News
Aspect Water Resources Engineer Taylor Dayton, PE, will present to the Central Washington University America Water Resources Association student professional chapter on Wednesday, April 14, 2021.
The presentation will explore the history of water law in Washington State, the process for obtaining new water right, the process for changing existing water rights, consumptive use and spreading , water right valuations, and water right holder “musts”.
See Taylor talk about what you’ll learn here:
The Washington State water code is daunting. The network of rules and regulations is complex: Washington Administrative Codes. Revised Code of Washington. Hundreds of court cases. Ecology administrative policies. It can be difficult to navigate.
In this mix is a key concept: ‘Annual Consumptive Quantity’ or ‘ACQ.’ Originating in 1997, ACQ is a specialized analysis that is triggered whenever a water right is changed to expand its authorized irrigated acreage or add a purpose of use (while retaining its current purpose of use).
The ACQ process can have big implications on the outcome of a water right change – especially if the water right falls into one of the special exceptions that disqualify it from ACQ.
Taylor Dayton, Aspect engineer and member of the Chelan County Conservancy Board, recently gave a presentation on what Annual Consumptive Quantity is, how to apply it, and possible alternative approaches to changing the attributes of a water right in water rights permitting projects.
See a video of her presentation below:
Contact Taylor to learn more.
In the science and engineering industry, seeing a “PE”, “LG”, “PMP”, or other initials behind someone’s name shows that person went through years of work experience that culminated in a substantial test to confirm the right to practice their area of technical expertise. A professional license is a proof statement that communicates that the people charged with designing roads and buildings; solving water supply challenges; cleaning up contaminated soil and water; and successfully managing project quality are qualified and ethically accountable professionals. Many go through this licensing journey but few outside that group know what the process is really like.
We’re telling those stories here. Aspect’s professionals are writing a series of articles that capture the trials and successes of studying for and receiving these career-defining milestones.
October 2019 – Tested; January, 2020 – Awarded OR PE; May, 2020 – Reciprocity WA PE.
There comes a point in every engineer-in-training’s life where you have to face the music. Eight years into my field of practice, I had my own hardhat, leather-bound hydraulic flow data quick reference manual, and a fancy metal scale ruler sitting on the corner of my desk. I’d written hundreds of pages worth of technical reports and wiled away long afternoons in AutoCAD wondering why the newest version hid all the buttons I needed to pull together a construction plan set. I’d even replumbed part of my own home successfully after mistakenly spilling a can full of black beans down my garbage disposal – confirmation that my skills can fix real-world problems.
Eight years in, it seemed like my career was going well, but there was one specter looming. The state licensing board has chosen the eight-year mark as the best time for a casual spot check of your developing skillset through a 9-hour NCESS-administered examination of every engineering concept you’ve ever learned. If you are successful, you gain the privilege of ordering new business cards with two tiny letters at the end of your name.
I started studying in March 2019 in preparation to take the October 2019 exam. My goal was to hit 300 hours of dedicated study time. Because of my degrees (undergraduate in biochemistry and master’s in civil engineering, with water and wastewater focus) I knew I would be strong in chemistry, pumps, and pipes, but not have as much experience with air engineering or landfill design.
This was my general approach to the exam. Season your preparation approach to taste.
Philosophy: Failure was not an option. I was committed to temporarily sacrificing elements of my work/life balance to make sure I would nail this exam on the first try.
Time Management: I evaluated my performance at work, talked to my manager, and adjusted my commitments to what was realistically possible knowing that I would need enough mental energy to hit the books just about every day before or after work. I minimized travel where possible and dialed down on my business development efforts while I was preparing for my exam.
Friends and Family: I notified everyone in my life of my six-month commitment to a disgruntled hermit lifestyle. I set up a dedicated study space and committed up to two hours a day during the week and up to 12 hours on the weekends. If this sounds like a HUGE time commitment, it was. I’m not really geared for partial commitments to things.
Mental/Physical Health: I blocked out and prioritized a time to hit the gym four times a week. This is absolutely critical. You will be consuming many study snacks and disappointing your daily step counter of choice during the study process and it’s easy to let that inertia get you down.
A Pre-Test Reward: Plan a trip or mini-adventure for two weeks prior to your exam. Stop studying when you hit that point and do a lot of fun things in the two weeks leading up to your exam.
I appreciated everyone who was humble enough to reveal that it took them two or three times to pass the exam. It was comforting to know that their lives didn’t fall apart immediately and that it didn’t hinder their journeys to becoming respected scientists and engineers. They just refocused, studied better, and got it done.
After months and months of preparation, test day approached in October. I recommend doing the following to help keep your peace of mind before/during/after the test:
Book a hotel as close to your testing location as possible. Take a half-day from work and travel to the hotel. Go pick some great snacks for your lunch break the next day, eat a good dinner, and watch a great movie.
Plan to take off work the day after the exam to de-stress and start getting your life back in order.
Reconnect with whatever friends and family will have you back, notice your pets are a little overweight from all the hikes you haven’t been taking them on, and go outside to see what season it is in nature now since you probably missed at least one while studying.
Ten days later, you will receive your results and can send them on to the State Engineering Board for verification.
Here I am repping my top of the line safety gear and the North Central Washington Beekeepers Association, cracking open the overwintered beehives for the first time this season.
“All right! Time to go after that beekeeper certification!”
In retrospect, was the amount of time I dedicated to this crazy? Could I have gotten away with only 150 hours of preparation or one quick scan of my old college binders the night before? It’s possible, but I think this approach was helpful on three levels.
Preparing the PE is an introspective journey. You get to retread eight years of growth and affirm that you’re not the freshman barely treading water in differential equations anymore.
The process reminded me of the breadth of the skillset I’ve built as a professional and encouraged me to reach out to PMs I don’t usually work with to utilize some of that skillset in new ways. Aspect does water system planning now!
The (over) preparation made exam day a straightforward and easy experience. There were a few questions on topic areas I have never encountered in my day job, but they were a very small portion of the exam. I’d practiced 95% of the test in my review process and was familiar enough with the process that I didn’t have to waste time browsing the reference manual. That allowed plenty of time to make some educated guesses on the material I didn’t know and knock out the exam a couple of hours early.
Taylor Dayton is a Project Engineer at Aspect Consulting in Wenatchee, Washington. Contact her to share any test-taking tips you have.
The NCEES reference manual – Free. This is your only lifeline to the outside world during the exam. Print it out and become familiar with every page and table.
The NCEES practice exam - $30. This is your bible and only insight from the test provider on the actual content of the exam. I recommend attempting this exam once at the start of your studying process and again near the end. Use this to gauge the difficulty of the problems you may encounter on the exam.
PE Environmental Review by Michael Lindburg - $290. The golden standard reference for PE preparation. I committed to reading a few sections of this book each study session. I found it helpful to recall the topics I was familiar with in graduate school, but have not encountered in my current practice. There are other resources available in this series of books if you need additional problem sets to work through (PE Practice, PE Practice Exams), but I did not find them very true to the actual questions on the exam.
School of PE On Demand Lectures and Problem Sets - $340 for one month. I highly recommend the School of PE course to help structure your study approach. They have a much more expensive live version of the course, but one month of the On Demand course was enough for me to review all the lecture video content, annotate the provided course notes, and make a binder of the practice problems they provide. I used the practice problems as the core of my study sessions and they prepared me very well for the test.
Introduction to Environmental Engineering. Any variety of this kind of textbook will do, but I like the intro book by Gilbert Masters and Wendell Ela. You can find it for a cool $20. It includes great primers on climate change and ozone depletion, risk assessment, indoor air quality, source-reduction and recycling, and groundwater contamination.
Hazardous Waste Management by Michael LeGrega. Your one stop shop for landfill questions.
Water Quality and Treatment by James Edswald. The absolute best handbook for drinking water treatment.
Biological Wastewater Treatment: The golden standard is the Metcalf and Eddy textbook, but I found I preferred Biological Wastewater Treatment by Grady, Dalgger, Love, and Filipe. There are very good comprehensive chapter summaries that I read through that addressed every wastewater question I encountered on the exam.
I brought along the same loyal TI-36X that I used on the FE exam. I even bought a second one to bring along as a backup, which the test proctor thought was very cool. I’m pretty sure that’s what her expression meant anyway.
At The Seminar Group’s November 20 and 21 forum on Washington state water rights, Aspect’s Dan Haller, Tyson Carlson, and Taylor Dayton will be presenting on a variety of features of Washington’s Water Code.
Dan Haller, Tyson Carlson, and Taylor Dayton will discuss a range of Washington State water rights topics at The Seminar Group’s November 20-21 forum.
As Program Co-Chair, Principal Engineer Dan Haller, alongside Jeffrey Kray from Marten Law PLLC, will introduce both Day One and Day Two sessions. Dan will also join a panel discussion on Day One — along with David Christensen with Ecology and Sara Mack of Tupper Mack Wells PLLC — covering current relinquishment law and legislative themes.
Also on Day One, Project Engineer Taylor Dayton ( Chelan County Conservancy Board member) joins David McClure, Executive Assistant of the Klickitat County Water Conservancy Board, to discuss the past, present, and future of water right transfers from the Conservancy Board perspective.
On Day Two, Senior Associate Hydrogeologist Tyson Carlson joins a panel discussion — with Ecology’s Trevor Hutton and Kittitas County Public Health’s Erin Moore — on Kittitas County’s groundbreaking water bank program.
The sessions will be at the Seattle Hilton and registration is still open.
Taylor Dayton, Project Engineer
Aspect’s Taylor Dayton was recently interviewed in the Zweig Newsletter on a range of topics — from transitioning from working at NASA as a biochemist to an engineer, to learning water rights legends, project management lessons learned, and navigating an early career in the water resources field.
Read about it here: Apple orchards and water rights
On May 9, Water Resource Engineer Taylor Dayton is giving a presentation to the Society and Natural Resources students at Wenatchee Valley College. The lecture will explore technical career paths in earth and water resources, with a deep dive on Taylor’s early career experience as a water resources engineer and showcasing a variety of local water resources and water rights projects she has worked on over the last four years in Aspect’s Wenatchee office.
Taylor Dayton, Water Resources Engineer
Aspect Water Resources Engineer Taylor Dayton, EIT, will present at the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women (NAPMW) LPO Seminar in Lake Chelan on Friday, April 12, 2019. The presentation will explore water rights as assets in the mortgage industry - how water rights are created, moved, lost, and valued. Taylor will also speak to the recent Hirst decision and “fix” and how it affects eastern Washington water rights and development.
Finding a wellhead in a sea of grass. Navigating the, gulp, phone system. Read Taylor Dayton’s DJC article about a young engineer’s lessons learned from her first year on the job.
Read it HERE.
Aspect Consulting provides earth + water engineering and science services from seven offices throughout the Pacific Northwest. We help our clients maximize the beneficial use of their valuable resources.
Aspect Consulting, LLC | , Bainbridge Island, WA, United States
