Elections were held for the Southern California Branch Officers, and the final results have been tallied. Serving a second term as President is Jim Carter of SPL Laboratories. The office of Vice-President went to Gary Beckerman of England & Associates. Lou Reimer was elected to a second term as Treasurer, and Carmen Guzman of Geraghty & Miller was also re-elected as Secretary. The Member at Large post went to Leslie Alford of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. The Branch Officers are excited about the new year as we look to increase our membership and provide useful and informative meeting. As a measure of the Branch's successful growth, the officers are planning to chart a course to split the Southern California Branch into two branches serving Los Angeles and Orange/San Diego Counties. Comments are being sought on this proposal.

The Southern California Branch was pleased to have as speaker for our November 29, 1996 diner meeting Mr. John Burton of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. John is a civil engineer with the Hydraulic/Water Conservation Division, Seawater Barriers, and his presentation was titled "Seawater Barrier Projects: Future Remedial Strategies and Project Update." John gave us an inside view of the challenges facing the barrier operations team in mitigating seawater intrusion into costal aquifers. There are three barrier projects which are successfully protecting over 254 miles of costal aquifers. All three barrier projects currently being implemented in LA and Orange Counties were discussed, each with its own intrusion defense strategy. John's talk was presented at the Wyndham Garden Hotel at the Citadel in Commerce and was well received.

On January 22, 1997,, we hosted Mr. Anthony Brown of Komet-H2O Science as our keynote speaker. The response to this meeting was fantastic, as we had over 77 people attend. Anthony discussion was titled "MtBE in Groundwater and the Impact on the City of Santa Monica Drinking Water Supply." Anthony gave a very comprehensive talk on MtBE and the hydrogeology and possible migration pathways for the impacted wells in Santa Monica. The presentation also covered the chemical properties, production and use as well as fate and transport of MtBE in the subsurface.