As a resident of San Francisco, earthquake risk is a reality that I am always aware of. Although ground shaking will cause damage, fires following an earthquake are just as problematic. After the 1906 earthquake devastated the city, the fires that followed were the worst in the history of the United States. As a result, San Francisco built a separate water system, the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS), specifically to fight large conflagrations.

The system includes a reservoir and two tanks, and the original network used extra-thick pipe. Two pump stations along the coast can also feed the system with water from the bay, and underground cisterns dot the city as standalone water sources. Due to the age and the limited coverage of the AWSS, ArchTam was selected to perform a capital-planning study on how to improve and potentially expand the system. My involvement focused primarily on the hydraulic and reliability-modeling aspects of the project, which utilized probabilistic methods to evaluate system performance and the proposed improvement projects.

The biggest challenge was to determine the best way to represent and test the system with the information available to us. This process required our team to work closely with reliability and seismic-modeling experts, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), and other stakeholders, such as the San Francisco Fire Department, to create a methodology that was defensible and useful to determine future capital improvements. Ultimately, we had to create new processes and tools to help the SFPUC make the decisions needed for improving the AWSS. It is absolutely gratifying to see some of our recommendations being built right now in the city. Next time you are in San Francisco and you notice two different fire hydrants or brick rings in the streets, you’ll know that it’s the AWSS, ready to put out fires when “the big one” hits.

While not running hydraulic models, I am also involved in working on sustainability for infrastructure projects. There is a new sustainability framework and rating system called Envision, which is meant to be used on a broader range of infrastructure types such as pipelines, roadways, parks, etc. Right now, I am serving as the sustainability manager using Envision for a wastewater treatment plant upgrade project for the City of Davis in California. My role is to work closely with the design team to ensure that the design elements and construction processes follow the sustainability metrics prescribed in the Envision system. Our goal is to make sure that the work we do aligns with the sustainability targets for the city. This project is exciting because Envision is fairly new, and the work we are doing can set precedents for similar projects in the future.

Outside of the office, I volunteer with the San Francisco Professionals Chapter of Engineers Without Borders – USA. You can read about my recent trip to Fiji on my previous blog post on the ArchTam Impact blog. Our team is currently planning our next implementation trip this summer to build a new 20,000-liter reinforced concrete water storage tank for one of the villages, and I am excited to continue working to bring clean and reliable water to three villages in rural Fiji.

Check out Aaron’s video of his work below:

Aaron Lee (Aaron.Lee@archtam.com) is a civil engineer with ArchTam’s water business unit in the San Francisco office.
LinkedIn: Aaron Lee, P.E.

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Our team’s journey to Fiji began in 2009, following a large typhoid outbreak in the Buca Bay area in 2007. With support from our non-governmental organization contacts, we have successfully completed five project implementation trips in three villages: Buca, Loa, and Vunikura. Our projects consist of replacing and rehabilitating pipelines, building biosand filters to improve drinking water quality, and making water source improvements. This year’s trip focused on performing assessments and gathering information from the villages as we begin to embark on larger and more complicated projects upstream of the villages (including a new 20,000-liter concrete storage tank for Vunikura).

So what is it like working in rural Fiji, you may ask? We usually began our days early in the mornings and selected one or two of the villages to focus on for that day. Upon arrival to the village, we would seek out the Turaga Ni Koro (the elected headman of the village) or a member of the village water committee who would then gather villagers to help us with construction. Whether it was sieving sand for the biosand filters or replacing pipe segments, we would first demonstrate to the villagers what we would like to have done and then have them perform the work to foster knowledge transfer. Evenings were generally reserved for plating and analyzing water quality samples we routinely took, and for planning for the following day.

Towards the end of our trip, we had the great pleasure of taking part in some celebrations with the villages, which included food baked in a lovo (earthen oven), a meke (traditional dance/story telling), and lots of laughter and music. As one resident of Vunikura said to us, “The meke and food are all we have to give to you as a token of our gratitude.”

All in all, the trip was a success. We were able to accomplish the tasks we set out to do and identified the priorities and needs for subsequent trips. Our filters are operating as designed by removing at least 95% of total coliforms and E. coli. Some things I will never forget about Fiji are the unrelenting friendliness of the villagers and their sincere gratitude for the cleaner and more reliable water supply we could bring to them. In our last meeting with the Turaga Ni Koro of Loa, he said that the villagers no longer get sick from drinking their water. If that’s not a testament to our work, then I don’t know what is!  As we said our final “moce” (goodbye), I knew that I would be leaving with an experience I would never forget.

I highly recommend getting involved with organizations like EWB. Not only is it an opportunity to experience other cultures and to learn new skills, but it is also a great way to meet fellow engineers and non-engineers who are passionate about giving back. I am fortunate to be part of a company like ArchTam that supports great organizations such as EWB.

Aaron Lee (Aaron.Lee@archtam.com) is an engineer in ArchTam’s water business line and has been a member of EWB for three years.

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