Jacob
Douma
the Iranian Government. Whenever the Americans got some of Iran's assets, they'd keep
them to pay off Iran's debts. Harza, finally, after about three or four years, got their
million-and-a-half dollars.
Q ..
It took a little while to get any money out of those folks. Basically, it's not too easy to get
money out of them, I guess.
A:
That's right.
It's a long, hard pull. Well, it must be different when you're out in places like Pakistan
and Iran versus when you're in a place like Washington, and you have to go out to some
district or some site out there. Your connections were a lot more tenuous.
Dam, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)
What were some of the other consulting jobs that you did?
A:
All right. I've listed several consulting jobs I'd like to talk about. The first one is
Dam, which was designed and constructed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District
[EBMUD or East Bay MUD] in Oakland, California. There is a hydropower plant at the
dam, which they wanted by adding several power units.
The dam was constructed before 1930, when there were no Federal safety regulations.
Now, whenever a dam is designed, a report must be prepared on the safety of the dam for
FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. If there are no safety questions,
FEMA issues its construction approval. When a project change is desired, FEMA
requires that the owner hire proper consultants to check the safety of the dam.
EBMUD requested FEMA's approval to add the two additional power units. FEMA said
that a study had to be made to show that the dam is safe before approval could be granted.
EBMUD established a consulting board to check the safety of the dam. I was a member
of the board.
The first thing the board did was to check whether the dam was designed for a large
enough flood. FEMA's requirement is that the dam be designed for the maximum
probable flood. When the dam was designed in the
maximum probable flood were
not considered. The board determined that the dam was designed for the maximum
historical flood, which was only 70 percent as large as the maximum probable flood.
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