The Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design (the Board of AELSLAGID) Rulemaking Notice for FE & AR Examinations (R-04547)!

The Board of AELSLAGID has published a Dual Notice of Intent to Adopt Rules Without a Public Hearing Unless 25 or More Persons Request a Hearing, And Notice of Hearing if 25 or More Requests for Hearing Are Received.

The Board of AELSLAGID intends to adopt rule amendments that allow applicants for the Fundamentals of Engineering and the Architect Registration Examinations to apply directly to the respective national council to take the examination without first obtaining Board approval. Upon passing the examination and completing any other requirements for licensure or certification, the applicant may apply to the Board for licensure or certification.

The full text of the Dual Notice, the proposed language, and the Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR) are available on the Board of AELSLAGID’s website at http://mn.gov/aelslagid/rulemaking.html.

Written comment to the rules and/or requests for a hearing must be received in the Board of AELSLAGID office by 4:30 pm on January 2, 2019. If the Board receives 25 or more requests for a hearing, the hearing will be held on February 15, 2019 at 9:30 am.

Direct comments or hearing requests to Andrea Barker at the Board of AELSLAGID at andrea.barker@state.mn.us. You may also submit comments via the Office of Administrative Hearings Rulemaking e-comments website at: https://minnesotaoah.granicusideas.com/discussions.

Comment on rules is encouraged!

If you'd like to subscribe to the Board of AELSLAGID's rulemaking email list directly, please email Andrea Barker at andrea.barker@state.mn.us.

The Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will have their Geo-Congress 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota!

Geo-Congress 2020: Vision, Insight, Outlook will take place February 25 - 28, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis. 

The conference committe is currently accepting proposals for special sessions and short courses.  Please submitt your proposals online at https://2020.geocongress.org/program/call-submissions.

The attached flyers and website contain additional information!  If you have questions, please contact the Conference Chair, Derrick D. Dasenbrock, P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, with the Minnesota Department of Transportation at derrick.dasenbrock@state.mn.us, or Brad Keelor, Director of the Geo-Institute of ASCE, at bkeelor@asce.org.  

AIPG Minnesota Section,

We are looking for ‘testimonials’ on how people have used the county geologic atlases. We occasionally get requests to give presentations on the topic – “Just what are the County Geologic Atlas good for?” We also routinely get asked by legislators to provide examples at the local level of how they are used, and even what the economic advantages to having a county atlas are.

We know the CGA is used by a wide variety of stakeholders for many different applications and their availability often results in time and money savings on projects (high capacity wells, groundwater modeling, landfill siting, DOT uses them in structure work, counties use them for many zoning applications, and many more).

We are particularly interested to know about specific projects, but also find value in understanding in a more general sense the types of projects you use them for. Here are a couple shortened examples we have received:

Jim de Lambert, Senior Hydrogeologist, Carlson McCain, Inc: “For most projects the initial information sources include the County Geologic Atlas. For Minnesota well siting projects, the County Atlas Series will be my first source of information to help define the project area and to give the area broad hydrogeologic context. This assists in identifying potential target aquifer(s). If the supplier is a Rural Water System, there is often considerable flexibility with well field location and this type of county and regional information can be invaluable.”

Heather Cunningham, Zoning and Environmental Services Administrator, Carlton County: “I would say that I use the atlas on a monthly basis. In the last 6 months, I have used it for the review of an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW), pollution sensitivity for a proposed mixed use development, groundwater contamination at our closed landfill, and in working with a lake association.”

Kristi Anderson, Hydrogeologist, Northwest AqwaTek Solutions: “The majority of what I do is working with the agricultural community for crop irrigation systems; I typically look to the County Geologic Atlas (CGA)….as the starting point for my work.”

Joe Hudak, Assistant Engineering Geologist, Minnesota Department of Transportation: “We typically use the county atlases for subsurface information prior to conducting any geophysical field work or drill rig borings/CPT soundings.”

Martin Larsen, Olmsted County Feedlot Technician, Landowner & Farmer, Olmsted County: “The County Geologic Atlas is an important tool for the Olmsted Soil and Water Conservation District. It is used for animal feedlot permitting and nutrient management planning to locate sinkholes, depth to bedrock and first encountered bedrock. The springshed maps included in some Part B atlases are utilized for local education and outreach.”

If you have specific application examples that you could share it would be especially useful. Or, if you have any leads of others who might use the CGAs, we would be interested in getting those contacts so that we could learn more.

We are also very interested to get your ideas about how we can improve the end-product. Maybe there is a way we can make the CGA more valuable to you.

Thank-you for your help.
Barb Lusardi, Associate Director, Minnesota Geological Survey, lusar001@umn.edu
Paul Putzier, Supervisor DNR County Geologic Atlas Program, paul.putzier@state.mn.us

As a 2017 AIPG MN Section Sponsor, your personal AIPG MN member account has been credited with 2 Luncheon Vouchers.  You can use them for anyone you register using your member account during 2017.

When you get to the payment screen, you'll see a section where you can select to use a voucher: 

Please select how many vouchers you'd like to use and click on APPLY.  You'll proceed through the registration process with a $0 balance.  If you have questions or issues using the vouchers, please contact Shanna Schmitt at past-president@aipgmn.org or 651.757.2697.  Thank you for your sponsorship!

Students from the University of St. Thomas Geology Department recently formed an AIPG Student Chapter.  Thier bylaws were signed on 02/13/2015, and AIPG Headquarters recognized them on 03/30/2015. Congratulations!

Sara Nelson of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is the AIPG MN Section liason with the University of St. Thomas AIPG Student Chapter.