March 2002, Volume 27, Number 3

Six 2002 OCEWA Finalists Are Chosen (Excerpts)

American Society of Civil Engineers
ASCE News
http://www.asce.org/ascenews/index.cfm

This year's jury has sleeted 6 merit finalists from a field of 33 in the
2002 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA)
competition-including this year's OCEA winner. The finalists will be recognized on April 27 at
the third annual Outstanding Project and Leader (OPAL) awards gala, which
will be held in Los Angles. The six projects are:  Experience Music Project Seattle, Washington
Everglades Construction Project: Storm Water Treatment Areas 1 West
and 2 Palm Beach County, Florida  JFK Terminal 4 Jamaica, New York  I-15 Design/Build Reconstruction Project
Salt Lake City, Utah Bibliotheca Alexandria Alexandria, Egypt Seven Oaks Dam Highland, California
Established in 1960, the OCEA award recognizes the project that best
illustrates superior civil engineering skills and represents a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society. Honoring an overall project rather than an individual, the awards signalizes the
contributions of many engineers. The OCEA winner is accorded an OPAL award.

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Following are brief profiles of the six finalists:

Palm Beach County, Florida

Everglades Construction Project: Storm Water Treatment Areas 1 West and
2

The Everglades Construction Project, of fundamental importance in the
state's effort ot restore the Everglades, is supported by among others,
state and federal agencies, the south  Florida agricultural industry,
and
numerous environmental groups. The primary components for improving the
water quality in the Everglades Construction Project are six large
constructed wetlands, referred to as storm-water treatment areas, or
STAs.
These STAs cover more than 44,000 acres and represent a total capital
cost
of approximately $700 million.

The STAs are the largest constructed wetlands in the world designed and
operated for nutrient removal, and they are reducing phosphorus to
levels
low enough to satisfy requirements anywhere in the world-below 50 parts
per
billion (ppb). By comparison, advanced wastewater treatment plants often
target 1,000 ppb-20 times higer than the STA design target. The low
discharge concentrations are necessary because the ecosystem of the
Everglades developed under conditions of extremely low nutrient levels.
The
biological integrity of the Everglades has been threatened by a
degradation
of water quality and by hydrologic changes associated with agricultural
and
urban development in southern Florida.

STA 1 West consist of almost 7,000 acres of former agricultural land
that
have been converted to a wetland treatment system designed to reduce the
phosphorus load entering the Everglades. The treatment area located in
central Palm Beach County about 20 miles west of downtown Palm Beach,
removes phosphorus from agricultural storm water before it enters the
Arthur
R. Marshal Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, also know as Water
Conservation Area 1.

During the initial phase of the project almost 4,000acres were
constructed
to demonstrate the effectiveness of wetland treatment. This phase began
operation in 1994 and established that constructed wetlands could indeed
reduce phosphorus levels. In the years since, the project removed more
than
55 tons of phosphorus from water entering the Everglades. In 1999,
almost
3,000 acres were added to STA 1 West.

STA 2 encompasses approximately 6,500 acres of remnant Everglades
habitat
and former agricultural fields. It will treat an estimated 175,000
acres-ft
per year of storm water from upstream basins carrying an estimated
phosphorus lad of 35 tons.

Project Credits

  Owner: South Florida Water Management District
         [ http://www.sfwmd.gov ]

  Design:

     STA 1 West: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
                 Raleigh, North Carolina
                 [ http://www.kimley-horn.com/ ]

     STA 2:      Brown and Caldwell
                 Walnut Creek, California
                 [ http://www.brownandcaldwell.com/ ]