September/October 2017

Communities: Government
Learning Focus Contributes to Award Winner’s Success

Tom Bach, P.E., has worked more than 30 years in water and wastewater, but he says he gets as much or more from the younger generations as they get from him. “I think that’s the meaning of life,” the NSPE member says. “To learn from each other—it doesn’t matter what age you are.”

Bach is the 2017 winner of NSPE’s Professional Engineer in Government Achievement and Service in the United States (PEGASUS) Award, given annually to the engineer who has “made the most outstanding contribution to the advancement and practice of engineering” in state or local government.

As engineering manager in Concord, North Carolina’s water resources department, Bach oversees a variety of programs in the water, wastewater, and stormwater arenas.

He develops the city’s capital improvement program for water, wastewater, and stormwater projects; coordinates the design and construction of water, wastewater, and stormwater projects with the city’s engineering department staff and consulting firm personnel; aids operations and maintenance personnel with in-house and engineering consulting firm projects; and oversees the backflow prevention program.

He also manages the city’s fats, oils, and greases program, which educates citizens and businesses about ways to protect the water system from these hazards. And he is responsible for the geographic information system program for water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure, which maps data such as the locations of manholes and water valves.

The biggest challenges Bach sees for water and wastewater engineers? Drought, asset management, and growth management. “Then of course costs. It all deals with costs,” he says.

He also notes that a lot of people cite politics as a top challenge. But Bach believes that it’s the engineer’s job to present the best information based on science “in a truthful, logical manner” and then “from there, you’re not in control of it.”

In addition to juggling a variety of job tasks and additional community activities, Bach contributes actively to professional societies. He has a history of leadership roles in the Professional Engineers of North Carolina and the North Carolina American Water Works Association-Water Environment Association. He enjoys giving back, and—in this way as well—he learns.