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Author: John H. Campbell
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  • May

    Water Conservation Area #3 near the Tamiami Trail in late April. How to handle this water during extreme wet weather events was the topic of a meeting held with multiple state and federal agencies in preparation for the upcoming wet season.

    Water managers prepare for wet season

    A different challenge facing water managers this year surrounds Lake Okeechobee and a higher water level this year, when compared to the previous two years. On April 23, the lake level was 13.59 feet, more than two feet higher than it was on the same date in 2011 and 2012. The lake has stayed within the Corps’ preferred range of 12.5 and 15.5 feet all winter. As a result, the district has been able to provide regular discharges of water to meet a wide variety of needs, including releases to the Caloosahatchee Estuary to keep the saltwater-freshwater mix in an acceptable range.

  • April

    Work continues on a water control structure replacement at the Culvert 11 site south of Port Mayaca. Jacksonville District plans to remove or replace 30 structures at Herbert Hoover Dike over the next five years.

    USACE begins Dam Safety Modification Study on Herbert Hoover Dike

    “The Dam Safety Modification Study is a comprehensive, system-wide study intended to identify risks in the system, and to recommend the necessary measures that can reduce the risk of failure,” said Tim Willadsen, HHD project manager. While certain sections of the dike have been studied before, HHD has never undergone a review this comprehensive and detailed. Each segment of the dike will be thoroughly reviewed for its geology and geometry, with particular attention given to scenarios that would cause the dike to fail.

  • January

    Water flows through the gates of the St. Lucie Lock in late September, as Jacksonville District started discharges from Lake Okeechobee to stem the rapid rise in lake levels after Tropical Storm Isaac. The releases began Sept. 19 and continued until early November.

    Milestones reached at Herbert Hoover Dike as dedication to water management balance continues

    The past year saw both low water and high water at Lake Okeechobee, as well as completion of one project and the start of others on Herbert Hoover Dike (HHD). The best news occurred in October, when the last section of cutoff wall in the dike between Port Mayaca and Belle Glade was accepted by Jacksonville District construction representatives. The action meant 21.4 miles of cutoff wall that had been under construction since 2007 was in place, reducing the risk of failure for the southeast portion of the dike.
  • Jacksonville District Electrical Engineer Gerald Deloach assesses damage to a building in Moonachie, N.J. that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Deloach was one of a dozen people from Jacksonville District that deployed to the impact zone.

    When the call comes, Jacksonville District team members respond

    Jacksonville District’s Emergency Management Branch has been working with nearly 50 district employees on deployment missions at home and abroad during 2012. At the end of November, 32 district team members had deployed to Afghanistan, while 16 others had responded to three tropical systems that impacted Florida and the north Atlantic – 12 were sent to New Jersey and New York to assist with emergency response following Hurricane Sandy, while seven others had earlier assisted with damage assessment following Tropical Storms Debby and Isaac.

  • December

    Alberto Gonzalez, Portugues Dam project manager, makes a point while speaking about the transition to a Roller Compacted Concrete Dam during a presentation at a conference in Zaragoza, Spain. Gonzalez was one of three Jacksonville District representatives who participated. Photo courtesy Alberto Gonzalez.

    Portugues Dam subject of international conference

    From Argentina to Vietnam, 350 representatives from 39 countries gathered in Zaragoza, Spain in late October to discuss dams, and included in the discussion was Jacksonville District’s Portugues Dam. The meeting was billed as the Sixth International Symposium on Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) Dams. Three representatives of Jacksonville District spoke at the event: Portugues Dam Project Manager Alberto Gonzalez, Portugues Dam Resident Engineer Pablo Vázquez-Ruiz and Portugues Dam Project Geologist John Conway.
  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked rapidly to repair a levee breach caused by Hurricane Sandy in Mantoloking, N.J. The breach occurred at the end of the only bridge onto the barrier island, effectively cuting it off from the rest of the state. At the peak of the response effort, the Corps had nearly 4,000 employees from across the nation engaged in more than 38 FEMA mission assignments, exceeding a total of $134 million.

    Corps responds to Superstorm Sandy

    Hurricane Sandy was the biggest storm yet of an active tropical storm season. It formed south of Jamaica on Oct. 22, smashed through Cuba Oct. 24-25 and began affecting beaches in Florida by Oct. 26. As it moved further north, concern heighted as it merged with another storm, prior to making landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. Oct. 29. Jacksonville District engineers were on alert from the beginning. The district activated its emergency operations center (EOC) Oct. 24 and closely monitored the storm as it moved through the Bahamas. Once reports started circulating about the full range of impacts in New York and New Jersey, several Jacksonville District team members were tapped for duties in a variety of locations.

  • October

    UAV Program Conducts Successful Demonstration

    Nearly 40 people from Jacksonville District and other federal agencies were able to witness the award-winning Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system during a demonstration on September 5 near St. Augustine.

  • January

    NOVA UAV program soars

    “The NOVA has been developed to provide a technological edge for us,” said Larry Taylor, NOVA UAV program manager. “Its specialty is detecting and monitoring change over time. We have used it for levee monitoring; we have detected anomalies in the levees that weren’t detected by ground observation.” In addition to the levee monitoring the NOVA has also been used for wildlife surveys, regulatory permit reconnaissance, invasive species contract assessments and invasive species acreage estimation.