Plano, Texas, October 13, 2011

Pint-sized explorers, budding artists and junior archaeologists were among those who visited this year's Plano Archaeology Fair on Saturday, October 8 at Bob Woodruff Park in Plano. The event was sponsored by Geo-Marine, Inc., The Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation, and the City of Plano. This is the ninth Archaeology Fair that Geo-Marine staff members have made possible in the past decade.

The event drew a crowd of over 600 people from Plano and surrounding cities. Activities included hands-on excavation, a sandbox for small children, a flintknapping demonstration, atlatl throw, basket and Ojo de Dios weaving, rock painting, corn grinding, face painting, a geological tour of the creek, and Native American drummers and dancers.

"It took a lot of hard work behind the scenes to make this happen," stated V.P. Duane Peter. "I would like to extend a special thanks to Michelle Wurtz, Steve Hunt, Lindsey Skelton and Bonnie Peter for contributing to the success of this annual event. Scores of volunteers, friends of GMI and National Honor Society students, were essential to the success of the fair."

Curt Beckemeyer, Senior Vice President and Transportation Sector Manager for Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), has been named President of Geo-Marine, Inc. (GMI). Beckemeyer takes on this position in addition to his existing ARA responsibilities.

GMI is a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA, but under Beckemeyer’s leadership, it will be aligned with the ARA Transportation Sector to promote greater collaboration and leveraging of our combined capabilities.

“I am honored with the opportunity to lead the GMI operation, and I am excited about the future of this new enterprise. The organization has a great deal to offer our customers, and many opportunities exist for the combined group to continue to grow and provide opportunities for staff to pursue work they are passionate about, develop their careers, and be rewarded for success,” Beckemeyer said.

“Curt is a proven leader who was instrumental in identifying GMI and bringing them into ARA. Curt and his staff have worked closely with GMI over the past few years to provide infrastructure-related services to the Air Force, and I am confident in his abilities to lead GMI and help them continue to be successful,” ARA CEO and President Dr. Rob Sues said.

Beckemeyer has been with ARA since 1999. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, and he has 25 years of experience in transportation and infrastructure, including asset management, pavement engineering, construction quality assurance, value engineering, life cycle cost analysis, and technology transfer. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Wisconsin. He participates in numerous professional organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Transportation Research Board.

Plano, Texas, July 21, 2011

Based upon requirements from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Park Service recently contracted GMI to conduct visual monitoring for Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs) during sheet and pipe pile driving operations in Port Angeles, Washington. Visual monitoring is required in an effort to implement protective measures and reduce impacts on the endangered SRKWs known to occur in the region.

 

Construction activities will be centered at the Nippon Paper Industries paper mill, located on Ediz Hook and will include both pile driving and vibratory extraction procedures. Improvements to the facility will mitigate increased sediment influx following the future removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams upriver. The NPS requested a team of no less than two visual monitors during all pile installation/extraction operations.

Plano, Texas, May 18, 2011

Geo-Marine has completed 12 months of pre-construction avian and marine mammal monitoring for Fishermen’s Energy, resulting in approval from the New Jersey State House Commission for a Green Acres permit and the Tidelands Council for an electric line easement and turbine locations license required to build a demonstration-scale six turbine Fishermen's Atlantic City Windfarm. These were the remaining State permits required for the project to commence construction. This wind energy project will be located in New Jersey State waters off the coast of Atlantic City.

"The goal is to provide spatial and temporal data on avian, marine mammal, and sea turtle species utilizing these offshore waters as the beginning of a multi-year study for evaluating the potential ecological impacts of the windfarm," commented Christopher Clark, GMI's Director, Renewable Energy Services. "This effort will fulfill the data needs identified in the project’s New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) permit application, as well as NJDEP’s species-survey requirements outlined in the Technical Manual for Evaluating Wildlife Impacts of Wind Turbines Requiring Coastal Permits."

Fishermen’s Energy is a developer of offshore wind energy projects, founded by New Jersey commercial fishermen to respond to the public’s need to develop the ocean for renewable wind energy. Fishermen’s goal is to turn the North Atlantic coastal waters into an unmatched source of clean energy, while maintaining a vibrant commercial fishing industry.

Plano, Texas, February 2011

 

The Cultural Resources Division (CRD) of Geo-Marine is the proud recipient of the 2011 Preservation Idaho Orchid Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation for the book, Mountain Home AFB Modern. For 34 years, Preservation Idaho has recognized positive contributions to historic preservation with the prestigious Orchid Award.

Mountain Home AFB Modern is a 28-page, full-color book that highlights the rather unique manner in which Mountain Home AFB tackled an age-old problem—quality housing for servicemen and their families. Faced with a housing shortage after World War II, Mountain Home AFB hired the renowned architects, Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, along with a prominent local firm—Hummel, Hummel, and Jones (designers of the Idaho state capitol). Together, this outstanding group of architects presented Mountain Home AFB with some of the most modern homes the military had ever witnessed. Initially criticized for being “too Californian” for the stark, sagebrush landscape of Mountain Home, the houses won the military’s ‘best new housing’ award in 1959.

Based on extensive research, Mountain Home AFB Modern illuminates military life during the Cold War with historic photos, original Neutra designs, and narrative text. Intended for a broad audience, the book provides a rare opportunity for readers to appreciate modern, military architecture within its historic context. In the words of Sheri Robertson, Cultural Resources Manager at Mountain Home AFB, the “booklet was met with rave reviews by both the preservation community and the public.”

Plano, Texas, February 2011

 

Jason See, Vice President of the Environmental Division, participated in the Multipurpose Marine Cadastre (MMC) Focus Workshop held at NOAA’s Coastal Service Center (CSC) in Charleston, South Carolina. The MMC is a joint effort between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and NOAA CSC to develop a web-based mapping tool displaying marine resources located within U.S. waters. The MMC currently includes legal, physical, ecological, and cultural information that can be used for marine spatial planning efforts, including screening offshore renewable energy sites.

The one-and-a-half-day focus group workshop included invitees from federal agencies and regulators (including NOAA Fisheries Service, BOEMRE, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service); state agencies; non-governmental agencies, and industry (both developers and consultants).

The MMC workshop specifically focused on the following objectives:

• Increasing the understanding of how the MMC is being applied in coastal and marine waters
• Assessing the usability of the MMC by interested parties
• Assessing the need for additional functionality in the MMC
• Assessing the need for additional data, maps, and geospatial models to support offshore renewable energy development
• Assessing the need for additional data, maps, and geospatial models in regional coastal and marine spatial planning efforts
• Increasing the understanding of how the MMC could be used by regulators, developers, and state and federal agencies in the future
  

Dr. See commented, "The meeting allowed the developers of the MMC to obtain feedback from actual users of the tool, and determine what future data should be incorporated to assist industry, agencies, and regulators for the siting, planning, and permitting of offshore energy development."

 

For more information, contact Dr. Jason See at 972.423.5480.

Plano, Texas, September 2010

GMI has been contracted by the National Park Service (NPS), for a second year, to conduct visual marine mammal and underwater acoustic monitoring during construction of a pier in Bechers Bay, Santa Rosa Island located within the Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary.

Working in coordination with NPS personnel and representatives of the construction crew, GMI scientists will resume monitoring efforts for potential marine mammal presence in an identified acoustic safety zone during all in-water construction activities. Acoustic sound pressure levels (SPLs) related to construction activities will be monitored to establish acoustic safety zone boundaries (the area in which noise levels are lower than 160dB re 1μPa[rms]).

For more information contact Dr. Jason See at 972.423.5480.

Plano, Texas, August 2010

Dudzinski, K.M., S.J. Brown, M. Lammers, K. Lucke, D. Mann, P. Simard, C. Wall, M.H. Rasmussen, E.E. Magnúsdóttir, J. Tougaard, and N. Eriksen. 2010.

Trouble-shooting deployment and recovery options for various stationary passive acoustic monitoring devices in both shallow and deep water applications. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (in press).

Abstract

Deployment of any type of measuring device into the ocean, whether to shallow or deeper depths, is accompanied by the hope that this equipment and associated data will be recovered. The ocean is harsh on gear. Salt water corrodes. Currents, tides, surge, storms, and winds collaborate to increase the severity of the conditions that monitoring devices will endure. All ocean-related research has encountered the situations described in this paper. In collating the details of various deployment and recovery scenarios related to stationary passive acoustic monitoring use in the ocean, it is the intent of this paper to share trouble-shooting successes and failures to guide future work with this gear to monitor marine mammal, fish, and ambient (biologic and anthropogenic) sounds in the ocean – in both coastal and open waters.

Plano, Texas, April 2010

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has approved GMI’s newly designed Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) interactive training curriculum, developed by a seismic-industry mitigation expert. The observations and documentation of marine mammals during seismic acquisition operations help support permit requirements and ensure that the provisions of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act are observed.

The training course educates and prepares participants in mitigation compliance regulations and procedures for seismic surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. Observers are given an introduction to the BOEMRE and the MMO program to ensure they understand the rationale behind the Notice to Lessees (NTL) and its regulations and a brief background in seismic acquisition and how anthropogenic sound affects marine mammals. The course further educates the participant in the contents and correct implementation of the current NTL and how to properly report any and all NTL violations. Observers are also instructed on protected species (including marine mammals and sea turtles) identification practices and the reporting process. Upon completion of the training course, participants are fully certified for marine mammal monitoring during seismic operations.

For more information contact Dr. Jason See at 972.423.5480.

Plano, Texas, April 27, 2010

GMI has been contracted to provide environmental monitoring of construction crews along the California and Arizona borders. Construction crews will be improving the drainage areas under the newly constructed border fence to minimize erosion and protect the fence.

Four fence sectors are being monitored, which include the Tucson, Yuma, San Diego, and El Centro sectors. All construction is slated for completion in August 2010. GMI will spot monitor crews at the beginning, mid-point, and completion of construction to ensure that proper precautions are being implemented to minimize impacts to listed species, sensitive habitats, and cultural resources.

The project kicked-off in April 2010 with the completion of migratory bird/nesting surveys in the Tucson and Yuma districts.

For more information contact Suzanne Bates at 972.423.5480.

The following article, which highlights GMI's experience in the wind energy industry, appeared in the January/February issue of Energy International Quarterly.

by Denene Brox

The company's Vice President of Environmental Services Jason See says Geo-Marine, Inc. (GMI) kind of fell into the wind industry. "We'd done a lot of work with the Department of Defense and the US Navy," See says. "And so when wind, and specifically off-shore wind, began to take off, we were uniquely positioned to address all of the needs of this growing industry.

GMI provides engineering design, construction management, environmental planning and programming, and other archeological services in support of a wide range of government, industry, and commercial clients. The company was founded 36 years ago and has grown to seven US-based offices. In July, Applied Research Associates (ARA), an international research and engineering company specializing in the physical sciences, acquired GMI through a merger. The company will continue to operate under the name GMI and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA. It will also continue to occupy what is an increasingly valuable niche in its industry.

"There's not much competition from companies doing exactly what we do," says See, who's been with GMI for four and a half years. "To look at it another way, there are lots of companies that do parts of what we do. For example, there are companies that can just do cultural resource work; but as far as companies that have all of the capabilities in-house and highly experienced people that can do this, they are few and far between."

GMI specializes in four key areas: environmental resources, cultural resources, environmental engineering, and energy engineering. Clients call on the company for siting, routing, and permitting projects in order to meet federal, state, and local requirements. The firm is currently working on a $4.9 million contract with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, working in coastal waters to collect data on birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals over the span of 24 months. One of the primary goals for the New Jersey project is to determine the needs, costs, and benefits of offshore wind turbines in comparison to other electric-power sources including fossil, nuclear, and renewable fuels, as part of the state's long-term energy needs.

The firm's expert team consists of scientists, engineers, and statistics experts who conduct studies in support of off-shore wind-power development. The GMI team helps clients balance the importance of environmental stewardship with accomplishing their goals of developing offshore facilities. The level of expertise required for this kind of analysis is what sets GMI apart from other firms, See says. "One of the key things that Geo-Marine does is to make sure that we have high-quality employees and well-known experts in the field,” he says.

To this end, GMI relies on university recruiting and industry networking to locate qualified employees. "We go to universities that are training biologists in understanding things like radar systems in conjunction with bird migration," says Dan Wilkinson, PhD, senior vice president of GMl's environmental division. "There aren't too many universities around that fit the criteria, so we go to select universities, like Clemson University in South Carolina. We also recruit a lot of specialized staff, and work with universities when we don't have expertise in-house."

Most of the company's marketing is done through old-fashioned networking, like attending conferences sponsored by associations such as the American Wind Energy Association. Its word-of-mouth marketing strategy has also spread overseas, landing GMI a healthy number of projects in Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia.

"One of our best marketing strategies is the quality of work that Geo-Marine does. We're often referred to other developers because of the data that we produce for the industry," Wilkinson says, noting that to date, GMI has completed more than 3,500 projects.

"This field is a pretty tight-knit community at this point," See says. "Producing top information for the industry is one of the best marketing tools for us."