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  • Contains 10 Component(s), Includes Credits Includes Multiple Live Events. The next is on 10/28/2025 at 9:30 AM (MDT)

    The course is a comprehensive review of dam and levee safety risk analysis

    Target Audience

    The target audience for this training is engineers, scientists, and regulators interested in better understanding and preparing to participate in and/or facilitate dam and levee safety risk assessments.  

    Learning Objectives:  

    The training includes instruction to enable participants to:

    • Create potential failure mode descriptions and event trees, and use them to develop risk estimates.
    • Describe the hazards that affect dams and levees and apply them to risk analysis.
    • Identify relevant case histories and foundational research studies.
    • Apply principles of theory of probability and statistics to quantify, combine and portray risk estimates.
    • Identify essential elements of life loss consequence estimates.
    • Build the case for risk estimates.
    • Explain governance and risk guidelines.
    • Become familiar with other disciplines and their input to risk estimates.


    36 PDHs

    Format:

    *there is a minimum registration number needed to run this course, do not make travel plans until after 2/18 when the course is confirmed*

    All Sessions, Virtual and In Person are required for course completion 

    Virtual- October 28- 30, 2025

    In Person- November 4 - 6, 2025

    CSU Spur Denver, CO - 4777 National Western Dr, Denver, CO 80216

    Hotels in the area are around 5 to 25 minutes away. Due to the area being more industrial, we recommend driving or taking an Uber to the location. Parking details are available using this link

    Jonathan Harris

    Schnabel

    Jonathan Harris currently acts as the National Practice Leader for Dam Safety and Risk at Schnabel. He has over 27 years of experience specializing in geotechnical engineering, embankment dam design, seismic engineering, dam safety, and risk analysis. He spent 11 years with the Bureau of Reclamation, working at the Technical Service Center as a Technical Project Lead. Jonathan has conducted numerous dam safety assessments for Reclamation, FERC licensees, and other hydropower owners in the United States and other countries. He spent three years working in New Zealand performing dam safety and risk assessments within New Zealand and other countries.

    Jonathan has performed as a facilitator and subject matter expert for qualitative and quantitative risk analyses for numerous dam facilities. He has actively been involved in providing training for dam safety and risk analysis for over 15 years and is currently part of the United States Society on Dams risk-informed decision making (RIDM) training development leadership team and helped organize the semi-quantitative risk analysis RIDM training.

    Jonathan has overseen numerous embankment dam projects for new and existing structures including site investigation, design, construction, and remediation. He has also been involved with many dam safety assessments for a variety of dam structure types and appurtenant structures, including embankments, spillways, and concrete dams.

    Gregg A Scott, P.E., F. ASCE

    Scott Consulting, LLC

    Mr. Scott received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He started his career with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1976, where he worked for 34 years before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center as Lead Civil Engineer, where he worked through 2018. He has been involved with design, analysis, and construction of dams and dam safety projects, as well as the development and application of potential failure mode analysis and risk analysis for dam safety. He served on several review panels for Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers dam construction and dam safety projects. He has authored over 35 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings related to dam safety and dam engineering. He is now retired from Federal service, but continues to consult on a limited basis. 

    Bill Fiedler, P.E.

    Senior Technical Advisor

    HDR

    Bill has 42 years’ experience in hydraulic and structural engineering designs for concrete dams and appurtenant structures, with the Bureau of Reclamation. While with Reclamation, he served as a technical specialist and design team leader for numerous water resource projects. In the later part of his career, he served as a member of Reclamation’s three-person Risk Advisory Team, which was responsible for developing additional risk analysis methodologies and providing training for Reclamation.

    staff. Bill has particular expertise in concrete dam and spillway modifications, including: project planning and design coordination; analysis and design of structural modifications; review of design drawings and specifications; construction support; and risk analysis methodologies and facilitation. He has written numerous papers focused on dam safety evaluations and dam safety modifications. He was a lead author on a Reclamation manual focused on drains for dams and on a FEMA manual focused on flood overtopping protection for dams. For the past two years, he has worked as a consultant in the role of senior technical advisor.

    Guy Lund

    Chief Civil/Structural Engineer

    Schnabel

    Mr. Lund has over 40 years of experience in dam safety, design, including hydraulic structure design of spillways, outlet works, and appurtenant structures, comprehensive structural analyses of concrete dams (static and dynamic analyses utilizing both linear and non-linear methodologies), field investigations, and construction.  Early in his career Mr. Lund worked as a design engineer on numerous spillways, water conveyance systems, and outlet works for the Bureau of Reclamation.  He has work in the private sector for over the past over 30 years Mr. Lund and gained experience in the design, analysis, and evaluation of all types of concrete dams. 

    Mr. Lund has been working with potential failure modes and risk for over 20 years, and currently serves as the independent consultant and of board of consultant review member for many FERC Projects.  

    Phoebe Percell-Dantes Taureau

    Owner

    Percell Taureau Consulting

    Phoebe Percell-Taureau has over 20 years of experience in dam and levee safety, security, emergency management. She has led the two largest dam safety programs in the world, both for the US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Her focus is not only on getting the engineering right to defend decisions, but also in building the case for those decisions in a manner that is relatable and understandable for non-technical audiences to get behind. This has only been possible through developing the technical expertise in dam engineering, structural design and analysis, risk analysis, risk-informed design. She spent approximately 15 years on her career in the Technical Services Center of the US Bureau of Reclamation working on highly technical challenges mostly related to concrete dams, seeking to understand the complex performance of gravity, arch, and buttress dams under normal operating conditions, floods, and earthquakes and then taking that understanding into a risk environment to evaluate whether or not the performance of the structure met an acceptable level for risk to the public. Sometimes it was not acceptable and Phoebe would then incorporate that same understanding of risk to inform the design for a modification or change to operations. In private sector she used those skills to advise dam owners on the best path forward for their challenges.

    Adam J. Toothman, P.E.

    Hydraulic Structures Engineer

    HDR

    AdamToothman is a registered professional engineer with more than 22 years of civiland structural engineering experience with a focus in design and analysis of concretedams and hydraulic structures.  He workedfor 4 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the HuntingtonDistrict.  He then worked for 15 yearswith the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation at the Technical Service Center in Denver,CO where he was a design team project manager for a number of final designprojects including spillway modifications, outlet works replacement, and damraise projects all using Risk-Informed Design. He was the team lead for numerous dam safety Issue Evaluations,Comprehensive Dam Reviews, risk evaluation studies, and author of quantitativerisk analysis reports.  Adam joined HDR in2022 in their Denver, CO office where he is a technical lead for the design of3 new RCC dam projects, and has been the subject matter expert for semi-quantitativerisk analyses for local, state, and other federal government agencies.  He has a Bachelor of Science degree in CivilEngineering from West Virginia University and a Master of Engineering degree inCivil Engineering from Virginia Tech.

  • Contains 9 Component(s), Includes Credits Includes Multiple Live Events. The next is on 08/18/2025 at 9:30 AM (MDT)

    This live online course will take place over 5 days and will cover a review of the PFMA process, TRG’s, using the PFMA results to perform an SQRA (including additional required input and how to obtain it), estimating consequences including but not limited to life safety, assessing the results, building the dam safety case, and prioritizing risk reduction actions.

    Virtual, August 18 - 22, 2025

    9:00AM- 2:30PM MT

    Despite the criticism that Potential Failure Mode Analysis (PFMA) has received following the Oroville Dam spillway incident, it has been viewed as a standard of care for dam safety evaluations in the U.S., and with some possible improvements to be more expansive, is expected to be so into the future.  Many PFMA’s have been performed for state- and federally-regulated dams, and as a result of that investment, considerable knowledge has been obtained about vulnerabilities associated with specific dams.  As the federal dam owners have embraced risk assessment as the next step in ensuring that dam safety risks are properly evaluated and managed, it is expected that private and state dam owners will benefit from following suit.  Indeed, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has recently adopted Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) as part of their engineering guidelines.  The intent of this training is to leverage and improve on the significant investment that has already been made in performing PFMA’s, and use this information to perform semi-quantitative risk assessments (SQRA) for individual dams or dam portfolios.  These assessments can then be used as a screening tool to identify PFM’s and overall risks which are not likely to meet Tolerable Risk Guidelines (TRG) based on life safety, and as a prioritization tool for reducing risk, performing additional investigations or studies, or performing quantitative risk assessments.  A simplified method for categorizing additional consequences such as those incurred at Oroville is also presented in this training.

    Eligible for 22 PDHs

    New York State Sponsor of Engineering Continuing Education Programs

    Target Audience

    The target audience for this training is dam owners and regulators who are familiar with the PFMA process, and are wanting to move these types of evaluations into the risk arena.  This would include FERC licensees and their consultants; private, municipal, and state dam owners; and state and federal dam safety regulators.


    Gregg A Scott, P.E., F. ASCE

    Scott Consulting, LLC

    Mr. Scott received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He started his career with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1976, where he worked for 34 years before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center as Lead Civil Engineer, where he worked through 2018. He has been involved with design, analysis, and construction of dams and dam safety projects, as well as the development and application of potential failure mode analysis and risk analysis for dam safety. He served on several review panels for Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers dam construction and dam safety projects. He has authored over 35 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings related to dam safety and dam engineering. He is now retired from Federal service, but continues to consult on a limited basis. 

    Bill Fiedler, P.E.

    Senior Technical Advisor

    HDR

    Bill has 42 years’ experience in hydraulic and structural engineering designs for concrete dams and appurtenant structures, with the Bureau of Reclamation. While with Reclamation, he served as a technical specialist and design team leader for numerous water resource projects. In the later part of his career, he served as a member of Reclamation’s three-person Risk Advisory Team, which was responsible for developing additional risk analysis methodologies and providing training for Reclamation.

    staff. Bill has particular expertise in concrete dam and spillway modifications, including: project planning and design coordination; analysis and design of structural modifications; review of design drawings and specifications; construction support; and risk analysis methodologies and facilitation. He has written numerous papers focused on dam safety evaluations and dam safety modifications. He was a lead author on a Reclamation manual focused on drains for dams and on a FEMA manual focused on flood overtopping protection for dams. For the past two years, he has worked as a consultant in the role of senior technical advisor.

    Mel Schaefer, Ph.D. P.E.

    MGS Engineering Consultants, Inc.

    Mel Schaefer is a Civil Engineer with over 35 years of experience in dam safety engineering specializing in analyzes of extreme storms and floods for assessing the hydrologic adequacy of dams and spillways. He began his career as a staff hydrologist with the Washington State Dam Safety Program and became Head of the State Dam Safety Program in 1990 where he managed a group of hydrologic, geotechnical and structural engineers. During his 7-year tenure as head of the Dam Safety Program, he developed the risk-based design/analysis methods and performance standards and regulations for dam safety that are in-use today. He was involved in the inspection, flood analyses and remediation of over 100 dams while with the Dam Safety Program.

    In 1997, he started a private consulting firm, MGS Engineering Consultants Inc. which specializes in surface water hydrology, particularly probabilistic and risk applications of extreme precipitation and floods. Over the 20-years in private practice, he has conducted probabilistic flood analyses for use in risk analyses for over 40-dams for BC Hydro, US Bureau of Reclamation, US Army Corps of Engineers, Southern California Edison, and the Tennessee Valley Authority including notable projects such as Mica Dam on the Upper Columbia River BC, Folsom Dam on the American River CA, and Mammoth Pool Dam on the San Joaquin River CA. He has conducted large-scale regional precipitation-frequency (PF) studies for the province of British Columbia; the states of Washington and Oregon; a seven State area surrounding the Tennessee River valley; the States of Colorado and New Mexico; central Texas and New Brunswick and States in New England. He has pioneered methods for numerous elements for conducting hydrologic risk analysis including regional PF analysis (SWT climate region method); storm transposition by the OTF and ESTP methods; stochastic generation of watershed PF relationships for synoptic scale mid-latitude cyclones, tropical storms, and remnants, and mesoscale convective storms; and uncertainty analysis.
    He is the lead developer for the Stochastic Event Flood Model (SEFM) for computing probabilistic flood loadings and hydrologic hazard curves and L-RAP software for conducting regional precipitation frequency analysis. Both SEFM and L-RAP are commercial software products. He routinely serves on the FERC Board of Consultants and Peer Review teams for review of site-specific PMP and PMF studies and for applications of hydrologic risk.

    John W. France, PE, D.GE, D.WRE, M. ASCE

    Managing Member

    JWF Consulting LLC

    Mr. France has more than 40 years of experience in engineering consulting and design. Most of Mr. France’s technical work for the past 36 years has focused on dam engineering, and he has been involved in dam safety risk analysis for more than 20 years. His risk analysis work has included serving as a facilitator or subject matter expert on semi-quantitative risk analyses (SQRAs) and full quantitative risk analyses (QRAs) for such clients as the New Mexico OSE, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation Reclamation), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver Water, the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, and Aqua Ohio. Mr. France has also completed assignments reviewing risk analyses completed by the USACE and Reclamation. 

    His experience in dam safety risk analysis led to his selection as a member of a four-person team that developed a three-day SQRA course for USSD, presented for the first time in October 2019. In addition to his risk analysis work, he has served on senior technical review panels/boards for the USACE, Reclamation, BC Hydro, Brookfield Renewable Energy, and the Lower Colorado River Authority. Mr. France has developed a reputation as one of the leading practitioners in dam engineering and dam safety, which resulted in his selection to lead the six-person team charged with completing a forensic investigation of the 2017 Oroville Dam spillway incident. He regularly publishes papers and makes presentations for conferences of ASDSO, USSD, and ASCE, and he has twice received the prestigious President's Award from ASDSO for his contributions to dam safety. He also regularly lectures at courses on dam safety topics.

  • Contains 5 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Get a sneak preview of the Dam Decommissioning technical tracks prior to the 2024 Annual Conference, which will cover topics like operational challenges due to climate change, monitoring methods for continuous dam operations, and more. The webinar will serve as an introduction to the material to improve engagement and learning outcomes during the conference. *Included with your 2024 Conference Registration

    Get a sneak preview of the Dam Decommissioning technical tracks prior to the 2024 Annual Conference, which will cover topics like operational challenges due to climate change, monitoring methods for continuous dam operations, and more. The webinar will serve as an introduction to the material to improve engagement and learning outcomes during the conference.

    *Included with your 2024 Conference Registration- if you did not add this webinar to your conference registration email us conferences@ussdams.org and we will add you

    Peter Haug, PE

    Sr. Project Manager

    Ayres Associates

    Pete serves as a senior project manager for Ayres with a primary focus on improving performance of hydraulic structures and completing federal dam inspections. In the dam removal field, Pete managed the 2015 design and removal of the 257kW Gordon Hydro Dam (33 feet high with less than 40,000 cubic yards of sediment) and the 2012 design and removal of the 306kW Grimh Hydro Dam (30 feet high with 115,000 cubic yards of sediment).  He has consulted on more than ten dam removal projects.

    Thomas Hepler

    Senior Consultant

    Schnabel Engineering South

    Thomas Hepler has nearly 36 years of experience with the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Interior, in hydraulic and structural engineering design for concrete dams, spillways, and outlet works. He has performed dam safety inspections on numerous large concrete dams including T. Roosevelt Dam Raise and Clear Lake Replacement Dam. Experienced in potential failure mode analysis (PFMA) and risk analysis for dams and Engineer of Record for the removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams, and of several smaller dams on the West Coast. Co-author of guidance documents on overtopping protection for dams, dam decommissioning, and roller-compacted concrete. Current member of Technical Representative team for removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. As a Senior Consultant for Schnabel, currently perform PFMA and risk analyses for municipal governments and utilities, and Part 12 inspections for FERC licensees. Have served on Value Engineering teams and Independent Review panels. Member ASCE, USSD, and ASDSO.

    Anthony Meyers

    Principal Operating Officer for the State Water Project

    Department of Water Resources, California

    Jared Vegrzyn

    Staff Engineer

    WEST Consultants

    Jared Vegrzyn is a hydraulic engineer with WEST Consultants, Inc..  He has a strong educational background in analysis and application of physical and mathematical relationships related to hydrology and hydraulics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His experience includes hydraulic and hydrologic modeling and river geomorphology. a

    Stephen Whiteside

    Senior Vice President

    CDM Smith

  • Contains 2 Component(s)

    Introductory Webinar on the Start of an Owner’s Forum in USSD. Key topics include: Process and Schedule of Events for the next year, exploration of topics of Interest to Owners, and first facilitated Owner’s Forum Discussion on Path Forward.

    The Owner's Forum is a new concept within USSD whereby owners explore why it is important to move beyond risk analysis to risk application and risk informed decision making in a collaborative environment with other owners. The forum seeks to tackle important issues such as governance, portfolio management, risk informed design, and risk communication. 


    Eric Halpin

    Owner

    Halpin Consulting LLC

    Eric is a registered professional engineer working as a dam and levee consultant specializing in risk and safety programs. He retired from the Corps of Engineers after almost 40 years of service where he led the agency Dam and Levee Safety Programs as well as the National Levee Safety Program. He has engineering degrees from Clemson University (1983) and Oklahoma State University (1989).  Currently, he is the principal of Halpin Consulting LLC where he works internationally with clients in the dam, levee, and mining industry.  

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This webinar will cover topics like climate change and flood hazards, spillway erosion, CFD modeling, and spillway design.

    This webinar will cover topics like climate change and flood hazards, spillway erosion, CFD modeling, and spillway design.

    Miles Yaw

    Civil Engineer - Hydraulics and Hydrology

    Tennessee Valley Authority

    Miles Yaw is a Civil Engineer in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s River Management unit. He manages TVA’s probabilistic hydrology, downstream consequences, and paleoflood hydrology programs, and also serves as a subject matter expert for hydraulics and hydrology for Dam Safety Inspections, Risk Assessments, and Modification Studies. He currently serves as the Young Professional Vice Chairman of the USSD Hydraulics and Hydrology committee. Prior to TVA, Mr. Yaw worked in consulting, focusing on river mechanics, sediment transport, and fluvial geomorphology. During that time, Mr. Yaw performed sediment transport studies on rivers across the United States to help dam owners understand downstream morphological impacts of existing and proposed operations. Mr. Yaw also provided direct development and testing support for the sediment transport routines in HEC-RAS 5.x. He holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University and a BS in Civil Engineering from Washington State University. He currently lives in Knoxville, TN with his wife and three children.

    Ryan Clark

    Ryan Clark is a hydraulic engineer with the USACE Dam Safety Modification Center (DSMC).  While the center is located in LRH, Mr. Clark sits virtually in the Nashville District.  Prior to working for the DSMC he worked in the Water Resources Section of the Hydrology and Hydraulics Branch of the Nashville District for over 8 years.   With over 10 years of flood risk experience, he currently works on hydrologic hazards and risk studies for the USACE Dam and Levee Safety Program.  He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tennessee Technological University as well as a M.S. in Risk Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Tennessee.  Besides work, he enjoys watching the Cubs and Titans, getting outdoors as much as possible with his family, and enjoying a nice glass of bourbon with his friends.

    Carolyn Pearson

    Carolyn J. Pearson is a Hydrologic Engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center.  Carolyn is a registered professional engineer in the state of Missouri with over 11 years of experience in hydraulic and hydrology analysis, design, and risk assessment in the dam and levee safety programs. She is currently an RMC Regional Hydrology Lead providing technical guidance and oversight on national Dam and Levee Safety studies. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology, a B.S. in Chemistry and Secondary Education from Graceland University, an M.S in Civil Engineering (Water Resources & Environmental) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and an M.S. in Risk Management from the Notre Dame University of Maryland.  She currently lives near the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Littleton, CO.

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    The webinar will touch on Risk Informed Decision-making 101, consequence estimation, decisions following risk analyses and assessment, and routine risk management and measurement.

    The webinar will touch on Risk Informed Decision-making 101, consequence estimation, decisions following risk analyses and assessment, and routine risk management and measurement.


    Jonathan Harris

    Schnabel

    Jonathan Harris currently acts as the National Practice Leader for Dam Safety and Risk at Schnabel. He has over 27 years of experience specializing in geotechnical engineering, embankment dam design, seismic engineering, dam safety, and risk analysis. He spent 11 years with the Bureau of Reclamation, working at the Technical Service Center as a Technical Project Lead. Jonathan has conducted numerous dam safety assessments for Reclamation, FERC licensees, and other hydropower owners in the United States and other countries. He spent three years working in New Zealand performing dam safety and risk assessments within New Zealand and other countries.

    Jonathan has performed as a facilitator and subject matter expert for qualitative and quantitative risk analyses for numerous dam facilities. He has actively been involved in providing training for dam safety and risk analysis for over 15 years and is currently part of the United States Society on Dams risk-informed decision making (RIDM) training development leadership team and helped organize the semi-quantitative risk analysis RIDM training.

    Jonathan has overseen numerous embankment dam projects for new and existing structures including site investigation, design, construction, and remediation. He has also been involved with many dam safety assessments for a variety of dam structure types and appurtenant structures, including embankments, spillways, and concrete dams.

    Matthew Young

    Dom Galic

    Geotechical Engineer

    Bureau of Reclamation

    Dom Galic is a geotechnical engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation's TechnicalService Center in Denver. He has been with Reclamation for over ten years, sincecompleting his doctoral research (in rock mechanics) at the University of California,Berkeley. Dom has been a risk analysis facilitator since 2011 and is an active memberof the Reclamation risk cadre, a working group established to provide training andguidance on risk analysis methodology and promote consistency in risk informeddecision making. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorado.

    Jacob Davis

    USACE

    Jacob Davis is the Special Assistant for Dam Safety for HQ USACE. He has served at Headquarters’ for more than 5 years and is responsible for policy, guidance, and oversight of the dam safety program., which includes making risk informed recommendations for dam safetystudies, modifications, and aspects of daily Operations and Maintenance activities.The USACE portfolio has more than 740 multiple purpose dams that provide approximately $ 170Bin flood damage prevention annually, protects more than 15 million people living in flood plains downstream of dams , facilitates 12,000 miles of inlandwater navigation , stores one third of all fresh water to serve over 100 million people, allows for 25% of hydropower generation, creates over 190,000 jobsthat support 250 million recreation visitors who enjoy camping, fishing, boating, hiking, and other activities

    Mr. Davis began his career at the USACE Jacksonville District where he was introduced to dams during the foundation exploration and design for the Portugués Dam in Puerto Rico; design and construction at Herbert Hoover Dike in south Florida; and participated in inspections, repairs, and instrumentation planning and evaluations at dams and levees. He later joined the USACE Risk Management Center where he evaluated interim risk reduction measure plans, facilitated risk assessments, participated as ageotechnical risk assessor and technical advisor, and served as a program manager.

    Prior to joining Headquarters’, Mr. Davis worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority helping to improve the risk informed decision making program and governance structure for dam safety. Mr. Davi s holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and is both a registeredProfessional Engineer and Project Management Professional.

    Nate Snorteland

    Risk Management Center Director

    US Army Corps of Engineers

    Nate Snorteland has been with the Corps of Engineers as the Director of the Risk Management Center since 2009.  In this role, Mr. Snorteland is responsible for managing risks for the Corps of Engineers portfolio of more than 740 dams and 15,000+ miles of levees.  Mr. Snorteland’s background includes experience designing and constructing a wide variety of dams across the United States.  Following his work as a designer and construction engineer, he worked in the dam safety program for the Bureau of Reclamation in a variety of roles.  He was Reclamation’s project manager and lead engineer for the Joint Federal Project, a $1.6 Billion flood risk management and dam safety project at Folsom Dam in California. 

    He specializes in risk assessment and risk management and developed risk management strategies for both Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers.  Since coming to the Corps of Engineers, he has led efforts related to risk, risk analysis, risk management, portfolio management, design standards, and risk-informed design. 

    He holds a B.S. in Civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Denver and a M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering from Virginia Tech.  He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorado.  He has a love for the outdoors and enjoys exploring the vast open spaces in the Western U.S.

  • Contains 5 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This webinar will provide an overview of developments in seismic hazard assessment in the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), with a focus on their applicability to dam sites.

    This webinar will provide an overview of developments in seismic hazard assessment in the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), with a focus on their applicability to dam sites. The course will begin with a description of the available approaches, seismic source models, and ground motion models used to evaluate seismic hazard in the CEUS, and how these approaches, models, and the resulting ground motions differ from those in the Western United States (WUS). Illustrative examples will be provided to demonstrate the different options available for evaluating seismic hazard at a dam site in the CEUS, including the use of publicly available regional models and site-specific seismic hazard assessments. Available methods for accounting for local site effects will be presented, including developments in simplified site adjustment models and site-specific site response analysis. The webinar will conclude with a discussion of the different ways seismic hazard assessments are used in dam safety evaluations, ranging from a single evaluation level tied to a deterministic earthquake scenario to use of the entire ground motion hazard curve in a risk analysis.

    Learning Objectives
    1. Understand key differences between seismic hazard in the WUS and CEUS
    2. Understand the options available for estimating seismic hazard in the CEUS ranging from the USGS unified seismic hazard tool to site-specific hazard analysis
    3. Understand the methods available for accounting for local site effects ranging from simplified site adjustment factors to site-specific site response analysis
    4. Review of how seismic hazard analyses are used in dam safety evaluations, i.e., selection of the deterministic “MCE,” selection of a single probabilistic return period, or use of the entire hazard curve in a risk analysis

    Glenn J. Rix, Ph.D., P.E.

    Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

    Glenn J. Rix is a senior principal geotechnical engineer based in Georgia with more than 30 years of experience focused on the areas of geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. His practice includes seismic hazard and risk assessment and mitigation for civil infrastructure. Glenn joined the firm following a 23-year career as a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since joining Geosyntec, Glenn has performed seismic hazard and risk analyses, liquefaction triggering evaluations, site response analyses, and seismic stability and deformation analyses for embankment and concrete dams, coal combustion residual (CCR) storage facilities, municipal and hazardous waste landfills, liquefied natural gas facilities, and highway bridges. He has also served as an external peer reviewer for seismic hazard analyses for nuclear power plants and provided litigation support for numerous cases related to the effects of blasting- and construction-induced ground vibrations on structures. Glenn is a leading authority on in-situ seismic methods and is a co-author of Surface Wave Methods for Near-Surface Site Characterization and the forthcoming American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual on Subsurface Investigations.

    Christie Hale

    Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

    Christie Hale is a seismic hazard analyst involved in seismic safety assessment projects. Her technical experience includes deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, deaggregation analysis, target spectrum development, and time history selection and modification. Dr. Hale also has experience in PSHA code development, testing, and verification, and is a key contributor to the PSHA computer program HAZ45. Prior to joining Geosyntec, she led the PSHA Code Verification project at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, where her ability to understand how different modeling approaches impact the resulting seismic hazard curves was instrumental in helping participants troubleshoot their codes and ultimately reach consensus answers.

  • Contains 4 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Underwater Construction Overview

    The speakers, all involved in various aspects of underwater construction, will touch base on:

    • What will it cost? The number one question in many people's mind; we will provide a broad range of pricing for; ROV inspection, diver inspection, dredging rates, trashrack installation
    • Diver vs ROV: ROV’s are very capable in certain areas, but lack the functionality to perform some basic tasks. We will expand on last year’s discussion of when an ROV may be the right choice or when you really need a diver 
    • Early Contractor Involvement / Alternative Delivery; There are many ways to develop a project, we will discuss several options that bring in the contractor earlier – to head off the unknown – with the goal of more certainly of schedule and price
    • Safety: not all safety plans are equal; we will discuss how a good safety program protects our employees but also protects the owner and all involved in a project
    • Technology: high-quality data, when teamed with knowledgeable partners (engineers – designers – contractors) make for a safer and more cost-effective project

    2 PDHs

    Frank Immel

    Business Development Account Executive

    Global Diving & Salvage, Inc.

    Frank Immel, has been with Global Diving & Salvage, Inc. since 2005. In his current position of Business Development Account Executive, his roles include developing and nurturing client relationships and uncovering opportunities that will benefit from Global Diving’s extensive experience and capabilities in underwater inspection, repair, maintenance and construction. Prior positions at Global include Lead Estimator and Marketing Manager. 

    Dave Gillson

    Principal / Senior Project Manager

    Infrastructure & Marine Consultants

    David Gillson launched Infrastructure & Marine Consultants, LLC in 2011. His background encompasses over 35 years in the marine/underwater construction industry.  His experience as a commercial diver and diving supervisor along with his experience as a Business Unit Leader and as a member of the Board of Directors for several engineering/environmental firms has led to representing owners during large marine/underwater projects. His professional pursuits have entailed the effective exercise of both executive decision-making and hands-on project and construction management. Infrastructure& Marine Consultants provides expertise in Project Management, Construction Management and QA/QC inspection services for complex industrial projects within the marine and underwater construction industry.  Project Management includes; Feasibility Studies, Constructability Review during design; Construction Management includes; On-site Owners Representatives during construction. Risk Management; Change Order Review; Progress Payment Review. Final Inspection & Punch List; Construction Approval, Acceptance and Close-out. 

    Alex Kaplan

    Project Manager

    ASI Marine

    Alex has 20 years of experience in robotic inspection, starting with the development, testing and manufacture of underwater robots, and then moving into the service side of the industry as an ROV operator, field supervisor, and project manager. Alex has worked with clients in oil & gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, water supply, wastewater, and governments.

    Alex currently specializes in project planning, working with the customer and operations management to develop project scope and operational details; and project management, coordinating between the customer, suppliers, and field personnel. 

    Craig Bartheld

    Director of Business Development Structural Services

    JF Brennan Company

    Craig Bartheld, has been with J. F. Brennan Company, Inc. (Brennan) for over 45 years. Craig’s current position is Director of Director of Business Development Structural Services. His responsibilities include building relationships with new prospective clients and maintain relationships with existing clients.  His responsibilities over the years have included, Diver, Safety Director, Diving Group Manager to his current BD position.

    Craig Milburn

    Sr. Project Manager/Estimator

    Ballard Marine Construction

    Mr. Milburn has over forty years of commercial diving experience from tender and saturation diver, to diving supervisor, diving superintendent, offshore manager, and senior project manager. His vast experience extends to all aspects of subsea construction, flowline installations, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operations in Vertical Concentric Monobore – Sub Sea Tree (VCM) installations, Inspection Repair Maintenance (IRM) in both foreign and domestic arenas. He is skilled in procedural processes, project planning, task schedules, design criteria, fabrication, material service procurement, and estimating.

  • Contains 1 Component(s)

    Overview of Changes to FERC’s Part 12 Dam Safety Program

    This webinar is the recording from a live webinar offered Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm MST. Like the live webinar, this On-Demand version is free to USSD Members.

    On December 16, 2021 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final rule that revises their dam safety regulations.  The revised dam safety regulations and accompanying four new Engineering Guideline chapters provide a significant revision to FERC’s Part 12 dam safety program and specifically revises the scope work and requirements to plan, perform, and submit Independent Consultant Inspection Reports.  Significant revisions include:

    • Formulation of the Part 12D team and proposal requirements
    • Incorporation of a two-tier inspection cycle consisting of a Comprehensive Assessment or Periodic Inspection
    • Expanded guidance for the review and evaluation of existing project reports and analyses
    • Submittal of a Pre-Inspection Preparation Report
    • Changes to the Potential Failure Mode Analysis process
    • Addition of a risk analysis to a Comprehensive Assessment
    • Incorporation of the Owner’s Dam Safety Program into the dam safety regulation

    These revisions will be effective on April 11, 2022.

    FERC’s Division of Dam Safety and Inspections (D2SI) provided an overview of these and other revisions to their dam safety regulations and guidelines; offered their initial thoughts on how these revisions will be implemented; mentioned proposed future training plans; and answered questions regarding the changes.

    Presenters:

    Dave Capka – Director, D2SI

    Doug Boyer – D2SI, Risk-Informed Decision Making Branch Chief

    Eric Kennedy – D2SI, Portland Regional Office Branch Chief

    David Capka

    Deputy Director, D2SI

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

    David Capka is the Director of the Division of Dam Safety and Inspections (D2SI) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects.

    David has been with the Commission since 2006, when he began as a Senior Civil Engineer in the Headquarters Branch. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in March 2017. He has also held positions as the Headquarters Branch Chief, and Deputy Director prior to his current position. Prior to joining the Commission, David worked as a Geotechnical Engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, and as a Dam Safety Program Manager for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Headquarters Office of the Department of Interior in Washington, DC.

    David has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Maryland.

    Doug Boyer

    D2SI, Risk-Informed Decision Making Branch Chief

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

    Mr. Boyer has 34 years of experience as a civil engineer and engineering geologist in consulting, state government, and three federal agencies. His expertise includes all aspects of investigation, evaluation, design, and construction of dams and water resource structures. He has extensive experience in the evaluation of geologic hazards (landslides, faults, ground subsidence, and erosion); investigation, design, and construction of hard-rock tunnels; natural and man-made slopes; pipelines; levees; canals; roads and highways; open-pit mines; and other civil works structures in over 40 states and South America. While with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, he has been a team leader and senior engineer for numerous project reviews, including New Melones Dam, a 632-foot-high embankment dam in California. He is co-principal designer of Ridges Basin Dam, a 275-foot-high earthfill embankment in southwestern Colorado. Doug served a detail with the State of Colorado, Division of Water Resources, as Chief, Dam Safety Branch where he was responsible for program administration and supervision of the state’s dam safety program. He has published over 25 technical papers on the investigation, design, and construction of embankment and concrete dams. He is an invited lecturer at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation SEED Seminar, International RCC Conference, FEMA-sponsored Dam Design Workshop, and local universities. He provided technical review for the San Diego County Water Authority of the geotechnical investigations and foundation design for the 318-foot-high Olivenhain Dam constructed in southern California. He is a former vice president of the US Society on Dam and former board of director for the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Engineering Geologist.

    Eric Kennedy

    D2SI, Portland Regional Office Branch Chief

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This webinar focuses on how to analyze the data from instrumentation to understand project performance. It highlights common errors and misunderstandings to be avoided as well as how to identify concerning data.

    This webinar will focus on how to analyze the data from instrumentation to understand project performance.  It will highlight common errors and misunderstandings to be avoided as well as how to identify concerning data.

    30min – Jeff Barrett (Barrett Consulting, Inc.) – Data analysis considerations and overview 
    30min – Pierre Choquet (RST) – Piezometer data analysis 
    30min – Mike Davis (Stantec) - Manual slope inclinometer data analysis – the finer points, pitfalls, and short-comings.
    30min – Panel Discussion – Q/A

    Eligible for 2 PDHs

    John Hynes, PE

    Geotechnical Engineer

    Stantec

    John Hynes has 11 years of experience in geotechnical engineering, largely on dam and hydropower projects.  John's experience includes geotechnical analysis and design, instrumentation data collection and analysis, and construction monitoring of heavy civil projects involving hydroelectric powerplants, earth and rockfill embankments, foundation improvements, rock blasting, and excavations. John grew up in Chicago, IL and attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Civil Engineering.  After receiving his master's degree in 2008, John began working at Stantec (then MWH) in their Chicago office.

    Mike Davis

    Senior Geotechnical Consultant

    Stantec

    With more than 15 years of geotechnical engineering experience, Mike is passionate about the use of technology and enhanced dam monitoring practices that make dam operations and mining projects safer and more sustainable. In his current role, Mike’s primary focus on enhancement of dam safety management systems allows project and client teams to achieve greater efficiency and confidence in making important operational and management decisions. He is best known for geotechnical performance monitoring using discretized sensor networks, automated systems, GIS based inspection and monitoring systems, and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis.

    Pierre Choquet

    Technical Advisor, Vice-President of Market Development

    RST Instruments

    Pierre has been involved in the field of Geotechnical Instrumentation and Monitoring for most of his career. He joined RST Instruments in 2007. Pierre graduated in Geological Engineering (Engineering Geology) from Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and subsequently obtained a doctorate degree in Rock Mechanics from Ecole des Mines de Paris in France. From 1982 to 1993 he was a faculty member at the department of Mining and Metallurgy of Laval University in Quebec City where his specialty was rock mechanics, ground control, and applied geology. Pierre is a member of the ICOLD Technical Committee on Dam Surveillance and is also the Editor of the Instrumentation and Monitoring column of the Canadian Geotechnique magazine.

    Jeff Barrett

    President

    Barrett Consulting, Inc.

    Jeff has over 15 years’ of industry experience including 5 years with an instrumentation manufacturer and 10 years with a global engineering firm.

    Jeff holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering as well as a diploma in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of New Brunswick in Canada.

    Jeff has worked on instrumentation projects for several high profile sites including Boone Dam, Oroville Dam, Samarco Mine, Zelazny Most Tailings Dam, and multiple Canadian oil sands projects. He has also worked on geotechnical analysis and design projects in the dams, mining, and Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) sectors for clients such as Tennessee Valley Authority, US Army Corps of Engineers, Atlantic Gold, Trevali, and Vale.