The League of Consultants, and its staff have worked on a variety of projects.  Listed here is a brief description of some of them.  If you are interested in obtaining more information about what we can do for you, please contact us with an inquiry.

Enterprise Programmatic Design
Schema creation and enterprise GIS training 
Southern California Edison was interested in implementing a universal data format for all data collected in the field by their internal and third-party experts.  LOC partnered with this client’s GIS specialists, biologists, archaeologists and waters specialists to establish a data format and associated training tools to be used on all data collection for environmental projects.  

LOC worked with the client’s Environmental Resources Management (ERM) department to establish consistent data format requirements, then coordinated between the client’s internal personnel and consultants working through third-party companies to ensure adherence to the most recent data format requirements.
 
We compiled a select data set from a wide range of historical projects, then converted the existing test data into the new format.  This project allowed LOC and the client team to test the new formats and processes on actual usable data, and also allowed the historical data to be archived.  

LOC presented training sessions to internal employees, as well as consultants working through third-party companies.  Finally, LOC, implemented and participated in the roll-out of the data formats, and provided quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) on incoming data.  
 
Devers to Palo Verde II
Creating field-usable maps including environmental data
Southern California Edison is undertaking a major capital project to build a transmission line running from the Colorado River to Devers Substation, finally terminating in Los Angeles and including two new substations. It parallels the Devers to Palo Verde I line, installed approximately 30 years ago.LOC helps Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) quantify their findings and translate those findings into field-usable maps which enable technical staff to collect field data and make determinations about potential environmental issues that may be raised by the project.

LOC also maintains a central data repository and enforce data standards, then uses the data to create figures for use in reports intended for presentation to various government agencies. Further, they act as a liaison between the Engineering Department and third-party subconsultants to ensure their data is delivered accurately and to a standard demanded by Southern California Edison

Operations and Maintenance Road Grading
Creating, organizing and storing data from aerial photographs
The purpose of this ongoing project is to maintain spur roads leading to transmission poles and towers, which involves grading these dirt roads annually. Southern California Edison engages environmental and cultural resources personnel to survey the areas for sensitive resources to ensure environmental compliance prior to grading. Further complicating the project, these roads run through land owned by different entities including the BLM, the U.S. Forestry Department, military bases and private owners, all of which have different preconstruction activities and construction monitoring and notification requirements.

As part of an initiative to increase the efficiency of this project, Southern California Edison elected to map the thousands of miles of roads through aerial photography, then overlay those roads and features with known environmentally sensitive resources (e.g., culturally sensitive areas, records in the California Natural Diversity Database [CNDDB], and critical habitat as established by the Federal Fish and Wildlife Services). These maps are used by archaeologists and biologists to make an initial assessment of areas requiring further review. They are stored for future research, and are also used to create figures for field monitors when working in environmentally sensitive areas during construction. LOC digitally created, stored and organized the road data from the aerial photographs.They  then isolated any environmentally sensitive data near those roads, overlaid the environmental and ownership data onto the maps using ArcMap, and assisted project archaeologists and biologists in reviewing the maps. Their work on this project has allowed the EH&S department to more effectively determine the need for field surveys and monitors, saving Southern California Edison the cost of monitors when they are not needed and allowing them to more accurately allocate human resources

Mr. Dochnahl has also worked on environmental projects throughout Southern California for clients not affiliated with Southern California Edison. Following are two project descriptions illustrating his experience with archaeological, biological and pipeline projects.

Banning Ranch
Creating project maps showing vegetation, species and habitats
The city of Newport Beach was planning a housing development on a site, part of which had been an oil field. The site was adjacent to a wetlands and was within California Coastal Commission (CCC) jurisdiction. In an effort to increase the desirability of the site and attract potential developers, the city hired an environmental consulting firm to conduct impact studies of the site before presenting the project.

Mr. Dochnahl’s primary responsibility on the project was to create maps based on data provided by field biologists in order to show vegetation and sensitive species and habitats. Additionally, Mr. Dochnahl worked with an archaeological study and excavation crew recording precision GPS data of culturally sensitive resources on and around the site. Using the data, he generated analysis and potential impact scenarios. Once a developer was located, he worked with the team to overlay the data and perform impact studies for the planned design.

El Paso to Phoenix Expansion
Using ArcMap and Sheetcutter to design a unique, flexible and efficient mapping protocol
The Engineering Pipeline Design Division of this environmental consulting company was contracted to design a pipeline that ran from El Paso, TX to Phoenix, AZ. The standard process was to produce the project maps in AutoCad; however, AutoCad treats maps as separate documents and makes it difficult to edit data across multiple maps. Mr. Dochnahl’s team was tasked with developing a more efficient and flexible way of creating project maps identical in appearance to engineering drawings.

Mr. Dochnahl developed a protocol combining two programs: ArcMap, which offers superior data organization capabilities, and Sheetcutter, a program designed for survey crews to deliver tables to a mapmaking team which are then used to generate As-Built figures. Mr. Dochnahl’s new method created construction drawings then generated packages visually resembling AutoCad construction sets in order to meet construction industry standards for bid processes and construction activities. Mr. Dochnahl also trained other employees on the procedures and programs.