ULI KAPPUS, P.E.

Project/ Program Management; Water Management; Sustainability; Water Law; Waste Management; Finance, Permitting and Water Marketing.

Registration
Professional Engineer: California and Colorado

Professional Affiliations
National Water Resources Association
American Society of Civil Engineers (Fellow)
American Water Resources Association
American Water Works Association-Water Supply Tech. Comm.
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration
United States Society on Dams
Water Environment Federation
American Nuclear Society - Chairman of Water Supply Standards Committee
Sigma Xi Honorary Research Society

Senior Consultant, Iraq Dam Safety Program - Worked as part of a senior consulting board of dam safety experts to evaluate the safety hazard associated with a series of large dams on the Euphrates River Basin in Iraq.

Project Director, Bisri Dam Design, Lebanon – The Project included contract negotiations, preparation of feasibility and final designs of a 245 ft high Roller Compacted Concrete/ embankment dam on the Bisri River, 20 miles southeast of Beirut. The work included extensive geotechnical and other in country activities.


Imperial Irrigation District – All-American Canal Lining Project. Project Manager on the $250 million canal lining project. The-All American Canal is the major conveyance of drinking and agricultural water from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley in Southern California. The existing canal was unlined and Parsons was selected as the Program and Construction Manager to manage the design and construction of a new 23-mile section concrete-lined canal parallel to the existing canal. The canal is designed for 10,000cfs including the excavation of 11 million cubic yards of rock/ sand. Work included identification and suitability characterization of rock quarries for concrete aggregate production. The project l conserve enough water to meet the annual potable water supply needs for 350,000 people in San Diego. San Diego County


Water Authority – Emergency Storage Project. Project Manager on the $730 million emergency water supply program. Developed the project work plan and managed the conceptualization of 32 alternatives, which included the 230 foot high Roller Compacted Concrete Olivenhain Dam and associated hydroelectric facilities, the San Vicente Pipeline/ Tunnel and RCC Dam Raise project of 120 feet onto an existing gravity dam of 220 feet high, to meet year 2030 municipal, industrial, and agricultural emergency water system needs. Key considerations included permit acquisition, rate impact, sabotage, drought, and earthquake. Managed development of a decision model that led to the selection of the preferred alternatives after intensive public stakeholder and owner input. The program included alternative pipeline and tunnel water delivery systems that are several hundred miles long with diameters up to 96 inches. Pumping station sizes up to 40,000 horsepower were sited, coupled with preliminary design and cost estimates. This project was fully permitted, under CEQA/NEPA without any lawsuits, and construction is underway.


Upper Cherry Creek Water Supply Project, Colorado – Municipal water supply program, including hydro geologic investigations, designs, permitting and cost estimates to convert a large gravel pit into urban water supply storage using slurry walls. The 60 foot deep pit will also have a recreational component and provide about 6000 acre feet of critically needed water supply storage in the middle of the demand area.


Colony Oil Shale Project, Colorado – Managed the water resources and spent shale management program for EXXON, USA on this large oil shale program in western Colorado. Fully supported site development and the entire permitting cycle with the EXXON staff in numerous regulatory and public meetings. Developed innovative water harvesting programs from the covered spent shale piles using PVC membranes and waste rock to augment process water needs.


LNG Site Development – Working with a confidential Client in Japan to develop grass roots site facilities in the Arabian Gulf for a large LNG loading port.


Regional Power Plant Siting Study – Program Manager for siting a 1000 MW coal fired power plant in North Dakota or South Dakota and a sister plant of 1000 MW in Montana or Wyoming. The work included evaluating available surface and ground water supplies, transmission networks and ash disposal. Numerous successful public and regulatory meetings were held.


Financing, Colorado – Managed the creation of the Colorado Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund to issue up to $175 million in revenue bonds to leverage federal grant monies for wastewater treatment and sludge disposal facilities.


Program Manager – Appointed by the Governor of Colorado to the Upper Colorado River Task Force to resolve West/ East slope water supply issues, leading to feasibility level studies for the Joint Use Green Mt. Exchange Project. This program included pumping 120,000 acre feet per year through a 26 mile 72 inch pipeline with a static lift of 1,070 feet and large dams/ hydro facilities with storage in excess of 300,000 acre feet.. Total project cost was $1.2 billion.


Project Manager – EIS for the 1500 MW coal fired Laramie River Station, Wyoming prepared for the US Army COE. Gray Rocks Dam was the cooling water supply with diversions upstream of critical habitat for numerous endangered species on the Platte River. Key issues were water rights, section seven consultation and associated mitigation strategy negotiations, economic impact analyses and minimum stream flows. The total Project cost was $1.8 billion at construction completion.


Pardee Dam Raise, Valley Springs, CA for East Bay MUD – Project Manager for the engineering and permitting services to increase the reservoir storage by 3000,000 acre feet by raising the existing concrete gravity dam by 100 feet. The scope included preparation of 30% designs for the dam raise and associated hydro facilities and stakeholder issues resolution.


Wind River Export Water Study, Wyoming – As Project Director, led investigation for the export of 100,000 acre feet of water per year from the Wind River Reservation near Rock Creek, Wyoming. The program identified available water for export to California and Colorado with cost estimates for large river intakes, pumping stations, tunnels and pipelines.


Stagecoach Project Financing, Colorado – Managed the issuance and disbursement of a revenue bond for construction financing of the 150 foot high RCC Dam, 33, 000 acre foot Stagecoach Project and related hydro facilities. Program included numerous meetings with US Bureau of Reclamation/ FERC and environmental agencies.


Permitting of Nuclear Power Facilities – Project Manager on over a dozen Preliminary Safety Analyses Reports in the Eastern US including all of the attendant environmental and geotechnical programs. A typical example is the V. C. Summer Nuclear Complex in South Carolina. The project includes a 800 MW nuclear complex with a large power plant cooing water supply reservoir that serves both as the ultimate heat sink as well as providing the upper reservoir for a 511 MW pumped storage facility.


Turkey Point Nuclear Power Complex – Developed a nutrient flushing model of the Card Sound tidal system that is located south of the main power block. FPL wanted to expand the cooling canal system to accommodate future expansion into the area. A key regulatory concern was the impact of the nutrient flux on the Sound if the area is stripped of natural mangrove and hammock vegetation. The work included extensive dye studies with helicopter assisted photographic tracking to adequately calibrate the dispersion model. Additional work, including an extensive geotechnical boring/ test well program to characterize the hydrogeologic environment, was also conducted.


Hydro-Biologic Studies of the Alafia and Little Manatee River Systems – Extensive biologic/ hydrologic/ hurricane surge analyses was completed for these two rivers located South of Tampa. A principal focus was to develop water and nutrient budgets for the system with emphasis on the drainage from numerous phosphate open pit mines in the basins. The objective of the program was to develop long term eutrophication controls for Tampa Bay.


Water Supply Dams, Monterey County, California. Nacimiento and San Antonio water supply dams were found to have inadequate spillways that control these two 350,000 acre-feet reservoirs. The work first included development of new spillway design floods and probable maximum floods (PMFs) from modified National Weather Services Atlases. Then provided routing/spillway sizing and evaluation of alternative spillway and low-level outlet systems to meet state and FERC dam safety criteria. Work included evaluation of dam raise, labyrinth weir, ogee, inflatable spillway dams, conventional chute, and connecting the reservoirs with a tunnel, coupled with preliminary designs to support cost estimates for rehabilitation. Extensive dam safety regulatory agency interface meetings were conducted.


Executive Director, Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority. Responsibilities included execution of the policies, directives, and authorizations of the Authority Board of Directors with an annual budget up to $81.6 million. Reviewed water supply programs for irrigation on M&I, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation proposals; supervised and directed Authority staff; and prepared information for Colorado's general assembly and congressional delegation. Worked with the Colorado congressional delegation in negotiating the cost-sharing arrangement with the Bureau of Reclamation for the $600 million Animas-La Plata water supply and irrigation project. Made recommendations pertaining to legislative needs related to water, flood management, wastewater treatment, sludge disposal, and hydropower matters to Colorado's general assembly.


Copperhill Flood Control Project, Tennessee. Project manager and engineer of record for a trans-basin river flood detention and diversion project, Cities Service Company, for an open pit/underground copper mine, consisting of a 100-foot-high earthfill dam, gated 48-inch pipeline outlet conduit, emergency spillway lined with grouted riprap and a 13-foot trans-basin diversion hard rock tunnel making extensive use of grouted rock bolts. The program included dam safety regulatory interface and permitting, design, contract document preparation and services during construction. Extensive sedimentation studies were conducted to assess dead storage needs from the highly disturbed basin.


Dominguez Project, Colorado. Completed a major regulatory and engineering investigation for a billion dollar program to lease up to 200,000 acre-feet per year of Colorado's Colorado River compact entitlement to the lower basin states, coupled with 2,500 MW pumped storage and 34 MW run-of-river hydro developments. The program included numerous large dams, canals, and pipeline options, with the potential of exchanging up to 50,000 acre-feet per year to the Colorado Front Range. Key issues include water rights law permitting and financing challenges.


Dam Safety. Dam development experience includes the entire spectrum from planning, design, permitting and safety inspections of dams and river control works. Activities included dam safety reviews and design of remedial works for dams and their spillways found inadequate. Participated through the Engineering Foundation and the US Army COE in developing the National Dam Safety Program that serves as the model for state dam regulatory function.


Coal Gasification. Managed the Troup Project in East Texas for EXXON, USA. This Project was a large mine-mouth coal gasification plan requiring the disposal of ash, mine waste and wastewater treatment sludge discharges for a total of 120 million cubic yards. The program included extensive RCRA waste characterization studies and modeling the hydro-geologic conditions to control wastewater and leachate migration.


Expert Testimony. Provided testimony services, condemnation proceedings including jury trials, in valuing water storage facilities utilizing worked out quarries in support of regional water supply planning and financing matters.


Mr. Kappus has presented over 100 technical papers and speaking engagements at national conferences on dam safety, water resources planning, permitting, project financing, conversion of quarries to water/ energy storage facilities, design and construction management activities.


Education: BS and MS in Civil Engineering