CLEARWATERS: People and places

Elisa M. Speranza has joined CH2M Hill as a market segment director for the firm's global water business group. In her new position, Speranza will help to identify strategic trends in the drinking water market and to anticipate the needs of the firm's clients.

She has worked on many environmental management and public policy issues on both the public utility and consulting sides of the water business. Most recently, she concentrated on public utility competitiveness and asset management as a managing consultant with PA Consulting Group. Previously, she had been a VP for client services at Metcalf & Eddy. Before that, she was an independent management and communications consultant, served as deputy director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and as special projects manager for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. Speranza is proud of her membership in the Select Society of Sanitary Sludge Shovelers.

Dvirka and Bartilucci

Mineola selects Dvirka and Bartilucci

The Village of Mineola has chosen the firm Dvirka and Bartilucci of Woodbury, NY to design improvements to the municipal water system. The improvements will ensure an adequate supply of safe water.

Following a thorough inspection of the village's main water tower, Dvirka and Bartilucci's engineers recommended structural improvements and complete cleaning and recoating of the interior and exterior steel surfaces. The Village has adopted the firm's recommendations.

Dvirka and Bartilucci also recommended installation of a treatment system for Mineola well #7 located near Jericho Turnpike, adjacent to Village Hall and Mineola Fire Headquarters. The Village has installed a $1.2 million treatment system that will remove any volatile organic chemicals from the water supply in an environmentally safe fashion. The technology chosen was a packed tower aeration system.

Moving up at Dvirka and Bartilucci

Nicholas J. Bartilucci, president of Dvirka and Bartilucci, has announced the promotion of three key employees to associate level positions to assist the company with its growing list of assignments and clients:

William Merklin, PE has been promoted to associate. Bill joined D&B in 1995 after 5 years of engineering experience with a California firm. He has served as a senior engineer in the water supply and civil engineering division and has worked on numerous water supply and water treatment projects. He has also been responsible for the design of water filtration and treatment for D&B's municipal swimming pool projects.

Kenneth Prichard, PE has been promoted to senior associate. Ken first joined D&B in 1980 as a civil engineer and assisted at that time on sewer evaluation programs, storm water drainage, and road rehabilitation projects. He rejoined D&B in 1995 as project manager in the Civil/Drainage Group where he directed many municipal projects. Ken supervised D&B's parks and recreation program and is responsible for overseeing the design and construction management of roads and recreation facilities.

Michael J. Neuberger, PE has been promoted to associate. Mike joined D&B in 1988. He has been primarily responsible for the design and construction management of power, control, and instrumentation systems for municipal wastewater, water supply, and civil engineering projects. As an associate, he will manage the growing electrical engineering department.

Malcolm Pirnie promotions

Ten associates advanced to senior associates, and twelve staff members joined the management ranks. The following promotions were announced in the first quarter of 2001:

Mark Hanson, PE is a new senior associate in White Plains. He manages construction activities at projects for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.

Daniel Lopez-Rendon, PE is now a senior associate in White Plains. He is project manager for the $700 million upgrade of the Wards Island WPCP.

Carmine Marra, PE has been named a senior associate. He is construction manager for NYCDEP's $2 billion upgrade at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn.

The following individuals are also new senior associates: Edward Balchon, PE in Tampa; Daniel P. Sheehan, PE in Wilmington, Delaware; Judy A. Bedard, PE in Wilmington; Robert Kerbel in Fair Lawn, New Jersey; George Maseeh, PE in Tuscon, Arizona; Robert McCollum, PE in Dallas; and Stephen McGowan, PE in Detroit.

Twelve staff members were appointed associates of the firm: Leeming Wordsman, Susan Molnar, and Gregory South (of the White Plains office); Scott Czesak, (Fair Lawn, NJ), Thomas Whetham, PE (Buffalo), Robert Barkholz, PE (Lansing and Gaylord, Michigan), Chris Englert, PE (Detroit), Daniel Fitzgerald and Thomas (Britt) McMillan, PE (Newport News, Virginia), Frank Green, PE (Columbus), Simon Hernandez, PE (San Antonio), and Richard Kennedy, PE (San Diego).

Navy selects O'Brien & Gere

O'Brien & Gere Engineers was selected by the Atlantic Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command to conduct water and wastewater system inspections, testing, and analysis. The program's value is estimated at $1 million/yr for 3 years.

Under the program, O'Brien & Gere will support installations in several states in New England and the Middle Atlantic. It will also support installations in Puerto Rico, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Greece, Bahrain, and Iceland. Dan Coleman, Vice President of the company's Virginia Beach office will manage the project.

Under this contract, Coleman will provide water and wastewater master plans, treatment plant capacity evaluations, infiltration/inflow studies, sewer system evaluation surveys, conditions assessments of sewerage facilities, mapping updates including GIS and GPS, water audits, leak detection, and life-cycle cost analysis.

Peter Moffa

Brown and Caldwell acquires Moffa

The national firm Brown and Caldwell announced that it has completed its acquisition of Moffa & Associates of Syracuse, an engineering firm that specializes in wet weather and combined sewer overflow abatement. “Our acquisition of Moffa & Associates hits the mark because it gives our clients access to more top environmental solution-makers,” said Brown and Caldwell president and CEO Craig Goehring. “Moffa has earned a national reputation for being able to assess all solutions, from state-of-the-art to state-of-the-practical, and apply the one that is most cost-effective.”

Peter Moffa, PE, now senior VP and CSO technical director for Brown and Caldwell, launched Moffa & Associates in 1986. A pioneer of CSO and storm water solutions since the early 1970s, Moffa quickly developed his firm into a market leader, participating in many of the nation's largest and most innovative wet-weather projects. Examples include New York City's Vortex Demonstration Project to evaluate the cost and performance of three vortex storm water separation technologies and Detroit's high-rate CSO disinfection facility—the largest facility of its type in the world.

Damian Vanetti

S&W Services has promoted Damian Vanetti as vice president. The firm is headquartered in Cazenovia, NY.

Vanetti has over 16 years of comprehensive experience in several aspects of environmental engineering, construction, and facility management. He has managed multiple projects ranging from planning to design. He has also managed construction projects with construction costs up to $20 million.

He has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's degree in environmental science and engineering from Clarkson University.

Franklin Miller markets Delumper™

Franklin Miller of Livingston, NJ is marketing its versatile Delumper LP Crusher. The unit reduces hard or soft heat-sensitive sticky or wet agglomerates and lumps at high volume. The Delumper accepts 3000 ft³/hr of material such as filter press cake slabs. Depending on the configuration, the units can handle up to 27,000 lb/hr.

The Franklin Miller Web site offers additional details.

Adamski returns to Dominican Republic

Robert E. Adamski, PE, vice president of municipal infrastructure programs for Gannett Fleming, recently returned to Bani, Dominican Republic to observe the status of water projects under construction there. He first visited the Saona area of Bani in 1998 after Hurricane Georges hit.

Adamski inspected the water projects under construction by Hermandad, Inc., a nonprofit organization assisting the poor in Honduras, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. He also witnessed how the self-help concept used by Hermandad enabled local residents quickly to repair water systems damaged by the hurricane. This concept is used by all successful agencies in developing countries including Peace and the U.S. Army. He reviewed latrines and community centers built by residents.

Eric Zalkin, George Girardi, Robert Adamski, and Rafael Custodio (president of El Compo, a cooperative of twelve villages) in the mountains northwest of San Jose de Ocoa,

Adamski examined a new irrigation system and visited residents planting passion fruit. Using extra water from the irrigation system, community members will receive additional income by selling the fruit. Hermandad vice president George Girardi, Project director Eric Zalkin, volunteer Ana Del Carmen Garcia, and local Hermandad supporter Dr. Raul Barrientos accompanied Adamski on his trip.

In addition to working with Hermandad, Adamski serves on the board of “Water for People,” a nonprofit organization that helps impoverished individuals worldwide by supporting sustainable drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene projects.

Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building—Monuments of the millennium

The American Society of Civil Engineers named the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building “Civil Engineering Monuments of the Millennium.”

This designation is being given to projects that demonstrate a combination of engineering technical achievement, courage and inspiration, and a dramatic influence on the development of the community in which they are located.

Golden Gate Bridge Nearly 1.8 billion vehicle-crossing have occurred on the Golden Gate Bridge, and today 116,000 vehicles cross it daily. The bridge was built in just over 4 years under the leadership of Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss. When it opened on May 28, 1937, it had the longest main suspension span in the world at 4200 ft. Today it is in seventh place with bridges in Japan, Denmark, England, China, and New York (Verrazano Narrows) longer.

Empire State Building Rising from the cleared site of the Waldorf-Astoria, no building before the empire State had risen so high with such speed. It took a crew of three thousand men working 7 days per week only 1 year and 45 days to complete. The building rose at a rate of 4.5 stories per week for a total of 102 floors. Remarkably, the building was built during the Great Depression for less than the anticipated cost of $50 million ($640 million in 2000). The final cost to build it, including the cost of purchasing and clearing the land, was less than $41 million ($525 million in 2000). The 80,000 ft² building has 73 elevators including six freight elevators, that can carry some 3.8 million visitors and tenants to the top observation levels in less than 1 minute. The Empire State Building held the title of the world's tallest building at 1,250 ft until 1972 when One World Trade Center supplanted it at 1,368 ft. (The Petronas Towers, built in 1996 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is now the worlds' tallest building at 1,483 ft.)

Other “Monuments of the Millennium” are:

Project	Category
Panama Canal	Water transportation
Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan	Airport design and development
California Water Project	Water supply and distribution

The remaining civil engineering achievements that will be recognized include dams, the interstate highway system, rail transportation, sanitary landfills and solid waste disposal, and wastewater treatment and disposal.

RD Smith

Hazen and Sawyer

New regional manager

Robert D. Smith, PE has been appointed Northeast regional manager of Hazen and Sawyer. Smith is also a vice president and serves on the firm's board of directors. He has been with Hazen and Sawyer since 1976. In his new role as regional manager, he will oversee the management of the New York City corporate headquarters. He will continue to manage the region's major facilities planning, CSO, and BNR efforts, particularly on New York City projects.

J Lastihenos

Smith succeeds Jerry Lastihenos, PE. Lastihenos, a senior VP, will continue with the firm and on the board of directors, and he will now concentrate primarily on his role as project director for New York City's Newtown Creek WPCP upgrade.

Expanded duties

Two long-time Hazen and Sawyer employees have been given expanded managerial duties. James J. Brady, Jr., PE, a vice president, was chosen to fill the newly created position of chief engineer. He will oversee quality assurance and quality control for the Northeast region.

JJ Brady, Jr AS Natter, PE

Alan S. Natter, PE, VP, assumes the newly created role of Northeast regional coordinator. He will focus on office management and staff recruitment and assignment issues.

Now in Tampa

Hazen and Sawyer Environmental Engineers & Scientists has opened an office in Tampa to serve municipal clients in west-central Florida. Damann L. Anderson, PE is the VP for the office. He formerly was with Ayres Associates. Anderson is experienced in facilities design, performance evaluations, ground water assessments, and feasibility studies of water and wastewater. He has also worked with waste treatment and disposal alternatives including water reuse.

New wireless transmonitor from USFilter

USFilter has introduced the Livello™ Wireless Transmonitor, a wireless liquid-level monitoring system that allows for the monitoring of chemical inventories with the Internet. Daily inventory tracking of chemical levels can provide the flexibility to top-off or delay shipment of chemical based on actual need or cash flow.

The Livello™ Wireless Transmonitor combines level sensor electronics with microburst cellular communications and the Internet to gain accurate and timely information regarding current chemical tank levels. Using either an ultrasonic or a submersible differential-pressure sensor to measure levels, the Livello™ wireless transmonitor digitizes the sensor signal and transmits the output over a microburst signal to the nearest cellular telephone tower. A secure web site is established before installation that provides authorized personnel ready access to “snapshots” of current chemical inventories.