Underground Construction - January 2022 - 30

UNDERGROUND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY
UCTonline.com
Florida Waters, Tennessee Dams Led
2021 MVP Kurz to Unlikely Career
Jeff Awalt | Executive Editor
There are some people who seem to know exactly where their future
and their career will take them from the earliest age. And that
certainly seemed to be the case with George Kurz, who was named
2021 Most Valuable Professional of the sewer/water industry
by the Underground Construction Technology Association and
Underground Construction.
" For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated with water, "
said Kurz, chuckling at the thought of his younger self. " My earliest
memories as a child were of just plain water, as silly and basic
as that sounds. It's just always been there. "
Kurz's near-obsession with water eventually manifested itself
during his teens as a keen interest in dams, so it seemed almost
like providence when his family moved from Florida to Tennessee
during his senior year of high school.
" I thought I was in dam - that's D-A-M - heaven, " Kurz said,
musing over those weekends when he and his parents would
venture from their new home in Athens and explore the Tennessee
Valley Authority's (TVA) array of dams - many of them lesser-known
and tucked away in the hills of eastern Tennessee.
" And I thought, " he said, " this is perfect. I couldn't have asked
for anything better. "
An inconvenient truth
The son of an electrical engineer and maternal grandson of a
mechanical engineer, Kurz found himself drawn to a career in civil
engineering, with " grand dreams " of working on systems of dams.
" I had enough feel for the situation by then to realize that you
couldn't just operate one dam independently. If you're going to get
effective use out of the individual dams, you had to operate them
in systems, " he said.
Once he understood that, however, it led him directly into
looking at the environmental impacts of those dams he loved
throughout his youth. " I began evolving to the point where I
thought, 'Yeah, I'm not so sure if maybe dams aren't the best idea.' "
And that changed everything. His college studies turned from
civil to environmental and sanitary engineering, and his path
became clear. There was just one small issue.
" Now, George, tell me again how you went from dams ... "
His mother paused to glance up, and he was certain she was
picturing those beautiful TVA structures from their weekend
trips. " ... then down to sewage. "
" And I would try my best to explain, " Kurz said, still enjoying
the story, " but I knew I'd kind of broken my mother's heart. "
Neither of them could have predicted the enormous contributions
Kurz would make over the course of his career, ultimately
leading to his selection as the MVP of the underground infrastructure
industry for 2021.
But it wasn't long before a series of regulatory events would
define the entirety of his career.
The road to Chattanooga
George Kurz
30 JANUARY 2022 | UCONonline.com
Kurz earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering (Environmental) at
Tennessee Technological University and went to work for the State
of Tennessee's Division of Water Control in 1976. The U.S. Clean
Water Act (CWA) had passed four years earlier, and the division
was still figuring out how to implement its rules.
The struggle centered around what were called 201 Plans and
208 Plans, which were targeted at upgrading treatment plants,
building new ones and getting them sized correctly. Kurz was
focused mainly on infiltration and inflow (I/I) work at first, struggling
with huge amounts under " primitive circumstances " with
very limited mainframe computer access in the card-reader era.
But he shifted more towards pre-treatment programs - making
industrial wastewater safe for treatment at plants - and
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Underground Construction - January 2022

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