Mike Spoor on the Ohio River, Bank Failure, Glacial and Coal Mining Sediment Legacies...and 60 Years Working with Rivers

I only know one person who can claim >60 years of federal service.  This episode's guest, Mike Spoor.  Mike spent those years with the US Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District (in West Virginia on the banks of the Ohio River) and even more years before that as a contractor to the Kansas City District. But Mike did not just log federal service.  He focused curiosity and insight with a relentless field program to convert those years into insight.  Mike's decades of stories on the Ohio River and it's tributaries, and the impact of disturbances old (glaciers) and new (coal mining) is exactly the sort of conversations I had in mind when I launched this project.  I don't think we got to 10% of Mike's stories, but somehow managed to cover an impressive range of river processes and projects, and some real insight on how he approaches rivers.  I talked to Mike about the history of the Ohio River, the flood of record, and untangling the role of glacial-legacy soils on bank failure processes...and how a careful, causal understanding of these processes helped him identify the most cost-effective approach to mittigate them.  We also talked about the impact of coal mining on rivers and reservoirs and the island erosion and restoration work that led to his Golden Eagle award.   It was a fun and informative conversation and I'm thrilled to share it. (The interlude music in this episode is Dusty Horizons by Score Wizzard and HEC did the editing on this one). This series was funded by the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) program. Mike Loretto edited the first three seasons and created the theme music. Tessa Hall is editing most of Season 4. Stanford Gibson (HEC Sediment Specialist) hosts. Video shorts and other bonus content are available at the podcast website: https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/rasdocs/rastraining/latest/the-rsm-river-mechanics-podcast ...but most of the supplementary videos are available on the HEC Sediment YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/stanfordgibson If you have guest recommendations or feedback you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or ResearchGate or fill out this recommendation and feedback form: https://forms.gle/wWJLVSEYe7S8Cd248