WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 23, 2017 -- Bureau of Reclamation engineer Jennifer Bountry, P.E. is the 2017 Federal Engineer of the Year. Bountry's selection was announced at the National Society of Professional Engineers awards luncheon on Feb. 17, 2017, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In addition to Federal Engineer of the Year, Bountry was selected as the Reclamation Engineer of the Year.
"Jennifer is an outstanding and well-rounded engineer who has made key achievements in river restoration and I would like to congratulate her on her selection as Federal Engineer of the Year," Acting Commissioner David Murillo said. "Reclamation engineering expertise is known throughout the world and this expertise is developing tools to guide a sustainable water and power future."
Bountry is a hydraulic engineer in the Reclamation Technical Service Center's Sedimentation and River Hydraulics Group and has made great achievements in river restoration. She served a key sediment management role in the Elwha River Restoration Project near Port Angeles, Washington. This project saw the concurrent removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams to restore salmon and honor treaty obligations with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. This dam removal included the management of 27 million cubic yards of reservoir sediment.
She led the interagency team of engineers and scientists responsible for forecasting and monitoring the reservoir sediment erosion and downstream transport during the dam-removal period. She also worked on development of a new numerical forecast model and performed critical input and guidance to the rates and increments of dam removal for the adaptive management and monitoring program. Her work was critical to support this successful project, which rebuilt nearly 100 acres of new coastal beach, restored fish habitat and restored fish access to 70 miles of river.
With an interagency team, she has also participated in the publishing of professional journal articles on the evolution of river channels, common management concerns associated with dam removal and the response of the Elwha River and Rogue River in Oregon to dam removal.
She is active in the United States Society on Dams committees on hydraulics and dam decommissioning and with the interagency subcommittee on sedimentation. Outside of work she led the effort to construct an outdoor garden classroom at the neighborhood elementary school utilized by hundreds of children.
Bountry has received many awards for her work and was recently recognized with the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award, Interior's highest honor for career employees.
Reclamation also would like to recognize its 2016 Engineer of the Year regional winners:
Michael J. Maroncelli, Great Plains Region
Britt R. Bowen, Lower Colorado Region
Rebecca M Sievers, Mid-Pacific Region
Jennifer M. Johnson, Pacific Northwest Region
Bart W. Deming, Upper Colorado Region
Bountry is the second Reclamation employee to be recognized as Federal Engineer of the Year. In 2010, Lisa M. Fotherby, Ph.D., P.E., of the Technical Service Center was recognized.
