By Stephanie Potoka
As early as middle school, I knew that math came easily for me. Around that time, my dad showed me an issue of National Geographic pertaining to a rising environmental issue that a relative was studying. This was also in the days of only three TV channels out in the country (four, if we rotated the antennae). So when I was home sick from school, watching the kid-appropriate daytime channel, I discovered a career plan. The show I found, hosted by Jaime Escalante of calculus teaching fame, was about using math in environmental applications. Given my math abilities and growing environmental knowledge, this added up to a concrete and comfortable plan. Was civil engineering on my radar at this point? Not even close. Numbers were too beautiful with their patterns and connections, as evidenced by another lovely TV show of that era, Square One, making the Fibonacci series, tessellations, and code-making both memorable and comprehendible.
As a result, I decided to pursue an undergrad degree in mathematics at Calvin University where some of my classmates were, of course, engineers. I was, however, not pulled into the field yet. My next life choice was grad school for a master’s in industrial and applied mathematics at the University of Minnesota, an introduction to the field of math modeling. Finding this not to be practical enough, I decided to pursue another master’s, this time in civil engineering. Nine years after undergrad, I was the proud holder of two master’s degrees and mom to three. Given the pressures of life, the added constraint of an autoimmune disease, and addition of two more kids, the solution was to spend the next 12 years at home watching construction work in our Chicago and then Grand Rapids neighborhoods with two machine-loving youngsters, while also making time for classroom involvement relating to environmental issues.
Thanks to a civil engineering friend, I started part time at Prein&Newhof as an engineer on the first day that my youngest started full-time school. At the time, I really had no idea what civil engineers did day-to-day, but I happened to land in what P&N considers a “support service,” specifically that of hydraulics and hydrology. To me this is essentially the civil engineering version of industrial and applied modelling all about water, including both water on the landscape and contained within a system of pipes (think drinking water as well as wastewater). There was still a firehose of information, a steep learning curve, and so many questions which my co-workers graciously answered (and continue to answer).
A useful way for me to dive into work was involvement in Water System Reliability Studies. Unbeknownst to the vast population of Michigan residents, communities do this overview examination of their drinking water system every five years. This data-heavy report includes a map of the entire system of watermain, details of storage tanks, pumps, wells, and treatment plants, as well as water-usage related data like total pumping and billing. The other component of the study is flowing hydrants throughout the system, recording the changing pressures and flows, and then bringing the field data back to the office to calibrate the hydraulic model of the system.
To use any computer model, we must trust the reality of its abstraction: that the model does not 100% predict the system, but it gets close enough to be useful. Initial computer models began as text only, simply a list of pipes and associated connections with the program performing all the equation computations of water flow that, for decades, people had done by hand (or slide rule!). Given its ease of use now, with graphics and all, it’s tempting to use the model as a black box with magical answers. Given the iterations of these models that senior professionals have seen, though, we always ask the question “Do the results make sense?” Because sometimes they don’t, and if not, we must find out why. The purpose of the model is to aid in identifying areas of the water distribution system that could use improvement, often with larger diameter pipe or increased pumping capacity. The whole reliability study involves not just the model, spreadsheets, and numbers, but also the fluidity of patterns and connections.
In addition to enjoying the technical components of my job, coming to the profession so late in life has elevated my appreciation of municipal Department of Public Works employees and managers, as well as surveyors, GIS specialists, construction contractors, and all others involved in the work of infrastructure. I always knew that the fundamental building blocks of our first-world luxuries (clean drinking water, treated sanitary sewer systems, roads, bridges, and rainwater management) were taken for granted but had no idea how extensive the work behind them truly is. These building blocks are not perfect, though, as anyone with knowledge of PASER ratings, groundwater contamination, storm water quality, and aging infrastructure would know. There are still uncountably many environmental issues to approach from different angles, but I derive great satisfaction in being part of the integral behind-the-scenes work to maintain and improve infrastructure for local communities. While I now am fully converted to engineer, I am thankful to still be immersed in the beauty of numbers.
