The International Erosion Control Association Region One (IECA) has announced the environmental award winners for the 2015 Environmental Achievement Award and the 2015 Outstanding Professional of the Year. Top honors have been given to the Bijou Area Erosion Control Project (Lake Tahoe area) and field veteran John McCullah. The presentation for the awards will take place February 17 during the Environmental Connection 2016 conference in San Antonio, Texas.
Environmental Award
The Environmental Excellence Award is IECA’s premier award for stormwater and erosion and sediment control projects, programs, and operation. In selecting a winner each year, the association looks for how the candidate work “demonstrates excellence in natural resource conservation and environmental protection.” Obejectives, methods employed, and results are all taken into consideration.
Stephen Peck, PE, PMP, CPSWQ, QSD will accept the award on behalf of the Bijou Area Erosion Control Project.
The Bijou work has involved a complex stormwater pump-and-treat system in the Lake Tahoe area. Conducted in a FEMA-mapped flood zone, the environment-improving project applied “standard construction techniques in a series to provide efficient stormwater quality treatment and flood control in an effective and easily maintainable manner,” writes IECA in its award announcement.
The association highlighted the project’s use of a double box culvert as a stormwater bypass, a decision that has helped convey runoff through a highly developed commercial area without picking up commercial and adjacent highway runoff pollution. The cleanwater has been passed directly into Lake Tahoe.
In selecting this design, the community was able to more efficiently treat runoff within the commercial area (the pump-and-treat system).
Outstanding Professional
John McCullah is a 30-year veteran of the erosion and sediment control field. His influence, the association notes, is truly internationally, as he has provided high-level expertise to projects in the United States, Malaysia, New Zealand, and elsewhere.
“[McCullah] is a teacher, a scholar, an activist and a professional,” the award notice cites. “In each of these roles he has made significant positive impacts on the industry.”
The Outstanding Professional of the Year Award recognizes an IECA member as an individual or organization that demonstrates excellence in their work in the industry and is viewed by his IECA peers as an industry leader through significant engagement with the IECA.
Recognition at Environmental Connection 2016
Both awards will be presented at Environmental Connection 2016, which will be held 16 – 19 February 2016 in San Antonio, Texas at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The awards will be given out during an event on February 17.
Visit the conference website
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Winners for these awards were selected from responses to a “Call for Entries” process. Learn more about IECA’s awards, events, education, and membership at www.ieca.org.
