Seepage Through Earth Dams

This event qualifies for 19 PDHs

This introductory course is designed to be a participatory, interactive workshop, which will cover the basic elements required to understand and evaluate seepage-related issues for earth dams. The course begins with providing an understanding of why seepage mechanisms in earth dams are important to dam safety. Information on seepage mechanics, including permeability and erodibility will then be presented. The presentations will then progress to focus on the principles and characteristics of seepage related to embankment dams, various modes of seepage, and computational methods for evaluating seepage. The second day will focus on methods of investigating, controlling, and remediating dam seepage. Discussions on various case studies will also be presented. Hands-on exercises will represent real-world, practical applications pertinent to the attendees. The final half day will include a hands-on, introductory session of the SEEP/W computer program to demonstrate computational analysis of hypothetical seepage scenarios for an embankment dam.

Learning objectives attendees will receive from this course:

Why understanding seepage mechanisms in earth dams is important to dam safety.
Principles and characteristics of seepage related to embankment dams, including review of potential seepage-related failure modes and their common initiators or triggers.
Computational methods for evaluating seepage.
Understanding theory, application, and design of filters.
Methods of investigating, monitoring, controlling, and remediating seepage problems in existing dams using case histories and hands-on exercises to enforce understanding of practical applications.

Speaker and Presenter Information

John France, PE, D.GE, D.WRE
JWF Consulting LLC
President

John France is a registered professional engineer with over 45 years of consulting engineering experience over which time he has worked on hundreds of civil engineering projects. He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Cornell University. For the past 40 years, his professional career has been focused on dam engineering and dam safety services. During his career, Mr. France has been involved in various capacities in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for earth dams. He has written numerous papers on the topic, and in 2012, he was an invited speaker at a FEMA workshop on filters and seepage remediation. He was also engaged by the Montana Dam Safety Office to prepare a technical note on chimney filter design for posting on the state’s website. Together with Jennifer Williams, Mr. France has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes for ASDSO and the states of Colorado and Wyoming. In 2017, Mr. France served as the team leader for the independent forensic investigation of the Oroville Dam spillway incident, and in 2020 he served the same role in the independent forensic investigation of the failures of Edenville and Sanford Dams in Michigan. He has twice received the ASDSO President’s Award for his contributions to dam safety and in 2022 won the esteemed Danny McCook Award for excellence in geotechnical engineering.

John Cyganiewicz, PE
Cyganiewicz Geotechnical, LLC
President

John Cyganiewicz is a registered professional engineer with over 45 years of engineering experience specializing in the dam safety practice. He received his BS degree at the University of Rhode Island and has completed graduate-level studies at the University of Rhode Island, University of Colorado, and University of California – Berkeley. Mr. Cyganiewicz retired in 2008 from a 32-year career at the Bureau of Reclamation and has continued to work as a consultant for several dam safety rehabilitation projects. Mr. Cyganiewicz was a leader in developing Reclamation’s risk analysis methodology with a specialization in seepage and piping issues of embankment dams and in the development of a toolbox compiled to provide guidance in seepage and piping risk analyses. As an invited speaker, Mr. Cyganiewicz has made numerous presentations at technical meetings of various professional societies including ASDSO, USSD, NZCOLD, ANCOLD, and ICOLD. The presentations focused on design and construction of embankment dams, seepage and piping-related issues, and risk analysis with a specialty in seepage and piping.

Jennifer Williams, P.E.
AECOM
Assoc. Vice President

Jennifer Williams is a registered professional engineer for AECOM (Denver) with over 25 years of experience specializing in geotechnical design and analyses of earth dams. Ms. Williams received her BS degree in engineering-civil from Colorado School of Mines and MS degree in civil/geotechnical engineering from the University of Colorado. She has provided dam safety engineering services including inspection, analysis, design, and risk assessment to several federal and private dam owners and operators. Ms. Williams has been involved in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for both low-head and high-head earth dams. Together with John France, Ms. Williams has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes for ASDSO and the states of Colorado and Wyoming and was an instructor and co-facilitator for an ASDSO technical workshop on the Emergency Response to Seepage Incidents.

Harry C. Donaghy, P.E.
AECOM
Geotechnical Engineer

Harry Donaghy is a registered professional engineer with AECOM (Denver) specializing in geotechnical design and analyses of earth dams. He received BS and MS degrees in civil/geotechnical engineering from the University of Kentucky (Go Cats!). During his 5 years of experience with AECOM, he has focused on material characterization and seepage and stability analyses of embankment dams. He recently co-authored a guidance document on “Seepage and Slope Stability Modeling for Embankment Dams” that he presented at the ASDSO West Regional Conference in 2022. Harry enjoys living in Denver with his wife and young son.

Relevant Government Agencies

Army, Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Energy, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of the Interior, EPA, Other Federal Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Federal Government, State & Local Government, Foreign Governments/Agencies