June 4, 2012 Julie Childers,Vice-President of Engineering at Knoxville Utilities Board spoke about KUB’s Century II Water Asset Management Program.
n 2007, KUB
began an emphasis on developing an asset management and life-cycle replacement program, which was named Century II, for its focus on a new century of providing utility service. Due to the success of the Pace10 program for wastewater, the asset management programs for the other 3 utilities, electric, gas, and water, would be based on the same formula. This presentation described the
Century II program for KUB’s water system. The goal of Century II for water is the identification and replacement or repair of water lines that are past their useful life, for two reasons:
educe the frequency of water line breaks, which cause traffic and neighborhood disruption, as well as water service interruptions.
educe the amount of water loss from KUB’s system, which will improve operational efficiency and meet new regulatory requirements.
t was interesting to note that the value of the water lost was not great enough to justify the program and the major benefits will be in reduced maintenance and more capacity in soma areas in the future.
June 11,2012. Brent Wood and Michael Pannell of S&ME.Inc. Described two dam removal projects. We think of dams as permanent structures but on a geological time scale they are temporary. Catastrophic failure is an undesirable end for a dam so the removal of an existing dam should be carefully considered. The goal was to reproduce the conditions of a natural stream as compensation for loss of a natural stream at another location.
On June 18, 2012. Bill Marrison, President, Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority gave us a history of the McGhee Tyson airport. He discussed the reason for high fares from Knoxville – the market will bear them. An airport in OakRidge would serve nonscheduled airplanes and would be beneficial to the area.
he name “Mcghee Tyson” will not be changed because it would result in Tyson park reverting back to the family of McGhee Tyson.
As a child, I, Bob Scott, recall seeing an air show on Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville so, for me, the history of Knoxville’s airport was interesting).
On June 25, 2012 John Schwartz, PhD, PE, UTK Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering spoke on the topic “Use of Fish Functional Traits to Associate In-Stream Suspended Sediment Transport Metrics with Biological Impairment”.
his unlikely sounding topic was
interesting. There is no one suspended sediment number which will describe the desired effect on wildlife. The kind of wildlife and the kind of stream determine what suspended solids are acceptable and the level and duration of high levels are more important than the average level of suspended solids. Some suspended sediment is good for some species and the conclusion was that there is not a single level of suspended solids that would represent a correct amount.
r. Schwartz is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, serving on the River Restoration Committee and the Urban Water Resources Research Council (UWRRC). He is Co-Chair of
the Urban Streams Standing Committee (UWRRC), and is leading an effort to produce a guidance manual on assessment and monitoring of urban stream restoration projects.
On June 13, 2012 Katherine Ferris Scott died at the age of 101. She was the mother of Bob Scott, current TSK secretary, and the last surviving child of Charles Ferris, founder of the Technical Society.