Michigan’s primary solid waste law has been amended many times since its enactment in 1978.  In recent years most of the amendments to Part 115, Solid Waste Management, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, have been completed in a piecemeal fashion. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Director Dan Wyant and Bryce Feighner, Chief of the MDEQ’s Office of Waste and Radiologic Protection have established a Solid Waste and Sustainability Advisory Panel (SWSAP) to assist the agency with completing a comprehensive review of Part 115.  This is intended to ensure that Michigan’s solid waste regulations are reviewed in a holistic approach and that necessary revisions can be implemented and the regulation is brought up to date to help advance the State’s solid waste and sustainability goals.


The Solid Waste and Sustainability Advisory Panel is comprised of representatives from state and local government and industry;  panel members are from the following:

• Central Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Regional Commission
• Consumers Energy
• Michigan Chamber of Commerce
• Michigan Association of Counties
• Michigan Environmental Council
• Michigan Manufacturers Association
• Michigan Municipal League
• Michigan Recycling Coalition
• Michigan State University
• Michigan Townships Association
• Michigan Waste Industries Association
• NTH Consultants, Ltd.  (Brad Venman is a member)
• U.S. Ecology

As part of the MDEQ’s ambitious year long process that kicked off in April, the agency has identified the following issues for discussion/consideration by the SWSAP, including but not limited to:

• Recycling / waste utilization (measurement, residential access, beneficial use)
• Composting / siting of facilities
• Solid Waste Planning
• Disposal Area requirements (permitting / exemptions) & financial assurance for landfills
• Compliance & Enforcement
• Program funding
• Regulation of Coal Combustion Residuals

As part of the SWSAP process, the MDEQ has also established subcommittees to provide technical /program specific recommendations to the SWSAP.  These include the following work groups:

• Composting Work Group – recommend improvements to how compost facilities are regulated, sited, etc.  (NTH Senior Vice-President, Rick Burns is a member)
• County Solid Waste Planning Work Group –Governor’s Recycling Council 
• Electric Utilities Coal Combustion Residuals Work Group (EUCCR) - (NTH's Brad Venman & Dave Lutz, P.E. are members)

Each of these work groups will be developing recommendations for review and consideration by the SWSAP, who will then make formal recommendations to Director Wyant.

Some work group activities to date include:

• The SWSAP has reviewed and made recommendations to amend and update Michigan’s 2007 Solid Waste Advisory Policy.
• The EUCCR is in the process of developing amendments to Michigan’s Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) that was approved by the US EPA in 1982. The goal is to submit a revised SWMP to the US EPA by October.  Submittal and US EPA approval of an amended SWMP will allow the State to modify Michigan’s solid waste regulations to effectively implement the EPA’s coal combustion residual requirements.
• Governor’s Recycling Council – they are nearly finished working on legislation for reporting/measuring household/commercial recycling (most of the reporting will be through the various Material Recycling Facilities (MRFs).  They are exploring whether recycling organics (food wastes) can help achieve the Governor’s goal of 50% improvement by 2017 of Michigan’s recycling rate.
• County Planning workgroup – preliminary thinking is that they will be recommending maintaining the facility siting elements of the county planning process in Part 115 but revising/removing the flow control elements of the process.
• Composting workgroup – working to provide revised program recommendations to address availability and problems with composting facilities which is especially acute in Macomb Co.

It should also be noted that in addition to NTH’s current active participation on Michigan’s Solid Waste program revisions, the MDEQ is currently working to implement recommendations of other work group activities by NTH staff.  These include the Air Quality Division’s draft Air Toxics rules that are intended to implement the recommendations of the Air Toxics Work Group.  The MDEQ is also actively working to complete development of the draft rule package to implement recommendations of the MDEQ’s Remediation & Redevelopment Division’s Criteria Stakeholder Advisory Work Group; these rules will revise Michigan’s regulations to determine cleanup criteria for sites of environmental contamination.

Our third Q & A in the series is with one of our Senior Project Engineers, Heather Audet. She has a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering also from Florida Institute of Technology. She joined the NTH team in 2005.

What were your favorite subjects in high school? Chemistry, Physics, and English.  Math was OK, but I wasn’t excited to go to trig or algebra.


When did you know you were interested in engineering?  For a while I wanted to be a flight attendant, working my way up to international flights.  I guess in 11th grade when it came time to think about college, the flight attendant goal just drifted away.  I learned about coastal and ocean engineering and that sealed the deal.

What was it that piqued your interest?  I must have read something about beach re-nourishment and I felt that I wanted to save the beaches.  Watching the coastal process at Cape Cod and Rhode Island growing up fascinated me.

Did you have any mentors? No one really sticks out as a mentor.  My college professors Drs. Paul Cosentino and Ed Kalajian were helpful in building me up (especially while working on the concrete canoe and teaching classes), and friends such as Silas Nichols, who were a few years older than me were there when I had questions or needed second opinions. Sue Hann, who was an adjunct professor, Director of Public Works, and fellow biker rider, was the first woman I worked for and a trail blazer for me.

Who was your biggest influencer in your career choice?  No one really influenced me.  I just kind of fell into geotechnical engineering.  It was the perfect combination of being in the office and outside.

Did you face any resistance from family or friends about your career choice? Not at all. My father was in mechanical engineering (designing pens, highlighters, fans, humidifiers, and other stuff we use every day) and my brother followed the engineering footsteps and is a mechanical engineer designing HVAC, plumbing and fire suppression systems.

Did you entertain any other career possibilities? If so, what and why didn’t you go that route? Flight attendant, because I love to travel; but I figured I’d get bored after a while. And they still had height and weight requirements back in the day.  Plus, I don’t think I could be pleasant to hundreds of people over a 14 hour day.

What is it about civil engineering that caught your interest out of the other engineering fields?  Being outside.  I don’t want to be stuck in an office every day for the rest of my career.  Even now that I’m nearing 20 years as an engineer, I enjoy the times I have to go out to a project site (no matter how hot, cold, or wet it is).

How/why did you choose NTH?  The selection of projects I get to work on is fantastic.  I’ve done things I never would have been able to do with a different company.  I haven’t bounced around too much, but I’ve learned how important it is to work for a company that does quality work, and gets high profile projects.  Being employee-owned is also nice because I worked for a family-owned company in the past, and felt like I was working hard so the board members (family) could make money off of my sweat and hard work. 

What do you do at NTH and what do you like most about your job? I’m a senior project engineer and project manager.  I’m in the heavy underground group, which means my project include tunnels, sewers and other large underground structures. 

What is your favorite project you’ve worked on as an engineer? Anything that gets me in the field.  My favorite project has got to be the Detroit River International Crossing (now the Gordie Howe International Crossing).  I spent about 5 months drilling along the Detroit River to depths of 1,700 feet to make sure a new bridge wasn’t constructed over a brine well cavity (salt mine).  In order to drill this deep, we had to work with oil and gas drillers, so the equipment was all new to me.

What advice would you give girls who are interested in engineering and related fields?  Get out there.  The gender inequality is not the issue it was when I started.  Our office is even in terms of the men to women ratio.

Our second Q & A in the series is with one of our staff engineers, Mary Koeger. She has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from University of Detroit Mercy and she joined the NTH team in 2014.  Read below to learn more about Mary and to see her advice to girls considering a career as an engineer.

What was your favorite subject(s) in high school?
I enjoyed Math the most. Math can be so much more than “numbers” or “magic”. My teachers made the applications real by using data and articles found online and in magazines. They gave all the integrals and functions meaning…Math made me feel like I understood why things worked.

When did you know you were interested in engineering?
I was a junior in high school and a surveyor came out to see our class. (Mind you, I know now that civil engineering is much more than surveying!) He told our class about how Civil Engineers get to work on all kinds of projects around the country. When I finally went to college for Civil Engineering, I was more than sure.

What was it that piqued your interest?
All the different fields you can go into was a shock to me. If you find out you don’t like one, there is another waiting around the corner that might suit your skillset better.

Did you have any mentors?
Not really. I would go to any engineer for help or guidance because everyone’s advice is different. My professors were extremely helpful on my journey to where I am now. Now, at NTH, the P.E.s I have talked with understand that I have a lot to learn and reassure me that that is okay. However, they are not afraid to challenge me and I like that.

Who was your biggest influencer in your career choice?
I’d like to say that surveyor, but I think it’s more. It can take a fleeting feeling to make a decision, but it can be hard to live out once you do. My biggest influencer was my professors. I can’t say that they made life easy, but my ultimate goal was partially shaped by their influence.

Did you face any resistance from family or friends about your career choice?
Yeah… Everyone thought my career path was boring and that I could make more money doing something else. I think the only person that really got it was my dad. Most people still don’t understand Civil Engineering in general, so I don’t take it too personally!

Did you entertain any other career possibilities? If so, what and why didn’t you go that route?
I loved math, so I thought…maybe business? But, I wanted to do something that impacted my community and I would feel proud to be a part of. It is an amazing feeling when you can say as you drive by “I helped with that!”

Where did you go to college? Why?
I went to the University of Detroit Mercy (great school, just saying). I went there because the moment I stepped into the engineering building, I could see myself in the halls. The class sizes were small, the professors cared about you and it just felt like home. I knew I’d spend my sleepless nights in the geotech lab preparing for exams.

What is it about Civil Engineering that caught your interest out of the other engineering fields?
The other fields were boring to me…simple as that.  Civil engineering helps people.

How/why did you choose NTH?
A lot of UDM alumni were telling me that NTH is the place to go. I met some now colleagues at a Student Night at U of D Mercy and handed them my resume (happy to say I got a ++). They told me that jobs are always changing and that you will be always learning something new. Who wouldn’t like something new every day at work?  Two interviews later, I was hired.

What do you do at NTH and what do you like most about your job?
Currently, I work at the Oakland-Macomb Interceptor Drain (OMID) Field Office. I assist the engineers and administration in any way I can. I like that this project affects me, my family and my neighbors. I strive to do my best knowing it is for people like them. Secondly, I am learning so much out here from our fellow NTHers Larry Gilbert, Banika Gipson and Abdulnasser Almadhoun.  Every day isn’t different anymore like when I was inspecting in the field, but there is still much I have to pick up on from the experts.

What is your favorite project you’ve worked on as an engineer?
Probably the little day-long projects I worked on in the field last summer. I enjoyed meeting new people every day and being outside. But, I think I’ve had enough concrete and density jobs for a lifetime now.

What advice would you give girls who are interested in engineering and related fields?
You’re done with high school? That’s great, you’re not done learning. You’re done with college? That’s great, you’re not done learning. F.E.? Master’s Degree? The same. There will always be new technology and more efficient ways to accomplish a task. Instead, look forward to these things!

I’m not going to sugar coat, Engineering is hard, but worth it. I was the only girl in my graduating class for my major. So, don’t let being a girl stop you. If you like math and science and you sincerely enjoy applying it to create something you can be proud of, why not engineering? Do something you will enjoy and be proud of for the rest of your life!

 

What was/were your favorite subject(s) in high school?
My favorite subjects in high school were Chemistry and Calculus.

When did you know you were interested in engineering?
Over the summer I was given the opportunity to work in the Engineering Co-Op program for Ohio Dept. of Transportation (ODOT) where I spent the summer working on a bridge project from beginning to end, and that summer I fell in love with Civil Engineering.

What was it that piqued your interest?
What peaked my interest most was the fact that I was leaving my mark on the community I live in. Being able to say “I was involved in that project, look how great it turned out!” gave me an immense sense of pride.

Did you have any mentors?
I did have a mentor; his name was Mark Tumeo, a former professor at Cleveland State University. He challenged me to not rely solely on being smart, but also on working hard.

Who was your biggest influencer in your career choice?
It wasn’t who, but what. Entering in to my undergrad studies in engineering, I realized that black women were very scarce in the classroom and in the industry. That was a driving force to not only become an Engineer but to use my platform as a black woman in this field to reach out to other women and minorities, because throughout my academic career I always felt like the loner, and that can be added stress to an already stressful journey.

Did you face any resistance from family or friends about your career choice?
I definitely faced resistance from friends and some family. Many believed I should pick a career choice where women of color are more abundant. Eventually everyone offered support when they realized I was going to become an engineer with or without their support.

Did you entertain any other career possibilities? If so, what and why didn’t you go that route?
When I first started my undergrad studies my major was Chemistry with a Pre-Med minor. My interest in Civil Engineering after the summer I worked with ODOT was so great that I decided to change my major.

Where did you go to college? Why?
I went to Cleveland State University (CSU) for my Bachelor’s degree. CSU is a great college that was affordable and has a really good engineering program. I obtained my Master’s degree at The University of Akron (UA). I decided to specialize in Geotechnical Engineering and UA has a really amazing Geotechnical department and program, also leading me to remain there for my PhD studies.

What is it about civil engineering that caught your interest out of the other engineering fields?
Civil Engineering is one of the most diverse engineering disciplines, which captured my interest. It encompasses Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and that’s just naming a few. That diversity in Civil Engineering leaves space for engineers to grow in various aspects and I feel that’s important.

How/why did you choose NTH?
I had been looking for a job and a former employee and friend told me fill out the application. I did and I also looked in to the history of the company and I discovered it was a great company, with a great reputation.

What do you do at NTH and what do you like most about your job?
I’m a Staff Engineer and I enjoy being able work on various but different projects.

What is your favorite project you’ve worked on as an engineer?
I was involved with the QA/QC for a new subsurface improvement technology for a new children’s hospital in Akron.

What advice would you give girls who are interested in engineering and related fields?
I would tell them to GO FOR IT! Engineering can be very intimidating when you’re the minority, but there’s room for women in engineering and a great need for more women in engineering.