Aspect’s Infrastructure Practice will be well represented at the annual meeting of Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG), taking place September 20-22 in Portland. Here’s a roundup of our staff who will present over the course of the meeting.
Technical Sessions
Site Explorations on the Swinomish Bluffs
Chip Barnett, LEG, and Aaron Fitts, LEG’s presentation Application of Sea Level Rise Estimates to Slope Stability Evaluation of Marine Bluffs, Swinomish Indian Reservation, La Conner Washington covers Aspect’s collaboration with Blue Coast Engineering and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to assess and understand geologic and slope conditions on over 100 residential lots on tribal land impacted by localized landslide failures. The project focuses on identifying the cause and mode of the failures, assessing coastal erosion, determining how those hazards will be worsened by rising sea levels, and prioritizing areas for monitoring and mitigation to protect the slopes and homes.
Aerial view of Swift Creek area
Aaron will also present on Managing Naturally Occurring Asbestos in Landslide Sediments and Debris Flows – Swift Creek, Whatcom County, Washington. Aaron is the lead geologist on this project for Whatcom County Public Works to address chronic sedimentation issues from landslide material containing naturally occurring asbestos within Swift Creek in rural Whatcom County.
Rock & Gravel quarry in the Wenatchee Mountains
Alec Melone, GIT, will also discuss naturally occurring asbestos in his presentation, Preliminary Naturally Occurring Asbestos Screening for Quarry Expansion: Field and Structural Studies in the Ingalls Ophiolite Complex, Central Cascades, Washington. Alec will share Aspect’s approach for assessing the contaminant and structural hazards within the Ingalls Tectonic Complex to support a 50-acre quarry expansion in the central Cascades’ Wenatchee Mountains.
Poster Presentations
Studying trees at Rialto Beach
Chelsea Bush, LG, and Monica Hill, GIT, are part of a group presenting a poster on the Landslides, Tectonic Uplift, and Coastal Erosion of the Past Several Hundred Years at Rialto Beach, Washington: Geologic Evidence and Implications for Geohazards along the Northwest Coast. The poster delves into some of the mysteries the group is trying to solve on this stretch of beach. When the project began in 2017, the main focus was the origin of a rapidly eroding terrace on the back beach, several feet above the modern beach surface, and whether it may have been formed during the 1700 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Part of that work centered on determining the age of Sitka spruces on the terrace. When they learned the trees were much younger than they expected, things got interesting. Their ongoing work will help geologists determine how shoreline forests react to and recover from large-scale storms and seismic events.
Chelsea and Monica both got involved with the project as part of their master’s studies at the University of Washington. Chelsea started in 2017, focusing on landslide mapping and carbon dating of wood in the beach and landslide deposits. Later, Monica joined the group to conduct shoreline change assessment as they studied the effect that a nearby jetty/dike system at the mouth of the Quillayute River has on the rapidly eroding terrace. The poster will present an overview of the work they and many other UW Ph.D. and masters’ students have contributed to the study.
Stabilization measures in place at Washington Boulevard
Chelsea also has a poster on Aspect’s Washington Boulevard Landslide Stabilization Project with Kitsap County Public Works. Aspect worked with the County for over a decade to assess, monitor, and ultimately stabilize a roadway—and sole access to services for over 22 homes— traversing a dead-seated landslide complex along a steep coastal bluff in Kingston, Washington. The project won the American Public Works Association’s 2022 Project of the Year Award in the Disaster or Emergency Construction Repair (less than $5 million) category.
Associate Engineering Geologist Mark Swank, CEG, LEG, is the AEG Secretary, a member of their Executive Council, and a co-chair of this year’s meeting. Chip Barnett was recently elected to the AEG Board of Directors for the Pacific region and coordinated the poster sessions as part of the meeting’s planning committee. Aspect is proud to sponsor technical sessions on Collecting Geologic Data for Assessment of Potential Hazards Using Multiple Surface and Subsurface Methods Symposium, the Young at Heart Student/Young Professional Event, and the all-important All Day Coffee on Tuesday.