Designing for Stability with NJDA, USGS and NJDEP

Designing for stability in NJ

Meeting Description

Join your fellow practitioners and learn about updates, tips, and permitting pitfalls when designing for stability in New Jersey. There will be three short presentations from NJ Erosion Control Engineer, USGS, and NJDEP followed by a moderated panel discussion. 

USGS: The US Geological Survey New Jersey Water Science Center has been cooperatively monitoring the water resources of the state for over 100 years. They regularly publish information and interpretive reports for water resource managers’ application and use in decision making across New Jersey and neighboring states. The focus of this presentation will be publicly available statistics and products related to state regulatory processes. This will include the web application StreamStats, a recently published report on statewide low flow statistics, and a summary of active projects including a software for evaluating groundwater mounding for detention basin design, statewide assessment of Manning’s n values, updated flood flow statistics at stream gages and updated statewide flood frequency equations.       

Do you have a question for the panel? Email sara.irick@fpaengineers.com to submit a question in advance.

Speakers

John Showler, PE, State Erosion Control Engineer for the NJ Department of Agriculture

John always wanted to be outdoors.  As a young boy, his favorite playground was the woods.  To this day he still loves to fish, hunt, camp and photograph the outside world.  Therefore it was only fitting that when he went to college, he studied forestry.  He wanted to be the guy on T.V. that put radio collars on elk and track their migration through the Rocky’s.  That was a great dream until he discovered the need for food, clothing and shelter and realized that those things required money.  Something that was not abundant in the world of elk collar tracking.

In 1985, while working as a park ranger in Monmouth County (which afforded ample time to re-consider his life’s choices), he was introduced to the NJ Erosion and Sediment Control Program, and its supreme technical leader, Hunter Birckhead, P.E., the state erosion control engineer.   John seized an opportunity to leave the world of park ranger-ing and went to work for the soil Districts in 1987, where there was again, ample opportunity to re-consider his life’s choices.

During his time in the Districts (John is an alumnus of the Freehold and Gloucester offices) he felt the need for formal engineering training.  He attended Drexel University in their Engineering Geology Master’s program, and after a year, transferred to Villanova University where he earned his Master’s in Water Resources Engineering.   During these years, Hunter Birckhead was instrumental in shaping John’s understanding of hydrology and hydraulics as they related to stormwater and watershed management.   John says he would be remis if he did not acknowledge the tremendous help he received from his mentor and friend.  

Like a diving bell slowly rising to the surface of the ocean from its deepest depths, John rose in the ranks at the NJ Department of Agriculture where the NJ erosion control program is housed.  Eventually Hunter retired in 2008, having had enough time to fully consider his life’s choices.  Seeing no one else interested in the job, they offered it to John, where he took over for Hunter as State Engineer. 

At the Department, John is responsible for overseeing the technical work of all District staff who review soil erosion control plans, updating and revising the erosion control Standards and overseeing the NJDA detention basin database.  He  provides standards and H&H training to Districts and the public,  and often lends a listening ear to other program staff who are reconsidering their life’s choices. 

Joking aside, John has had the pleasure and privilege of working with many excellent colleagues in many places – the District’s, NJDEP, NRCS and NJDOT to name a few, and also many excellent engineers in private practice. 

Jon Janowicz, Associate Director of Investigations at the New Jersey Water Science Center, US Geological Survey (USGS)

Jon is a professional engineer with over 35 years of experience in Water Resources. He works for the US Geological Survey, New Jersey Water Science Center in Lawrenceville, New Jersey as Deputy Center Director.   He manages a staff of 60 hydrologists and technicians performing interpretive studies and data collection of surface water, groundwater and water quality for cooperators throughout the state and region.  He began his work with the USGS in 2016. He previously worked for 16 years in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program on Coastal and Riverine Flood Insurance Studies and All Hazards Mitigation Planning.  He holds a BS and MS in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University.

Vince Mazzei, Jr., PE, State Floodplain Administrator at New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Watershed and Land Management (NJDEP)

Vince started his career at NJDEP after graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s in civil engineering in 1988. In 2022, Vince Mazzei was appointed as New Jersey’s State Floodplain Administrator after serving for two and a half years as NJDEP’s Assistant Commissioner for Watershed and Land Management. Recognized as an expert in flood risk analysis and mitigation, Vince is a licensed professional engineer who has served the people of New Jersey and their environment for nearly 37 years. He has worked to support environmentally responsible planning, design and construction of thousands of development and infrastructure projects throughout New Jersey.

Vince is the author of New Jersey’s Flood Hazard Area Control Act rules, which are the most stringent Statewide flood hazard area and stream corridor protection regulations in the nation, and has a leading role in the development of NJPACT, NJDEP’s transformative regulatory reform initiative that will improve our land use rules to protect against climate threats.

Vince was named 2018 Government Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers, North Jersey Branch, and the 2016 Civil Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Central Jersey Branch, and is a two-time recipient of the State of New Jersey Teamwork and Partnership Award.

PDH

Attendees will be eligible to receive 1 PDH (NJ, PA, and DE; check for eligibility in other states).

Schedule

Cost (Registration closes on Friday, February 7, 2025)

Registrations changed after the registration closing deadline will be charged the Non-Member price.

Thank you to our event sponsors!

For information on becoming a sponsor, please contact Richard Grubb at rgrubb@rgaincorporated.com.

Need Registration Help? Or a looking to register as a Student?

Email sara.irick@fpaengineers.com