (The volume is a first sequel to the pioneering work of H.N. Fisk, 1944.) Vol. 1: Text and appendices, 396 p.; Vol. 2: Plates (28 by designation, 30 by actual number). Seva, L., Slemmons, D.B. ( Eds.), 1995. Perspectives in Paleoseismicity: Assoc. Engr. Geologists Spec. Pub., no. 7, Proceedings of 1993 conference held at Rome, Italy. Tepel, R.E., 1995. Professional Licensure for Geologists; An Exploration of Issues: Assoc. Engineering Geologists, Spec. Publ. no. 7, 123 p., with comprehensive reference list. West, T.R., 1995. Geology Applied to Engineering. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cli
s, NJ, 560 p.