September-October 2011

From: The SOIL Fund, 2012 and Beyond

Helping IECA Members Prepare for Technical Challenges

When it comes to serving IECA members, Jerry Sanders, CPESC, president and chief executive officer of Sanco Design Inc. in Plano, Texas, is right where he should be—chairing the association’s Professional Development Committee. This committee’s charge is to help members advance their technical knowledge and skills.

Sanders has made that a primary goal for himself and his staff ever since establishing his erosion control business 36 years ago. The company specializes in the use of soil bioengineering techniques for designing and installing slope stabilization and creek channelization projects in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area of the Lone Star State.

“Education is the key for people to expand their perspectives and skills and move forward,” says Sanders, a longtime member of both IECA and the South Central Chapter. “I’m a strong believer in that.”

When he started Sanco Design, the three-person company focused on controlling surface erosion using commercially grown ground covers and landscape plantings and constructing hard structures, such as retaining walls, with railroad ties and native stone. Over time, as the business grew in size, experience, and expertise, the company ventured into channel stabilization and landslide remediation projects. Although the work sometimes involves riprap, gabions, and modular stone structures, more often the projects include reinforced earth structures with vegetative covers, products such as coir logs to stabilize shorelines, and techniques like the installation of drill-point drains to dewater unstable banks. All along, Sanders and his employees have kept their technical knowledge and skills current through continued training in the latest methods and products.

This wall was built by another contractor, and it failed. Sanco Design Inc. reconstructed the wall with the appropriate drainage and soil reinforcement.

Advancing Education
Sanders’ first exposure to IECA’s professional development programs dates back to 1995 when he attended one of IECA’s earliest CPESC review courses. “This and other educational opportunities provided by IECA have helped keep me in front of the technology we use in our work,” Sanders says.

He also participates in educational programs offered by several other professional groups, including the North American Geosynthetics Society and the affiliated Deep Foundations Institute.

Since joining IECA 16 years ago, Sanders has helped advance the association’s educational services in several positions. “If you believe in something, you need to support it,” says Sanders, explaining his willingness to donate his time and efforts in serving the association.

He first stepped up to offer his support to IECA in 1999 when he became chair of the Slope Technology Section. It is one of eight such IECA technology sections that help members deal with issues and questions in specific areas of erosion and sediment control. Heading this section fit right in with the work of Sanders’ company in controlling slope erosion.

Four years later, he took over as chair of the Technology Sections Committee. In addition to the Slope Technology Subcommittee, the Technology Sections Committee also represents the seven other technology sections, focused on such areas as wetlands, beach and shoreline, and wind erosion. This committee reviews and selects the technical papers presented at the annual IECA conference. As committee chair, Sanders encouraged what he describes as interdisciplinary learning in reviewing and accepting the technical papers.

“Education doesn’t stop at technical lines,” Sanders explains. “So we promoted more communication between the various sections. By doing that, we were able to attract a variety of individual presentations at the annual IECA conference that addressed the needs and interests of various types of professionals—for example, plant specialists, geotechnical engineers, and contractors—to provide a more complete view of how to solve a particular erosion problem.”

He chaired the Technology Sections Committee until 2010, when he accepted his current position as chair of IECA’s Professional Development Committee. Among its various duties, this committee recommends and reviews ideas and topics that may be developed into technical courses offered at the IECA conference and through IECA live and online educational programs. It also develops policies and processes pertaining to the association’s educational courses and programs.

“One of my goals is to strengthen our educational offerings so that professionals attending our courses can learn not only the basics of various types of erosion control practices but also the new and more advanced techniques,” Sanders says.

Natural Solutions
Raised in farming and ranching communities in Oregon and Arkansas, Sanders graduated from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he majored in soil science. He was attracted to the erosion control field by the opportunity to take on a variety of different technical challenges.

In running his company, he finds that managing the business side of the operation is much less appealing than getting out onsite to investigate the cause of an erosion problem, then designing a solution and installing the project. At the same time, he enjoys the support of a loyal team of employees. The expertise of his 22-person staff ranges from CAD operators and certified stormwater compliance inspectors to highly skilled equipment operators and laborers. Most of them have been with his company at least 15 years, he reports. Although they do some municipal work, just about all their work involves privately funded projects, like golf courses, residential and commercial developments, and individual homes.

Whenever possible, Sanders and his crew prefer the use of soil bioengineering techniques to control erosion. “There are certain situations where, of course, you need hard structures,” he says. “But where we’ve been able to use vegetation and reinforced earth structures, including such techniques as earth anchoring, we’ve achieved great results in stabilizing steep slopes and controlling water flow and erosion down creek channels and along streambanks.”

Most of Sanders’ projects are in areas where development has left much of the watershed covered in concrete. As a result, flash flooding is common following a rainstorm, he notes. “People are seeing that you can use natural processes and materials to control flows from major rain events as well as normal flow events,” Sanders says. “The key is to use an interdisciplinary approach. For example, you might bring in people, like a geofluvial designer, a hydrology engineer, and a plant material specialist. It’s important to know and use information from all different technical aspects of the project if it’s to be successful.”

That approach adds to the interest and the satisfaction that Sanders continues to derive from his work. “Unlike constructing a house or other building, each erosion control project is different in some way,” he says. “You see a lot of variations in how problems are solved in this industry. There’s always room to learn more and to be challenged by the situations that come up.”

Sanders is doing his part to help other IECA members meet just those kinds of challenges.