Pioneer engineering geologistThreadlines of Geotechnical and Engineering Geology firms in the Greater San Francisco Bay-Northern California Area

In December 1943 Ray moved to the Sacramento District of the Corps of Engineers, becoming Assistant Chief of the Geology Section under Claire P. Holdridge. He served as the project geologist for the Folsom Dam project between 1949-53, where he supervised some impressive mapping of the dam’s foundation excavations, which proved valuable 60 years later, when the dam’s foundation stability underwent a thorough reassessment. In 1953 he became Chief Geologist of the Corps San Francisco District, where he focused his energies on the Coyote Dam/Lake Mendocino project near Ukiah and complied a “Comprehensive Survey Report on San Francisco Bay,” which became one of the most oft-cited geotechnical documents of that era, which influenced planning of the BART system and assessment of geotechnical site response to earthquake shaking along the bay margins.

After Hoover Dam was completed in 1935, he worked on other BurRec dams, including Parker and Grand Coulee. He was named Chief Geologist of the Bureau of Reclamation in 1939, but left to open his own consultancy, based out of Whittier, in 1942. Nickell then took a position with Shell Oil Company and Standard Oil and Gas as a petroleum geologist from 1943 to 1944, but this work took him overseas. From 1945 until 1973 he was a consulting geologist on dams, hydroelectric development, irrigation, and geologic studies for companies and governments worldwide. In the early 1950s he moved to San Mateo, where he remained until he retired and moved to La Jolla, where he died in September 1975. He consulted on dam projects all over the world the remainder of his life, including the ill-fated Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir pumped storage project for Union Electric Co. of St. Louis in Missouri (completed in 1960-64), which failed in December 2005.

In the summer of 1946 he drove to Los Angeles, and enrolled at East Los Angeles Junior College for one semester. In January 1946 he transferred to UCLA to major in geology, and attended geology field camp in Baja California in the summer of 1947. Al received his BS degree in geology from UCLA in August 1950, after completing his third summer field camp! In 1951 he enrolled in graduate studies at UCLA, while working for Shell Oil.

In 1952 he joined the State Division of Highways Materials and Research Lab, as their only geologist outside of the Bridge Department. He then moved to field exploration, where he worked under Travis W. Smith, PE out of the Transportation Laboratory in Sacramento from 1953-58. This work included the engineering geology for many elements of the proposed new interstate highway system, including assessments of slope stability, foundations, and predictions of ground settlement under embankments and bridge approaches, etc. The most challenging project was the massive fill placed across Candlestick Cove to convey US Hwy 101 between Candlestick and Sierra Points, just north of the San Francisco Airport. The fill displaced 5 to 10 feet of  soft mud laterally, and required ongoing monitoring as each increment of fill was placed, eventually allowing 2.4-mile long section of the Bayshore Freeway to be completed.

                In the 1950s most areas of the state employed incinerators and burning dumps, prior to the advent of the sanitary landfills. In 1958 Al transferred to the Water Rights Board and was instrumental in doing all of the Geology section of the 1969 Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. The Water Rights Board was given more power and renamed the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), based in Sacramento. This became the regulatory agency that oversaw the state’s water quality, and reviewed applications for solid waste disposal, with Franks serving as they agency’s senior hydrogeology expert. This eventually led to Al becoming the State of California's senior technical expert on solid waste landfills and adjudication of water rights, including groundwater in court actions, while serving as Supervising Engineering Geologist of the WRCB, from 1963-80. While in that capacity he co-wrote Subchapter 15 [Waste Discharge Requirements] of Title 23 of the California Administrative Code (originally adopted in March 1972), which regulates groundwater and surface water quality around solid waste landfills. At the time these were the most restrictive geoenvironmental regulations for solid waste landfills in the United States. In his capacity as the author of these new regulations Franks received a great deal of pressure from landfill operators, who were wary of the new requirements.

Al also wrote a number of articles and regulations that were pivotal in establishing better standards for groundwater quality. In the September 1972 issue of California Geology Al penned one of the most oft-cited articles on sewage disposal systems in California, titled “Geology for individual sewer disposal systems.” In July 1980 he wrote “Waste Discharge Requirements for Nonsewerable Waste Disposal to Land” for the SWRCB, which became an oft-cited standard in the solid waste industry, nation-wide.

                In the late 1970s Al completed doctoral studies at U.C. Davis, where he also completed 75 units of civil engineering and soil science courses, working with Professors Krohn and Bigger. He completed his PhD in 1980 with his dissertation topic “Environmental geology-land use planning, erosion and sedimentation of the west Martis Creek drainage basin, California” (near Truckee). During the 60s and 70s he also taught evening courses at USC and at UC Davis.

After retiring from state service in 1980, he opened a consulting business, A. L. Franks Engineering/ Geologist as a DVBE firm, which specialized in solid waste geoenvironmental engineering and hydrogeology, based at 44 Lakeshore Circle in Sacramento. His expertise was sought by just about every landfill applicant in the state during the 1980s and 90s. He was also hired by the National Park Service to develop a groundwater supply system for use in Yosemite Valley. Using the latest geophysical system at that time he had a well drilled into an ancient streambed system beneath 400 feet of gravel and sand, and developed a well with a capacity of 1,200 gpm. They required 800 gpm, so the extra water was pumped to other parts of the park.

                When Al served as the senior geologist of the SWRCB, the Regional Water Quality Control Boards didn't require technical proficiency testing similar to that required by the State Division of Mines & Geology. Franks fought for proficiency testing of geologists, but lost that battle. He continued lobbying for a separate certification in hydrogeology, which eventually met with success in 1995, without allowance for grandfathering (every applicant was required to take and pass the proficiency test, for the first time in California history). His colleagues honored him by designating him as Hydrogeologist (HG) #1.   

Operated by R. Burton Rose, CEG, RGP (1910-90) grew up in San Jose and received his graduate education at UCLA in the late 1930s (MS Geol 1939 UCLA). He was writing articles on geophysical exploration as early as 1941 (see Radioactive Exploration, R. Burton Rose, The Mines Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 12, p. 617-620, 635, Dec 1941). He operated a consulting firm known as Allied Geophysics out of San Jose from about 1940 through the late 1970s. Rose performed seismic refraction surveys for numerous public agencies, engineering firms, and private clients, many associated with groundwater studies.

Geonomics was a Berkeley-based geophysical consulting firm made up primarily of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) that did quite a bit of interesting work in the 1970s, mostly for oil companies and the US Department of Energy, examining geothermal potential. Some of their senior associates included Vice President Subit K. Sanyl, Allen M. Katzenstein, Tsvi Meidav, PhD and his wife Mae Z. Meidav, PhD. Others who authored reports for Geonomics included L. H. Goldsmith, M. Stark, Norman E. Goldstein, H. Wollenberg, B. Strisower, H. Hege, and M. Wilt. Richard Weiss worked for them briefly, in 1976-77. In 1980 Subit Sanyl (PhD ’71 Pet Eng’g, Stanford) started a firm named GeothermEx, Inc., based in Richmond

Founded in 1983 by Kenneth Blom, PG, RGP, a former marine geologist for the USGS (1969-73), and Manager of Geophysical Operations for Harding Lawson (1973-83). Ken has a BS in geology from Fresno State in 1969 and graduate studies in geophysics at San Jose State. The firm maintained offices in Sacramento, moved to Petaluma, and then to Cotati (with a branch office in Fountain Valley). Kenneth Blom was still President in 2000. In 1994 Norcal expanded its capabilities to include borehole logging and imaging instrumentation and brought Bill Henrich, CEG, RGP (BA Econ ’76 LaSalle; MS Geol ’79 Idaho State) from Harding Lawson to manage this new department. Other principals include VP Bill Black, RGP (BA Geophy ’69; MS ’72 UC Riverside), who also served as President of the State Board of Geology & Geophysics from 2002-09; Don Kirker, RGP (BS Geol ’86 SDSU), David Bissiri, RGP (BS Geophys UCLA), David Hagin, CEG, RGP (BS Physics ’84 UC Irvine; MS Geophys ’86 UC Riverside), and Anna Brody Haynie (BA Geol Univ Rochester; MS Geol 2011 CSU Fresno).

Founded around 1985 by Bruce B. Redpath, RGP in Galt, and later, Murphys, CA, after he had worked for Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) and URS/John Blume & Associates. At LLNL he worked on refining the seismic refraction technique for geoengineering applications (see Seismic Refraction Exploration for Engineering Site Investigations, Tech Rpt E73-4, USACE-WES Explosive Excavation Research Lab, Livermore, May 1973). In the late 1970s-early 80s he performed pioneering work on downhole seismic arrays, including a 58 m deep hole in the midst of the downhole array at Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station (see Redpath, B. B., Edwards, R. B., Hale, R. J., and Kintler, F. C., 1982, Development of field techniques to measure damping values for near-surface rocks and soils: NSF grant PFR-7900192; and Redpath, B. B., and Lee, R. C., 1986, In-situ measurements of shear-wave attenuation at a strong-motion recording site: USGS Contract No. 14-08-001-21823, prepared by URS-John A. Blume and Associates, San Francisco). Redpath had previously worked for GeoRecon in the Seattle area in the 1960s. He did pioneering work in downhole measurement of shear wave velocities, of particular import following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake for Caltrans.

EG&G’s origins date back to 1931 when MIT Professor Harold E. “Doc” Edgerton (1903-90) formed a partnership with his graduate student Kenneth Germeshausen. Edgerton was a pioneer in developing high speed photography. In 1934 they were joined by another MIT grad student named Herbert Grier. They became a prominent defense contractor during the Second World War and gained considerable fame for their work in high speed imaging of attempts to prepare a perfect implosion device as part of the ultra-secret Manhattan Project during the war. Bernard "Barney" O'Keefe became the fourth partner of the firm, which was reformulated as Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc., or EG&G, in 1947.

During the 1950s and 1960s the firm did a lot of work for the Atomic Energy Commission, working with Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Raytheon, Reynolds Electrical and Engineering, and others. EG&G expanded its services to include facilities management, technical services, security, and pilot training for the Department of Defense. EG&G also developed a variety of sensing, detection and night visioning products designed to detect radioactive, chemical, and biological agents, and a variety of acoustic sensors. The company also provided microwave and electronic components to the Department of Defense for electronic warfare and mine countermeasures.

During the 1970s and 80s EG&G diversified by acquiring interest in firms involved in paper making, scientific instrumentation for marine, environmental and geophysical users, automotive testing, fans and blowers, frequency control devices and other components. In the late 1980s and early 1990s most of these divisions were sold. Although EG&G was based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, they maintained a branch office in Palo Alto, where their rep was Gerald B. ‘Geb’ Church (BS ’76 Biology Stanford; MBA Laverne), and they provided high-quality geophysical surveys of individual sites around the bay area. In May 1999, the non-government side of EG&G purchased the Analytical Instruments Division of PerkinElmer and the remainder by the Carlyle Group. In 2001 Carlyle was purchased by URS Corporation of Gaithersburg, MD. In December 2009 the EG&G Division of URS became URS Federal Services.

The City of Woodside has also retained a consulting geologist to serve as their reviewing geologist for building permit applications. This position was originally held by Dick Harding of Earth Science Associates, then by Bill Cotton, and later, by Robert H. “Bob” Wright. For many years Earth Science Associates performed similar geotechnical peer review services for a number of peninsula cities, including San Carlos.

In 1966 the Santa Clara County Water District established a geologist position, which was filled by Jeremy C. Wire, CEG (BA Geol ’58 Pomona; MA ’61 UCLA), who came from the Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg. He remained in this position until 1969. In the 1970s Santa Clara County was reorganized to include an Environmental Resources Agency, and the County Geologist position was designated by the County’s Planning Director. For several decades that individual was James O. Berkland, CEG (BA Geol ’58 Berkeley), assisted by Pete Anderson, CEG (in the late 1970s). Berkland incurred the ire of his supervisors and was temporarily suspended several times because of his passion for predicting earthquakes using non-traditional means, which often appeared in Bay Area newspapers and were critiqued by USGS scientists and academics. In January 2006, a book about Jim Berkland was published, The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes: Jim Berkland, Maverick Geologist--How His Quake Warnings Can Save Lives (by Cal Orey and published by Sentient Publications). In the late 1980s-early 1990s Frederick W. “Rick” Haltenhoff, CEG served as the part-time County Geologist, a period that straddled the October 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. In 1994 Jim Baker, CEG (BS Geol ’71; MS ’76 Stanford) became the Santa Clara County Geologist, and he began compiling a credible record of the county’s geohazards, noting how they have historically handled various problems.

The City of San Jose Public Works Department also employs a ‘City Geologist.’ Trish Gomes, CEG held that position in the mid-1980s, then it was passed to Bill Wahler GE, CEG between 1984-88. Mike Shimamoto, CEG (BA Geol ’74, MS ’76 Humboldt State) took over the reins in the late 1980s and has held the position ever since.

In the early 1970s Alameda County established a geologist position. For many years this was David W. Carpenter, CEG (who previously worked for USBR in Sacramento). He retired around 1985-86 and provided part-time review services for a number of cities in Alameda County, including Pleasanton. His successor was Ed Danehy (from Wahler Associates). Since 1995 Cal Engineering & Geology has performed geologic peer review services for Alameda County, using Mitch Wolfe, CEG (formerly of Seidelman Assoc and Rogers/Pacific).