Oral History Interview

Interviewee: Buckley Butler
Interviewer: Mark Olson
June 28, 2024

Mark O: Hello, this is another episode of Beneath the Surface. An oral history project of the Tarrant Regional Water District.

My name is Mark Olson, Senior Video Producer here at TRWD.

We are using this project to conduct interviews with long-term employees. To capture their thoughts, experiences, and insight covering their careers at the water district.

Today is Friday, June 28, 2024. And sitting across from me is Bucky Butler, Eastern Reservoir Manager for the past 25 years.

Bucky’s given name is Buckley. But most people refer to him as Bucky. Bucky grew up around Cedar Creek Lake. He went to school at Mabank Independent School District. As a teen he spent his weekends and summers working for his dad’s construction company. After graduating high school he spent his college days at Stephen F. Austin State University. Not being satisfied with one Bachelor of Science degree, he slugged it out and earned two, one in biology and one in Business Administration. To round it out he minored in Geology.

Bucky began working at the Tarrant Regional Water District on January 30, 1984. In his 40-year career Bucky spent some time as Assistant Cedar Creek Lake Superintendent. Moved up to Lake Superintendent. And now Eastern Reservoir Manager.

Bucky, welcome.

Bucky B: Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today.

Mark O: Before we dive too deep into things, can you describe for us your early introduction to Cedar Creek Lake.

Buckly B: Yes. We, as a family, we lived in Desoto, which is on the south side of the Metroplex. And we used to go to Lake Lavon every weekend. It’s a Corps lake. We went up there when I was very young – my whole family. We had a cabin up there. And one day my dad comes home and he says, ‘hey, we’re selling the cabin at Lake Lavon. They’re building a new lake in East Texas called Cedar Creek Reservoir.’ And so, he came down here, looked at property. Bought some waterfront lots just up the road here from the compound. And built a weekend home and we started coming down here every weekend. And we did that for about three years I guess. And then when I began the fourth grade, we came down here, moved fulltime. Started school in Mabank. So, that was my first introduction to Cedar Creek Lake. Getting to enjoy it for three years every weekend, summer breaks. That type thing. And then we were fortunate to move down here fulltime.

Mark O: So, what were you guys doing down here in the cabin? I mean were you spending actual time on the lake?

Bucky B: We did. We did a lot of fishing on the lake. My dad, brothers, and I, we would
always enjoy that. So, we would go fishing on weekends. He would take us skiing on the lake. Learned to ski here on Cedar Creek. So, between fishing, skiing, just enjoying the waterfront, we just enjoyed it every weekend.

Mark O: Did you ever think that as a younger adult, younger kid, that you were going to end up working for the Water District, which manages this reservoir?

Bucky B: That never crossed my mind. You know, when you’re that young you don’t really know what the future holds. Early on probably by the time I was junior high, well before junior high age, my dad decided he wanted to put in a boat house. He got a permit from the Water District. And I remember as a very young child helping him out there build a boat house. So, I guess that was my first adventure into dock construction was probably somewhere when I was 10, 11, 12 years old.

Mark O: Yeah, that’s probably a good introduction to some construction because you’re having to work on water.

Bucky B: It was. My family has always been in the construction business. My dad was in construction. And he did everything from road and bridge work. City work, streets and storm sewers, that type thing. And he also did commercial and residential construction. And then he did marine construction. And so I just fell right into that as, I think it was, probably I was in the 7th grade, if I remember correctly. I came home one day, start of summer break and sitting at the dinner table as family my dad looked over and said, ‘well Bucky, what’s your plans for the summer?’ And I said, ‘well, the same thing I always do. Fishing and skiing and swimming and just having a good time on the water.’ I guess when you’re in the 7th grade, you’re what about 12-years old or something like that? And my dad looked at me and said, ‘well, no. I’ve got different plans for you this summer.’ And I asked him, I said, ‘so, what are your plans?’ And he said, ‘you’re going to go to work for me doing construction.’ And I said, ‘well, I’m just now finishing the 7th grade. I don’t know how to do anything.’ And I’ll never forget. He looked at me and said, ‘that’s why you’re going to work for me. I’m going to teach you how to do something.’

And so, it was a good introduction. I learned a lot about the construction trade. Both, like I say, residential construction, marine construction, commercial construction. So, I think it gave me a good background.

Mark O: That’s cool. That’s cool. And then, so you spend some time here. You’re working summers for your dad. Doing this construction. And then you graduate from high school and end up at Stephen F. Austin State University with a desire to major in biology. So, where did that come from?

Bucky B: Well, you know Mabank at the time is still not that big of a school district. A 3-A I believe it is. But, it wasn’t that big. So we didn’t have a lot of courses to really choose from. But the sciences always interested me. Any, you know, the biology, ecology, anything like that. When I was in public school, it just always interested me. I thought I don’t know at the time what I was going to do with it, but I wanted to get into something that would be environmental related. So I had a strong desire for that.

And so as soon as I got off into college I decided to major in biology, with an emphasis on ecology. So, it was an environmental type field. As you stated, I kind of ventured off. I took as much science as I could. As quick as I could in school. And then we started talking about initially a minor, and I thought no matter what you do in life, you need a good business background. Whether it’s personal, in your personal life. Or in your professional life. So, I started taking several business classes. Management classes. And it just evolved into, hey I’m going to do science, biology, and I’m going to do business. Mostly in management.

And I’ll never forget my dad asking me. He says, ‘what are you possibly going to do with a science biology degree and a business management degree?’ Still not knowing about the Water District, per se, as a career path I said, ‘I’m not sure but maybe some state agency, maybe something such as that.’ So, it just was a field that seemed like it was interesting to me.

Mark O: So, how did you stumble into getting a job at the Water District after you graduated?

Bucky B: Well, I didn’t come here. Actually I had a job right out of college in Dallas for six months. And my wife and I were living here on the lake. And I commuted to Dallas everyday just north of Love Field. It was 77-miles one-way trip. So, it was quite a drive. But, we hadn’t committed. I didn’t know about job. If it was really going to be that career that would make me want to move.

So, I commuted for six months. And it was a good company. And it was a good position. But I’ll honestly say it, it didn’t feel like it was going to be a career. It just didn’t have that interest that I thought I needed. And I was looking for something different. And I talked to the plant manager, John Noone, and he was very nice with me. And I told him, I said, ‘look, I appreciate the opportunity. I don’t think I can stay here long-term.’ He said, ‘well, I’ll let you stay until you find what you’re really looking for.’

I knew a little bit about the Water District because of the construction that I did during high school, and even into early college on my breaks. And I remember telling my wife, I said, ‘I’m going to go down to the Water District and talk to Mr. Ashton, who was Bud Ashton, who was the Lake Superintendent at the time. I said, ‘I’m going to go talk to him and see if there’s any possibility of me finding a job with them.’

So, that was when the door was opened. I had an interview with Bud Ashton and Mike Meza and Harold Johnson. And we all visited. They didn’t really have an opening at the time. But they said they would keep me in mind. And probably less than a month later, I don’t know 2,3,4 weeks later, I received a call – said, ‘hey why don’t you come back in? We want to talk to you again.’

That’s where it started. They offered me a job. Just as a side note that I always remember in the back of my head, because I appreciate all three of them so much for giving me that opportunity. But I’ll never forget asking Bud when the job offer was made, I said, ‘so what exactly am I going to be doing?’ And Bud told me, he says, ‘well, you’re going to do whatever I tell you to do.’ And that was just the way Bud Ashton was.

And so it was great. I came on. And I think the District took a chance on me. I took a chance on the District. And it worked out great.

Mark O: It sure did. Wow! So, what is it that Bud was asking you to do when you first started working here?

Bucky B: Very quick. I was asking as much of him as he was asking of me. Because when I came on, I thought, well I need to learn about this place. So, I was asking to go to spillways, dams. Actually, I got an opportunity to get on one of the three-way mowers and mow at the slopes of the dam. Probably within the first couple of weeks that I was here. So, I was doing a little bit of everything. I wasn’t doing Lake Superintendent work necessarily, or reservoir manager work. I was doing a little bit of everything.

So, I was going out on pipeline right of ways. Rod Culbertson took me up to some of the pump stations, the balancing reservoirs up at Kennedale. And I was shown the dam and I quickly asked Bud, ‘hey, can I try to mow the dam?’ And he said, ‘sure, give it shot.’ So, I was doing a little bit of everything. And then within a few weeks, maybe a few months, he asked me to start going to some water and wastewater training schools to obtain some water and wastewater licenses. And also filling in kind of in the absence of our inspectors doing inspection work. So, that’s kind of where I started. Just a little bit of everything.

Mark O: And that’s a cool place to be, actually, right?

Bucky B: It was for me. Because I wanted to learn and see as much as I could about the District. And actually even as my position has evolved over the years, at one point working for Mike Meza, I’ll never forget, we were taking on some of the duties when do our pipe replacement projects. And one of the duties was our crews are now, we were doing the backfill, the grouting, and some of that work. And some of the dewatering, helping with it.

And I remember asking Mike Mesa, I said, ‘hey, I want to go out in the cottonfield, which is down by the Richland-Chambers, and I want to put out some of the, the piping. I want to hook up some of it. And I want to work alongside the guys out there on the crew to see what they’re doing.’ Because I feel like if you’re, if you’re going to try to manage something, you need to know how to do it. You need to know what your people are doing. And so for me that was a good learning tool. To get out in the field, spend some time with them. Actually mix some pipe patch, some grout. I did that.

Matter of fact, Boyd Miller, who works with the District, he and I went out there one time and said, ‘we’re going to roll up our sleeves and do some pipe patch and grouting.’ We wanted to learn what the guys were doing so we could better manage it.

Mark O: How did, how did the pipeline crews receive you when you went out there?

Bucky B: I think – this was back when some of the time with Lonnie Avant, who was previously with the District, some of the employees. And I think they received it well, because I think they appreciate the fact that hey, these guys are coming out of the office. They’re trying to really understand what we’re doing. How we’re doing it. What works best. What doesn’t work quite as well. And so again, we understand what they’re going through to do those particular projects and jobs.

Mark O: Most of the time when you’re doing that type of work, you’re not doing it in mid-summer when the demands are higher. You’re doing it in different conditions which are not always like the best conditions in the world either.

Bucky B: Well, and that’s true. Like a lot of the pipe work will be taking place in the winter months. And you know, when I did have those opportunities to go out there, there were times when it’s wet. It’s cold. It’s icy. And it really gives you and appreciation for what the guys are doing out there in the conditions they’re working under. So, I think that was good, understanding, like I say, the dewatering, the grouting. Some of the things that our crew, the reservoir crew, was helping out with. Made it… I guess, it gave me an awareness. More of an awareness of what they were doing.

So, I appreciated that. And just like mowing the dam. I mean mowing sounds easy. You know a lot of people just say, ‘well, the guys are mowing today.’ Well, that sounds easy unless you’re mowing on a 3:1 slope. And you’re right there on the edge of the reservoir working. So, having the opportunity to go out and actually do that and see what they’re doing, then again you really appreciate what they go through every day.

Mark O: Yeah, those bank slopes look pretty scary from, from… when you’re standing there looking them mowing those, those things.

Bucky B: It did. Like I say, I was probably here no more than a month when I asked if I could go mow. And I only mowed 2 or 3 days. I’m not going to say I went down there and mowed the whole dam because I didn’t. I went down there, mowed 2 or 3 days. And it was just an opportunity to see what they were doing. And it was a little intimidating at first. That first cut right next to the riprap. It was a little be intimidating at the time. But then you see it and you think, okay now I understand what these guys are going through.

Mark O: Right. For me it would be like heart in my throat kind of thing. Yikes. So, at that time you’re kind of exploring all the aspects of what’s related to managing a reservoir. At what point did you, were you able to, or get a good feel for how the Water District operates? And what we do out here to manage this reservoir – to manage Cedar Creek, or Richland-Chambers?

Bucky B: I think, well, and I will give a lot of credit of course to Bud Ashton. Rod Culbertson was in the pipeline. So he was showing me some of that. But then Harold Johnson was here. And then Mike Meza came down out of Fort Worth.

So, they gave me a lot of training. A lot of information. Told me a lot of things of what was going on. You know I started out and I was really just supervising the inspectors, who do all of our improvement permitting and our sanitation permitting. So, that was a big focus of what I was doing at the time. And then helping Bud with budget and other things that we had going on, as far as, equipment maintenance and budgeting and dam and spillway maintenance. So, he was getting me involved in that over the years, while he was here.

And then I actually came to the compound. And starting living at the compound in October of 1990. And at that time I got heavily involved in spillway gate operations, which gave me, you know, when you’re up every night, several nights a week, several hours a night working gates, you get an appreciation for what that entails, as well.

So, that’s when the spillway gates was really… I was kind of on the front end of that, with Bud looking over my shoulder. Making sure I did things right. Giving me the training that I needed. Because you have to make those decisions on an hourly basis sometimes.

Mark O: Yeah, that’s nice. That’s nice. So, let’s take a little bit of a step back and just give a little bit of perspective about Cedar Creek Reservoir. Can you just give us some of the specifics? How big is the lake? How long has it been here? When was it built and that type of thing?

Bucky B: The reservoir was built in the ‘60’s. And filled to capacity in spring, I believe it was 1967. Obviously I wasn’t here yet. Very young at that time. But, that’s when the reservoir was constructed, when it filled. The reservoir is approximately 34,000 surface acres. I’m just using round numbers. And holds about 678,000 acre-feet of water for the capacity. And it obviously is a water supply, not just for the Tarrant Regional Water District and our customers in the Metroplex, or in the Fort Worth area, but all the local communities around here depend on Cedar Creek, as well.

So, you have the utility companies. East and West Cedar Creek municipal water districts. You have all the communities like Kemp, Mabank, Malakoff, Trinidad, Eustace. They’re all taking water from the reservoir through contracts, of course. So, it’s a lifeline for this area. You know, not just the fact that we built it, we own it, we maintain it, we pump from it. But the local communities get their water from it, as well. And they depend on us in that sense.

Mark O: So super beneficial for a lot of people?

Bucky B: Yes, I mean back in the day most of the small communities around here just had what they would call a ‘city lake.’ There was like Kemp and Mabank, Malakoff. They had small city lakes.

Well, these little lakes, they were adequate back in the ‘60’s. But even though I’m not in the Metroplex here, these communities have really grown. We now have a lot of business. You go into the Gun Barrel area on Hwy 334 and we’re just like anybody else. We’ve got all the Wal-Mart’s, the Chili’s, the restaurants. You name it. We’ve got all that.

Well, the schools are growing. Everything is booming. And there’s so many people down here now, especially on weekends, that the water supply from those old city lakes would have not been adequate for the growth that we see today. So, even some of those communities that back in the day just had public wells for their water systems. Well, none of that infrastructure would help them today with the size of their growth in their communities. So, they’re all depending on our reservoir to give them the water supply they need to plan and grow their communities.

Mark O: Yeah, that’s something that you like to see, right? That it’s beneficial, but the benefits are widespread.

Bucky B: Yes. I mean it is. I mean the District’s I think very well perceived in the community. You know I meet people all the time. I speak to a lot of different community organizations, and schools, kids, what have you. And it’s always well received. And there’s always a lot of appreciation shown to the Water District for what we do and the asset that we brought to this community. Because this is, in my opinion, it’s definitely one of the biggest lifelines that there is for the community down here, for it to continue to grow and expand. Because it’s just, from the time I came down here on the weekends back in the early 1970’s if you will, and moved down here – to see it from that point, to see it today is just amazing. I mean you get on the water and we’ve got wall to wall houses. I mean there’s, we estimate there’s over 10,000 boat houses on the reservoir. And it’s just an enormous amount of growth around the waterfront.
Mark O: That’s a lot of boat houses for sure.

Bucky B: It is. Absolutely.

Mark O: So, let’s get back to that gate operation process that you were talking about because I’m sure that things have changed over time, but what was it like when you first started out doing that? What do you have to do? Why are you there? Why are you opening gates and that type of thing?

Bucky B: Well, anytime the reservoir was over conservation level, which is elevation 322 msl even. 322 point zero zero. So, when the reservoir gets above that during storm conditions, rainfall events, then we have to start opening gates to release that water. And our procedures have changed a little bit over the years. You know, everything changes.

But in the early days, you know, we’d get up to 322.05, for instance, 5/100 of a foot over full, and we’d start opening gates. Typically I would start with two gates. And we would continue to adjust as needed to handle whatever the inflow that was coming in from our watershed. We have a very large watershed on the reservoir. And all lakes are unique, even within the District. Bridgeport, Eagle Mountain, Richland-Chambers, and Cedar Creek.

We have those unique situations, where the watersheds are different. The rapid inflows that we can see at Cedar Creek are maybe not quite as fast at Richland-Chambers because we have some Corps of Engineer lakes up above Richland-Chambers that’ll hold some of that water. So, it’s all a little bit different. But simply just get up, start opening gates. And do what you need to do until it gets back down to conservation, which again is elevation 322 msl.

Mark O: So how did you open those gates?

Bucky B: At that time you actually, on Cedar Creek we have control buildings. What we call control buildings. It’s a metal building. It’s at each gate. The operator for the gates is inside those buildings. And you simply, as simple as it sounds, you drive down. Open up the door. Go inside the building. You have a key, Turn it on. And there’s a switch. You either go up or down. And the gears on there are labeled for increments on openings, from one foot, to a foot and a half, all the way up. So, you would just simply watch that gear. Set it. And that’s what you did. And then stop the gate.

In the last probably 8-years here at Cedar Creek, we changed the way our operators are. We no longer have to drive down to the building. Go inside the building. Keep in mind that normally when you’re operating gates, it’s pouring down rain. A lot of lightning. Usually a stormy condition. I’ve been down at the spillway before, when we were under tornado warnings because there was some tornadoes around the Kerens-Trinidad area. But you do what you got to do.

But it’s different now, In the last 8-years or so, we worked with an engineering firm out of the Metroplex. And we had them – they had a proprietary gate system that they worked – actually Cedar Creek was the first one. And these amalgamator controls that were put on our spillway gate is something we worked with the engineering firm with. And those controls have proven to be extremely accurate. They will actually let us adjust our spillway gates to within 1/100th of a foot opening. Very precise. No longer looking at a gear inside the building that has a stencil on it that says one foot or a foot and a half. This will let you get down to 1/100th of a foot. It has a control that you actually can drive up to on the outside of the rail of the spillway, so there’s no more getting out in the middle of the night during a storm.

You can actually drive down and press the controls there on – there’s an electronic readout and you can again see your lake level openings. Spillway gate openings to within that 1/100th of a foot.

There is some functionality that we’ve now tied this into SCADA. And so the SCADA can see what we’re doing. There could be possibilities in the future that we may go to smart devices and be able to operate those gates remotely. And for SCADA to do it. That has not been determined if we want to do that yet. But it would be very similar to what is happening with the pumps and motors and valves on our pipelines.

It’s something I was very excited to work with. Norse Technologies for the last several years. It’s proven, although we’re not doing remote. But it’s still very, very accurate. And it’s very safe here at the spillway to operate in that manner. So, we were able to then take that technology and expand it to Richland-Chambers. So, we have all 24 gates at Richland-Chambers with that same functionality working with Norse Technologies. And again, it was a proprietary system that their engineers came up with.

Cedar Creek was the first reservoir, not only in the state, but in the country that had those type controls. And now Norse Technologies has expanded to some other water districts and lake authorities with that type of a control. So, very interesting. Very, very interesting.

Mark O: That’s cool to be the first one on the block to… you know… I’m sure you gave it some test-type runs and fine tuned it over the course of time.

Bucky B: We did. Like I say, Cedar Creek was the first for the District. The first for the state and country. But here within the District I was still operating gates after we had those controls put in. I was doing kind of a backup. I would operate it at the control on the panel. The new controls. I would still go into the building and look and make sure that everything was matching up. And we actually had the opportunity to watch that for two or three years to make sure everything looked good. We’ve even opened our gates when we do our gate inspections. Periodically we set stop logs, dewater the gates, and then check the coatings. Check for any corrosion, leaks, anything like that. And when we do that we take the opportunity to still do a doublecheck on the measurement to make sure that that controller, that electronic readout is exactly what our tape measure says when we get down in the dewatered gate and measure. And we found it always to stay dead on.

So, we’ve not seen any problems and that’s what gave us the confidence to move down to Richland-Chambers and do it there, as well. And of course we’re checking Richland-Chambers, as well. It’s only been on Richland-Chambers for two or three years. But it’s holding up very, very well. And matching up extremely well.

Mark O: Yeah, that’s really neat. So, before you get to opening gates there’s this thing that you have to figure out, right? And that’s how much water is coming into your lake? How fast is this lake going to rise before you figure out how much you’re going to open the gates? So, how do you guys go about doing that?

Bucky B: Well, there are several calculations that we can do. We do have some stream gauges at Cedar Creek. They’re mainly on Cedar Creek, Lacey Creek, and King’s Creek, which are three of the tributaries coming in on the north, northwest side of the reservoir. And of course, we get assistance now from Rachel Ikert’s team. From her team, several of the engineers, they will send us readouts on what the inflows are.

Of course, those readouts are only going to monitor what again, those three creeks. We have several other creeks coming in the reservoir besides those three. But we can also look at tables that tell us the capacity of the reservoir and if start looking at 4-hour averages – and the reason we do 4-hour averages is we don’t want to overreact, if you will. So, we look at 4-hour lake level averages. We can see the changes in the capacity of the reservoir, which tells you then how much water has come in over that time period, which you can break that back down into what the cubic feet per second inflow is into the reservoir.

And of course I know what’s coming out of the reservoir because we have tables for that. As a general rule of thumb, it changes slightly, but as a general rule of thumb every gate foot that we open – and we call a gate foot, one gate, one foot opening. Very simple. And so we talk about gate feet. Sometimes we only have two gate feet. I’ve had as many as 80 gate feet open. But that’s all based on that one foot opening equals, each foot equals roughly 188 cubic feet per second. And I know what that release can do.

So, therefore we take what we get from engineering as far as inflows. We can see the differences in the lake level. And I know what the spillway gates can do. What they’re releasing. And then over time you find some short cuts. The math never lies. So, I depend on the math. But, I also know that 4 gates… if I have 4 gate feet open… 4 gate feet can change the lake level 1/100th in an hour.

And so, I’ve told everybody that I’ve trained. I’ve told everybody that is involved now with the spillway. I said, ‘don’t ever do away with all your calculations. But always remember in the back of your head that 4 gate feet equals 1/100th an hour. And when you’re operating gates that’s very important because that will tell you a lot about what’s going on. And it’s also a very easy way to calculate it at 2 a.m. in the morning when you get woke up and you want to try to make sense of what’s happening on the reservoir.

Mark O: I’m sure that’s happened numerous times.

Bucky B: Many, many times.

Mark O: So, you start out as Assistant Lake Superintendent. And then moved up to Lake Superintendent. And now Eastern Reservoir Manager. What happened between Cedar Creek Lake Superintendent and Eastern Reservoir Manager? How did that change your job? Or add to your job?

Bucky B: Yeah, I would say it added to the job. And I will also, I like to give credit to the people that work with us. And Lonnie Byers, Bubba Beyers. Most people call him Bubba.
But Lonnie Byers is the Lake Superintendent at Richland-Chambers. He’s been with that lake through construction from day one.

Bubba is an extremely knowledgeable, good employee to work with. So, Bubba works for me. And so taking over the responsibilities of overseeing Richland-Chambers as the Reservoir Manager I think was made much easier because Bubba was already there. And he had that knowledge. And he and I work very well I think together.

But the added responsibility, I’ll say when I was just Lake Superintendent here, I was over the spillway, maintenance, the dam maintenance. At that time, we had fleet maintenance and we had facility maintenance. Now our departments have switched up a little bit over time. So, we really don’t have all of that anymore. But we still have the, the maintenance of the spillways, the dams, the compounds. And then all the permitting and sanitation around the reservoir.

Well, it was kind of an easy transition to pick up the permitting, improvement permitting, and sanitation and permitting around Richland-Chambers because it was just kind of an outreach of what we’re already doing at Cedar Creek. So, that responsibility came to me. And then again, overseeing the maintenance of the spillway and the dam and the budgeting for Richland-Chambers. And now the George Shannon Wetlands that we do the maintenance. We don’t do operation of it. That’s Environmental. But we do a lot of the maintenance on it.

So, I think there was obviously an increase in responsibility but there was such good people already in place that it made that transition much easier. Similar to now, since that time when I became the Eastern Reservoir Manager, then I was asked because of the work that we do in permitting and sanitation, I was asked to take on the sanitation permitting for Eagle Mountain and Bridgeport. So, now we have inspectors up there that would report to me. And I take care of overseeing the enforcement of our waste control order. And all of the permitting of septic systems, septic system complaints. That type thing on those two reservoirs.

But again, a person could look at it as more responsibility. But it’s the same work, it’s just more of it in more locations. So, we just build our team around all those inspectors that we already have. So, it was a pretty easy transition, or at least it was for me.

Mark O: So, what does sanitation permitting involve? What are we… are we trying to prevent stuff from happening? Just make sure things are kosher or things are you know built according to the standards that you guys anticipate? Or you guys set?

Bucky B: Yes. A little bit of all of the above. I won’t get too deep into it, but I’ll just kind of give an overview. The state, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, we call it TCEQ. TCEQ has the state standards for septic systems for on-site sewage disposal systems for residential. And that’s all found in the Texas Administrative Code Chapter 285. And part of that, the counties, water districts, river authorities, what have you, they can get their own waste control order and become an authorized agent of the state. Meaning that we want to take over the responsibility of regulating what’s around our lakes, for instance.

So, several years ago we got our waste control orders. We became an authorized agent from TCEQ. And we’re authorized through our waste control orders to regulate any septic system, any on-site sewage system that’s within 2,000 feet of our flood flowage boundary. So, basically we do the boundary around all four of our reservoirs.

So, now we’re responsible for carrying out and enforcing the administrative code, Chapter 285. And then there’s also the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 365 and 366, that relate to on-site septic systems. So, we’re responsible for ensuring that is met by all the people who put in systems around the lake. So, our inspectors, we will permit any septic system going in. Any new system. Any repair to an existing system. Any complaints regarding a system. If there’s some type of discharge out on the ground or something causing a problem. So, we will take those complaints, or we’ll take those applications. We will review them. And make sure the designs are appropriate to meet the state standards. Then we permit them. We go out in the field when they’re installed. And we inspect them. And then we approve them. And authorize them to use those systems.

Mark O: So, kind of what you’re saying is, and you don’t get this from a high level, but really like managing and operating a reservoir there’s so many moving parts involved to make sure that, that they’re safe conditions on the lake. To make sure that the lake is, the water quality levels are good. Or at least meet state requirements. That type of thing that sometimes people really don’t think about when they think about operating a reservoir. They’re just thinking about, well that’s you know, they’re just pumping water out and using it for drinking water supplies.

Bucky B: And that’s true. I mean there’s, again all the way back 40 years ago when I came to work here, there was so much more to it than I imagined. And of course it has grown in complexity over the years. But that’s one of the things I love about the job is I can be thinking about permitting boat docks, piers, retaining walls, dredging, what have you. So, we can get involved in that in one moment. Or we can be looking at septic systems, potential discharges, wastewater treatment plants around the reservoir. Or I can change hats and I can be thinking about spillway gate releases. Or maintenance of the spillway, which could be anything from just the structural integrity of it, which we work with our engineering department on. Or we can be looking at coatings on the gate to make sure we’re not getting corrosion or anything such as that. So, I can be thinking about that or the gate controllers that we had designed and put on here. Or go down to the dam and we’re looking at erosion control, slopes, levees, making sure our grass cover is appropriate. If there’s any seepages, anything that we need to monitor, or take a look at. And then of course we have the maintenance at Richland-Chambers of the wetlands, which again we’re not operating the wetlands. The water quality division takes care of that, but we’re taking care of the maintenance that needs to be done. So, you wear several different hats, which to me makes the job interesting because there’s always something new coming up.

Mark O: Yeah, it adds a little variety to the day.

Bucky B: It does. There’s always something different coming up. I find that interesting. It’s a challenge and I find that very interesting.

Mark O: So, one of the things that you mentioned before we started this interview was that, was that you were inspecting the dam. Or you spent a couple of days inspecting the dams at Richland-Chambers and Cedar Creek. What does that involve?

Bucky B: Yes. What we do is the District has developed a plan district wide. It’s called a condition assessment. They do it in the pipeline department looking at pumps, motors, pipelines, and so forth. They look at buildings. We’re looking at spillways and dams. ‘We’ being the reservoir operations. So, we’re doing a condition assessment. And we do it annually. It helps us prioritize work that needs to be done, whether it’s in the upcoming budget year, or whether it may be a 5-year budget plan.

We rate things based on the need of – does it need to be done urgent or is a 5-year budget okay? And so we have representatives from engineering come down. They meet with us. We go down, we did Richland-Chambers earlier this week. We did it on Tuesday. And we did a complete walkthrough of the entire dam. The slopes, the soil cement, the downstream vegetation. The crest if you will. We looked at all the spillway gates. We looked at all the concrete structures. Any spalding, any cracking, whatever. We got inside the gallery and looked. We went out in a boat and we drove the entire water side of the soil cement, looking to make sure everything was in proper condition.

And then we rate things. We have hundreds of things that we look at. And between engineering and reservoir operations, we have a spreadsheet that we can rate and score things on the condition. So, we did that at Richland-Chambers earlier this week. And yesterday we did it at Cedar Creek, spent the day here.

Down there we have on the lakeside soil cement for erosion control for wave action. Here we have riprap. But we did the same thing. We looked at everything downstream, upstream. The crest of the dam. We went inside the valve house, which we have at Cedar Creek. So, we look at everything to see what it is. And we get our heads together through engineering and reservoir operations. And what that does for us, when we do these ratings, we can detect things that, oh we need to start putting that in the budget come December, January when we’re working on FY2025 budget. Or hey, we could budget that in our 3-year plan or our 5-year plan because it’s not critical at this time. It’s just maybe cosmetic or aesthetic. Something we’d like to correct. But it’s not structurally a problem.

So, that’s what we’re doing is we’re looking at the complete structures. And that’s pretty much done. I know pipeline is doing it with all their infrastructure, as well.

Mark O: Yeah, you got to kind of keep track of things to make sure nothing gets dilapidated or you don’t have any kind of major breakdown of things.

Bucky B: Well, and it’s very helpful because some of the things that we looked at, we didn’t find anything major. But the things we look at, well I can come back, I’m the kind of person, I keep folders and notes. Everybody does their thing differently. And so I like to just drop little tags in there for Richland-Chambers and for Cedar Creek. And then I’ll sit down with staff. Usually the budget’s due by sometime end of February every year for the upcoming budget year.

I like to start working on it in December, because that’s usually a little bit quieter month. So, we’ll start working on our budgets in December and try to have it wrapped up by early January. But now I’ll already have little notes in there of stuff I’ve seen all year long. Or I’ve heard all year long from different employees that are at sites. Or what we looked at on the condition assessments. And then we can put all that together. So, now you kind of, you don’t go into it blind when you’re starting in December or January putting your budget together. You can see all these notes that you’ve accumulated throughout the year of, ‘hey, don’t forget this. Don’t forget that.’ Or somebody says, ‘what about this?’ You can say, ‘oh, no. That’s going to go in the budget two years from now.’ So, that’s the way I like to do it. But everybody has their own method.

Mark O: Their own little scheme.

Bucky B: Absolutely.

Mark O: All right. Good. Other than what we’ve talked about is there anything else that you would like to mention or add, that I haven’t asked a question about?

Bucky B: I’m trying to think if there would be anything specific. I mean, again the projects we have coming up, we’ve… some of the recent things we have a series of relief wells, collector piping at the dam. So, there’s a lot of things. People drive down to the dam and they look at it and say, ‘okay, there’s water. There’s riprap or soil cement, depending on which reservoir you’re at. There’s a road and looks like the road’s in good shape. And there’s some nice grass that they keep mowed.’ And that’s pretty much it.

But there’s so much more to them when you get down, whether it’s spillway galleries, or whether you’re inside the valve houses. So, whether it’s French drain systems and collector pipes and relief wells. There’s a lot going on that people don’t see that’s subsurface. So, we have to monitor all of those things. And there’s always projects for maintenance of those that we have to do.

I think there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye a lot of times. Because people don’t see all of that. You look at it, it’s kind of like your car. You look at your car and well, they drove their car here and they washed it. It looks really nice. I guess everything’s okay. But, there’s a lot of maintenance underneath that hood that needs to be done that most people don’t see. And that’s kind of to me the way our spillways and dams are. There’s a lot more maintenance than I ever dreamed of when I came here 40 years ago.

I was anxious to go to spillways and dams and pump stations and see it. And quite honestly, I saw so much more than I expected. That would be one thing.

Mark O: Okay. So, let me ask you this. You came to work here 40 years ago. What are some of the most valuable lessons or things that you learned that maybe you can share with some people who haven’t been here 40 years? As far as like getting acclimated to the Water District and how we do things and, you know, how we operate?

Bucky B: I think just, as a general overview, one of the things I would say is get out and try to see as much as you can. And learn as much as you can about the District. Because we, a lot of times, we get into our own little zone, if you will, and I think it helps us appreciate what other people are doing. Whether it’s, you know, sometimes we get into this, well hey, purchasing can do this for us. Or engineering can do this for us. But, you know, HR can do this for us. But when we start really seeing and feeling what they’re doing, we have an appreciation for their job. And we can share that information back and forth.

So, getting out and seeing what everybody does throughout the District, if you have the opportunity. I know we can’t all go on field trips every day. But when opportunities arise, get out and see what other people are doing.

Now flipping that conversation a little bit different. I would say, and this may sound obvious, but finding something that you really enjoy doing. To me, if you don’t love your job, and maybe people will take that as, well that seems a little ridiculous. No, I think you should love your job. I really do.

You know, I said years ago. I said, ‘if I don’t love what I’m doing and I don’t feel challenged, and I don’t enjoy it, then I don’t need to be here. I need to go find something else in life.’ And that’s why I’m still hear after 40 years. May sound like a cliché, I think I’ve got the best job in the world. I love my job. I can not think of going anywhere else. I’ve had other job opportunities. I even had another reservoir manager job opportunity with another water district. I wasn’t interested.

I love what I’m doing. And I love doing it here with the Water District. And I think everybody should explore that and try to find out something that, hey, this is the career path I want to take. And I can see myself doing that for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. And we have some employees that have been here over 50 years. You know, don’t know Lord willing if I’m going to make the 50 years or not. But we’ll see.

But finding something you really enjoy. Because I have a lot of people ask me, ‘Bucky, have you considered retiring? When are you going to leave? When do you think you’re going to exit? And I’ve told it pretty consistently. I don’t think about retirement. Because if I’m thinking about retirement, I’m not thinking about my job.

I’m enjoying my job right now. There’s plenty of time to think about retirement when that day comes. But, that day is not today. But, I would urge everybody, find something you truly enjoy. And hopefully, it’s within your department. If it’s not, find another department. There’s always job postings. Find something you really think is challenging.

For me, like I said in the introduction, there’s not question that Bud, Mike, and Harold took a chance on me. It’s always a chance when you start a new job. They took a chance on me. And I took a chance on them. I took a chance on the Water District. And it was the best chance I ever took. Because I love it.

Mark O: Wow. I don’t think you can beat that.

Bucky B: I don’t think that I could. I mean for me, it’s just kind of a, again this may sound a little bit over, but it’s like a dream come true. I enjoy what I’m doing. And I enjoy the people I get to work with. You see so many people. Everybody has different opinions. Everybody has different thoughts. Different ways of doing things. There’s a lot of different people who are my inspectors, supervisors that we have in my department. And I respect and appreciate everyone of them because we all look at things different. But together we can come up with some pretty good ideas. And some pretty good plans if we do it as a team. Because what we accomplish in reservoir operations is a lot more than me. It’s the whole team. And I truly mean that.
Mark O: Wow. That’s some great wisdom there. And Bucky, I just want to say, ‘it’s really been an enjoyable experience listening to the things that you’ve shared today. And I appreciate you joining us for this project – the oral history project of the Tarrant Regional Water District – Beneath the Surface. Thank you.

Bucky B: I appreciate the opportunity and let’s do it again in 40 more years.

Mark O: Alright, we’ll take that into consideration.

Bucky B: Alright.

Mark O: Thanks, Bucky.

Return to the Beneath the Surface page