The end

As many of you know, I am not with Eaton County anymore. From the looks of it, nobody is watching the soil erosion here anymore. I hope you all continue to find ways to improve your knowledge in the SESC field. If needed, hunt me down. I would love to continue with a SESC Group.

Maybe I'll be back in 2012?

But for now, good luck with what the voters left you with.

Carrier Creek Walk

On October 21, 2008, a dozen of us toured the newly finished Carrier Creek detention areas and its rehydrated wetland.

Thanks to David Wilcox (Chief of Engineering, Eaton County Drain Commissioner) and Paul Forton (Engineer, Spicer Engineering) for the wonderful tour. We all walked away knowing more than when we got there. I have seen the project many times, but I think this tour of the final product was the best.

Great Article on Working Togethor for Solutions

Occasionally things go wrong. Here is an article on how one community dealt with a severe soil erosion mishap.

Pulling Together for Erosion Control

I think we have many lessons to learn from this article.

Meeting: Tuesday May 8th

Hey its about time for me to tell you about our next Soil Erosion Group meeting.

It will be in Grand Ledge at ET MacKenzie's barn again.

May 8th, 2008 (Thursday)
12:00 (NOON) to 3:00PM
3173 Jefferson St. Grand Ledge, MI 48837

Questions: Charlie's cell# 517-749-4443 (for directions)


Speaker:
Mike De Boer, Superior Groundcover, Inc.
Filtrexx representative and installer.

Filtrexx is a versatile product that can be useful in many situations. It is a tube filled with blown in mulch. It has tremendous potential to remove particulate matter. You will be surprised to see what this can do.

Please RSVP as soon as possible so I can know how many will be there for lunch.

February 5, 2008 Meeting Min

QUARTERLY MEETING, February 5, 2008

About 60 people in attendance

Lunch: Complements of E.T. MacKenzie Companies

Old Business:
CPESC training and testing and recognition of newly certified professionals,

Congradulations to the following people who successfully completed the certification requirements for C.P.E.S.C.

Last Summers Field Day for Rolled Erosion Control

Wednesday, June 27, our group organized our first field demonstration day. We had 35 people from 15 different organizations in attendance. Spartan Motors was very cooperative and allowed us to utilize their site to demonstrate proper installation methods for a few temporary stabilization methods.
(Slides of the site were viewed while we ate)

New Business:
Future Continuing Education Opportunities

Nobody had any ideas, if you come up with some make sure to let Kevin Kalmbach know.

Discussion of forming a Non-Profit Organization

Contact Kevin Kalmbach if you wish to help organize the group into a Non-Profit entity.

Topics for next meeting(s) - Suggestions

Interest was expressed for better Construction Entrances and controling tracking and traffic problems.

Speaker: Steve Irwinski, APS - Silt Stop http://www.siltstop.com/

In addition to his company link above, Steve suggested going to http://www.stormwater.ucf.edu/ to get some very up to date and valuable information. One of the items found there is the State of Florida Erosion & Sediment Control Designer & Reviewer Manual a very good manual even for us here in Michigan.

Steve demonstrated how PAM's work and stressed the need for the designer to get the EPA Certified Toxicity Reports for the chemical before using or specifying it. This is not the MSDS sheets! Make sure to ask questions.

Specify the product by name, dont just specify PAM's, who knows what the contractor will get. Do the research, read the Certified Toxicity Reports and specify the exact product to use. Unfortunately, this isn't one of thoes thing we can just keep a bag of in the truck incase we need to use it. Soil testing is imperitave (and getting the EPA Cerified Toxicity Reports).

He also demonstrated what happens if you do not test the soil before choosing the correct polymer. Collecting a soil sample is easy, and testing is quick. The testing basicaly determines which polymers work and which do not work for that particular soil.

Tuesday - February 5, 2008 with Steve Irwinski

Mark the following on your calendars and RSVP to myself if you are coming.

We have arranged for Steve Iwinski from Applied Polymer Systems (http://www.siltstop.com/company.html )to speak to the Mid Michigan Soil Erosion Group.

For most of us, this will prove to be a very educational meeting. Along with learning about the product uses, I want to know where, how and when we can use them safely.

For those who don't know what PAMS (polyacrylamides) are, or have forgotten, this is the chemical that is in Floc logs, the binder in hydro mulch and the flocculent in the land applied product SiltStop. http://www.siltstop.com/

Charlie at ET MacKenzie has offered to let us meet in his training building (its heated).

We will have sandwiches, chips, and beverages at

February 5, 2008 (Tuesday)
12:00 (NOON) to 3:00PM
3713 Jefferson St. Grand Ledge, MI 48837
(Just West of Fitzgerald Park Entrance, East of the old Anderson Archery Building)

Questions: Charlie's cell# 517-749-4443 (for directions)

Please RSVP as soon as possible so I can let Charlie know how many sandwiches to make.

Some Exams have been graded

Congradulations to the following people who have sucsessfully completed the certification requirements for C.P.E.S.C.

Some (as designated with an *) are registered as In-Training because they do not have enough years of experience. But they still had to take most of the same test the rest of us took (4 hour test).

Calvin R. Becksvoort
Kyle E. Carrick *
Paul L. Forton
Donald B. Heck
Kevin J. Kalmbach
Randel J. LeMoine
Allen J. Patrick
Travis J. Underhill
Joseph A. LaGrow, Jr.

* An asterisk, if present, denotes a CPESC In-Training

This gives us more than 1/3 of the Certified Professionals in Michigan, in our area.