text:
November 2019
Nalco Water Opens Customer
Experience Center to Demonstrate
Water Reclamation System
Getting Up to Speed on
Cooler Tower Designs
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 1
| Chief Engineer
November 2019
VOLUME 84 • Number 11
Official Magazine of
cover story:
Caulking the Crown Fountain
When water from the exterior of the Crown Fountain
at Millennium Park began to seep into the inside,
inviting corrosion problems, Chicago Corrosion Group
was eventually called upon to mitigate the problem. It
required creative thinking and an ingenious solution.
Founded 1934
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Nalco Water Opens Customer
Experience Center to
Demonstrate Water Reclamation
Nalco Water's new water reclamation system and its
Customer Experience Center interface illustrate how smart
water technology can reduce water consumption, and save
energy and money.
Third-Generatio Weil-McLain
Rep Has Boilers in His Blood
For three generations, the Hall family has been
representing for Weil-McLain boilers.
John J. Fanning
Editor In Chief
Karl J. Paloucek
Editor/Graphic Designer
Mariah M. Beavers
Editor/Graphic Designer
De'Anna Clark
Event Planner/Public
Alex Boerner
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5 president's message
6 in brief
9 news
46 member news
50 techline
58 new products
62 events
64 ashrae update
66 american street guide
69 boiler room annex
70 advertisers list
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 3
Wednesday 13 TH 2019
Gathering Begins at 5:30 P.M.
Join the CEAC at a new location
downtown to hear presenting
sponsors Dave Mathis from Altorfer
Power Systems and _______________
educate members on their
expertise and how they can help
our members! Networking
reception to follow.
| Chief Engineer
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Board of Directors | OFFICERS
Daniel Carey
Thomas Phillips
Vice President
William Rowan
Vice President
John Hickey
Recording Secretary
Kenneth Botta
Brendan Winters
Doug Kruczek
Financial Secretary
Larry McMahon
Corresponding Secretary
Brian Staunton
Kevin Kenzinger
Barbara Hickey
Bryan McLaughlin
Thank you to everyone who
attended the Oktoberfest
meeting at the Local 399 last
month. It's always a great feeling
to get back into the swing of
our regular meeting season with
some good Oktoberfest beer
and Gemütlichkeit. Our sincere
thanks go out to Air Comfort,
BEAR Construction, Bornquist,
Chicago Cooling Tower, Chicago
Fire Protection and The Moran
Group for their sponsorship of
this evening.
By now I expect most of you
have cleaned and primed your
boilers for the winter months ahead. This winter is predicted to be one
that will test us here in the Chicago area, so it's more important than
ever that our systems are fine-tuned for optimal performance, to avoid
unexpected and costly downtime at inopportune times. I'm certain that
everyone has performed their required preventative maintenance, but
as we switch our systems over, should you encounter any problems,
I'll just remind you to reference your Quick Shopper and reach out to
our Associate members for any service or products you might need.
They're the best in the business, and there's no better way to show your
appreciation than by seeking them out when they're needed.
This month, our meeting will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Remember that at our November meeting this year, we will be holding
elections for new officers, so your presence and participation are
strongly urged. I hope to see all of you there.
As the weather continues to get colder and the nights longer,
that means the holidays are on their way. I would like to take this
opportunity to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and as we create
memories with our families and loved ones, I hope you'll spare a
moment to think of those who cannot be with their families due to their
service to our country. Let's be extra thankful for our troops and first
responders throughout this holiday season.
Brian Keaty
Robert Jones
Mike Collins
Brock Sharapata
Ralph White
James Cacciottolo
Daniel T. Carey
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 5
In Brief
Work on Track for WWII Naval Vessel's
Move in Evansville
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Officials say work could be
completed in November on a project for allowing the
move of a restored World War II naval vessel to a more
prominent location along the Ohio River in downtown
Crews are now building a visitors center and barges so
the LST 325 troop landing ship can move to the former
site of the Tropicana Evansville casino boat.
Evansville Port Authority chairman Pat Wathen tells
the Evansville Courier & Press that the $3.6 million
project is on track and within budget after high initial
construction bids delayed work.
The ship took part in the 1944 D-Day landings in
France and has been based in Evansville since 2005.
LST 325 board member Chris Donahue says the ship's
move is planned for April 2020.
Wabash College Will Build New $13
Million Stadium
CRAWFORSDVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Wabash College says
that a new $13 million football stadium will be ready
for the first game of the 2020 season.
The Journal & Courier reports that the Stadium will
include a new playing surface, relocated scoreboard,
an all-weather track, upgraded concession areas and
expanded restrooms.
The announcement on Sept. 25 followed the school's
$225 million Giant Steps Campaign, which included
gifts for the project.
The stadium will feature a 3,550-seat main grandstand,
suites and what the school is calling the W Club
Wabash College President Gregory Hess says an anonymous
group of donors has pledged substantial funding
for the construction of the stadium.
The stadium will be named after former Wabash football
coach Frank Navarro. He coached the Little Giants
from 1974 to 1977.
Steel Plant Plans Large Solar Project in
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a
solar developer, an energy company and a steel plant
have announced a large solar project in Pueblo.
The Pueblo Chieftain reports Lightsource BP would
build, own and operate the proposed 240-megawatt
solar facility on property owned by EVRAZ North
America, a steel manufacturer. The project would sell
its power to Xcel Energy, which would sell it to the
steel plant.
The Bighorn Solar Project would be one of the state's
largest. It would give EVRAZ a long-term contract that
provides the steel mill price certainty through 2041.
EVRAZ North America president and CEO Skip Herald
said Sept. 27 that the solar power makes possible a
planned $480 million investment aimed at producing
longer railroad rails.
The mill employs about 1,100 people. The solar project
would create about 300 jobs in construction, operations
and maintenance.
Water Certification Denied for Line 3;
Re-Filing Expected
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota pollution regulators
have denied a water quality certification for Enbridge
Energy's proposed Line 3 upgrade, but it may be a
short-lived victory for opponents of the project.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced
the denial Sept. 27. The agency said the move was
necessary because the state Court of Appeals had ruled
in June that the environmental review didn't address
a possible spill in the Lake Superior watershed, among
other things.
The MPCA says Enbridge can re-file for the certification.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge says in a statement
that it expects the Public Utilities Commission to go
over what's needed to revise the environmental review
at a meeting next week.
Enbridge says it needs to replace the aging crude oil
pipeline for safety and to restore its original capacity.
Tribal and environmental groups argue that the project
risks oil spills in pristine areas.
| Chief Engineer
Michigan Airports Getting $39.6M in
Infrastructure Grants
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration
says Michigan airports are getting $39.6 million
for improvements.
Transportation Department Secretary Elaine Chao
recently announced recipients of the grants, which
are part of nationwide Airport Improvement Program
The grants include $12.4 million to Detroit Metropolitan
Airport for taxiway reconstruction; more than
$403,000 to Willow Run Airport for snow removal
equipment; and more than $862,000 to Delta County
Airport for taxiway rehabilitation, lighting, an emergency
generator, and a rescue and firefighting vehicle.
Others include $1.1 million to Sawyer International Airport
for building expansion and utilities construction;
$300,000 to Muskegon County Airport for an emergency
generator and airport study; and nearly $44,000
to Pellston Regional Airport to remove non-hazardous
The Michigan State Block Grant Program will get $24.5
million for development projects at non-primary airports.
energy without damaging natural areas along the
planned route of the proposed power line.
Plans Slowed for $400M Power
Generation Facility in Michigan
MARSHALL, Mich. (AP) — Plans for a new $400 million
natural gas-fired power generation facility in southern
Michigan are moving forward more slowly than previously
White Plains, New York-based Development Partners
announced two years ago that it would build the
Marshall Energy Center at Brooks Industrial Park in
The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that construction
was supposed to begin late this year, but Marshall Area
Economic Development Alliance CEO Scott Fleming
says it's been pushed back to late spring of 2020 due to
environmental studies. Two plants are planned at the
energy center site.
Development of the facility is expected to bring
between 300 and 500 construction jobs and create
between 20 and 25 direct jobs. Fleming said the energy
center should be operational by 2022.
Wisconsin Commission Backs Power
Line Despite Protests
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin utility regulators
have authorized the construction of a $500 million
power line, despite claims that they ignored complaints,
concerns and alternative solutions.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the Public Service
Commission approved the plan Sept. 26, rejecting
accusations of a conflict of interest that were brought
by two conservation groups, the Driftless Area Land
Conservancy and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. The
groups say they'll appeal.
The Cardinal-Hickory Creek line would run between
Dubuque, Iowa, and Middleton, west of Madison. Construction
is expected to start in 2021.
Project supporters say it will allow for the transmission
of more carbon-free electricity and save customers
But critics say the state could transition to renewable
Lawsuit Claims Injuries From Steam
Through Manhole Covers
DETROIT (AP) — Twenty people who claim they suffered
burns from stream rising out of manhole covers
in Detroit are suing companies involved in the operation
of steam pipes beneath downtown-area streets.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday, Sept. 24, in Wayne County Circuit
Court says injuries included burns to feet and legs.
Each person is seeking more than $25,000 in damages.
Detroit Thermal, Detroit Renewable Energy and Project
Mist HoldCo. are named as defendants. The complaint
alleges they failed to control steam from pipes
and failed to warn pedestrians about the conditions.
The complaint also says the companies failed to barricade
or block the manhole covers.
A spokesman for Detroit Thermal and Project Mist
HoldCo. said Sept. 24 that the companies have not
received formal notification of a lawsuit and can't
comment on pending litigation.
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 7
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| Chief Engineer
Work Starting on New Indianapolis
Drinking Water Reservoir
A public park and beach featuring paddleboarding and other activities are in the planning near the quarry where Citizens Energy aims to put a new 3.5
billion-gallon reservoir near the existing Geist Reservoir in Fishers, Ind. The new reservoir, however, will not be accessible by the public due to its considerable
depth. (AP Photo/Daily Journal Ryan Trares)
FISHERS, Ind. (AP) — The company that provides water
service to much of central Indiana is preparing to convert
a quarry just northeast of Indianapolis into a reservoir for
drinking water to meet the demands of the growing population
over the next several decades.
The city of Fishers has approved two permits Citizens Energy
needed to begin preliminary work on a new 3.5 billion-gallon
reservoir near the existing Geist Reservoir, the Indianapolis
Star reported.
Work is expected to begin late this year and last through
next year, Citizens Energy spokesman Dan Considine said.
Citizens Energy also owns Geist Reservoir, which dates to the
1940s and holds about twice as much water as the converted
quarry will store.
The new $30 million reservoir will pump 25 million gallons a
day of captured rainwater into Geist, which sends it to Fall
Creek and the utility's processing plants in Indianapolis.
The new reservoir itself will not be open to the public because
it's too deep.
But Fishers has plans to build a public park and beach near
the quarry along Geist, which is open for boating, swimming
and fishing. The city's recreational project, called the
Cove, could include feature a fishing pier, a lookout tower,
a boardwalk, a nature area, and kayaking and paddleboard
Fishers spokeswoman Elrod Ashley said the city is in the
process of tearing down buildings at the site previously
occupied by IMI Materials, the concrete company that owned
the quarry. Officials are now in the design phase of the park,
which is expected to take a few years to finish.
A study by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce estimates
demand for water in the Indianapolis area will increase by 50
million gallons per day by 2050.
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 9
Feds: Engineer Manipulated Diesel
Emissions at Fiat Chrysler By Ed White and Tom Krisher
A vehicle moves past a sign outside Fiat Chrysler Automobiles world headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. After Fiat Chrysler was ordered to pay more
than $650 million to settle allegations that it cheated on emissions tests involving more than 104,000 Jeep SUVs and Ram pickup trucks earlier this year,
federal prosecutors have charged Fiat Chrysler engineer Emanuele Palma with numerous violations surrounding the rigging of pollution tests on more than
100,000 diesel pickup trucks and SUVs sold nationwide. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
DETROIT (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday, Sept. 24,
expanded a criminal investigation of the auto industry by
charging a Fiat Chrysler engineer with rigging pollution tests
on more than 100,000 diesel pickup trucks and SUVs sold in
the U.S., the first indictment since a wave of similar cases
against Volkswagen and its managers.
pollution control system perform differently under government
testing than during regular driving. An expert said the
The alleged scheme involving Emanuele Palma isn't as large
as the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which involved nearly
600,000 vehicles. But the charges show that investigators are
still on the case, months after Fiat Chrysler agreed to a $650
million civil settlement and said it would fix Jeep Grand Cherokees
and Ram 1500 trucks with "EcoDiesel" engines made
between 2014 and 2016.
Palma is charged with conspiracy, violations of the federal
Clean Air Act, wire fraud and making false statements.
Prosecutors allege that he manipulated software to make the
| Chief Engineer
mention of co-conspirators in Palma's indictment suggests
more people could be charged.
"As a result of his engineering decisions, his management,
his lies, these vehicles on the road emitted dramatically
higher pollutants than were allowed by law," Assistant U.S.
Attorney Timothy Wyse told a judge in U.S. District Court in
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford rejected Wyse's
request that Palma, a native of Italy who still works at Fiat
Chrysler, wear an electronic monitoring device while he's free
on bond.
"We intend to defend this very vigorously," defense lawyer
Ken Mogill said.
Fiat Chrysler released a brief statement, saying it continues
to cooperate with investigators. The automaker in January
agreed to a settlement with U.S. and California regulators,
though the deal didn't resolve any potential criminal liability.
"We acknowledge that this has created uncertainty for our
customers, and we believe this resolution will maintain their
trust in us," Mark Chernoby, the company's head of North
American safety and regulatory compliance, said at the time.
When allegations against Fiat Chrysler first surfaced in 2017,
then-chief executive Sergio Marchionne said it was unfair
even to try to make a comparison to Volkswagen.
"There's not a guy in this house that would even remotely
attempt to try something as stupid as that," he said of cheating.
"And if I found a guy like that, I would have hung him
on a door."
Marchionne died in July 2018. The case against Palma shows
the government has a different opinion.
"Either people were disobeying leadership or leadership
knew about it and lied," said Bruce Huber, a professor at
Notre Dame law school. "Either way it's not going to reflect
positively on either the corporate culture or management
Volkswagen in 2017 pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3
billion in U.S. civil and criminal penalties on top of billions
more to buy back cars. Two people were sent to prison.
Charges are pending in Detroit against others at VW or Audi,
but they are in Germany and out of reach of U.S. authorities.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Germany on Sept. 24 charged
VW's chief executive, chairman and former chief executive
with stock manipulation for not telling investors in 2015 that
the scandal was about to break.
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 11
AFL-CIO recently announced the final concrete pouring of the highest residential apartment level at the Wolf Point East property in Chicago.
AFL-CIO Construction Update: Wolf
Point East
CHICAGO, Ill. — In August 2019, construction at Wolf Point
East, located near the Chicago river and directly across from
the downtown Merchandise Mart, reached an important
milestone with the final concrete pouring of its highest residential
apartment level on the 58th floor. This investment by
the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) and its development
partner has accumulated currently over 300,000 union
construction work hours to date, with an estimated total
of 780,000 upon completion by summer of 2020. There are
about 300 Union workers on site representing the Building
and Construction Trades from locals throughout the state.
| Chief Engineer
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 13
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| Chief Engineer
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DTE Energy Aims for Net Zero Carbon
Emissions by 2050
DTE Energy has announced that it aims to cut its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
DETROIT (AP) — DTE Energy announced Thursday, Sept. 26,
that it hopes to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by
2050, building on its previous pledge to cut emissions in half
by 2030 and by 80 percent in 2040.
The Detroit-based utility said that it will remove its Belle
River Plant by 2030 and its Monroe Power Plant by 2040. By
2022, the company will replace the St. Clair County coal plant
with natural gas, cutting carbon emissions at that facility by
70 percent.
Nearly 10,000 customers have signed up for DTE's MiGreen-
Power, which allows them, for a cost, to source more of their
energy from renewables than from traditional sources. The
sliding scale is between 17.5 percent and 100 percent.
Ford Motor Company, General Motors, the Detroit Zoo and
the University of Michigan are among the high-profile clients
who participate in the program.
"Additionally, we will work with policymakers to advocate
for focused research on carbon offsets, high-volume storage
and carbon capture technologies," DTE Energy CEO Jerry
Norcia said in a statement.
Skiles Boyd, the company's vice president of environmental
management and resources, said it would take technological
and legal breakthroughs to achieve net zero emissions. But
he said the company made the announcement because "it's
important to try to be a leader in our industry."
"If we just did it quietly, people wouldn't know," Boyd said.
The estimated cost of the plan is unclear.
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 15
Big Greenhouse Gas Emitter Moves to
Join Climate Initiative By Marc Levy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf took a
step toward capping greenhouse gas emissions from power
plants Thursday, Oct. 3, part of an effort to fight climate
change in a heavily populated and fossil fuel-rich state that
has long been one of the nation's biggest polluters and power
Wolf, a Democrat, ordered his administration to start working
on regulations to bring Pennsylvania into a nine-state
consortium of Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states that sets
a price and limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power
Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative could face
pushback from the Republican-controlled Legislature, which
is historically protective of Pennsylvania's influential coal and
natural gas industries.
"If we want a Pennsylvania that is habitable for our children
and our grandchildren, where temperatures aren't in the
90s as they were yesterday in October, and flooding doesn't
The Bruce Mansfield power plant in Shippingport, Pa., is seen from across
the Ohio River from Industry, Pa. on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. Owners of coalfired
power plants, like the Bruce Mansfield plant that is scheduled to close
in November, could pay more to emit carbon dioxide under Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Wolf's plan announced Oct. 3 to bring Pennsylvania into a ninestate
consortium that sets a price and limits on carbon dioxide emissions
from power plants to help fight climate change. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
destroy homes and businesses over and over again, we need
to get serious right now about addressing the climate crisis,"
Wolf told a news conference Oct. 3 in his Capitol offices.
Pennsylvania is the nation's fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse
gases and its third-biggest electric power state.
At almost 40 percent, Pennsylvania's energy sector is its largest
emitter of carbon dioxide, according to government figures.
Under the cap-and-trade program, its dozens of power
plants fueled by coal, oil and natural gas could be forced to
pay hundreds of millions of dollars annually that the state
could then spend on clean energy efforts.
| Chief Engineer
Pennsylvania would be, by far, the biggest emissions state in
the consortium. It emits about 92 million tons a year, compared
with the consortium's 2019 cap of 80.2 million tons.
In consortium states, owners of power plants fueled by coal,
oil or natural gas with a capacity of 25 megawatts must buy
a credit for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. The earliest
Pennsylvania could reasonably join and see the program
take effect is 2021.
Wolf's aides have approached top Republican lawmakers in
recent months about passing legislation to authorize the
move, without success.
The governor's administration has maintained that it can
write regulations for the cap-and-trade program under its
existing authority to regulate air pollution, although Wolf
acknowledged the process would eventually need "buy-in"
from lawmakers.
protect the state's homegrown industries and ratepayers,
and an insistence that Wolf's regulations reflect their views.
"Climate change is real and so is the need to have the business
community at the table to discuss solutions and consider
the tradeoffs," the chamber's CEO, Gene Barr, said in a
prepared statement.
Still, House Republican leaders struck a more oppositional
tone, saying they strongly disagree with Wolf's "go-it-alone"
approach and warned that Wolf's administration doesn't
have the authority to "bind" Pennsylvania into multi-state
agreements without approval from lawmakers.
In the meantime, Wolf's administration is reviewing a
regulatory petition filed last year by more than 60 parties,
including solar energy firms, that is pursuing a broader, California-style
cap-and-trade program seeking to make Pennsylvania
carbon neutral by 2052.
Wolf also said his administration would need to make sure
that the "transition to a cleaner energy mix does not leave
workers and communities behind." He said he did not know
to what extent the program's cost on dirtier power plants
would trickle down to the state's ratepayers.
Reaction from Republican lawmakers and the Pennsylvania
Chamber of Business and Industry was mixed, with vows to
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 17
Louisiana Hopes to Fight Coast Erosion
by Mimicking Nature By Rebecca Santana
The Davis Pond Diversion, a project that diverts water from the Mississippi River, left, into the Barataria Basin to reduce coastal erosion in St. Charles Parish,
La. Engineers hope to remake some eroded marshes by siphoning off sediment-rich water that can be channeled into coastal basins. (AP Photo/Gerald
IRONTON, La. (AP) — Back when the Mississippi River flowed
wild, its ever-shifting waters acted as a continent-sized earth
mover, picking up sand and dirt from the North, depositing
it in the Delta region and eventually creating the land that is
now south Louisiana.
Thousands of years later, the mighty river is held in check
with man-made levees and flood-control systems. But Louisiana
officials are making plans to tap into the Mississippi's
ancient power to build new land as a way to reverse coastal
erosion and ease the threat of rising seas.
environmental risks. But if it works, the project will restore a
crucial buffer against storm surges and offer new habitat for
migratory birds and fish that rely on wetlands.
Saltwater is eating away at the coast, accelerated by a
network of canals cut for oil and gas development, navigation
and logging. The state estimates that it has lost just
Engineers hope to remake some eroded marshes by cutting
into the levees and siphoning off sediment-rich water that
can be channeled into coastal basins. When the sediment settles
out of the water, it will slowly accrue into soil.
"The fundamental problem in coastal Louisiana is that lack
of sediment, and so we're trying to mimic the way Mother
Nature would have delivered that sediment to our coast in
the past," said Bren Haase, who leads the state's Coastal
Protection and Restoration Authority.
Some skeptics question whether the idea poses its own
| Chief Engineer
over 2,000 square miles of land — a tract about the size of
Delaware — since 1932. If nothing is done, as much as 4,200
square miles could vanish over the next 50 years depending
on sea level.
Using the river to rebuild the coast has been discussed for decades,
but it was not until settlement money from the 2010
BP oil spill became available that plans began in earnest. The
explosion killed 11 people on a rig leased by BP and resulted
in millions of gallons of oil spewing into the gulf for three
Louisiana is putting much of its share of the settlement
toward coastal restoration, including spending a little more
than $2 billion on two projects dubbed Mid-Barataria and
Mid-Breton for the bodies of water in which they will be
One of the key advantages of the sediment-diversion system
is that it can operate continuously for decades, as opposed to
dredging, which involves a onetime effort to scoop sediment
from one location and deposit it in another.
"For a dredge project, we may be talking 100 acres, 200 acres
or 1,000. We're doing some of the bigger dredge projects
we've ever done before, but we're still talking low thousands.
Diversions have the potential for tens of thousands of
acres," said Brad Barth, sediment diversion program director
with the CPRA.
As the diverted river water drains from the basin, the sediment
settles out and begins accumulating. Over time, it
piles up, first under the water and then emerging above the
surface. Eventually, vegetation such as marsh grass or willow
trees can take root.
State officials are in the permitting process. The earliest start
to construction would be in 2021 or 2022. But an airboat
tour through the marshes created by an existing diversion
project gives a hint of what might lie ahead.
The Davis Pond Diversion was built to channel freshwater
from the Mississippi into Barataria Bay to balance out
salinity levels that have risen as Gulf water encroached. The
diversion carries a fraction of the water that the two larger
projects will, and building land was not the goal but a happy
Where there used to be open water, grass and willows now
grow on a ridge. The land is so dense that a person can
walk on it — a major change in about a decade, said Rudy
Simoneaux, a state coastal engineer.
When it comes to the Mid-Barataria project, the time frame
(Continued on page 20)
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 19
for land emerging above the surface would depend on a
lot of factors such as water levels in the Mississippi. But
Simoneaux said results could be evident in five years.
"I think you would see those natural ridges start to form,
and you would see the woody formations happen just the
same as here," he said.
Not everyone is as eager.
Robert Campo's family has been in the fishing industry since
1903. Fishermen still come to his dock in Shell Beach to buy
brown shrimp for bait.
Campo and others worry the diversions will flood their
fishing areas with dirty Mississippi river water, destroying an
industry vital to the state's economy and culture. Shrimpers
worry they'll have to travel much farther to fish; oystermen
worry about losing millions of dollars invested in oyster reefs.
"We all want coastal restoration. Trust me, I'm a big advocate
for it. I think we need to rebuild this whole coast. But
there's other ways of doing it ... with minimal effects to our
fisheries," Campo said.
Diversion opponents also point to recent flooding-fighting
efforts on the Mississippi.
Fed by rain and melting snows in the Midwest, the Mississippi
ran unusually high for months earlier this year. The Army
Corps of Engineers twice opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway,
which protects New Orleans' levees by channeling huge
amounts of river water into normally brackish Lake Pontchartrain,
a huge tidal basin that drains into the Gulf.
The sudden release of freshwater into saltwater ecosystems
killed oysters, diminished fish catches and damaged livelihoods.
Skeptics question how much land will be built. R. Eugene
Turner, a professor at LSU's Department of Oceanography
and Coastal Sciences, argued in a recent study that existing
diversions, including Davis Pond, have led to overall land loss.
Haase, from CPRA, said operators will have much more
control over the diversion systems than they have over the
spillway. A system of monitors will alert them to how the
ecosystem is responding so they can make changes.
He said the federal permitting process will help identify
areas, such as oyster grounds, that might be affected by the
diversions, so the state can help them.
"If we're going to get to where we think we need to get on
our coast, bold action is required," Haase said. "These are
bold projects."
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 21
Big Tech's Eco-Pledges Aren't Slowing Its
Pursuit of Big Oil By Matt O'Brien
Employee activism and outside pressure have pushed big
tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google into
promising to slash their carbon emissions. But there's another
thing these tech giants aren't cutting: Their growing business
ties to the oil and gas industry.
When Microsoft held an all-staff meeting in September, an
employee asked CEO Satya Nadella if it was ethical for the
company to be selling its cloud computing services to fossil
fuel companies, according to two other Microsoft employees
who described the exchange on condition they not be
named. Such partnerships, the worker told Nadella, were
accelerating the oil companies' greenhouse gas emissions.
Microsoft and other tech giants have been competing with
one another to strike lucrative partnerships with ExxonMobil,
Chevron, Shell, BP and other energy firms, in many cases
supplying them not just with remote data storage but also
artificial intelligence tools for pinpointing better drilling
spots or speeding up refinery production.
Amazon workers begin to gather in front of the Spheres, participating in
the climate strike in Seattle. Employee activism and outside pressure have
pushed big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google promising
to slash their carbon emissions. Microsoft and other tech giants have been
competing to strike lucrative partnerships with ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell,
BP and other energy firms. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
The oil and gas industry is spending roughly $20 billion each
year on cloud services, which accounts for about 10 percent
of the total cloud market, according to Vivek Chidambaram,
a managing director of Accenture's energy consultancy. It's
not yet clear whether the extraction industry is getting its
money's worth, although experts remain bullish about the
application of advanced technology to oil and gas exploration.
Nadella sought to assuage employee concerns at the Sept.
12 meeting, first by reiterating Microsoft's internal efforts
on environmental sustainability, according to the workers,
who asked for anonymity because they feared retaliation
for speaking about an internal meeting. The employees said
Nadella also defended Microsoft's energy partners, pointing
out their investments in researching and developing more
sustainable energy production methods.
"There's no fossil fuel CEO who sits there and says, 'You
know, I'm just gonna deny climate change,"' Nadella said,
according to the employees' transcript of his remarks. "If
anything, they're all saying, 'Let us have, in fact, the regulation,
the pricing mechanisms that get us to this future."'
Microsoft said in an emailed statement Oct. 1 that it is
"focused on helping companies of all kinds become more
| Chief Engineer
efficient, including energy companies." It declined to comment
on Nadella's remarks, which were part of a regularly
scheduled "all-hands" gathering in which the CEO welcomes
questions on a range of topics.
Less than a week after that exchange and days before a
planned worldwide protest over climate change, Microsoft
announced yet another major deal for its Azure cloud computing
platform — this time with Chevron and oilfield services
giant Schlumberger. The timing of the announcement
ahead of the climate protest and United Nations climate
action meetings angered some environmentally minded Microsoft
workers and caught the attention of outsiders.
"It is unconscionable that amid global climate protests, tech
giants like Microsoft are announcing major partnerships with
Big Oil," said Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a tweet that coincided with the
Sept. 20 global climate strike. "We must hold them accountable,
demand they break ties with the fossil fuel industry,
and move rapidly to sustainable energy."
Echoing that message was a small group of Microsoft employees
who carried cardboard signs to a lunchtime protest
that day outside of Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond,
Washington. "No Azure For Oil," said one of the signs.
After months of employee activism, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
said he was pushing his company to the forefront on sustainability,
committing it to have 100 percent of its energy
use come from solar panels and other renewable energy by
2030. But he also defended Amazon's work with the oil and
gas industry , arguing that "we need to help them instead of
vilify them."
Some experts say AI and cloud services could actually play a
role in curbing emissions.
Denying cloud computing services to the oil and gas industry
would do little to address the bigger problem of the world's
ongoing dependence on fossil fuels, said Aseem Prakash,
director of the Center for Environmental Politics at the University
of Washington.
"We would not want to collapse the fossil fuel industry,"
Prakash said. "We would want a soft landing."
If anything, he said, an oil company's shift to another company's
cloud platform may have some environmental benefits
because it is more efficient than running its digital operations
on its own servers. Driving down costs could also help
open the door to investments in other, less polluting methods
for generating energy.
It's less clear whether AI is mitigating pollution or worsening
it. In their pitches to work with oil and gas companies, cloud
providers such as Amazon and Microsoft have boasted of
advanced machine-learning tools that can sift through huge
troves of geologic and seismic data to help make decisions
about where to extract resources. IDC oil analyst Gaurav Verma
said AI is a critical technology for oil and gas companies
that want to learn from that data to study oil reservoirs or
predict when maintenance is needed on a pipeline.
Earlier this year, ExxonMobil struck a deal to tap into Microsoft's
technology to capitalize on the shale oil boom in
Texas and New Mexico. Microsoft has said that real-time data
collected from a region spanning hundreds of miles would
enable ExxonMobil "to make faster and better decisions" on
drilling and well completion and support production growth
by as much as 50,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day by 2025.
An unsigned statement from Microsoft's protesting workers
said they've been "made complicit" by the company's role in
warming the planet.
"Microsoft makes millions of dollars in profits by helping
fossil fuel companies extract more oil," the statement said.
But it's not clear if tech giants are actually helping that much
— in part because they may be overstating their own role in
transforming Big Oil with AI.
"The sundae they're selling is the cloud," said Chidambaram,
the Accenture analyst. "The cherries they're putting on it is
the analytics."
Chidambaram said that's because oil industries are still cagey
about sharing what they know about underground reserves
and don't want third parties analyzing that data.
"Data can be used in many ways," he said. "It's about how
it's being used."
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 23
Minnesota Legislature Considers 'Clean
Energy First' Policy By Walker Orenstein of MinnPost
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The centerpiece of DFL lawmakers'
plans to fight the climate crisis is a mandate that would
make the energy grid carbon-free by 2050. But at the Minnesota
Capitol, another climate measure, this one known as
"Clean Energy First," has drawn just as much attention —
and may have better odds of becoming law.
The policy, which has been championed by clean energy advocacy
groups, would make it tougher for power companies
to add new fossil fuel energy sources. And unlike the 2050
plan proposed by Gov. Tim Walz, the basic premise of Clean
Energy First has the support of Democrats and a sizable
chunk of Republicans.
Sen. David Senjem, a Rochester Republican who sponsored a
Senate version of Clean Energy First, said his bill would help
make Minnesota a "national leader" in driving clean energy
production and innovation. "We know it's the future," Senjem
said of clean power. "We know it's literally the cheapest
option and we know politically and attitudinally, people
prefer clean energy over dirty energy."
Here's a look at how Clean Energy First would work, and why
the climate change proposal has gained some steam in St.
Paul: There were multiple versions of Clean Energy First at
the Legislature during the 2019 session. But the crux of each
proposal is aimed at changing how regulators on the Public
Utilities Commission (PUC) can make decisions.
Every few years, utility companies like Xcel Energy submit
plans to the PUC detailing the long-term makeup of their
power sources. To approve them, state law says the commission
must consider whether new energy projects proposed
by utilities are in the public interest and whether they would
help meet the state's goals for reducing greenhouse gases.
Clean Energy First would beef up that preference for green
technology. Senjem's bill says the PUC would only be able to
approve new fossil-fuel power if the utility is "unable affordably
and reliably" to meet its power needs with new clean
energy. It would also update definitions of clean energy to
include energy storage systems and power-efficiency technology.
Moreover, it lets utilities meet energy needs with a
combination of different kinds of carbon-saving means.
Steve Kelley, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of
Commerce, said Clean Energy First policy would also "de-emphasize"
the idea that natural gas plants are the only way to
replace coal plants and keep a reliable energy grid.
"There are still conversations about where do gas plants fit
into the reliability and affordability picture, especially as the
prices of renewables appear to continue to decline and we're
developing new opportunities in storage and demand management,"
Kelley said. "So I think (Clean Energy First) helps
us put the emphasis on those new tools."
The proposals come at a pivotal moment for state energy
policy. Many lawmakers are hoping to aggressively cut
carbon emissions as the climate crisis escalates around the
world. And in the next 20 years, 70 percent of the state's
electric generation will be eligible for replacement, says the
Commerce Department.
Xcel has already pledged to be carbon-free by 2050 through
an expansion of wind and solar power, an extension of its
nuclear power and use of natural gas. They also plan to end
use of coal by 2030. But there are other power companies
still more reliant on fossil fuels.
Clean Energy First has won the backing of a swath of renewable-energy
advocates in St. Paul and has been a top priority
for many of them. First developed by the Center for Energy
and the Environment along with a few other nonprofits, the
| Chief Engineer
policy is often billed as a flexible regulation that will guide
the creation of clean energy without stiff mandates.
Conservation Minnesota, a Minneapolis nonprofit with a mission
to build bipartisan consensus on environmental legislation,
says on its website that Clean Energy First is "not a one
size fits all policy" and it "allows each utility to affordably
maximize its use of clean energy while meeting the unique
reliability needs of its customer base."
The idea has also drawn the support of the Minnesota and
North Dakota chapter of the Laborers' International Union
of North America, in part because the bills have provisions
aimed at getting clean energy developers to hire local workers.
At a March hearing on Senjem's bill, Joyce Peppin, general
counsel for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, which
represents the state's electric cooperative, said the organization
had some reservations about Clean Energy First. But
Peppin said it's "a better approach than arbitrarily setting
dates by which utilities must add specific amounts of renewable
generation to their portfolios, regardless of need or
their impact on grid stability."
The nonprofit news outlet MinnPost provided this article to
The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute
for Nonprofit News.
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 25
Nuclear Waste Awareness Tour Begins in
Vermont By Susan Smallheer | Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — Leona Morgan wasn't in Vermont
for leaf peeping, but for environmental justice.
The Navajo woman from Albuquerque, N.M., is an indigenous
community organizer and she wants the people of
Vermont and New England to know what getting rid of the
nuclear waste from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
means to her community.
Morgan, along with a group of anti-nuclear activists toured
New England in October to draw attention to what they concede
is an oft-forgotten or ignored problem — where does
the nuclear waste go?
Pulling a giant wooden mock cask that was built to resemble
a cask used to transport — not store — high level radioactive
waste, the activists are hoping the large dumbbell-looking
prop will prompt discussion of the unsolved issue.
"It's our job to wake them up," Deb Katz, the executive director
of the Citizens Awareness Network, said of residents.
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Casks of high-level nuclear waste sit on an independent spent fuel storage
installation at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, in Vernon, Vt. A
group of anti-nuclear activists toured New England last month to draw
attention to the problem of nuclear waste storage location. (Kristopher
Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Morgan said the nuclear industry — whether it is the existing
14,000-acre Waste Control Specialties (WCS) facility in west
Texas, or its proposed expansion or a proposed Holtec nuclear
storage facility just over the border in New Mexico — was
overwhelming the communities in that region.
She said putting nuclear waste in that area, which she said
is geologically unstable from a huge amount of oil and gas
drilling, is dangerous and racist. The area is already home to
the U.S. Department of Energy's waste isolation pilot plant,
which houses government-generated nuclear waste, including
low-level plutonium. All those projects, Morgan said, are
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within 50 miles.
It is a largely Hispanic and Navajo area, she said, and the
companies and politicians who are behind the nuclear project
are "old, white men."
"We are specifically targeted," Morgan said.
west Texas and eastern New Mexico would be dangerous and
that the nuclear fuel "should only be moved once."
Moving the waste comes with many complications and potential
dangers, Katz said, not to mention that thousands of
shipments would come from dozens of nuclear power plants
that have either shut down or will be shutting down.
The six-day tour has been organized by
Citizens Awareness Network, a regional anti-nuclear
organization based in Shelburne
Falls, Mass. Katz and others made a brief
stopover in Brattleboro on Wednesday, Oct.
9, with its large mock canister, as the group
made its way from the Vermont Law School
to Greenfield, Mass., for a rally and concert.
"It is vital that citizens understand the issues
and what's at stake," said Katz. "Until the
criteria of sound science and environmental
justice are the drivers behind any disposition,
high-level nuclear waste must remain
onsite," she said.
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All three members of Vermont's congressional
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interim storage facilities, Katz said. Their
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The stalled construction of a national
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The project had been suspended during the
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"This is an old bad idea," said Diane D'Arrigo,
the radioactive waste project director
for the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service in Washington, D.C.
Vermont Yankee emptied its spent fuel pool
and completed the transfer of its thousands
of spent fuel rods — the most dangerous
of the radioactive waste — last year into a
storage facility on the grounds of Vermont
Yankee in Vernon. The fuel is now in large
concrete and steel canisters called dry cask
storage and will remain there until the federal
Department of Energy builds a nuclear
waste facility to store it for the thousands of
years it remains dangerous. Yucca Mountain
was once targeted as that facility.
But the anti-nuclear activists said a new
push for interim waste storage facilities in
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 27
Renewable Energy Firm Doubles Down
on Western Wind Projects By SusanMontoya Bryan
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A California-based renewable
energy developer plans to increase by seven-fold its investments
as it prepares to build more wind farms in New Mexico
over the next several years.
A recent analysis commissioned by Pattern Development
shows a $1.2 billion economic impact from its wind farms
in eastern New Mexico and West Texas. That's hundreds of
millions of dollars more than what was initially projected in
2015 before development began and bodes well for what
the state can expect in benefits from future construction,
company officials said.
"I think New Mexico really has a chance to be a leader here
in what's going to come nationally, which is a growing renewable
energy penetration as part of our energy mix," Cary
Kottler, vice president of North American development for
Pattern Development, said during a recent interview.
The aim is investing in renewable energy to both serve the
Pump jacks and wind turbines are visible inside of a cotton field near Lamesa,
Texas. A California-based renewable energy developer plans to increase
by seven-fold its investments as it prepares to build more wind farms in
the heart of New Mexico over the next several years. An analysis commissioned
by Pattern Development shows a $1.2 billion economic impact from
its wind farms in eastern New Mexico and West Texas, surpassing initial
projections. (Edyta Blaszczyk/Odessa American via AP, File)
demands of the sparsely populated state and export the
electricity to bigger markets in the West, he said.
Some of the wind projects have been planned for years, but
regulatory pressure is mounting as New Mexico and other
states adopt tougher renewable energy mandates in an
effort to phase out coal- and natural gas-fired power plants
and reduce pollution.
New Mexico has set its emissions-free deadline for public
utilities at 2045. The state's largest utility, Public Service Co.
of New Mexico, has vowed to beat that by five years, saying
it will shutter its coal and natural gas plants and replace the
lost power with a mix of solar, wind and battery technology.
Xcel Energy, which provides electricity to customers in parts
of New Mexico and Texas, also is investing millions of dollars
in wind farms, substations and transmission lines.
(Continued on page 31)
| Chief Engineer
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Texas already leads the U.S. in installed wind capacity, and
New Mexico is on pace to double its current capacity.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, New
Mexico in 2017 added wind power capacity at a faster rate
than any other state. A market report released by the industry
group earlier this year suggested the state has tapped
only a fraction of its potential.
The lack of transmission lines often is cited as an impediment
to the growth of renewable energy in states like New Mexico,
where resources are abundant but demand is limited.
A key driver for Pattern Development's upcoming investments
is a recent decision by the state Public Regulation
Commission to allow Public Service Co. of New Mexico to
acquire a 165-mile (266-kilometer) transmission line that
will be built through a partnership between Pattern and the
state' Renewable Energy Transmission Authority. It will connect
wind farms in rural central New Mexico to other points
on the grid.
"That allows us to build more than a $1 billion of new wind
projects in New Mexico that the line will serve," Kottler said.
Local officials and landowners in Socorro County south of Albuquerque
have come out against the transmission project,
citing potential environmental impacts that include compromising
pristine landscapes and disrupting migratory bird
paths along the Rio Grande.
There are also concerns that the wind projects will fall short
of creating enough permanent jobs to replace those lost as
the state pushes out fossil fuel electricity generation.
At Pattern's Broadview Wind Energy facility, there are about
40 full-time technicians operating and maintaining the turbines
that span the New Mexico-Texas border. The facility has
been producing electricity for customers of Southern California
Edison since 2017.
The nearby Grady Wind project recently came online, and
company officials say work to erect turbines in central New
Mexico capable of generating another 800 to 900 megawatts
is scheduled to start in 2020.
Close to 1,000 construction jobs are projected for Pattern's
upcoming projects, and the company estimates that 150
wind technicians will be needed once the planned facilities
are operational.
| Chief Engineer
Officials Meet in Cedar Rapids to Break
Ground on Floodgate
Emergency crews monitor the flood barriers along the Cedar River in Downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Cedar Rapid plans to break ground on another in its
elaborate system of floodwalls for the protection of the city's New Bohemia business district. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register via AP)
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids officials gathered
with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leaders and members of
Iowa's congressional delegation for a groundbreaking ceremony
of a new floodgate to protect part of downtown from
Cedar River flooding.
The 4-foot-thick gate will be 14 feet tall and 67 feet long,
and will hide behind a floodwall when not in use, the Gazette
reported. It can be rolled into place within about 30
minutes to protect the New Bohemia business district when
the river rises.
A contract to complete the $2.4 million gate was signed in
October, and construction will likely begin later this year or
next spring, said Jason Smith, a program manager with the
The city has been slowly assembling a $550 million flood
control system since devastating floods ravaged Cedar Rapids
in 2008. Last year, the Corps announced approval of $117 million
federal funding for flood protection in Cedar Rapids. Of
that, $41 million must be repaid by the city.
City officials have estimated the full east side system would
cost $245 million.
The Oct. 8 groundbreaking signaled an uptick in the pace
of construction on the project, officials said. A contract for a
levee system just downriver is expected to be awarded over
the winter, with construction to begin in the spring, Smith
said. Soon after that, several other flood protection projects
will on the east side that are expected to be completed by
early 2023.
"My whole goal in the Corps of Engineers is to revolutionize
the Corps to be able to make us more streamlined, to be able
to get projects done, high quality projects, ahead of schedule
and under costs," Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite said Oct. 8.
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 31
Proposals Would Dam Little Colorado
River for Hydropower By Felicia Fonseca
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The Little Colorado River cuts across
the northeast corner of Arizona, emptying its waters into the
Colorado River after a more than 330-mile journey.
Few people wander in the remote region where it crosses
the Navajo Nation, aside from river rafters traveling through
the Grand Canyon, tribal members and occasional hikers.
That solitude in a lonely stretch of desert would be pierced
by workers, roads and possibly tourists if a long-term plan by
a recently formed Phoenix-based company that wants to put
in dams for power generation comes to fruition.
The proposals are reigniting the same concerns brought
up years ago with a failed plan to build a gondola to ferry
people into the Grand Canyon on the Navajo reservation:
protecting tribal sacred sites, endangered fish and serenity.
Pumped Hydro Storage LLC is seeking approval from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission for preliminary permits
to study the sites east of Grand Canyon National Park over
three years. None of it will move forward without permission
from the Navajo Nation.
Navajo President Jonathan Nez said he's been briefed by
tribal economic development officials about the proposals
to create four reservoirs — two of which would be directly
on the Little Colorado River — but hasn't talked with anyone
from Pumped Hydro Storage.
"With any project or proposal that is presented to the Navajo
Nation, we weigh the pros and cons in terms of employment
opportunities, economic development, water resources,
environmental impact and other factors," Nez said. "We
are ever mindful that we must respect our environment. The
local Navajo communities must be informed, and their voices
must be heard."
A public comment period on the permit applications runs
through Nov. 22.
The largest of the reservoirs would be northeast of Grand
Canyon National Park with a smaller reservoir to the south.
Together, they'd store more than 30,000 acre-feet of water
and produce 3,200 megawatts of energy sent to an existing
switchyard near the Navajo community of Cameron,
although transmission lines would have to be extended,
according to documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory
The other facility would use less than half that amount of
water and produce 1,500 megawatts of energy.
Steve Irwin, manager of Pumped Hydro Storage, said the
two projects could lead to paved roads, potable water and
electricity to the area, an access tunnel to the Little Colorado
River for tourism, jobs for tribal members, and billions in
investments and economic impact to the Navajo Nation and
| Chief Engineer
tourists to a riverside boardwalk in the Grand Canyon on the
tribe's land in the general area where the dams are being
Pumped storage works by moving water between an upper
and lower reservoir to make power when the demand is
high. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued
many of the licenses for such projects that often are tied to
existing generation stations about 30 years ago, the commissions
This photo shows the Little Colorado River about a half-mile from where
it empties into the much larger Colorado River in northeastern Arizona. A
Colorado River tributary in northeastern Arizona is being eyed for power
generation. A newly formed Phoenix company wants to put up dams on
the Little Colorado River. Pumped Hydro Storage, LLC., is seeking preliminary
permits from the federal government to study sites on the Navajo
Nation. (Lisa Winters/Grand Canyon Trust via AP)
Water, engineering, geology, environmental and cultural
studies would take up to three years and cost up to $18 million,
according to the company's filings.
The proposals don't mention the Hopi Tribe or an area Hopi
believe their ancestors emerged from, called the Sipapu.
Tribes also consider the place where the Colorado and Little
Colorado rivers meet sacred. The neighboring Navajo and
Hopi tribes have an intergovernmental compact that allows
members of each tribe to access the other's land for religious
purposes, and Hopi Vice Chairman Clark Tenakhongva said
he expects that to be respected.
He said he first heard about the proposal for dams on social
media, and it kept him up most of the night.
"They've done enough damage with the big Colorado River,
yet something like this proposed is just mind-blowing," he
said. "We just closed one segment of what they say is harm
to the environment. This is more harm."
The Navajo Nation Council delivered the final blow to a
project two years ago to build an aerial tram to take paying
The hydropower industry is seeing a renewed interest as
states increasingly turn to wind and solar, and they need a
way to supplement energy when the sun's not shining and
the wind's not blowing. Most energy storage comes from
pumped storage projects, according to the U.S. Energy Information
"You have tens of thousands of megawatts of both those
resources coming on line, and they are variable generation.
You need a resource that can respond quickly to some of the
big swings, ramp ups and ramp downs throughout the day,
and pumped storage can do that," said Jeff Leahey, an executive
vice president at the National Hydropower Association.
Irwin said it's unlikely both facilities will be built on the Navajo
Nation. Construction wouldn't start for about 10 years if
the projects ultimately are licensed.
The Little Colorado River has some limits of its own. It
doesn't flow year-round, and can carry heavy sediment
during the spring runoff and monsoon season, which could
choke up dams. The endangered humpback chub also
spawns in the Little Colorado River where the water is warmer
than in the mainstem Colorado River.
"The humpback chub is the first major obstacle we see for
this," Irwin said.
Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust said he and other
environmental groups are keeping a close watch.
"In the last 100 years of Grand Canyon's history, a number of
proposals ... even a few of them that seem crazy have been
accomplished," he said. "We have to take it serious. It's part
of a national move to pumped storage."
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 33
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| Chief Engineer
Two NW Indiana Schools Closed After
Legionnaires' Discovery
CHESTERTON, Ind. (AP) — Two northwestern Indiana schools
have been temporarily closed after a school district employee
tested positive for Legionnaires' disease.
water vapor is inhaled. The elderly and people with
weakened immune systems can be particularly susceptible.
Duneland School Corporation officials say Westchester
Intermediate School was closed Friday, Oct. 4, after "traces"
of Legionella bacteria were found in its cooling tower, and
Chesterton Middle School was shuttered following a similar
discovery in its water system.
Both schools were tested after an employee self-reported
testing positive for Legionnaire's disease.
The district's administration center was also closed in Chesterton,
about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Chicago.
District officials say they're working with a company to
address "any environmental hazard to ensure the safety of
students and staff."
Legionnaire's is a flu-like illness contracted when infected
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 35
STNR-0024-18_Chief Engineer Gear_v4.indd 4
The Local 399 was hopping at this year's Oktoberfest
meeting, with an abundance of Chiefs in attendance and a
good deal of conviviality on tap. A few people were spotted
wearing traditional Bavarian-style garb, and we are grateful
for the show of enthusiasm. A lot of effort came together
to make this wonderful evening such a memorable event.
We would like to thank, first and foremost, our sponsors
for the evening, who contributed their expertise and
enthusiasm as well as making the entire event possible: Air
Comfort, Bornquist Inc., Chicago Cooling Tower Company
Inc., presenting sponsor Chicago Fire Protection, and The
Moran Group. Thank all of you for your dedication to
making these meetings as pleasant and informative as they
We also thank the folks at Local 399 for their part in making
this event a success, as well as the folks out at Fanning
Communications for their help in organizing everything to
bring this evening together.
If your organization would like to sponsor a monthly
meeting or event on behalf of the Chief Engineers, please
reach out to Alex Boerner at email@example.com. She
will be happy to provide you with the necessary information
and assistance.
| Chief Engineer
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 37
Feature Story
The Crown Fountain has been gracing the Chicago landscape
since the fountain's opening in 2004. It is one of the most-visited
attractions in Chicago and one of the most novel in the
country — perhaps the world.
And despite being surrounded by a virtual forest of iconic wonders,
the Crown Fountain is the only one that provides a virtual,
as well as, literal, immersive experience. That's right — if you're
brave enough, you can roll up your pantlegs and wade through
the meticulously managed 1/8" deep "water skin" reflecting
But a fascinating and little-known fact is that when it was first
opened, no one had anticipated people playing in the water.
But as anyone who has spent more than a few minutes enjoying
the artwork, half the fun is watching the faces of the kids —
and adults — playing in the water.
The two 50-foot-tall towers were constructed with 22,000
custom-designed and -built glass block on a spiderweb of a
stainless steel framework. The towers are deceptive in that
their structure comprises a steel grid hidden behind the floating
glass façade, which hangs and is attached to this steel structure
almost, but not quite, like drapes.
A rotation of 1,000 faces representing each of Chicago's 77
neighborhoods adorn the center-facing planes of each tower.
When first built, the projections were created from 30" LED
screens that generated substantial heat. The fountain saw a substantial
rehab in 2017, which included the installation of much
thinner, cooler projection screens. It appears that when the new,
cooler lighting system was installed, algae growth increased.
And so, in steps the law of unintended consequences and a look
behind the scenes of this most extraordinary piece of art that
comprises multiple systems, some of which are visible, but most
of which are not.
Several years ago it was decided by Millennium Park Foundation
to conduct a comprehensive review of The Crown Fountain to
determine what are best practices moving forward, to ensure
Chicago Corrosion Group's Warren Brand gets underneath it all at the
Crown Fountain. (Credit: Chicago Corrosion Group)
The structure of
the towers of the
Crown Fountain
consists of
a stainless steel
framework on
which 50-foot-tall
façades of glass
block are hung.
(Credit: Chicago
Corrosion Group)
| Chief Engineer
By Warren Brand
Ni bla voluptas de aut magnimi, idigent ipsum
that this national treasure would endure for decades.
When CCG was awarded oversight of the initial Phase 1
condition survey of the fountain, the challenges were many
and complex. First, the integrity of the artistry had to take
Second, each system associated with the fountain had to be
understood as a stand-alone system, but also how it interacted
with other, associated systems. For example, when new
LED lights were installed several years ago, there was less
heat in the towers. Heat in the towers tended to keep the air
warmer and, perhaps, humidity lower. When the heat was
reduced, algae growth increased. Further, due to less heat
being generated in the towers, the ventilation system, which
was sized properly during original construction, was now too
Some of the systems and associated challenges included:
Water: Technically, there are several different water systems
associated with the towers. The first is the system controlling
water raining down from the top of each tower. Each tower
has its own "gargoyle" system that manages the water spewing
from the mouth of the faces. And, lastly, there is a system
for maintaining "the water skin" over the black pavers.
Corrosion: The towers are made up of an internal skeleton
of carbon steel support married with the stainless-steel
framework holding the glass block. The original architects,
Krueck + Sexton, did a brilliant job of ensuring that galvanic
corrosion was mitigated. Galvanic corrosion takes place when
dissimilar metals, in this case, carbon steel and stainless steel,
come into contact with one another. This can cause serious
accelerated corrosion, which happened decades ago to the
Statue of Liberty — which has a copper skin, but was originally
built with a steel frame.
Waterproofing: The fountain is unique in many ways, including
waterproofing issues. First, the basin, which is hidden
from public view by the black pavers, is massive, and holds
(Continued on page 40)
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 39
All of the other systems reside behind facades, or are hidden
below grade. But not the draping. They are integral to the
beauty and appearance of the entire exhibit, and great care
must be made in balancing functionality with appearance.
The Challenge
The original design of the tower and as-builts called out
for a clear caulk. The original intention was for the mortar
joints to be waterproof, but the brilliant design called for a
belt-and-suspenders approach, particularly due to the fact
that the glass wall is designed to move slightly in the wind,
as it is not a rigid structure.
Unfortunately, and according to interviews and conversations
with the incredible engineering team at Millennium
Park, the caulk joints have become more and more difficult
to maintain, and the towers are leaking — with water
migrating from the exterior to the interior, exacerbating
interior corrosion issues. (See adjacent story.)
While clear caulks, primarily silicone, are durable and certainly
provide a specific aesthetic, it's impossible to add any
fillers, additives or other materials that add durability to the
So CCG made the timid decision to ask the Spanish artist,
Jaume Plensa, and the Foundation Team to consider the use
of pigmented caulks to add substantial durability. It was a
risky ask, because any pigmented system, while improving
performance and, reducing water ingress, would change the
appearance of the glass walls. The question was how much
of a change in appearance, and further, if the change of
appearance would be objectionable.
Top: The view from underneath the well which surrounds each fountain.
The blue housing on the left holds a light. The plastic supports are holding
up stainless steel grating. Middle: The sump surrounding the fountain. The
housings are waterproofing housings that must be underwater in order to
operate due to the heat buildup. (Credit: Chicago Corrosion Group) Bottom:
Setting the mockup against the fountain to gauge the effectiveness
of the caulks being considered. Retaining the original artistic intent was of
paramount importance in this job.
thousands of gallons of water. Then there are thousands of
linear feet of caulk joints on the glass blocks. Both of these
areas of concern needed to be addressed, but in completely
different manners. (More below.)
Electrical and lighting systems: There are a variety of different
lighting systems associated with the towers. There are, of
course, the project screens that give life to the faces. There
are exterior lights (beneath stainless steel grating surrounding
the base of each tower) and there are accent lights
within the tower, which give the towers a beautiful, colorful
interior glow.
There are other systems as well, including water treatment,
filtration, HVAC, automation, and many others. But perhaps
the most challenging was determining the optimal solution
for caulking the glass brick.
The Mockup
CCG had worked on thousands of projects requiring mockups,
but not like this. We couldn't caulk the actual tower
with different color caulks. The towers were operational, and
it wouldn't look good to have different colored caulk during
the summer months, when people would travel around the
world to visit Chicago. In most mockups, you are able to
apply different color paints, textures, etc., on walls or other
substrates, and stand back with a cup of coffee and look. But
not here.
The solution? Build a portable mockup to place in front of
the towers.
Easier said than done. First, the fountain was closing on Oct.
15, so we needed to move quickly. Second was simply the
staggering number of details and logistics. We needed to ensure
that there was no public event during the timeframe —
no easy task in the waning days of a Chicago summer. Once a
time was picked, security arrangements needed to be made
to cordon-off the area. We needed to make arrangements
to turn the projects off and on. And then there were the logistics
associated with the mockup itself. Each brick weighs 9
pounds and is custom made. And, as you can imagine, being
made of glass, is exceptionally delicate. And by the way, the
mockup needed to be self-supporting, without a back, to
| Chief Engineer
allow light to penetrate through the blocks. And no one had
ever built anything like it. But working with Methods and
Materials, an exceedingly competent local vendor working
nearly exclusively with artwork nationwide, the mockup did
not disappoint.
The frame was ultimately made out of wood, and weighed
nearly 450 pounds, measured 54" x 50" and was mounted
on a cart counterweighted with sandbags and with large
wheels so as not to damage the pavers or stainless steel
grating surrounding the towers. And it needed to be durable
enough to survive transport via truck and movement around
the fountains.
The design and concept of the mockup was to evaluate the
color of the proposed caulking systems for review by everyone
here on the Foundation Team and, most importantly, Mr.
Plensa, the inspirational artist, in Spain.
Four colors were selected based more on their depth and hue
than the specific color, which could be custom formulated
once we had an idea of the impact the color change might
have on the feature. We chose charcoal, grey, limestone and
white to try to represent a broad range between dark and
Rolled gingerly into position in front of the tower on
Wednesday, Oct. 9, the mockup was snugged against the
glass wall and into the "water curtain." The mockup was in
place for several hours. It was moved to different sides of the
fountain (the south tower) so it could be evaluated in shade
and sun. The LED projection lights were turned off and on to
gauge the appearance backlight, as well.
And the mockup did not disappoint. It allowed a view of
the small section of the tower with different color caulks,
so as to gain an understanding of how they might look if
re-caulked with something other than clear. It was a highly
functional test, which has the potential to protect the fountains
from ongoing water ingress, without negatively impacting
the appearance.
A second mockup, with slightly different color caulks, was
scheduled for the week of Oct. 14.
Creativity and inspiration defined the development and
building of the Crown Fountain. CCG believes the path to the
future, and long-term sustainability, lies equally on the same
foundational principals.
Warren Brand is the owner of Chicago Corrosion Group, and
has been involved in the industrial coating industry since the
age of 10. He has worked on everything from circuit boards,
six-story national monuments, sulfuric acid tanks, grain silos,
aquariums, passive fire proofing, corrosion under insulation,
secondary containment areas and coating the interior of
swimming pools for the rich and famous.
Keeping in line with the concepts of creativity and inspiration,
CCG is exploring alternative means to combat all of the
internal corrosion within the towers and associated mechanical
rooms. Warren Brand, owner of Chicago Corrosion
Group, described a novel manner in which to ameliorate
interior corrosion:
I've always been fascinated by failures of any kind, as there
is so much to learn from them — and there are operational
and personal principals which impact almost all of them,
from car accidents to plane crashes, to the worst nuclear
accident the planet has ever seen, the explosion of the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power plant in 1986.
A few years ago, I wrote a blog about the manner in which
the international community built a massive dome to cover
the still-radioactive tomb of Chernobyl. It's called The New
Safe Confinement and is the largest movable land-based
structure ever built. The structure looks like a massive
aircraft hangar and is designed to last more than 100 years.
Yet the dome is hollow. The bottom part, which is designed
to hold the radioactivity and radioactive particles in place, is
a stainless steel skin. The top, exposed to the atmosphere,
is also stainless steel. Sandwiched in between is a massive
labyrinth of carbon steel supports, concrete, steel walkways,
cranes, conduits, lighting, etc.
Instead of relying on paint to keep all of these various surfaces
from corroding, the engineers used a simple and elegant
alternative — to keep the space conditioned below 40
relative humidity. Corrosion, particularly metallic corrosion,
requires five things:
1. Oxygen
2. Anode
3. Cathode
4. Metallic pathway
5. Electrolyte
Removing oxygen was not an option, as people routinely
work within the space. Anodic and cathodic areas naturally
exist on all metallic surfaces and the metallic pathway is
simply the steel itself. Electrolyte is typically water, or in this
case, humidity. The one component of this electrochemical
process that could be removed was the electrolyte (humidity).
And so long as the air conditioning and dehumidification
systems stays operational, corrosion will never form on the
We are looking at exactly the same type of corrosion protection
for the interior of The Crown Fountain. With stopping
the water ingress from a new and more robust caulking
system, and installing a dehumidification and HVAC system
that can maintain RH below 40, no rust should ever be able
to form on the interior of the Volume towers or 84 mechanical · Number rooms 11 | 41
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| Chief Engineer
NY Utility Pushing Pipeline Says It Will
Connect Customers By Marina Villeneuve
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York utility company said Friday,
Oct. 11, that it will immediately begin connecting over 1,100
customers who were denied service after the state rejected
an application for a new pipeline.
National Grid's statement followed the New York Public
Service Commission's order that same day that called on the
company to connect those customers.
The commission's chair said the law requires utilities to provide
gas service without delay when there's sufficient supply.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the state to investigate
National Grid's potential negligence and said that the
pipeline wouldn't be in service until at least next year.
"Make no mistake, New York will hold National Grid accountable,"
Cuomo said.
A statement released by the utility company said they were
"disappointed" in the commission's decision but they would
comply and connect applicants identified in the order.
"With the current regional natural gas capacity constraints,
long-term guaranteed supplies are still needed to connect
customers and to maintain the safety and reliability of the
gas system for all customers," the statement said.
National Grid is now seeking temporary solutions for the
region's "very real gas supply constraints," according to the
The utility's proposed nearly $1 billion pipeline would bring
natural gas to New York from Pennsylvania's shale gas fields.
National Grid is the region's second utility company to
impose a gas hookup moratorium citing limited pipeline
In March, Con Edison imposed a moratorium on new hookups
in a swath of New York's northern suburbs, saying its existing
pipeline network couldn't satisfy rising demand driven
by new construction.
Also on Oct 11, New Jersey denied permits for a $1.1 billion,
roughly 120-mile (193-kilometer) long pipeline that would
bring Marcellus Shale natural gas to New Jersey.
PennEast Pipeline Company has argued the pipeline would
bring jobs and needed low-cost natural gas to homes in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
But environmental groups have worried such projects will cut
a scar across the landscape and harm wildlife.
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 43
Nalco Water Opens Customer
Experience Center to Demonstrate Water
Reclamation System By Karl J. Paloucek
Nalco Water's Bedford Park clearing facility recently held a grand opening for its new Customer Experience Center.
Back in September, Nalco Water — an Ecolab company —
held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its Bedford Park plant for
its newly opened Customer Experience Center. Through this
new development, Nalco Water aims to illustrate to its customers
how they can employ Nalco's smart water technologies
to reduce water use, improve performance and optimize
their costs.
Nalco Water's Bedford Park Clearing plant produces colloidal
silica for a broad range of industrial applications, from LED
lights to digital screens and nanotechnology. It currently is
one of the largest such facilities of its kind in the world. Its
water reclamation system employs reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration
membranes and 3D TRASAR technologies to
reclaim, treat and re-use its wastewater, allowing the plant
to reduce its freshwater consumption by 20 percent.
Water at the Clearing plant is used in two principal ways: for
things like utilities, boilers and cooling towers, and as part
of the production process for the products that are made
there. "We're collecting water from 14 different parts of the
plant," Senior Manager of Corporate Stability Dallas Tebben
says, describing the reclamation process. "There are 28
membranes that actually pull out all of the particulate that's
down to .02 microns, which is about 1/400th the size of a red
blood cell. It's really fine particulate the system's removing.
Then it goes through our reverse osmosis system. What a reverse
osmosis does, is it then really polishes the water. It pulls
out dissolved gases, other dissolved minerals, and it actually
gets that water to a quality point that's better than what we
even get from the city. From there, we can re-use that and
put that back into our production process."
What the Customer Experience Center offers is the chance to
interact with the reclamation system's tracking and to conveniently
see how smart water technology is affecting the facility's
functioning and output. From the Envision dashboard,
a large touchscreen interface that overlooks the plant, it's
possible to explore the system in depth in virtually real time.
"The R.O. membranes are on our 3D TRASAR technology,
which means that it's actually tracking 10 different data
points every six seconds," Principal Engineer Laura Kowalski
says. "We have 140 engineers in Pune, India — they're tracking
these 10 data points every six seconds 24/7. There are
| Chief Engineer
The Envision dashboard allows visitors to the Customer Experience Center to examine the plant's various water systems in depth, in virtually real time.
alarms set up — if anything falls below or above the parame-
ters that we have set for this system, it pings these engineers
in Pune, and then it also pings the local sales rep, as well as
anybody at the plant who's in charge of those systems."
In addition to tracking the water reclamation system, the
3D TRASAR technology can also track the cooling towers
that feed the colloidal silica part of the plant as well as
other parts of the operation. As with the water reclamation
system, the cooling towers are monitored constantly,
allowing for accurate readings as needed. "Specifically with
the cooling tower, what we're tracking is corrosion, scaling
and bio, just to make sure that that's balanced," Kowalski
explains. "Another cool feature here is, we can actually look
at a lot of water flow diagrams. We have meters within the
plant that show the feed water, the makeup and the blowdown
of the cooling towers. So what we're doing here with
(Continued on page 48)
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 45
Member News
Third-Generation Weil-McLain Rep
Has Boilers in His Blood
"Boilers are in my blood," explained 44-year-old Shane Hall,
a third-generation Weil-McLain representative.
Hall, of Huntington, W.V., has been a Weil-McLain manufacturer's
rep for more than 25 years, but his involvement in
heating and boilers stretches back much further.
"My father and grandfather were both in the business,
so I grew up in the industry," said Hall. "I like to say that I
learned from the best."
Hall's grandfather, Herb Godschalk, opened his heating company
HL Godschalk & Associates in 1968 in Huntington, and
immediately began selling Weil-McLain boilers. The company
handled both commercial and residential projects, and
installed numerous cast-iron boilers and other heating and
plumbing equipment across West Virginia.
"We've been selling boilers since way before I was even
born," said Hall. "Weil-McLain has a tradition of giving out
die cast toy cars, and I remember receiving them as a child as
gifts from my grandpa. Ever since I can remember, Weil-Mc-
James Hall and his son Shane, part of a three-generation family tradition of
Weil-McLain reps.
Clain has been a part of my life."
Hall's father, James Hall, began working with Shane's grandfather
in 1975. A young Shane Hall would help out with the
family business as needed.
"My grandfather would pay me to assemble product catalogs,
sweep the floor — whatever had to be done," said Hall.
"I believe he paid me a quarter an hour back then. I guess
you could say I learned the business from the ground up!"
When Hall's grandfather passed away in 1993, his father
took over the company. Soon after, at the age of 19, Hall
Grumman/Butkus Associates
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| Chief Engineer
egan working full-time with his dad.
"I started in the warehouse and worked my way up to inside
sales and then outside sales and eventually took over the
company," said Hall.
Both Hall and his father witnessed many boiler product
innovations, including the development of high-efficiency
condensing boilers such as Weil-McLain's Ultra, and later,
Evergreen units.
"They were really innovative products and helped move the
entire industry forward," he said.
Hall's father ran the company until retiring in April 2007.
Hall then took over and re-named it Hall Sales Agency.
After overseeing its growth for several years, he eventually
merged it with Midwest Spec, a conglomerate of three other
family-owned HVAC companies.
Today, Hall is a junior partner with Wickliffe, Ohio-based
Midwest Spec and still manages the boiler business for the
West Virginia territory. In 2015, Weil-McLain asked Midwest
Spec to also represent them commercially in the expanded
territories of Ohio, Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania, and
Hall oversees that business as well.
"Weil-McLain is the only line my grandfather offered that I
still sell," said Hall. "We've had a lot of heating and plumbing
lines and brands come and go over the years, but that's
the only that has been continuous for us since 1968.
"The only boiler line we sell today is Weil-McLain because
the company has such a broad product portfolio ranging
from small residential 70,000 BTU units up to large 8 ½ million
BTUs on the cast iron side and for high efficiency from
70,000 BTU's up to 3 million BTUs."
Hall has overseen numerous residential and commercial
installations including at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, West
Virginia capitol complex, West Virginia University and countless
other schools and colleges, churches and homes.
"We had a Weil-McLain boiler at a university that we inspected
that at the time was 55-years-old and still functional,"
said Hall. "The school had money in the budget to spend
and thought it was a good time to upgrade the boiler. It was
hard for me to see them pull it out after all of those years
because it still worked like a champ!
"Weil-McLain produces high-quality, American-made products,
and has always stood behind their line," said Hall. "You
can walk through the foundry and shake hands with the
guys that are pouring the iron, and those guys will thank
you for selling their product. Weil-McLain has touched so
many lives over the years, including mine. It's really special."
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 47
The loft where the Customer Experience Center is located overlooks the plant and its numerous water systems, which are clearly marked from above.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened Nalco's Customer Experience Center in
our 3D TRASAR technology is trying to minimize the makeup,
minimize the blowdown, control the dissolved solids in the
system, and cycle the water as much as possible. Right now,
the cooling tower is running at four cycles, and we're always
looking for opportunities to improve that."
Naturally, the boiler system is also tracked on a constant
basis, and any desired parameters can be monitored from the
Envision dashboard. "This water is even more critical to save
and to continue to re-use, because it's hot water," Kowalski
| Chief Engineer
says. By upcycling hot water, Nalco is able to conserve energy
as well as water.
As Kowalski checked the interface to monitor the boiler
system, it was running at roughly 12 cycles of concentration,
and maintaining a 20-percent condensate return. "We're
always looking for opportunities to increase that using our
3D TRASAR technology, minimizing the amount of makeup
and blowdown that we have," she says. "An opportunity to
increase that would be through our EROI projects."
This brings us to one of the most interesting aspects of the
smart water technology offered by Nalco — the EROI Impact
Calculator. EROI, in this case, stands for Exponential Return
on Investment. "Reducing water usage — we kind of get
that that's important, right?" Tebben suggests. "When you
reduce water, you also make an impact, actually, on energy
and carbon dioxide. Because it takes energy to move water,
we have to heat it up or cool it down in certain applications,
so energy is involved there. If you can reduce how much
energy you're using, that also translates to C02 greenhouse
gas reductions, as well."
What the Impact Calculator does is to allow all of the data
that's being pulled from the various smart water applications
and present them in a concrete manner that clearly
illustrates the implications these processes have on both the
environment and the bottom line. We looked at the boiler
system as an example. "We can look at how much water,
or even carbon dioxide emissions, air emissions are being
reduced," Tebben says, showing how flexible the system is in
terms of parsing the available data.
"What's really cool is that we can also look at by this year,
by today, since it was introduced, or even last year," he
continues. "One fun thing to do may be to look at all water
applications, and look at how much water we've saved just
since today. … Almost 250,000 gallons of water just since we
started today, which would be the equivalent drinking needs
of 854 people, just to kind of give you an idea of what that
Kowalski assures that while the 3D TRASAR system and the
ability to monitor so much of what they're doing is a great
step forward, it's only a couple of steps on the larger journey.
"Even though we've got all these great water management
systems — we've got the reclaim, we've got the 3D tracer
— we actually only land linear on this scale, which, the goal
would be to be water smart," she says.
And this is where Nalco's Smart Water Navigator becomes
important. On what's called the Impact Dashboard, which
brings up a 10,000-sq. ft. view of the plant, Kowalski brings
up a water flow chart with an X-Y axis. "This is another Ecolab
customer-facing tool," she explains. "It's a free tool available
to anyone online, at smartwaternavigator.com. What
you do is, you answer 13 questions at the site level, and it
kind of puts you along that water maturity curve, in one of
these four buckets. So even though we've got all these great
water management systems — we've got the reclaim, we've
got the 3D TRASAR — we actually only land linearly on this
scale. The goal would be to be water smart."
Along its left side, the display shows the current water/energy
balance in real time. To the right is an illustration of
the goal — where things could be once all of the proposed
projects have been implemented. All of this is clearly shown
and color-coded, with water represented in blue, energy in
orange, and cost in green. "We still have opportunities,"
Kowalski says, pointing out that one of the particularly brilliant
functions of the Smart Water Navigator is its ability to
alert users to areas of focus opportunity.
"What we're really looking to do here is implement these
projects," she says, "of which we've actually already implemented
a number. We really want to move along that water
maturity curve, to that next level."
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 49
Microsoft Returns With Smartphone
After High-Profile Flops By Anick Jesdanun
NEW YORK (AP) — After high-profile flops, Microsoft is
getting back into smartphones with a dual-screen Android
device that won't be out for another year.
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo as part of a new lineup
of Surface computers. It marks a reversal for a company that
abandoned smartphones following lackluster demand for its
own operating system and an ill-fated purchase of smartphone
maker Nokia.
"I believe the third time's a charm for Microsoft and smartphones,"
said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with moor
Insights & Strategy.
He said Microsoft has had a good track record with Surface
devices, while the Duo's novel design offers something new
at a time when phone innovation has been slowing down.
Microsoft says the Duo makes phone calls, though it stopped
short of calling it a phone. Though it runs Android, the back
of the prototype has a Surface logo that resembles Windows.
The company prefers calling the Duo a Surface device.
Microsoft also announced a dual-screen Surface Neo tablet,
which also won't be out until late next year. In a blog post,
Microsoft said other manufacturers including Asus, Dell, HP
and Lenovo will also make dual-screen and foldable devices
using a variant of Windows called 10X.
Both Surface devices feature two screens connected with
a hinge and can fold like laptops. They can display separate
apps side by side or a single app stretched across both
screens. They are technologically less ambitious than foldable
phones from Samsung and others, whose screens actually
bend as the devices close. Some of those folding phones have
experienced technical difficulties.
The Duo is about the size of a large smartphone when folded,
with two 5.6-inch displays, while the folded Neo is similar
in size to a small tablet such as the iPad Mini or Amazon Fire.
| Chief Engineer
Microsoft's Chief Product Officer Panos Panay discusses the Surface Neo, center, and Surface Duo during a Microsoft event, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 in
New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The devices will initially be available only for developers who
create and test apps. Microsoft plans to start selling them
during the 2020 holiday season. The company offered no
details on price.
Available sooner are $249 Surface Earbuds, as Microsoft
joins Apple, Amazon, Google and others in making wireless
listening devices.
At a product event Oct. 2 in New York, Microsoft also unveiled
two new Surface Pro tablets. The Surface Pro X will
have a 13-inch screen, rather than the 12-inch ones on the
new Pro 7 and older models. But the X will be about the
same size overall, thanks to a smaller bezel.
The company also unveiled a refreshed laptop.
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 51
Fujitsu General Mini-Split Systems
Qualify for Energy Star 2019 Most
Efficient Listing
Many of Fujitsu General America's Halcyon mini-split system
products now qualify for Energy Star Most Efficient certification.
With the addition of the IntesisHome App and Wi-Fi module,
developed through collaboration between Fujitsu General
and Intesis Software, 36 Halcyon systems qualify. The IntesisHome
Cloud application is compatible with all Halcyon
"We're pleased to provide IntesisHome for mobile access
and control of Fujitsu's Halcyon systems," said Sean Gaines,
America's OEM Sales Manager at Intesis. "This qualification,
using the newly-developed features of the IntesisHome
Cloud application, is a landmark in our relationship with Fujitsu
General. It's a great example of the diligent teamwork
between Intesis and Fujitsu General engineers."
"Achieving Energy Star Most Efficient certification was
extremely important to Fujitsu," said Andy Armstrong, VP of
Sales and Marketing at Fujitsu General America. "It's always
our goal to provide the installing contractor with the best
product, support, training and competitive advantage. This
certification is proof to their customers that our systems offer
great value and outstanding efficiency."
For more information, please visit www.FujitsuGeneral.com
Fujitsu's collaboration with Intensis Software's IntesisHome App enables
its Halcyon mini-split system products to now qualify for Energy Star Most
Efficient certification.
| Chief Engineer
Goodbye, iTunes: Once-Revolutionary
App Gone in Mac Update
By Rachel Lerman and Anick Jesdanun
The iTunes application is displayed on a computer on Monday, Oct. 7, 2019, in New York. Apple's latest operating software for Mac computers kills off
iTunes, the once-revolutionary program that made online music sales mainstream and effectively blunted the impact of piracy. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It's time to bid farewell to iTunes,
the once-revolutionary program that made online music sales
mainstream and effectively blunted the impact of piracy.
That assumes, of course, that you still use iTunes — and many
people no longer do. On iPhones, the functions have long
been split into separate apps for music, video and books.
Mac computers followed suit Monday, Oct. 7, with a software
update called Catalina.
Music-subscription services like Spotify and Apple Music have
largely supplanted both the iTunes software and sales of individual
songs, which iTunes first made available for 99 cents
apiece. Apple is now giving iTunes its latest push toward the
grave. For anyone who has subscribed to Apple Music, the
music store will now be hidden on the Mac.
music, video and other services will let Apple build features
for specific types of media and better promote its TV-streaming
and music services to help offset slowing sales of iPhones.
In the early days, iTunes was simply a way to get music
onto Apple's marquee product, the iPod music player. Users
connected the iPod to a computer, and songs automatically
synced — simplicity unheard of at the time.
"I would just kind of mock my friends who were into
anything other than iPods," said Jacob Titus, a 26-year-old
graphic designer in South Bend, Indiana.
Apple launched its iTunes Music Store in 2003, two years
after the iPod's debut. With simple pricing at launch — 99
cents a single, $9.99 for most albums — many consumers
Sidelining the all-in-one iTunes in favor of separate apps for
(Continued on page 54)
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 53
were content to buy music legally rather than seek out
sketchy sites for pirated downloads.
But over time, iTunes software expanded to include podcasts,
e-books, audiobooks, movies and TV shows. In the iPhone
era, iTunes also made backups and synced voice memos. As
the software got bloated to support additional functions,
iTunes lost the ease and simplicity that gave it its charm.
And with online cloud storage and wireless syncing, it no
longer became necessary to connect iPhones to a computer
— and iTunes — with a cable.
Titus said he uses iTunes only to hear obscure Kanye West
songs he can't find streaming. "At the time it seemed great,"
he said. "But it kind of stayed that same speed forever."
The way people listen to music has changed, too. The U.S.
recording industry now gets 80 percent of revenue from paid
subscriptions and other streaming. In the first half of 2019,
paid subscriptions to Apple Music and competing services
rose 30 percent from a year earlier to 61 million, or $2.8
billion, while revenue from digital downloads fell nearly 18
percent to $462 million.
"The move away from iTunes really does perfectly mirror
the general industry move away from sales" and toward
subscriptions, said Randy Nelson, head of insights at Sensor
Rachel Shpringer, a 35-year-old patent agent in Los Angeles,
spent years curating playlists on iTunes. But over time, she
realized that was cutting her off from new music. She now
gets music through a SiriusXM subscription.
The Mac's new Music app, which gets the old iTunes icon, is
the new home for — drum roll — music. That includes songs
previously bought from the iTunes store or ripped from CDs,
as well as Apple's free online radio stations. It's also the
home for Apple's $10-a-month music subscription.
Apple Music subscribers will no longer see the iTunes music
store, unless they restore it in settings. Non-subscribers will
see the store as a tab, along with plenty of ways to subscribe
to Apple Music. (On iPhones, iTunes Store remains its own
app for buying music and video.)
The iTunes store for TV and movies will still be prominent on
Macs, though now as part of the TV app. Video available to
buy or rent will be mixed in with other movies and shows —
including exclusive offerings through Apple TV Plus.
The new Podcasts app gets a feature that indexes individual
episodes, so you can more easily search for actors or fads that
don't appear in the podcast's text description. The Mac previously
got separate apps for voice memos and books, including
audiobooks. The iPhone syncing and backup functions
traditionally found in iTunes have been incorporated into the
Mac's navigation interface, Finder.
| Chief Engineer
Hilti Announces Software Collaboration
with Procore to Support Digital
PLANO, Texas — The Hilti Group, a world-leading manufacturer
and provider of construction tools, technology
and productivity solutions, is collaborating with Procore, a
leading provider of construction management software, to
help strengthen digital workflows and drive productivity on
jobsites. As part of the joint effort, Hilti ON!Track asset management
system will become compatible for Procore platform
users. The announcement was made during Procore's
Groundbreak 2019, one of the largest construction conferences
in the U.S.
"Procore is a market leader with Software core to the operations
of many of our customers in North America. The way
Procore expands ease of use by offering interoperability
across users' software aligns well with Hilti's goal to provide
digital solutions that fit how our customers work," said Rafael
Garcia, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Hilti North
America. "This is a first step in establishing a long-standing
In recent years, Hilti has made major efforts to digitize the
construction industry with software solutions. Hilti ON!Track
is specifically designed to give contractors visibility into who
has their assets. Smartphone scanning and active Bluetooth
tags help track items moved between warehouses and
jobsites. It also enables contractors to proactively manage
repairs and inspections, set reminders for maintenance and
verify proper training and certifications before assigning
certain assets.
The API will open data exchange between Hilti ON!Track and
Procore, starting with basic project info and expanding over
time into further seamless workflows. Procore users appreciate
the benefits of reduced duplicate data entry of the
same information into multiple spreadsheets or workflows.
Customers using both Procore and ON!Track suggest for example
that an open item from Procore's Tasks tool to request
a piece of equipment could be checked off once the transfer
is scanned and signed within the Hilti ON!Track App.
"We are excited to work with trusted names in our industry
like Hilti," said Rusty Reed, Chief Strategy Officer. "Technology
usage continues to expand into the field and the
integration of Hilti ON!Track and Procore will play a big role
in supporting the needs of contractors who use both. We're
glad Hilti will be part of the embedded experience moving
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 55
Google Debuts Pixel 4 Phone, Wireless
Earbuds With AI By Rachel Lerman
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google unveiled a new Pixel smartphone
and other hardware devices Tuesday, Oct. 15, all
aimed at getting people even more dependent on its artificial-intelligence
The Pixel 4 phone promises to respond to AI queries even
faster than before, while a home Wi-Fi system is getting the
AI features for the first time. The company also unveiled a
new smart speaker and wireless earbuds, both invoking the
AI-powered Google Assistant.
The Assistant, akin to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa , is
now available on more than 1 billion devices, including ones
made by other manufacturers. With Google's own products,
though, the company can steer users to Assistant features
even more.
That in turn, could encourage Google users to interact with
other Google services such as search and maps more frequently,
feeding into Google's multibillion-dollar advertising
business. More use of the Assistant also means that Google
gets more data on user preferences and activities to build its
advertising profiles.
Amazon and Google are both pushing their voice assistants
onto more devices, though they have different ultimate
goals, said Victoria Petrock, principle analyst at eMarketer.
Amazon is getting a shopping assistant into every device it
can, she said, while Google is collecting more information
about user preferences.
"I think their end game is trying to collect all this data and
target you with advertising," she said.
The "helpful" features Assistant announces could make people
even more likely to use it.
New Pixel 4 phones are displayed at Google in Mountain View, Calif. (AP
Photo/Jeff Chiu)
"The voice is a whole new way to capture people's behaviors,"
she said.
Assistant has faced scrutiny this year after reports revealed
that Google contractors were transcribing some customer's
spoken communication with the AI to help improve the
system. Google has since clarified its policies and said it will
make it more explicit that people must give explicit permission,
or opt in.
Still, many are skeptical of the proliferation of digital assistants
in homes and pockets.
With the new Pixel, the Google Assistant will complete some
tasks entirely on the device — so it doesn't have to wait for
answers from the cloud — allowing users to make commands
and dictate text messages more quickly.
The Pixel 4 will have better facial recognition for unlocking
the phone with a glance. Unlike the existing "trusted face"
feature on Android phones, the new Face Unlock is intended
to be more secure and easier to use, matching what Apple
| Chief Engineer
and Samsung already offer.
The new phone gets a second camera lens, for better zooming,
even as some Apple and Samsung devices are getting a
third lens, for wider-angle shots. True to Google's focus on
AI, the Pixel's new camera will recognize people you have
taken many photos of before and automatically focus on
them in new shots.
And the new phone comes with motion-sensing technology
that allows people to do simple hand-waving gestures to skip
songs or switch apps without touching the phone.
The Pixel 4 will carry a starting price tag of $799 — $100
more than the entry-level iPhone 11 — and will go on sale
Oct. 24. The larger XL version will cost $899.
Google's phones have been well reviewed, but have yet to
make much of a splash in the market dominated by Apple,
Huawei and Samsung. In fact, Google's hardware products
have never been big moneymakers. Rather, they offer a way
for Google to showcase its moneymaking services.
Google introduced a less expensive version of its phone, the
Pixel 3a, to positive reviews in May, a trend that is sweeping
across the smartphone market as consumers hold on to
phones longer rather than buy new, expensive models. Google
hinted the trend may continue, but offered no details.
"We see that being a really great long-term opportunity,
both for our users and for us," said Rick Osterloh, senior vice
president of hardware at Google.
The company also unveiled true wireless earbuds, called Pixel
Buds, Google's answer to Apple's AirPods. The new model,
which will go on sale early next year for $179, does away
with the wire that connects the two buds.
Google introduced Nest Mini, the smaller version of its smart
speaker. It was released Oct 22 at $49. Google's refreshed
Wi-Fi router, Nest Wifi, will be available in the coming weeks
for $269. A new Pixelbook Go laptop goes on sale in January
staring at $649.
Google hardware team, including many former Google Glass
engineers, work from a light-filled, architecturally impressive
building near the company's main campus in Mountain
View, California. The building is complete with a "color lab"
for finding the perfect device hues, a materials library for
all sorts of elemental inspiration and a small model shop to
build device prototypes on site.
"We started by defining what it feels like to hold Google in
your hands," hardware design executive Ivy Ross said. "The
good thing about coming a little bit late to the hardware
arena is you get to stand back and look at everyone else."
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 57
New Products
Powers IntelliStation® Jr. Available in New
1.5" & 2.0" Sizes
Powers has announced that the IntelliStation® Jr. digital
mixing valve is now available in new 1.5- and 2-inch sizes.
IntelliStation Jr. is an easy-to-install smart mixing valve that
connects through the Building Automation System (BAS).
Passcode-protected and configurable on site, IntelliStation
Jr. does not require factory pre-programming, a laptop, or
special software to download for commissioning or when
making adjustments to the valve. Special features include:
• Programmable set point range of 60°F to 180°F
• Water temperature control +/- 2°F in accordance with ASSE
• User-selected high and low temperature alerts
• Scheduling feature with temperature setback, saving energy
and money
• Lead free construction to comply with lead free installation
• High temperature Sanitization mode to address waterborne
• BAS communication protocols, BACnet MS/TP and Modbus,
New options are available for Powers' easy-to-install IntelliStation Jr. smart
mixing valve.
native to the controller do not require a separate module
or additional cost
• Wi-Fi enabled for fast and easy software upgrades
• Flow capacity at 10 psi drop
Also, the IntelliStation Jr. is self-balancing, which prevents
overnight temperature creep by balancing the hot water
distribution system during low- to no-demand periods.
email@example.com htareps.com
Zoeller Pump Company
Mansfield Plumbing Products
Sioux Chief
Lenox Tools
Irwin Tools
Prier Products
AK Industries
Magic Plastics
Ideal Tridon
| Chief Engineer
LAARS® MagnaTherm® HTD with Tru
Trac O2 Trim and LAARS LINC
The new MagnaTherm HTD series of condensing boilers and
volume water heaters boasts real time O2 trim compensation
that maintains ideal air-to-fuel ratios, full 20:1 turndown on
all sizes to match varying load profiles, and the Laars Linc
icon-driven control system. On board each boiler is the Laars
Vari-Prime® pump control that seamlessly matches firing rate
to boiler pump flow.
Laars Linc intuitive control system with color touchscreen has
an easy-to-navigate control structure that displays key performance
measures, a quick start option, and a USB input for
parameter upload. It easily connects to building automation
systems via BACnet, and has many other features including
the ability to cascade as many as eight units for up to 32
million BTU/hr. and a combined 160:1 turndown.
Laars MagnaTherm HTD units deliver AHRI-certified 95-percent thermal
Available in six sizes from 1600 to 4000 MBH, Laars MagnaTherm
HTD units have stainless steel heat exchangers and
deliver AHRI-certified 95-percent thermal efficiency.
Learn more at www.laars.com
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 59
New Products
Kaelus Launches New Analyzer
Calibration Extender for Range-to-Fault
Calibration Capability
The Analyzer Calibration Extender (ACE) allows customers
to self-calibrate their Kaelus PIM instruments in the field.
Reducing downtime of calibration to less than one hour, ACE
extends the calibration due date by 12 months. One ACE kit
can calibrate all supported Kaelus PIM instruments for many
years and is in-stock and available for same-day shipping.
"We are pleased to add the RTF module calibration capability
to ACE," said Tony Langelaan, Product Line Manager,
Kaelus Test & Measurement. "This expands our customers'
ability to self-calibrate their instruments in the field and save
on shipping charges and instrument downtime."
ACE Product Features:
Self-calibrate your range-to-fault module with the analyzer calibration
IRVINE, Calif. – Kaelus, a leading supplier of high-quality,
PIM test and measurement instruments and RF conditioning
solutions, has released new functionality for the Analyzer
Calibration Extender. It now supports the Range-to-Fault
(RTF) module used for locating PIM and Return Loss faults in
RF infrastructure.
• Calibrate Kaelus instruments whenever it suits you
• Same-day shipping available
• Multiple instruments can be calibrated with 1 ACE Unit
• Eliminates shipping charges
• Rapid and simple calibration solution
• Minimizes downtime to less than 1 hour
• Kaelus Unify app guides user through calibration
• Rugged and portable construction
• Supports most Portable and Bench PIM instruments
• USB Connectivity for iPA and iTA
For detailed information on this products, please visit https://
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| Chief Engineer
Fairview Microwave Launches New
Couplers in 26.5 GHz to 67 GHz Range
IRVINE, Calif. — Fairview Microwave Inc., an Infinite Electronics
brand and a leading provider of on-demand RF, microwave,
and millimeter wave components, has debuted a new
line of high frequency couplers that are ideal for point-topoint
radios, 5G telecommunications, satellite communication,
automotive radars and aerospace applications.
Fairview's new series of high frequency RF directional couplers
is comprised of 24 new models that deliver excellent
isolation, low insertion loss, and very good return loss. These
couplers have a high maximum operating frequency range
from 26.5 GHz to 67 GHz and are offered with 6dB, 10dB,
15dB, 20dB and 30dB coupling levels. Plus, they have power
handling capabilities up to 30W(CW) and feature a coaxial
design available with SMA, 2.92mm, 2.4mm and 1.85mm
connectors. These couplers are available to fulfill engineers'
immediate needs for a small quantity of components, while
also satisfying the demand for high quality, high frequency
Fairview Microwave's new series of high frequency couplers features low
insertion loss and low return loss.
"These new high frequency RF directional couplers are
perfect for our customers' initial proof-of-concept testing
and prototype builds. Not only do they deliver excellent RF
performance, they are also available with same-day shipping
and no Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)," explains Steven
Pong, Product Line Manager.
Fairview's new high frequency RF couplers are in-stock and
ready for immediate shipment.
For detailed information on these products, please visit
For inquiries, Fairview Microwave can be contacted at +1-
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 61
Bell & Gossett's Little Red Schoolhouse
2019 Q4 Seminar Schedule
Xylem's Bell & Gossett Little Red Schoolhouse offers the following
seminars free of charge as a continuing service to the
HVAC industry. Simply select a seminar, submit some basic
information, and your local rep will take care of all of the
arrangements, from completing your registration to booking
your hotel accommodations.
Seminar List
New seminars are posted on a quarterly basis, so check back
often to see what's scheduled in the coming months!
Modern Hydronic Heating Systems – Basic Seminar
Nov. 11, 2019 - Nov. 13, 2019
Monday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Wednesday 8:30am to 3:00pm
Who Should Attend: Wholesalers, contractors, engineers,
with a desire to understand basic hydronic system design.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
• Discuss the advantages of properly designed hydronic
• Describe how to size boilers, pumps, piping, compression
tanks and hydronic specialties for hydronic systems
• Apply rules of thumb to design simple systems
• Use the Bell & Gossett System Syzer to complete typical
Seminar approved by GBCI to provide credit toward the
credential maintenance requirements of the LEED Green
Associate and LEED AP certifications.
Modern Hydronic Heating Systems – Advanced
Nov. 18, 2019 - Nov. 20, 2019
Monday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Wednesday 8:30am to 3:00pm
Who Should Attend: Wholesalers, contractors, engineers,
with a desire to understand advanced hydronic system design.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
• Discuss the advantages of properly designed hydronic
• Use the Bell & Gossett System Syzer to design more complicated
• Recognize when standard design techniques may lead to
poor design decisions
• Discuss the differences between conventional design and
conversion applications
• Apply the basics of primary-secondary pumping to simple
zoned systems
Seminar approved by GBCI to provide credit toward the
credential maintenance requirements of the LEED Green
Associate and LEED AP certifications.
Design & Application of Water Based HVAC Systems Seminar
Dec. 9, 2019 - Dec. 11, 2019
Monday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Wednesday 8:30am to 3:00pm
Who Should Attend: Engineers, mechanical contractors and
all others looking for in-depth knowledge of commercial
hydronic system design.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
• Employ pump selection principles
| Chief Engineer
• Use the System Syzer in advanced calculations
• Identify the importance of control valve sizing in hydronic
systems design
• Recognize the importance of proportional balance
• Compute flow requirements in primary-secondary systems
for energy savings
• Recognize the components of system pressurization and
apply the fundamentals of tank sizing
Seminar approved by GBCI to provide credit toward the
credential maintenance requirements of the LEED Green
Associate and LEED AP certifications.
Large Chilled Water System Design Seminar
Dec. 16, 2019 - Dec. 18, 2019
Monday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Wednesday 8:30am to 3:00pm
Who Should Attend: Engineers, mechanical contractors and
all others looking for in-depth knowledge of commercial
hydronic system design
pump annual operating costs
• Discuss the impact of proper sensor selection and location
• Describe the benefits of good hydronic balance in large
• Compare the economics of alternative pumping methods
Seminar approved by GBCI to provide credit toward the
credential maintenance requirements of the LEED Green
Associate and LEED AP certifications.
Note: Please plan your travel so that you can stay for the
entire program.
Disclaimer: Xylem's Bell & Gossett Little Red Schoolhouse is
accredited by the International Association for Continuing
Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the
To register for courses or for more information, please visit
Expected Learning Outcomes:
• Identify and evaluate pumping alternatives for the secondary
• Apply ESP-Plus® equipment selection software to compute
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 63
Ashrae Update
ASHRAE Recognizes 2019 LowDown
Showdown Modeling Challenge Teams
ATLANTA — ASHRAE recognized the 2019 LowDown Showdown
modeling competition teams. The competition was
held in conjunction with the 2019 ASHRAE Building Performance
Analysis Conference, Sept. 27-29 in Denver, Colo.
The ASHRAE LowDown Showdown engages architects,
engineers, designers and energy modelers by working on
integrated teams in the creation of effective workflow and
outstanding design in real-word building efficiency challenges.
times of disaster or crisis.
Teams were evaluated in six categories:
• Energy use
• Teamwork
• Innovative approach
• Creativity
• Workflow
• Presentation
"The competition not only challenged teams to achieve near
net-zero, but also to include design and modeling elements
to create a resilient building capable of withstanding natural
disasters and providing prolonged emergency operations,"
said Annie Marston, competition chair.
This year's model building was a 90,000 square foot city hall
(new construction) located in San Diego, Calif. The project
involved designing a facility that is meant to be a multi-functional
building, housing many of the cities vital public
services including being an Emergency Operations Center in
First place and fan favorite were awarded to C.R.E.A.M. (Carbon
Rules Everything Around Me) for a proposed city hall
that can maintain operations for 14 days during a utility outage
to coordinate emergency responses while maintaining
critical functions like prisoner life safety and security. During
an event, the building will transition to a setback mode,
minimizing energy consumption by relaxing thermal comfort
targets. Building systems will then draw energy from a
10,000 kWh battery system & 427 KW PV array for power and
10 kgal potable & 20 kgal non-potable water storage tanks.
| Chief Engineer
"We saw the Lowdown Showdown as an opportunity for
our team to collaborate across Built Ecology offices coast to
coast and to experiment using new tools and workflows,"
said Jason Lackie, team captain for C.R.E.A.M. "With the
wide-ranging scope of this year's competition — encompassing
aspects of energy, water, resiliency, and health and
wellness — everyone had a chance to step up and showcase
their expertise while also being challenged to integrate that
work with an evolving design. As much as the pallet of tools
we drew on helped with this multifaceted design problem,
our team's success depended on our ability to collaborate
through obstacles."
Other teams presenting their results are as follows:
Highway to Sustainability – This second place team
designed a new city hall with a 3-story atrium to provide
ample space for green walls, skylight and natural breeze.
The project included a spacious semi-outdoor area for fitness
activities and the deployment of EnergyBox, an in-house web
platform which speeds up design exploration by automating
processes and encouraging collaboration by effective visualization.
Operation ReSHED – The team's project included elevated
walkways to surrounding critical government buildings
for quick access to the Emergency Operations Center inside
the new city hall. The vertically massed city hall was would
be designed not only to transform the skyline, but creates
opportunities for resiliency against forecasted disasters, increasing
energy efficiency during the regular operation and
to provide a safe and healthy environment for the occupants.
Parametric Posse – The team incorporated parametric modeling
to replace design assumptions made with data-driven
simulations to achieve a holistic design that exceeds technical
requirements, leverages passive strategies, and supports use
during emergency situations. Using both proprietary and
open-source software for the parametric modeling, the base
digital model allowed for interface with energy, daylighting,
and climate analysis tools.
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Ulti-Performance – The team's project included assembling
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a net positive building designed for comfort, using dynamic
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Resilience features included underground water cistern, PV
and battery storage.
The results were announced at a reception during the
conference. See complete project overviews, including team
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 65
American Street Guide
Indiana Library Digitizing Voices of
1937 Flood Survivors By Brooke McAfee | News and Tribune
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — When Jeffersonville librarian
Diane Stepro first saw the box of audio recordings, she had
no idea what they were. Dust flew in her face when she
opened the box, and most of the labels had fallen off the
After listening to a few minutes of a couple tapes, she
realized they were the voices of Jeffersonville residents who
survived the Great Flood of 1937.
"Tears came to my eyes when I realized these were the voices
of people who had passed," she said.
The Jeffersonville Township Public Library's new digitization
project means that these voices will no long be hidden away
in a box — the library will soon make the audio interviews
with the flood survivors easily accessible online on the Indiana
Memory digital archives by April 30, 2020. The interviews
were recorded in the 1980s, and librarians recently rediscovered
the box of cassettes while preparing for the library's
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The library is completing the project with the support of a
grant from the Institute for Library and Museum Services.
Stepro, the library's genealogy and local history librarian,
said her team will digitize about 38 to 40 interviews, and the
project will likely consist of about 40 hours of interviews.
The project team also includes two digitization technicians
who will transcribe the interviews, including Eden Kuhlenschmidt
and Jen Weidner. They started work after receiving
the grant money in September, and they have listened to
four of the interviews so far. The grant covered $4,162 of the
project's $4,924 budget.
The interviews tell the story of the historic Ohio River flood
that engulfed the city — 90 percent of Jeffersonville was
flooded, according to the National Weather Service, and
clips from the audio recordings were used in a 1984 library
documentary project called "Mud, Sweat and Tears" about
the flood. Some of the people featured in the tapes include
Francis Beard, a local teacher, and Edwin Coots, coroner/funeral
home director who was acting mayor in Jeffersonville
at the time of the flood.
For Kuhlenschmidt, the resilience of these flood survivors is
what stands out to her as she listens to the tapes. These residents
stayed in Jeffersonville and tried to make lives better
for themselves after the city was submerged in water.
"They were just starting to come out of the Great Depression,"
she said. "The flood could have totally wiped out the
city...We did have quite a number of people who were older
that left whose kids were in Indianapolis, Seattle and all over
the country, and they insisted that their older parents come
and live with them. But younger families, middle-aged fam-
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ilies of all economic classes chose to stay here and make Jeffersonville
work again. I think that resilience speaks strongly
to people being able to survive. Probably a lot of them still
had nightmares about rising flood waters, particularly when
the '45 flood came along."
In addition to the interviews with flood survivors, they will
be digitizing video interviews with employees of Quartermaster
Depot, which the library has "had on the shelf for a
long time," according to Stepro. The project also includes an
interview about the concrete industry in Indiana.
"They just provide a lot of information about what went on
at Quartermaster Depot, and that's so important," she said.
"One thing I've really learned since I've been here is that
it's important on a lot of different levels, not just only for
knowledge of history and understanding of manufacturing,
especially during wartime and the United States, but also
because what went on in a place with that much manufacturing
has environmental impacts on the community that are
Kuhlenschmidt said it has been exciting to come across
information she didn't know about the 1937 flood. She had
previously assumed the post office had shut down in Jeffersonville
during the flood, but while listening to one of the
interviews, she learned otherwise.
"I did not know until listening to the first tape that they continued
to operate — it moved out to the school at Port Fulton,"
she said. "(The school) was both the Red Cross health
clinic for those who stayed down during the flood, and it
was the post office. Now, they couldn't actually go out and
deliver, because they didn't know who was still left in town
or not, but you could go up, show ID and get your mail."
enough to escape flood damage. He moved his parents and
his brother's family into the house, and when water reached
his neighbors' first floor, he moved them in as well. At that
point, there were 17 people staying at his home as the flood
waters surrounded them.
The digitization of these interviews means that "history is
no longer hidden and these people's stories are no longer
hidden," Kuhlenschmidt said.
"Their descendants will be able to listen to them and know
what their ancestors' voices sounded like, their speech patterns
and the stories of what they lived through," she said.
Stepro said the digitization project will be beneficial for
historians interested in the 1937 flood and those interested
in learning more about their family histories.
"I think that my main focus as a librarian is on family history
information, and it's going to provide context for the things
when you look up when you're doing genealogy," she said.
"I have a lot of things like census and tax lists and traffic tickets
that I can offer people, but this is more backstory."
They are going to make the interviews accessible to anyone
in the world, she said.
"I hope Ken Burns calls," she said.
In the interviews, Francis Beard, a teacher at the Port Fulton
school, discussed her memories of the American Red Cross
setting up the clinic at the school building. She also recalled
how inmates from the local jail set up sandbags during the
1937 flood, but during the 1945 flood, that duty fell to German
prisoners of war.
George Bere, another of the flood survivors interviewed in
the recordings, lived on Maple Street, and his house was high
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 67
| Chief Engineer
Boiler Room Annex
Engineering Litmus Test
Source: members.tripod.com
The word "engineer" is greatly overused. If there's somebody
in your life who you think is trying to pass as an engineer,
give him or her this test to discern the truth.
You walk into a room and notice that a picture is hanging
You ...
A. Straighten it.
B. Ignore it.
C. Buy a CAD system and spend the next six months designing
a solar-powered, self-adjusting picture frame while often
stating aloud your belief that the inventor of the nail was a
total moron.
(The correct answer is "C," but partial credit can be given
to anyone who writes "It depends" in the margin or simply
blames the whole stupid thing on "marketing.")
Q: How many third-year engineering students does it take to
change a light bulb?
A: "Will this question be on the final exam??"
How Many Engineers DOES It Take?
Source: engineerchic.me
Q: How many first-year engineering students does it take to
change a light bulb?
A: None — that's a second-year subject.
Q: How many second-year engineering students does it take
to change a light bulb?
A: One, but the rest of the class copies the report.
Q: How many civil engineers does it take to change a light
A: Two — one to do it and one to steady the chandelier.
Q: How many electrical engineers does it take to change a
light bulb?
A: None — they simply redefine darkness as the industry
A: "Why bother? The socket will be obsolete in six months,
Volume 84 · Number 11 | 69
Dependable Sources
Abron Industrial Supply 12
Addison Electric Motors & Drives 48
Admiral Heating & Ventilating, Inc. 35
Advanced Boiler Control Services 35
Affiliated Customer Service 51
Affiliated Parts 42
Affiliated Steam Equipment Co. 32
Air Comfort 57
Air Filter Engineers
Back Cover
Airways Systems 59
American Combustion Service Inc. 56
American Scrap Metal 45
AMS Mechanical Systems, Inc. 64
Anchor Mechanical 12
Apex Pumping Equipment 30
Arlington Glass & Mirror 67
Bell Fuels
Inside Back Cover
Beverly Companies 60
Bornquist 63
Break Thru Enterprises 46
Bullock, Logan & Assoc. 66
Chicago Backflow 24
Chicago Corrosion Group 47
City Wide Pool & Spa 55
Competitive Piping Systems 33
Contech 25
Core Mechanical 26
Dar Pro 49
Door Service, Inc. 22
Dynamic Building Restoration 31
Dynamic Door Service, Inc. 62
Eastland Industries 16
Edwards Engineering 51
Energy Improvement Products 65
Excel Mechanical 52
Falls Mechanical 65
Fox Valley Filter 45
Franklin Energy 54
Grumman Butukus 46
Hart, Travers & Assoc. 58
Hayes Mechanical 46
Hill Fire Protection 60
Home Depot Pro 21
Hudson Boiler & Tank 23
Imbert International 8
Industrial Door Company 27
J.F. Ahern 66
J & L Cooling Towers 33
JLS Industries 30
Johnstone Supply 30
Just In Time Pool & Spa 18
| Chief Engineer
Kent Consulting Engineers 24
Kroeschell, Inc 58
Litgen Concrete Cutting 61
M & O Insulation Company 67
Mechanical Sales Technologies Inc. 20
A.Messe & Sons 16
Metropolitan Industries 34
Motion Industries 26
MVB Services 25
Nalco 43
Neuco Inc. 17
Newmark Construction 32
NIULPE, Inc. 28
Preservation Services 11
Prime Energy 43
Reliable Fire Equipment Co. 47
Rice Mechanical 15
Rotating Equipment Specialists 55
Second Nature 50
Spot Coolers
Inside Front Cover
Sprinkler Fitters Local 281 13 & 14
Steiner Electric Company 35
Synergy Mechanical 10
United Radio Communications, Inc. 26
USA Fire Protection 29
W.J. O'Neil Chicago LLC 11
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Volume 84 · Number 11 | 71
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