Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists

Kansas City - Omaha Section

FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE SECTION
In the early 1960s, three groups of applied geologists in Missouri and Kansas independently became interested in the relatively new but growing California Association of Engineering Geologists (CAEG). Because of the interest from outside of California, the CAEG removed all geographical limitations in 1962 and in 1963 officially changed the name of the organization to the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG). By the middle 1960s, there were several members from Missouri and Kansas and area members were beginning to seriously discuss the possibility of starting a section.

One of the interested groups included a sizeable portion of the Flint Hills Geological Society in Manhattan, Kansas. This group was comprised primarily of geologists with Kansas Highway Department and the Kansas Department of Health. Some of the Flint Hills members who were most active in forming the KC/O Section included Frank Wilson, Wally Taylor, Alex Kotoyantz, Bill Bryson, Bill Biegler, and Walt Frederickson. The second group was centered at the Corps of Engineers' Kansas City District and included Lynn Myers, Dick Loepp, Art Mcloughlin, Bob Stansfield, and John Moylan. The third group was at the Missouri Geological Survey in Rolla, Missouri. The Rolla group was comprised of the Survey's Engineering Geology Section including Jim Williams and Ed Lutzen. The Section was officially approved as the Kansas City Section on January 28, 1967. The 46 charter members of the Section are indicated by an *on the following list of pioneer members. The 84 geologists shown on the list had joined the AEG Kansas City/Omaha Section by January 1970.

KANSAS CITY/OMAHA SECTION PIONEER MEMBERS

*Vic Anderson
*Joe Barnett
*Bill Biegler
*Jim Bridgeforth
Don Brison
Bob Brownlie
*Bill Bryson
*Virgil Burgat
Don Butcher
*Darryl Carlson
Hubert Casper
*Paul Clark
*Gordon Cordes
Stan Davis
*Thomas Dean
*John Doty
*Don Draper
Nuel Edmonds
*Frank Foley
Walt Fredericksen
Dick Gentile

*Will Gilliland
Marv Glotzbach
Tony Gogel
Chuck Golder
*Gerald Hargadine
*Bill Hayes
*John Hickox
*Mel Hill
Gerald Hilmes
Ted Holland
*Karl Horner
*Al Hornbaker
Lem Hutton
John Jimenez
*Billie Johnson
Roger Johnson
*Bill Jones
Larry Knoche
Maurice Kolman
Gary Koontz
*Alex Kotoyantz
Bruce Latta
Bob Lehman
*Dick Loepp
Richard Luke
*Ed Lutzen
*Warren Lutz
Olavi Maide
*Art McLoughlin
Bob McMillen
*Nolan Mitchell
Dick Moberly
*John Moylan
Art Murphy
*Lynn Myers
*Don Nickell
*James Nichols
*Ralph O'Conner
*Wallace Penn
*Don Ramsey
David Richards
John Roberts
Ray Roberts
*Charles Rucker
Larry Rockers
Jerry Smith
Clif Snow
Tom Speck
*Al Stallard
*Bob Stansfield
*Bob Stuart
*Wally Taylor
Ted Topolski
Don Ubel
*Lloyd Underwood
*Reuben Vig
Bob Vincent
*Joe Walker
*Bill Whitfield
*Jim Williams
*Frank Wilson
*Elmer Wohler
Bob Zook
* Charter member of Section

Initially, the section membership was comprised predominantly of government geologists. However, the membership data clearly reflect the growth in the private consulting firms and the advent and growth of the environmental segment since 1967.
YEAR PRIVATE GOVERNMENT ACADEMIA STUDENT
1967 19% 81% - -
1978 36% 60% 4% -
2006 66% 23% 7% 3%
It is interesting to note that from 1967 through 1976, all of the Section's officers were male and government employees. Richard Moberly, 1976-1977 Section Secretary, was the first officer from the private sector. In 1982, Barbara Smith was elected as our first female Section officer and she was the Section Chair during the 1987-1989 term.

When the St. Louis Section was approved in 1969, the Kansas City Section lost a number of active members from St. Louis and Rolla. Those members transferring to the St. Louis Section included: Gordon Cordes, Tom Dean, Ed Lutzen, Don Ramsey, John Rockaway, Bill Whitfield, and Jim Williams. All of us should be aware of Jim Williams' very important contributions to the Missouri Dam Safety Program. Jim had already begun working on the need for a Missouri dam safety program in 1968. He presented his rationale for the need of the program at our March 8, 1968 KC Section meeting. It was largely through his efforts that the Missouri Dam Safety Program became reality.

SECTION TECHNICAL PROGRAMS
Since the beginning of the section, meetings have been held quarterly. Initially, the meetings were quarterly because our membership was spread over a large geographic area. Geologists from such distant places as Dodge City, Hays, Salina, Manhattan, and Wichita in Kansas, Rolla, Missouri, and Lincoln, Nebraska were regular meeting attendees. In more recent years the quarterly mandatory meeting schedule has been maintained but extra meetings have become more numerous in order to present special speakers and activities.

Frank Wilson, first Section Chairman (1967-1968) and AEG President (1973)

Technical presentations have been the most important aspect of section meetings through the years. Both section members and invited speakers have been broadly represented in our programs. One of our most distinguished speakers was Robert Leggett author of the classic books "Geology and Engineering" and "Cities and Geology" and Director of the Building Research Division of the National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Leggett was a civil engineer by training with an avocation and love for engineering geology, was an Honorary Member of the AEG, and he had a special interest in the use of the underground in Kansas City. He spoke at the March 1975 meeting. We have had many excellent speakers over the years that have helped all of us develop professionally.

The Section hosted three Soviet geologists at a meeting in the fall of 1991. This was at the time that the Soviet Union was dissolving. Kris Blevins-McCosh facilitated the visit. Kansas Congressional Representative Jan Myers attended and welcomed the Soviet scientists to Kansas City.

SECTION CONFERENCES
On September 15, 1967, the section organized and held its first engineering geology conference. It was an all day conference consisting of 9 technical presentations. The agenda is presented below.

FIRST CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING GEOLOGY, September 15, 1967

9:00-9:05 Opening, Frank W. Wilson, Chairman, Kansas City Section
9:15-9:50 Bridge Foundation Study for an Elevated Expressway Through Wichita, Kansas, Billie J. Johnson, Kansas Highway Commission
9:50-10:15 Alfalfa as a Factor in Soil Piping and Surface Subsidence in Alluvial Deposits in the Kansas River Valley, Howard O'Connor, Kansas Geological Survey
10:30-11:10 Direct Shear Tests on Thin Samples of Remolded Shales from the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming, Nolan W. R. Mitchell, Corps of Engineers
11:10-11:40 Missouri's Approach to Engineering Geology in Urban Areas, James H. Williams and Edwin E. Lutzen, Missouri Geological Survey
1:00-1:40 The Investigation of a Sink Area, Wallace K. Taylor, Kansas Highway Commission
1:40-2:10 Theoretical Hydraulics of an Oil Field Related Sink, Donald L. Butcher, Kansas State Department of Health
2:10-2:50 Investigation of Sources of Construction Materials for Corps of Engineers Civil Works Projects, Victor L. Anderson, Corps of Engineers
3:10-3:45 Some Applications of the Electrical Resistivity Method to Engineering Geology, Elmer J. Wohler, Caylor & Wohler Drilling & Geological Services, Inc.
3:45-4:15 Some Aspects of Jointing in Limestones, Lower Kansas River Valley, Gary Stewart, Kansas Geological Survey

A second conference that focused on the use of the underground in Kansas City was held on September 13, 1968 with an associated field trip the following morning. The meeting was held in the Brunson Instrument Company mine on Truman Road near I-435. Brunson manufactured precision surveying instruments and required a facility that was as free from vibration as possible. The company determined that an underground space best suited their needs. Brunson was the first company in Kansas City to develop a mine primarily for underground space utilization with rock production as a secondary purpose. The mine utilized long rooms rather than the more conventional square room and pillar layout. The meeting was a great success. The meeting agenda is shown below.

SECOND CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING GEOLOGY, September 13 & 14, 1968

9:15-9:20 Opening, Frank W. Wilson
Moderator - Ralph O'Connor
9:20-10:30 Film and tour of the Brunson Instrument Company mine and plant, courtesy of Brunson Instrument Company
10:30-11:00 Chloride Concentration Patterns of Chase Group Brines in the Hugoton Gas Area, Kansas, William R. Bryson, Kansas State Department of Health
11:00-11:30 Unique Applications of Weighted Drill Mud, Lynn C. Myers, Corps of Engineers, KC District
11:30-12:10 Detecting Caverns from the Surface with Portable Geophysical Equipment, Edwin E. Lutzen, Missouri Geological Survey

Moderator - Lloyd Underwood
1:15-1:55 Mine Fill Grouting at the Shelbyville Reservoir, Illinois, Gordon E. Cordes,
Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District
1:55-2:45 Roof Problems in Thinly Bedded Limestone, James J. Scott, Dept. of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Missouri at Rolla
3:00-3:35 Beneficial Bolting and Blasting, Stockton Dam, Missouri, H. Richard Loepp, Corps of Engineers, KC District
3:35-4:10 On Underground Mining in the Kansas City Area, Thomas J. Dean, Missouri Geological Survey, Gomer Jenkins, Missouri State Highway Department, James H. Williams, Missouri Geological Survey
6:30 Social Hour and Dinner, installation of new officers
September 14, 7:30 AM-1:00 PM Field Trip to Andes and Roberts Mine and a collapsing mine in Kansas City, Kansas, Gomer Jenkins, Missouri Highway Department and Walter Fredericksen, Kansas Highway Commission.

The Second Conference was a great success and attracted much interest both locally and from around the US and the world. The Section had inquiries from a number of foreign locations. Seventy-four registrants attended including attendees from Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. Three engineers from Brazil were special guests of the Section.

Since 1968, the Section has hosted additional conferences in 1977 at Washburn University in Topeka and in 1990 and 2004 in Kansas City.

THE MANY FACES OF ENGINEERING GEOLOGY, September 16, 1977

9:10-9:20 Opening, Will Gilliland
9:20-9:45 The Role of the Consulting Geologist, Joe Barnett; Barnett, Stuart, & Dow
9:45-10:15 Regional Tectonics and Seismicity of Eastern Kansas, Frank Wilson, Kansas Geological Survey
10:45-11:15 Some Applications of Drilling Muds to Engineering Geology Exploration, John Moylan, Corps of Engineers
11:15-11:45 Fault Complexes of West Central Missouri, Dick Gentile, University of Missouri at Kansas City
1:15-1:45 Exploration Drilling: "What Do We Get For Our Money?", Ray Cope, USDA Soil Conservation Service
1:45-2:15 Personnel management, Walt Fredericksen, Kansas Department of Transportation
2:15-2:45 A Geological Look at Coal Mining and Reclamation in Kansas, Larry Brady, Kansas Geological Survey
2:45-3:15 The KIES Hazardous Waste Disposal Site - A First for Kansas, Ralph O'Connor, Kansas State Department of Health and Environment

TUNNELING TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR, October 30, 1990
We have no record of the presenters or topics. Approximately 22 attended the conference.

FALL CONFERENCE, STATE-OF-THE-PRACTICE SITE INVESTIGATION METHODS TO SUPPORT DESIGN, October 23, 2004

9:00-9:10 Introduction, John Moylan
9:10-9:50 Direct Push Methods for Characterization of Spatial Variations in Hydraulic Conductivity, Jim Butler, Kansas Geological Survey
9:50-10:30 Shallow Seismic Reflection Applications, George, Tsoflias, University of Kansas
10:45-11:25 The Use of CPT for Geotechnical Investigations, Scott Mackiewicz, Geosystems
11:25-12:05 Rock Drilling for Geotechnical Design, Bob Henthorn, Kansas Department of Transportation
1:00-1:40 Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Methods in Environmental Geoscience, George Tsoflias, University of Kansas
1:40-2:20 Using CPT/ROST Site Characterization Data in the Design of a Free Product Recovery System, Luca deAngelis, Chatman and Associates and Shane Lyle, URS Corporation
2:20-3:00 Successful Undisturbed Sampling of Very Soft Clays and Saturated Sands, John Moylan, Consulting Geologist

JOINTLY SPONSORED ACTIVITIES
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE
Beginning in 1975, The Kansas City/Omaha Section jointly sponsored the Annual Geotechnical Conference held at the University of Kansas. These conferences were jointly sponsored with the Civil Engineering Department of the University and the Geotechnical Group of the American Society of Civil Engineering's Kansas City Section. This series of jointly sponsored conferences continued through at least 1990. We have no record of when the when the conference was discontinued.

ASCE GEOTECHNICAL GROUP - KANSAS CITY/OMAHA SECTION - UMKC MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
Sometime after the University of Kansas Geotechnical Conference came to an end, the Geotechnical Group of the ASCE Kansas City Section began to hold geotechnical technical presentations in Kansas City. The geotechnical programs jointly sponsored by the ASCE, AEG, and UMKC started in 1992. These activities are held from fall through mid-spring and annually consist of three to five technical meetings, a workshop, and a spring geotechnical conference.

After a financially successful Specialty Seminar and Annual Geotechnical Conference in 2001, $2,000 was set aside for a scholarship fund with ASCE as the financial accounting representative for the combined group. Over a period of four years, the fund grew to more than $14,000. Two scholarships were negotiated and established at UMKC in June 2004. Prior to the very successful Annual Geotechnical Conference in early April, an additional $7,200 was in place in the scholarship fund. The scholarships are named the Peck, Williams, Garstang Scholarships in honor of the key speakers at the successful 2001 conference that made the scholarship fund possible. The honorees are Ralph Peck (professor emeritus at the University of Illinois), Jim Williams (former State Geologist of Missouri, founding member of the KC/O Section, and St. Louis Section member), and Mimi Garstang (current Missouri State Geologist and St. Louis Section member). The first scholarships were awarded in the fall of 2005 to one candidate in Civil Engineering and one candidate in Geology. The two lead UMKC professors for the scholarships are Anil Misra (Civil Engineering) and Syed Hasan (Geology and KC/O Section member). The institution of the scholarships was an exciting development for the KC/O Section. All members of the Section should be aware that during the several years of reduced Section activity, the joint ASCE, AEG, UMKC meetings played an important role in the survival of the Section.

KANSAS HYDROLOGY SEMINAR
The Kansas Hydrology Seminar has been held in Topeka annually since about 1990. It was started by the Kansas Section of the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH). The Kansas City/Omaha Section has co-sponsored the seminar since sometime in the early 1990s. Fifteen attended the first Kansas Hydrology Seminar, however, in recent years attendance has grown to near 100. This conference has proven to be a solid forum for presenting surface water and groundwater topics and draws professionals with a wide range of backgrounds from throughout Kansas and western Missouri.

FIELD TRIPS
The Kansas City/Omaha Section has conducted several field trips over the years on an irregular basis. The field trips are listed below.
" Late 1970s - Missouri River excursion for members and families on the Missouri River aboard the Corps of Engineer's Sargent Floyd inspection boat. The historic Sargent Floyd was built in 1932 and is named after Sargent Charles Floyd, the only fatality of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
" June 12, 1976 - Two Hundred Years of Missouri River Geology coordinated by Ray Cope with Soil Conservation Service in Lincoln and led by T. Mylan Stout and Russell Smith of the University of Nebraska. AEG President Jasper Holland attended.
" May 6, 1978 - I-470 and I-470 Faulting, led by Dick Gentile, Gomer Jenkins, and Bob McMillen.
" May 10, 1980 - I-470 Faulting, Longview Dam Construction, and View Operation of Tunnel Boring Machine and the Bannister Road Tunnel. Led by Dick Gentile, Corps of Engineers, and Burns & McDonnell.
" May 20 & 21, 1983 - LaCygne Power Plant Strip Mine, Mine Collapses in the vicinity of Pittsburg, Kansas; and Hazardous Conditions Associated with Collapsed Underground Lead and Zinc Mines in the Tri-State District. Trip was led by Burns & McDonnell, Kansas Geological Survey, and Kansas Department of Transportation. AEG President Dick Galster attended the field trip.
" July 1993 - Brush Creek Channel construction field trip, led by Corps of Engineers and Dick Gentile.
" June 8, 2003 - Quindaro-Riverside Levee Project. The trip was led by the Corps of Engineers.
" February 26, 2004 - Horizontal Collector Well Construction, led by Burns & McDonnell and Collector Wells International.

AEG ANNUAL MEETINGS HOSTED BY THE KC/OMAHA SECTION
The Section has hosted the AEG Annual Meeting two times. The first was the
15th Annual Meeting in 1972 and second was the 31st Annual Meeting in 1988. Unlike today when the Association has a professional Meetings Manager, the Kansas City/Omaha Section was totally responsible for making all arrangements for the meeting.

1972 ANNUAL MEETING
Planning for the 1972 meeting began in 1968 and all of us were pretty green when it came to organizing a major meeting like the AEG Annual Meeting. Dick Loepp bravely volunteered to chair the 1972 Annual Meeting Committee. Paul Hilpman had played a major roll in the planning of a Geological Society of America annual meeting shortly before we began planning our meeting. Paul provided some excellent guidance for us especially in selecting and dealing with the meeting hotel. The Alameda Plaza Hotel on the Country Club Plaza was selected as the meeting hotel. The Alameda Plaza was a new hotel that opened literally only a few short weeks before the meeting date. The hotel management did a good job of keeping the meeting committee apprised of construction progress and assuring us that the hotel would be open on time and operating without glitches. The Alameda Plaza proved to be a great place for the meeting and the Plaza favorably impressed our out-of-town guests.

1972 ANNUAL MEETING COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Chairman Dick Loepp
Technical Sessions Frank Wilson
Field Trips Walt Fredericksen & Dick Gentile
Exhibitors & Sponsors Virgil Burgat & Bob Stansfield
Publications Bill Bryson & Art McLoughlin
Registration Joe Walker
Annual Banquet Chuck Golder
Publicity Ralph O'Connor
Ladies Activities Eleanor Golder
Special Events Alex Kotoyantz
Treasurer Roger Johnson
A large percentage of the remainder of the section membership served on the various committees and helped make the meeting a success.

The 1972 meeting had a high number of registrants (over 400) for a meeting held in the meeting held in the central U.S. and it also produced a profit which was rather unusual for that time in the history of the AEG. The meeting had five field trips:
" Proposed Salt Mine Repository for Radioactive Wastes
" Underground Mines in Northeast Kansas
" Two-Tier Occupancy of Space (Surface and Subsurface) in the Kansas City Area
" Highway Construction in the Kansas City Area
" Engineering Geology and Utilization of Underground Space in the Kansas City Area
The word symposium is from the Greek sympinein which means "to drink together" and the first definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary is "a convivial party (as after a banquet in ancient Greece) with music and conversation or a social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas". Frank Wilson is the one who discovered the definition and he proposed that we host a symposium that incorporated the spirit of the word origin and the first definition. The idea was adopted and a relaxed symposium was held with beer served by roaming waitresses throughout the proceeding.

The Section rented the old Tiffany's Attic dinner theater near the Plaza (predecessor of the current New Theater) for the Meeting's special event. The event was a sell out and a great time was had by all. The meeting banquet was also special. Dr. Ruth Terzaghi (prominent geologist and wife of Karl Terzaghi, the father of Soil Mechanics) was inducted as an honorary member of the AEG. When we picked Ruth up at the old Municipal Airport, this spry 69 year old lady emerged from the plane carrying her backpack. She had been backpacking in Spain for the month prior to the meeting. Dr. Richard Handy, the very witty Iowa State University professor, was the banquet speaker. He and Dr. Terzaghi exchanged some very funny good natured barbs throughout the dinner.

1988 ANNUAL MEETING
The Kansas City- Omaha Section of AEG hosted the 31st annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri from October 16-21, 1988.
The theme of the meeting was "Exploration Methods and Applications, New and Revisited". The meeting hotel was the same Hyatt Regency at which over 100 people were killed when a skywalk in the lobby area collapsed during a Tea Dance in 1981. Bill Bryson's wife, Betty, who spent some time doing the hospitality room and helping on the Nelson Art Gallery and Weston guest trips, remembers the number of persons, particularly from California who wanted to know if the Hyatt Regency was safe. She said they would enter the front doors and look up at the rebuilt walkways.

1988 ANNUAL MEETING COMMITTEE CHAIRS
General Chairman Bill Bryson
Administrative Coordinator Dave Stous
Exhibits/Sponsors Bob Vincent and Ralph O Connor
Guest Activities Edith Leonard
Publications and Technical Program Tom McClain
Publicity Ted Fritz
Finance Melissa McBride
Field Trips Larry Knoche and John Moylan
Registration Barbara Smith (also Section Chair)
Special Activities Ken Rapplean
Facilities Coordinator Bill Heimann

The theme of the meeting was "Exploration Methods and Applications, New and Revisited"

In addition to three days of technical sessions, a Remote Sensing Short Course was organized by Richard Kent in cooperation with ASTM, ASPRS, ASCE and GSA. The short course ran concurrently with the technical sessions for a day and a half. There was also record of a half-day symposium on "Computer Simulation as a Tool in Ground Water Investigations" organized by Dr. June Oberdorfer of San Jose State.

A one-day short course titled "Introduction to Remote Sensing" was organized and conducted by AEG member Chris Stohr of the Illinois State Geological Survey. In addition a "one-day down-to-earth short course for newly hired professionals titled " Principles, Procedures, and Problems of Geotechnical Site Investigations and Reports" was organized by Frank Wilson and was presented by a panel of AEG Past Presidents.
These short courses were conducted on the Monday prior to the technical sessions.

A two-day pre-meeting field trip visited the lead and zinc-mining district of SE Kansas and NE Oklahoma to view water pollution problems under investigation by KDHE and the Oklahoma Pollution Control Board and some of the reclamation activities being conducted

A one-day field trip entitled "Underground Space" visited mined-out areas underlying Kansas City, which had been converted to industrial activities. Another one-day field trip entitled "Dams and Highway Construction" featured engineering geology of selected major construction projects.

FUTURE OF THE KANSAS CITY/OMAHA SECTION
Over the past 40 years we have seen significant changes in the type of work done by engineering geologists as well as changes in who employs engineering geologists. In our early years, the Section members were predominantly male public employees working on large public works projects such as highways, dams, and water supply development or for state or federal geological surveys.

Gradually the number of engineering geologists employed by private firms increased as the number of public employees decreased. By the late 1970s, hazardous waste contamination was recognized as a major national environmental problem. Today, the majority of our membership is engaged in environmental geology.

In the future, the majority of engineering geologists in this area will work for private consulting firms. They will continue to be engaged in a wide range of activities relating to the environment, land use planning, geotechnical design, construction materials, transportation, and the effects of geologic processes on man's works. In any event, engineering geology will continue to be an important profession to the continued well being of the community. Hopefully the Kansas City/Omaha Section will continue to support the professional needs of all of the engineering geologists in the area for many years to come.