The group formed January 2004 with the goal of meeting twice a month during the lunch hour (brown bag) and listening to an ESC technical presentation. The time can be counted toward the engineer's PDH credits. The meeting rooms are rotated among TxDOT, TCEQ, City of Austin and LCRA meeting rooms that are provided at no cost to the group. The group could not survive without this generous donation. The group includes members of the South Central IECA chapter and encourages membership and participation.

About the Brown Bag Sessions
The meetings are intended to be constructive, educational, and relaxed in tone. The spirit of the group is one of open sharing and discussion in a courteous and professional manner. The goal is to cooperatively build upon the experiences of all the members. The brownbag luncheon meetings are held at no charge due to the gracious sponsors that donate meeting room space, cokes and bottled water. Since the room sponsors are governmental agencies, the content of the meetings cannot take on any semblance of a "political agenda" or grievance session. We cannot afford to loose these generous sponsors. The attendees "code of conduct" should support this positive educational environment. Attendees should not be combative or hostile with the guest speaker. Attendees should allow time for others in the group to ask questions. Extended technical discussions with the speaker should be held after the brown bag session. This venue should be a safe environment for the speakers who are taking time to take a risk and get infront of a professional group of peers to review a particular product, case study or regulatory issue. These general "rules of the road" are suggested to help keep the meetings constructive, educational, and relaxed in tone.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CAECN group – forwarding some information regarding local ESC-BMP-SWPPP stormwater inspector training classes thru the City of Pflugerville...

Certified Stormwater Inspector & Certified Construction Inspector Course Info

Please get in touch with Felix (or call the phone numbers on the form) if you have any questions or want to sign up

Andy Johnston

_______________________________________

Andy, can you help get the word out to the CAECN about these classes? Thanks. Felix Benavides, P.E.
City Engineer
City of Pflugerville
100 E. Main St., Suite 200
512.990.6341 (T)
www.pflugerville2030.com

Capital Area Erosion Control Network and Sustainable Site Designs
(free training/discussion sessions)

Please let me know if you would like to make a presentation, or if you have a topic of interest you would like to hear presented.

SUSTAINABLE SITE DESIGNS

Thought for the day – “Reuse or recycle vegetation, rocks and soil generated during construction” Credit Number 7.5

Please note that a new publication is available as a part of the “Sustainable Sites Initiative” titled “Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks-2009” www.sustainablesites.org/report

Please visit www.sustainablesites.org to get additional information about prior reports and future efforts (pilot projects, etc) or call Dr. Steve Windhager at WFC (512) 232-0200

NEXT MEETING

Thursday, January 28, (the 4th Thursday of every month) approximately 11:34 to 12:48 (regular times) PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA (thank you Cindy…)

SPEAKER
Cindy Tilton, Project Manager
Soil Express, LTD/Filtrexx
166 Frontier Parkway
Prosper, Texas 75078
214-491-0822 cell
cindy@soilexpress.com

TOPIC
The many uses of compost and recycled wood waste in storm water controls

LOCATION
COA – One Texas Center – 325
505 Barton Springs Road

FUTURE MEETINGS (CAECN and OTHER GROUPS)

Date = February 16-20, 2010
Topic = IECA Annual Conference – Trade show
Location = Dallas
Speaker = varied. See www.ieca.org

Date = February – still finalizing the dates and arrangements – week of Feb 22-26
Topic = Geomorphology and Stream Restoration – A UK Perspective (see attachment for the full day seminar agenda)
Location = Fort Worth, Killeen, San Antonio
Speaker = Dr. Andrew Brookes, Jacobs, UK

Date = February 25
Topic = Case Study – The London Rivers Action Plan - Preparations for the Olympics
Location = OCA-OTC 325
Speaker = Dr. Andrew Brookes, Jacobs, UK

Date = TBD
Topic = Society of Ecological Restoration – an overview
Location = TBD
Speaker = TBD

Date = TBD
Topic = Innovations in Water Quality Techniques – An update in approved COA methods
Location = COA-OTC-325
Speaker = Several COA

Date = TBD
Topic = Propex products for ESC and stormwater quality
Location = COA-OTC 325 LUNCH PROVIDED
Speaker = Quiana Cleveland, P.E., Market Development Manager, Propex, Inc, (281)725-4230

Date = TBD
Topic = Concrete Wash out control methods - options
Location = TBD
Speaker = TBD

Date = TBD
Topic = EPA’s new Effluent Limitation Guidelines for Construction
The EPA has just issued effluent limitation guidelines for Construction and Development. For more info go to: www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction/

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE BUILDERS AND/OR DEVELOPERS - Please note that the larger common plan of development rules will apply to the numeric limitation and sampling requirements. So even if you disturb less than 10 acres, if the larger common development disturbs > 10 acres, the rules will apply to you as well.

Also note, the EPA has stated that the individual states will include these restrictions in the renewal of each state's construction general permit. For Texas, that will be March 2013. For Oklahoma, that's September 2012. For Arkansas, it's October 2011, and for Louisiana it's February 2012.
Location = TBD
Speaker = TBD

Date = TBD
Topic = TBD
Location = TBD
Speaker = I owe several people “call backs” to arrange dates. Sorry for the delay

LinkedIn (thank you Wesley…)
“Please remind everyone that CAECN has a Group on LinkedIn. I updated the meeting information from your emails, so they can find it in the Discussion section. It should pop up if they search for Capital Area Erosion Control Network.

Here is how I described the group on the website:
CAECN is an ad hoc group of engineers, scientists, and vendors who meet to discuss erosion and sediment control issues in central Texas. The group has been meeting for over 5 years and the group has been recognized by IECA at its 2009 national convention. Meetings are held bi-monthly and rotate between space at the City of Austin, TxDOT, TCEQ, LCRA and the City of Round Rock.”

Wesley R. Young, PE, CFM
Water Resources Manager
CP&Y

OTHER EROSION / WQ GROUP MEETINGS

CPESC

COA will be providing CPESC exam training session at OTC-325 (8 hour sessions)

Future 2010 dates are being set

Here is the link for the CPESC exam review session information, location, times and on-line training registration http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watershed/downloads/erosion_registration.pdf

Each session is the same. Not cumulative

CPESC is open to ALL stormwater professionals (e.g. geology, biology, etc. Not just limited to P.E.s)

The COA training will be free and you do not need to be “precertified” from North Carolina to take the training

TRAINING MANUALS – two options

Option 1 bring $60 cash to the session and pay COA at the door (or a check/PO made out to CPESC, Inc.)

Option 2 contact No Carolina directly (see www.cpesc.org for address) and send them $75 + $6.95 S&H and they will mail you one

COA will provide the CPESC exam at OTC-325 (5 hours for the full exam) (3 hours for either Part 1 or Part 2)

NOTE: you do NOT need to take the training session to take the exam.

If you want to take the EXAM, you must submit precertification registration information to HQ in No. Carolina www.cpesc.org.

Plan ahead since the application process typically takes 45 days. You cannot take the exam with out an “approval letter” from No. Carolina

Test day schedule: arrival and check-in 30 minutes before the test time shown on the web link. Times vary per test date.

Future 2010 dates are being set

The COA has added a section to their existing web site link for on-line registration for the TEST dates.

CESSWI
SCIECA and SAWS are co-sponsoring a CESSWI training and exam in San Antonio in August 2009.

CISEC
COA is working to get this training provided in January. More specifics later.

Houston Land/Water Sustainability Forum

www.houstonLWSforum.org Bob Adair, 832.456.1000

River City Water Quality Forum (San Antonio)

The San Antonio Water System's (SAWS) Resource Compliance Division, in partnership with the South Central Chapter International Erosion Control Association, is having a monthly series of "Lunch and Learn" opportunities for the community. The intent of the informal lunches is to share information pertaining to storm water construction and water quality issues. The forums will be held at the SAWS main office (2800 U.S. Hwy 281 North) from 11:30am to 1:00pm.

Please contact Erik Hobson at erik.hobson@saws.org regarding upcoming training opportunities.

DIRT TIME
John McCullah has donated some copies of his DIRT TIME DVDs to the group - we have set up a "check out list" like at Library (person A can borrow a copy for X time and then return it later for person B to use, etc)

Season 1, Disk 1 - hydromulch, ECB, sediment ponds
S1, D2 - silt fence, wattles, polymers
S1, D3 streambank stabilization
Season 2, Disk 1 riverbanks, coir blocks, rolls, geobags, woody debris, rock riprap
S2, D2 streambank, landslide repair, poles, brush layers, rock vanes, monitoring

Thank you John (800) 403-0474

PDH CREDITS - CAECN
Please recall that our Capital Area Erosion meetings can be counted as 1.0 PDH credit toward annual PE registration requirements (Honor system)

SPONSORS
Thank you to COA, LCRA, TCEQ, TxDOT, and City of Round Rock for donating room space so we can have these technical meetings. And thank you to everyone for taking time from work to attend these brown bag sessions.

Thank you to Hanes GeoProducts (formerly Lone Star GeoProducts) for providing soft drinks. Larry Hans, 670-2050 larry.hans@hanescompanies.com

Hope you can attend this free AUSTIN brown bag training session (please fwd this to others who may be interested)

SCIECA

Please continue to check out the South Central Chapter of IECA web site for additional training information thru the year and links to other helpful sites (thank you for providing info about CAECN on your site...)

Please pass this information along to others. Thanks!

Andy Johnston, PE, RPLS, CPESC, CFM
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
Project Manager, Sr | Water Infrastructure, Austin
2705 Bee Cave Road, Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78746-5688
512.314.3134
512.314.3135 fax
andy.johnston@jacobs.com