Posted on November 9, 2020
DredgeWire Exclusive
The President of the WEDA Pacific Chapter, Ms. Shelly Anghera, PHD, kicked off the virtual webex conference on October 29, 2020, which was hosted courtesy of Ms. Tori White of the South Pacific Division of the USACE. The meeting agenda consisted of Chapter business and National WEDA updates, followed by multiple presentations on key topics.
The first presentation was the West Coast Federal Dredging Program, which discussed the Corps pre-FY2021 appropriation project dredging plans for the Northwest and South Pacific divisions with presenters from the Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Alaska and Honolulu districts. Each district presented their current projects, backlog and some of their future dredging projects. Subsequent presenters from the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific and NW Divisons, presented the Federal rulemaking & dredging. They covered the Endangered Species Act, Navigable Waters Protection rules, Water Quality Certification, National Environmental Policy Act and Nationwide Permits reissuance. Stanley Ekren of GLDD presented the company’s response plan and safety procedures to COVID-19 that have been implemented company wide. Steve Straw, PE, of the USACE Vancouver district, discussed remote dredge inspection and dredge contract adjustments due to COVID-19.
Finally, it was mentioned that there are two more WEDA virtual events scheduled, Beneficial Reuse, 11/20/20 and Engineering with Nature on 12/18/20. Also keep on your calendars the National WEDA Summit, whichis scheduled for June 14-17 in Tampa, FL.
All presentations are available online at www.westerndredging.org,
