WEST’s Ray Walton Receives AAWRE Outstanding Practitioner in Water Resources Engineering Award
Ray Walton, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Senior Engineer at WEST Consultants, Inc., will be awarded the AAWRE 2019 Outstanding Practitioner in Water Resources Engineering Award by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers Board of Trustees and the AAWRE Awards Committee for his significant contributions in water resources engineering and for his work to advance the practice in the water resources profession. Dr. Walton has over 44 years of experience directing water resources studies throughout the U.S. and abroad, and is a nationally-recognized expert in multi-dimensional modeling of surface water, coastal, groundwater, and water quality systems. Dr. Walton will be receiving this award at the 15th annual AAWRE Diplomate Awards Ceremony at the 20th Anniversary EWRI Congress in Pittsburgh on May 20, 2019. Dr. Walton says, “To say I am pleased to receive this award doesn’t come close to the honor that I feel to be recognized by my peers and to be nominated by colleagues I consider to be amongst the best water resources engineers of our time. George Box (like me, a University College London mathematician) is believed to have said ‘All models are wrong. Some are useful.’ In my career, I have strived to be ‘useful’. Again, thank you to the Academy for this amazing and completely unexpected award.”

Congratulations to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority for Receiving the ASFPM James Lee Witt Award
Congratulations to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority for receiving the ASFPM James Lee Witt Award for excellence in local Floodplain Management – a tremendous honor. The James Lee Witt Award recognizes the hard work over the last decade of countless individuals dedicated to improving flood safety and mitigate flood damages in the Chehalis River Basin. In less than 10 years following two epic floods, the Flood Authority’s aggressive multifaceted approach, helped turn a reactive culture to proactive floodplain management. The Authority has implemented improved regulatory standards, developed an innovative flood warning system, supported retrofitting homes with flood vents, facilitated construction of “Farm Pads” to elevate livestock, equipment, and feed. WEST Consultants is proud to be part of this combined effort and we salute our client’s success. Since 2009, WEST Consultants has provided a range of services supporting the Authority’s floodplain management program. WEST designed, implemented, and now manages the Authority’s Chehalis River Basin flood warning system gage network and website (https://chehalis.onerain.com/home.php ). The system included ten new gage sites and replacements for two critical but aging stream gages used for flood forecasting. In addition, the system combines more than 200 additional sensors from water and weather monitoring systems operated by other agencies in the region.

In January 2019, Ramesh S. Chintala, P.E., CFM, D.WRE, joined WEST to serve as Vice President and Office Manager in our new Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas office. Mr. Chintala will lead Texas area operations with primary responsibility for growing WEST’s presence in Texas. Most recently, he led business development and project delivery efforts as Project Director in Atkins North America’s Texas water resources practice. For more than 25 years, Mr. Chintala has developed, planned, and executed a wide variety of environmental and water resources engineering and planning projects throughout the United States. His experience includes FEMA floodplain studies, hydraulic modeling and design, watershed master planning, and stream stabilization and restoration. Mr. Chintala has advanced training in fluvial geomorphology and is skilled in the use of standard and multi-dimensional H&H numerical modeling computer programs.