Greetings, KC Chapter friends!!! By the time you get this newsletter, it will be a new year. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and made a few New Year resolutions that you will try hard to keep. Oh well, we can only try.

We had a wonderful December program sponsored by Schier Products and the topic was “A New Perspective on Grease Interceptor”. This was a very interesting topic. The speaker explained that traditionally we size the grease interceptor based on flow rate. The sanitary system design is also based on flow rate. If we have done that, then why can’t we take the same data to size the grease lines? Does the flow rate really present the real picture? Are we sizing grease interceptor correctly by looking only at flow rates? What about FOG (fat, oil, grease content)? Should we not be looking at the FOG content of a particular system along with the flow rates to make sure that the grease interceptor is sized right? Speaker presented an independent research data and explained an alternate procedure for sizing grease interceptor that is sized on flow rate so that it meets code and looks at the FOG content of the particular system/facility to make sure that we have picked the correct size of the grease interceptor. This was a revelation.

The January 2012 meeting will be a joint meeting again with ASHRAE due to the date conflicts and it will be at the ASHRAE venue, Holiday Inn at 87th Street and Reeder Road. Please make sure that you make a note of the venue change. We will also follow the ASHRAE payment policy for this meeting. We will be back to our regular venue from February. January topic is “Ethics and Safety Training” and will be presented by Mr. Vincent Wedelich of Burns and McDonnell. Please see VPT Mr. Bruce Hellmer’s article for more information.

Please contact VPM if you would like to arrange a tour of your facility for the Kansas City Chapter members.

Please remember the upcoming Product Show at the Holiday Inn on February 29th, 2012. Also note the Chip in for Charity will be sometime at the end of April 2012. We will follow up with the exact date and venue.

Hope to see you all there.

During last month’s meeting, Luke Ismert provided an informative presentation on grease interceptor sizing.

Our next meeting on Monday, January 9th will be a joint meeting with ASHRAE. Vincent Wedelich, P.E. will be speaking on Engineering Ethics. Mr. Wedelich is an Electrical Engineer with Burns & McDonnell Engineers at their Houston, Texas office.

Mr. Wedelich is a project manager and business development consultant specializing in engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting solutions.

The session will cover ethics and safety highlighting:

• Perceptions of engineering
• Resolving moral dilemmas
• Code of ethics
• Moral framework
• Virtues in engineering
• Engineering as experimentation
• Safety
• Risk
• Design considerations
• Professionalism

The meeting on Monday, February 13th is being sponsored by McCoy Sales Company with Chuck Lott of Precision Plumbing Products speaking on Trap Primer Codes and Usages.

Our Product Show is on Wednesday, February 29th. Dustin Johnson is the Product Show Chairperson and Mike Dunn is the Assistant Chairperson.

The meeting on Monday, March 12th is being sponsored by Victaulic and I assume that they will address pipe couplings.

We still need a sponsor and speaker for the Monday April 9th meeting. If you are interested in sponsoring or speaking at this meeting, please call me at (816) 373-4878.

The meeting on Monday, May 14th is being sponsored by the chapter with Jennifer Harder of Johnson County Wastewater speaking on Commercial Permitting Standards. Why? Infiltration/Inflow.

The Golf Tournament will be on Monday, June 4th at the Sunflower Hills Golf Course. Joe McCoy is the Golf Tournament Chairperson.

It is not too early to make arrangements for next season's meetings.  If you are interested in sponsoring or speaking at any of next season's meetings, please call me at (816) 373-4878.

Greetings Kansas City Chapter!  I hope everyone had wonderful holidays!

Please welcome new members Rebecca Howe, P.E. of  Burns & McDonnell and Rich Alspaugh of Victaulic!

If you know a mechanical or plumbing engineer, code official, contractor, manufacturer or manufacturer’s rep who isn’t a member, please let them know about our society or let me know and I can contact them.

A reminder to any of you who may have recently lost your job but are coming up due for membership renewal.  If you fit this category, compassion waivers are available for you for up to 3 months of membership extension.  Please contact me at mike.monthey@hei-eng.com if you need help with the application for a compassion waiver.

Also, if you have been an affiliate member but also do design and meet the full membership requirements, you are welcome to apply to become a full member.

Thank you to all of reading this for your support of ASPE over the last year!

An important study on Building “Drainline Blockages”  is just short of the funding it needs to move forward.

Here is the issue:   Water-efficient fixtures lead to reduced water consumption, and can result in lower drainline and sewer line water flows. This provokes some important questions:  Do these reduced flows lead, in turn, to stoppages of waste in building drains? What is the ‘tipping point’ at which flows can be reduced no further without causing solids to clog the drainline? Does the installation of certain high-efficiency plumbing fixtures contribute to stoppages?  If so, are remedies available that can mitigate or prevent drainline stoppages?
 
So far, much of the information on this subject is largely anecdotal. However, field failures recently reported in Australia indicate that the emphasis upon aggressive water efficiency practices, fixtures and equipment may have contributed to systemic waste transport-related failures in building drains and sewer lines, costing millions of dollars to repair.
 
Will the Australian experiences be repeated in North America?  We hope not.  Yet, while the drain systems and drought conditions in North America are not necessarily the same as Australia, it is important that the Aussie’s experiences be considered as a ‘wake-up call’ to North America.
 
What is the Solution?  The Plumbing Efficiency Research Coalition (PERC) is undertaking a study that will begin to address those questions noted above by scientifically analyzing the issue of blockages and further evaluating the use of higher volume toilet discharges at intermittent intervals as a way to effectively clear drainlines.
 
This is a critical issue that must be resolved, the sooner the better!  Lack of answers is currently discouraging many water utilities from running commercial water efficiency programs. It is further stalling the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to develop a WaterSense Label specification for commercial high-efficiency toilets (HETs).
 
The good news is that this study will be underway by January, 2012. Due to a generous offer by American Standard Brands to allow the use of its test apparatus, and also due to the generous contributions of others, the study now requires only an additional $50,000.00 in funding to get this important research started.  Please consider supporting this effort in whatever way you can. All contributors will be recognized in the Study’s Final report. No amount is too small!
 
ASPE’s goal is to collect at least $8,000 to the project.  This is LESS THAN $2.00 / ASPE MEMBER!!  To contribute please click here!  THE CHAPTER CONTRIBUTING THE MOST MONEY WILL BE RECOGNIZED AT THE 2012 Convention/Exposition.
 
Learn more about PERC and the study here: http://www.plumbingefficiencyresearchcoalition.org.

Save the date for the product show on Feburary 29th, 2012. Affiliates please sign up for booths as soon as possible and tell everyone in the industry to come.

Please join us for the December meeting on Monday December the 12th.

The calling tree will no longer be calling regarding the monthly meetings, we will call regarding other special events such as the product show and Chip in for Charity.

Our Chip in for Charity event will be in April 2012, date not set yet. We will advise date and additional information soon.

Greetings!

I have not talked with everyone as I wished as I have been traveling last month and be will be traveling more this month. As I told those I have talked with, we sent out the invoices for the Product Directory the first of October. If you have not had an opportunity to call me to make a change in your listing or forward an up-date please do so at your earliest convenience.

Below you will find my June, 2011 article outlining our advertising policy. The product show booth prices are remaining the same as they were in 2008 and 2010.

All ASPE members are encouraged to use our Manufacturer's Representatives advertising page. The website provides you with a quick access to all affiliates’ contact information and an email link. You also have two search option for finding who represents a given product or line. You can search our spreadsheet by the product category or by the manufacturer. Just click on the following link to access a wealth of information: <a href="http://www.kc-aspe.com/productsreps.htm">www.kc-aspe.com/productsreps.htm</a> The ASPE Board met and we have formalized our advertising Policy and will print it once in this newsletter and then provide a link to the document on our Product / Representatives page.

The Education Committee is busy making presentations. On September 15, 2011 Mike Monthey, Tony Hitchcock, and John Bard made a plumbing presentation to the Blue Valley CAPS Program. We visited Mike Nelson's junior and senior classes, consisting of students interested in engineering. The students are currently designing a lake front house, with our group as clients. Each student interviewed us for the type of house we would like to have. Then the student will design the structure, making a presentation on how the design was developed. The lake front house will be completed in this semester. Their project for next semester will be an industrial building that will use different engineering disciplines. The students enjoyed our program, with the possibility of returning next semester for assistance on their next project.

Our next adventure on November 17th is a plumbing presentation at Olathe Northwest High School with Mr. Petery's freshman class. His next project is to show the students the different kind of engineers and the different types of projects they work on. This will be a week project as we show the students how to plumb a house, with the possibility of assisting in other projects in the next semester. These students are freshman which is an opportunity to get young students involved in engineering.

We are continuing to look for other schools to make presentations, and hope to get involved in student career days. I will keep you updated on other events.

Have a great fall!