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The Grand Canyon
Your recent story,
“plan to drill in Grand Canyon Thwarted, for Time Being,”
stated that Peabody proposes to construct a pipeline in the
Grand Canyon (ENR 12/2 p. 11). In fact, the proposal referenced
wasn’t in the Grand Canyon. It was proposed by others,
not Peabody, and the proposal was reviewed and already discarded.
The Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe,
generating plant owners and Peabody are committed to exploring
alternatives for a water source to transport coal and ensure
continued operation of the Black Mesa Mine and the Mohave
Generating Station. This, in turn, provides hundreds of jobs
for Native Americans and injects nearly $2 million each week
into the Navajo and Hopi economies, while providing low-cost
electricity for families and businesses in the Southwest.
Engineering And Other
Options
I
read with interest your articles about the drastic decline
in civil engineering enrollments in schools across the country
(ENR 10/21 p. 6.) The articles did not specifically mention
other engineering disciplines, but I suspect that they may
also be experiencing similar declining enrollments.
This phenomenon appears
to have caught some people in the industry by surprise. But
it is no surprise at all to this former engineer. I believe
that the current situation is merely a symptom of our free
market correcting itself. Today’s young people have at
their fingertips a great deal more information than any generation
before them. The best and the brightest American-born young
people today are aware that there are simply better opportunities
for them in areas other than engineering.
Engineering lifers will
tell you that engineering is a sick profession. In fact, it
is not a profession at all. The fact that there is no generally
accepted definition of what is an “engineer” indicates
a symptom of the problem.
A large volume could be
devoted to the problems with what is called “engineering.”
I believe that one simple statistic ENR presented exemplifies
the problem. Your tables include a column that shows the percentage
of licensed professional engineers among the faculties of
engineering schools. An examination reveals that many schools
do not have even 50% of their faculty as licensed professional
engineers. I would be willing to venture a guess that the
percentage of medical school faculty physicians or the percentage
of law school professors who are not licensed to practice
law is essentially nonexistent. You can draw your own conclusion
from that simple statistic.
Engineering has the potential
to be on a par with the true, learned professions in the U.S.
Unfortunately, in its present condition, engineering is merely
a shell of what it could be. This fact is not unknown to our
young people in this age of information. If nothing is done,
I believe the current trend will worsen.
BOB VALDES
Valdes Engineering Co.
Lombard, Ill.
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