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

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

The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009

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

January 18, Wednesday (approximately 11:34 to 12:48 , the regular times )

TOPIC
An UPDATE on the new EPA Stormwater Regulations

LOCATION
TCEQ HQ Campus - Building B (the regular room) location map

SPEAKER
Adrienne Boer, CFM, CPESC, PMP
TRC Solutions

NOTE: CAECN is starting its 9th year right back at the TCEQ room where we had our first meeting all those years ago. Thank you so much to all the speakers who have volunteered their time to share their topics. And thank you to the TCEQ, COA, TxDOT, LCRA and the City of Round Rock for providing us free meeting room space. Teamwork...AJ

FUTURE MEETINGS (CAECN and OTHER GROUPS)

Date = Jan 26 (4th Thursday)
Topic = Bamberger Ranch restoration activities Location = COA OTC-325 Speaker = Steven Fulton. Biologist for the Ranch 830-868-0238

Date = Feb 8
Topic = Updates and refresher on Interlocking Concrete Pavers and permeable pavements as BMPs Location = TCEQ - Bldg B Speaker = Pavestone

Date = TBD (maybe Feb 23, 4th Thursday)
Topic = Riparian Zones
Speaker = Sky Jones-Lewey (Nueces River Authority)

Date = TBD
Topic = Improved green roof design for warmer climates - latest research findings from Wildflower Center
Location = TBD
Speaker = Mark Simmons (WFC)

Date = TBD
Topic = 7th Street
Location = TBD
Speaker(s) = Ele McKinney and ??

Date = TBD
Topic = LCRA -Water Neutral Development
Location = COA OTC-325
Speaker = Tom Hegemier , PE

Date = TBD
Topic = Unified Rational Method
Location = TBD
Speaker = Dr. William Asquith, USGS (note: William just completed his Doctorate in Civil - congratulations)

Date = TBD (following from an excellent and thought provoking presentation 8/22/11)
Topic = Biochar - Part 2 - additional information and continued examination
Location = TBD
Speaker = David Greene, COA

Linked In
(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

CPESC - no more free CPESC exam TRAINING SESSIONS are scheduled at OTC-325 (8 hour sessions)

no more free CPESC EXAM have being scheduled at OTC-325 (5 hours for the full exam) (3 hours for either Part 1 or Part 2)

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.

TBA

Here is the link for the CPESC exam session information, location, times and registration www.ci.austin.tx.us/watershed/downloads/erosion_registration.pdf

Houston Land/Water Sustainability Forum

www.houstonLWSforum.org Bob Adair, 832.456.1000

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

Come to the meetings and I will have these DVDs in a box up front for you to review and make your selections

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, TxDOT, TCEQ, and City of Round Rock for donating free meeting 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 GeoComponents (formerly Lone Star GeoProducts) for providing soft drinks.
Larry Hans, 653-1777, larry.hans@hanescompanies.com
Casey Harris, 670-2050, casey.harris@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, 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