October 26-28, 2022

November 3, 2022

On behalf of NWC, thank you so much for attending our 2022 Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas on October 26-28, 2022. It was a rousing success—one we couldn’t have done without our stellar speakers, engaged participants, and amazing sponsors! Some notes about the meeting, as well as any PowerPoint presentations, are below.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Thank you again for your support of NWC!

Best, Julie Ufner, NWC

NWC concludes a successful face-to-face 2021 Annual Meeting—presentation links available (below)

On behalf of NWC, a big thanks go out to everyone who joined us for NWC’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas on October 26-28, 2022. For those of your who were unable to attend, you were missed, and we look forward to working with you in the months and years to come.

On Wednesday, October 26, NWC held internal meetings with our Navigation Caucus, as well as with our Executive Committee and 2022 Board of Directors (BOD). On Thursday, October 27, NWC members met all day to hear from a variety of knowledgeable speakers in the water and water resource infrastructure space before electing their 2023 Board Members at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Membership late that afternoon. That evening, members convened at The Rustic for a Texas-style reception and dinner and entertainment by Allan Hendrickson. On the last day, members of the 2022-2023 NWC Board of Directors met for an Organizational Meeting and chose their 2023 Officers and Executive Committee members. Congratulations to the new board, officers, and executive committee members! To view this list, click here. During General Session, the attendees heard updates from both the Assistant Secretary of the Army (ASA) for Civil Works (CW) Mr. Michael Connor, several USACE division offices, and from Dr. Hal Needham, a climate scientist and storm chaser, before we headed to Port Houston for a fascinating afternoon boat tour and lunch on the Sam Houston.

A huge thanks to Port Houston for being our local host and sponsor—you were amazing to work with to plan this meeting! And a huge thanks to the other sponsors—we never would have been able to pull off this meeting without you!

• To view our final NWC 2022 Annual Meeting agenda, click here.

To view available PowerPoints from the 2022 Annual Meeting, refer below:

WELCOME/ FOCUS OF USACE INTO 2023 AND BEYOND

NWC Chair Tom Ray kicked off the session and introduced Mr. Eddie Belk, Interim Director of Civil Works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Al Lee, the previous director, retired as the end of September. Mr. Belk walked through the priorities of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, including how the office works closely with USACE to meet administration goals, before diving into USACE priorities.

Resources available:

• To view, Mr. Belk’s presentation, click here.

SCIENCE FOR A CHANGING WORLD AND YOU: HOW USGS SCIENTISTS CAN HELP ADDRESS YOUR WATER RESOURCE DATA NEEDS

Ms. Kristine Blickenstaff, an Integrated Hydrology and Data Science Branch Chief from the Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) led a discussion on how to find accurate and updated data at USGS for water resource data and project needs.

Resources available:

• To see Ms. Blickenstaff’s presentation, click here.
• Interagency Flood Risk Management data toolbox
• NOAA Digital Coast Platform—More than just data (for coastal and Great Lakes areas)

THE FUTURE OF FLOODING

Mr. Rick Johnson, Executive Director, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency led a discussion with Mr. David Maurstad, Deputy Associate Administrator – Resilience, Federal Emergency Management Agency about flooding, including the next steps for the future of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Resources available:

• To see Mr. Maurstad’s presentation, click here.
• CRS Report: Introduction to the National Flood Insurance Program (June 2022)
• CRS Report: National Flood Insurance Program: The Current Rating Structure and Risk Rating 2.0 (April 2022)

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUNDING IN THE NAVIGATION/PORT WORLD

During this session, Mr. Brian Hill, Gateway Director—Western Gulf, Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation discussed existing funding opportunities in the navigation/port world.

Resources available:

• To see Mr. Hill’s presentation, click here.
• MARAD website
• MARAD press release: More than $703 million released to improve port infrastructure, strengthen national supply chains, lower costs (Oct. 28, 2022)

PRE- LUNCH PRESENTATION

Before kicking off the lunch presentation, Mr. Tom Ray recognized that long-time NWC member Andre McDonald passed unexpectedly late last year and invited Dan Delich, another NWC member, up to talk about his best memories of Andre. Andre has a larger-than-life personality which will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Following that, Mr. Ray invited Trinity River Authority to the stage to accept an “above and beyond” award for their hospitality for hosting the NWC and TWCA Regional Spotlight in Texas2022 Regional Spotlight – Texas in late August.

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE TEXAS COAST: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

For our lunchtime session, we focused on “Snapshots from the Texas Coast: Where do we go from here? In the past decade, the Texas coast has withstood numerous hurricanes and flooding events. But as any of us know who have gone through such events, it is not about the event themselves, but the ripple effect that these events have on everyday life, including impacts to residents, businesses and local, regional and national economies. For this panel, we were joined by The Honorable Jeff Branick, County Judge, Jefferson County, Texas; Dr. Phil Bedient, Director, Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disaster Center, Rice University; Ms. Nicole Sunstrum, Executive Director, Gulf Coast Protection District, Texas and Mr. Alan Black, Deputy Director, Engineering and Construction, Harris County Flood Control Agency, who had the opportunity to give opening remarks before they were engaged in general discussion about challenges and opportunities, best practices, partnerships and thinking outside the box on solutions.

Resources available:

• To see Dr. Bedient’s presentation, click here.
• To see Nichole Sunstrum’s presentation, click here.
• To see Alan Black’s presentation, click here.

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

In August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-169), into law. The measure includes eight titles that provide funding and financial incentives on emissions reductions, adaption and resilience, and more. Mr. John Anderson, Vice President, Van Scoyac Associates, gave an overview of the Act, including potential opportunities for the water and waterways resources community.

Resources available:

• To see Mr. Anderson’s presentation, click here.
• CRS reports:
  • Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Provisions related to climate change (Oct. 2022)
  • Offshore wind provisions in IRA (Sept. 2022)
  • IRA: EPA and other environmental provisions (Aug. 2022)
  • IRA tax provisions (Aug. 2022)
  • IRA: Agricultural conservation and credit, renewable energy, and forestry (Aug. 2022)

PORT HOUSTON. PORTING TOWARD THE FUTURE

We were joined by Ms. Lori Brownell, Channel Improvement Director, Port Houston; Mr. Charlie Jenkins, Senior Director, Asset Management & Strategic Coordination, Port Houston; and Mr. Byron Williams, Deputy District Engineer, USACE Galveston District, who discussed the Houston Ship Channel Expansion, Project 11.

Resources available:

• To see the presentation, click here.
• To learn more about the project, click here.

USACE IN THE 21st CENTURY—INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW

For our next session, we were joined by Mr. Tab Brown, Chief, Civil Works Programs Integration Division, USACE and Mr. Thomas Smith, Chief, Civil Works Operations and Regulatory Division, USACE to give an overview/update on funding, programs and policies at USACE.

Resources available:

• To see Mr. Brown’s presentation, click here.
• To see Mr. Smith’s presentation, click here.

VISION OF WATER RESOURCE INFRASTRUCTURE MISSION

NWC Chairman and Master of Ceremonies Mr. Tom Ray kicked off the last day by introducing Mr. Ric Campo, the Chairman of the Port Houston Authority, our local host, who in turn, introduced Mr. Michael Connor, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (ASACW) to talk about

ASACW priorities and policies coming down the pike.

Resources available:

• No powerpoints are available
• ASACW website

USACE DIVISIONS – VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES

We were joined by Mr. Wes Coleman, Acting Programs Director, Southwestern Division, USACE and Mr. Eddie Belk, Interim Director of Civil Works, USACE. Mr. Belk graciously pulled double duty at this meeting by representing USACE’s Mississippi Valley Division, who is dealing with Mississippi River drought issues, and was unable to come in person. Prior to being named Interim Director of Civil Works, Mr. Belk served as the Programs Director for USACE at the Mississippi Valley Division.

Resources available:

• To see Mr. Coleman’s presentation, click here.
• Southwestern Division website
• Mississippi Valley Division website

NAVIGATING EVOLVING WEATHER PATTERNS IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

For our last session of the Annual Meeting, we were joined by extreme weather and disaster scientist, Dr. Hal Needham who expertly discussed risk while weaving in stories from his storm-chasing experiences.

Resources available:

• To see Dr. Needham’s presentation, click here
• To listen to the GeoTrek Podcast, click here.

LEARN ABOUT NWC’S NEWEST MEMBERS—LIGHTNING ROUNDS

We also thank NWC newest members for being good sports and participating in a new session called “Learn about NWC’s Newest Members” which was enjoyed by all attendees. A huge thanks to seven of our new members who participated at this meeting—American Cruise Lines, APTIM, Corn Belt Ports, Gauge Engineering, Illinois Farm Bureau, LJA Engineering Inc., and Yuba Water Agency!

Thank You to our 2022 Annual Meeting Host: Port Houston