Corps responds to Nogales emergency
By Jennie Ayala & Sherrie Stewart

Bob Koplin (with his arm outstretched), Engineering Chief for the Los Angeles District, discusses measures needed to protect the Nogales Wash. Heavy rains during the weekend of Aug. 25 damaged the waterway several weeks ago and Corps employees responded to provide recommendations on how to prevent a potential sewage spill from pipes under the wash and structural failure of the wash walls, nearby railway and the bridge.

Army Corps of Engineers employees and local individuals from Nogales, Ariz. gather to plan out a strategy to repair the Nogales Wash walls after heavy rains damaged them. The damaged area is approximately four miles south of the Corps’ current flood control project in Nogales.

Workers walk along the Nogales Wash to inspect for damage incurred during the rains that came down the weekend of Aug. 25. The damage could have caused a sewage spill that would have spewed millions of gallons of untreated waste into the Santa Cruz River.

"The situation in Nogales was critical and we did everything we could to help,” Magness said. “We deployed our A-Team to provide technical assistance to include our Chief Engineer, Bob Koplin, and some of his staff engineers.  Together they have provided the technical data that has allowed the city, state, and local entities to develop some short term solutions.  We worked with the IBWC and our Congressional delegation, all of whom were very much engaged in this issue, to develop a longer term way ahead.  I am real proud of the effort from Bob Koplin and his engineers and believe that, together with the rest of the team, we have provided some measurable, meaningful relief to the citizens of Nogales," said Magness.

A worker prepares to drop a load of rock into the Nogales Wash to bolster work efforts there after the Aug. 25 rains that damaged the waterway. The granite rock added stability to the efforts already undertaken in the wash over the weekend.

Public law 84-99 authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to provide technical and direct assistance to local governments for emergency repair and restoration of flood damaged or destroyed flood control works.  Corps assistance is considered a supplemental source when local government funding for these efforts is exhausted.
 
For detailed information on the Corps emergency assistance role in flood control please visit our national website at http://www.usace.army.mil/cw/cecwhs/em/cecwhs_em.html.

Corps crews keep Fort Irwin training area UXO-free 
By Jay Field

Col. Thomas Magness, Los Angeles District Commander, and Jim Reed, ordnance and explosives safety technician, stand over one of several bins of ordnance scrap collected from the ranges at the National Training Center, Ft. Irwin, Calif. Photo by Daniel Calderon

Every year, more than 50,000 Soldiers visit the desert here to train before heading to the deserts of Iraq.  Training centers around the dozen Corps-built Iraqi-style villages and includes a variety of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire to accurately portray the threats Soldiers will face overseas.

While troops keep a watchful eye for snipers, suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices, the Corps’ Jim Reed looks for munitions and explosives material.

“You name it.  If it’s been fired at Ft. Irwin, we take care of it and process it,” said Reed.

A 25-year Navy Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician and 10-year Corps employee, Reed oversees the contract with the environmental restoration company American Technologies, Inc. that clears the NTC’s training ranges of ordnance and explosives (OE) debris.

Reed and his contracted crews go to the ranges and first mark all live ordnance for the Army’s EOD unit to “blow up” or render safe.  Reed’s crews then go to work retrieving and processing all ordnance scrap.

“During this task order, we’ve picked up over two million pounds of OE scrap,” Reed said.

Jim Reed, ordnance and explosives safety technician, displays a few pieces of ordnance and explosives debris collected from one of the many training ranges at Ft. Irwin’s National Training Center. Photo by Daniel Calderon

Col. Thomas Magness, Los Angeles District Commander, twice assigned to the NTC as an observer-controller, said Reed’s crews take care of OE debris that would otherwise hinder the training of troops.

“I’ve been out there and when you run into something you’re not sure of you stop training to call for somebody to help, only to find out it’s scrap,” Magness said.  “You could see how important this mission is to the training that goes on at the NTC.”

Magness said the scope of the project is sizeable no matter how one measures it:  a $30M contract over five years, with tons of scrap ordnance sold as scrap metal, clearing the way for critical training for troops headed to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ft. Irwin, with the help of the Corps and Reed’s crews, stands out as a leading example of the Army’s commitment to environmental stewardship of the more than 16 million acres of land it manages while it prepares Soldiers to fight the global war on terrorism.