CHATTANOOGA
ENGINEERS CLUB
NEXT
WEEK_______________________________________________
Monday, November 3, noon, Read House - Continental Room
Topic: Tennessee Interbasin Water Transfer Issue Update - Dr. Richard Urban,
Tenn. Dept. of Conservation and Environment; Dr.
James Cunningham, UTC; and
Dr. Charles Bohac, TVA
During the Sundquist administration the State of Tennessee approved a
request by Eastside Utilities District for permission to withdraw up to 5
million gallons per day of Tennessee River water to supply customers in east
Tennessee and northwest Georgia
located in a non-Tennessee River drainage basin. Soon thereafter,
Tennessee imposed a ban on further interbasin water withdrawals until an
inventory of existing water uses in the State could be compiled and
evaluated. Dr. Dick Urban of the
Tennessee Department of Conservation and Environment will discuss the
status of the moratorium on interbasin water transfers from the Tennessee.
Dr. Jim Cunningham, a UTC chemical engineering professor and member of
Tennessee's Water Quality Board will describe that Board's role and the decision
making process relating to water
withdrawals. Dr. Chuck Bohac of TVA's River Operations will discuss water
quantity models that TVA has developed and how those models will be used to
evaluate proposed interbasin water transfers.
Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia have been in a court battle for the past 10 years
concerning the water allocation from the Chattahoochee and Flint
Rivers. Since the water needs of
Georgia could exceed their allocation from the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers they may call for interbasin water withdrawals
from the Tennessee River.
Tennesseans have a strong
interest in this issue and representatives from Georgia and Alabama are
scheduled later to tell us their State's position and future needs for
water.
Invocation
Chairperson for November: Walt Davies
OUR PREVIOUS
MEETING_______________________________________
Greg Laudeman spoke about creating wealth through
technology. Greg recently completed a second masters degree in Public
Policy and is working for the Georgia Tech Economic Development Institute
(EDI). Greg has lived in Chattanooga off and on since the early
1980s. He explained that
economic development efforts are typically focused on basic industry--companies
that use local labor and develop products to export or sell more than just
locally. Communities sometimes compete for basic industry by offering
(tax) incentives. Supplying cool technologies to the market doesn't make a company successful. Demand
drives the market, not supply. So bringing high technology companies into
our community isn't the answer.
Every company needs to be a technology company. Technology means
change. Technology needs to be useful and useable. DOS was more
stable and useful than Windows, but it was useable by a limited number of
people. Windows expanded the market of those considering it useable.
There is risk in using a new technology, but there is also risk in NOT changing
that is often overlooked.
Leadership with a vision for innovation is needed.
EDI uses local leaders that are innovative to motivate other business leaders by
telling them about their successes and how they achieved them.
Education should be a life long endeavor, especially for
leaders. Workforce training should be flexible to meet the needs of
industries as they change. Greg suggests focusing on the most competitive
and most innovative local industries to offer them incentives of license fees,
etc. for working with the research and development part of the local
universities. We need to move the new ideas from the laboratories more
quickly into the marketplace. Many of the lower skilled jobs are moving to
other countries. In the United States, our companies need to improve our
processes by customizing our products to do exactly what the customers
need. Technologies that increase our productivity will be valuable
competitive tools. Wal-Mart is an example of an incredibly information
intensive company able to deliver what customers want on a huge
scale.
Communities wanting to encourage companies to benefit from
using new technologies should themselves model the innovative behavior they wish
to encourage. Do all small businesses have the ability to invest in
specialized software development? Could the community provide as a service
like electricity and water, a software infrastructure for small businesses to
subscribe to? Do we have enough information about business needs to
aggregate those with similar needs to offer other services? Even if the
community doesn't offer specialized
services for businesses to subscribe to, they could facilitate the information
exchange to help businesses join forces to achieve similar goals.
This is Judy's summary of the collection of
thoughts Greg shared with us. We all hear through our own
filters. If you took away a different message or would like to converse
further with Greg on any of these subjects, his email address at EDI is
greg.laudeman@edi.gatech.edu.
FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS_____________________________________
November 10: Controlled Fusion - How Real? How
Soon? Dr. Stan Milora, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
November 17: Alabama Water Issues - Trey
Glenn, Director of the Office of Water Resources Division for the Alabama
Department of Economic and Community Affairs
November 24: Remotely Controlled Laboratory at
UTC - Dr. James Henry, Univ. of Tenn. at Chattanooga
December 1: Farming Goes High Tech - Mark
Downing, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
December 6: Christmas Dinner at 6 p.m. -
Stone Fort Inn, 120 East 10th Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402 www.stonefortinn.com
December 8: The August 2003 Blackout -
Terry Boston, Tennessee Valley Authority
(Joint meeting with the Power Engineering Society)
WHERE WE MEET
____________________________________________
In November, we will be meeting at the Read House -
Continental Room in downtown Chattanooga. We may continue to park at the Days
Inn on Carter Street (being sure to leave a notice on your dashboard that
indicates you are attending the Chattanooga Engineers Club meeting). A map
showing the location of the Read House may be found at http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org/ReadHouse.gif.
QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS?
______________________________
If you have any questions or suggestions about program
items please call Brad Baucom at 423-648-3582 or email him at baucombe@epb.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members
at our web site: www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.