OSPE - The Voice - September 2017 - 22

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of the reasons that regions were formed
in many parts of Ontario. These changes
also encouraged the public utilities to
adopt the practice of 100 per cent water
metering.
"I would venture to say that up
until about the 1970s, professional
engineers, particularly those working as
engineering consultants and municipal
engineers, were unchallenged masters
in their own house," says Goodings.
"Almost no politician challenged their
team of engineers because they were
acknowledged as the experts. Engineers
supplied the forward-thinking ideas and
the solutions to their clients' problems."
Throughout his own career as a
consulting engineer, Goodings tackled a
diversity of pollution problems head on.
In 1965, Goodings was assigned to be
the on-site, full-time resident engineer
for the construction of the OWRC's first
sponsored project - a secondary sewage
treatment plant to be built in Brantford on
the floodplain of the Grand River. Working
closely with professionals ranging from
earth excavators, to plumbers, welders,
roofers and electricians, Goodings
learned how to navigate the intricacies of
a worksite, while keeping his eye on the
bigger picture.
"As an inexperienced professional
engineer at the time, this project was a

very bewildering experience at first," recalls Goodings. "The chief designer of the
sewage treatment plant gave me some poignant advice that I carried into my next
role as the first manager of a new branch office for the consulting firm Proctor &
Redfern: 'Do not worry about the chimney...just start worrying about building the
foundations.'"
In his subsequent role as the firm's Niagara Region branch manager, Goodings
tasked his survey crews with determining the location of all sanitary sewers and
private sanitary sewage outlets that were dumping their contents into a local stream.
Using deposits of toilet paper and other recognizable objects along the stream's
banks as their guide, the team identified each sewage outlet and designed a new
interceptor sewer that would connect all these outlets and diverge raw sewage into
the two new sewage treatment plants that the firm had designed and built on the
shores of Lake Ontario.
Goodings also became the 'municipal engineer of record' for four municipalities
in the Niagara Peninsula when his firm was hired to provide services as a 'Town
Engineer'. Goodings was also a lead engineer in the preparation of THE PARC
Niagara Report on Regional Water and Sewage Infrastructure for the new Region of
Niagara. This report became the blueprint for millions of dollars worth of capital
works for sewage and water treatment, which took years to implement fully.
"It was within this realm of 'town engineering,' where I learned most about
municipal politics and politicians, the value of their public service, and where
engineering falls into this mix," says Goodings. "I learned from these volunteer
politicians, just as I did from the many qualified trades people with whom I have
worked. My collaboration with public policy leaders provided me with a great
education in becoming a 'civil' civil engineer."
As a professional engineer, Goodings' best advice to engineers and engineering
graduates in all fields of practice is to always offer sound technical advice in an
accurate and unbiased manner.
To learn more about Canada's engineering history over the last 150 years, as well as
the exciting Canadian engineering innovations that continue to be developed every
day, check out OSPE's growing list of 150 ways engineering has influenced Canada by
visiting ospe.on.ca/Canada150.

E x p e r t s i n M e a s u r e m e n t , A n a l y s i s & Co n t r o l

HGC ENGINEERING
N O I S E | V I B R ATI O N | AC O U S T I C S

22

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September 2017

905-826-4044
answers@hgcengineering.com
www.hgcengineering.com
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