MANY positive developments have come about as a result of the passing of the

Clean Water Act in the United States. Today, less than 40 years after the enactment of this

landmark legislation, designers and installers have a significantly expanded set of tools to

work with when addressing issues relative to protecting soil from the ravages of water and

wind. There is, however, nothing new about erosion control. Evidence of the use of mulches

for soil protection dates back thousands of years. We know that the ancient Egyptians used

gabions for soil stabilization. Gabions, or fascines, played a key role in America’s

independence. During the siege of Boston, George Washington’s troops quietly installed an

artillery battery one night on Dorchester Heights. The battery was protected by wooden

fascines, or gabions, that were filled with soil. In response, the British immediately realized

their position was hopeless. They evacuated the city, never to return, and America continued

on the road to independence. Erosion control is built on a set of timeless facts. Unprotected

soil is extremely vulnerable to erosion. High water flows, significant storm events and wind

can cause serious problems. Throughout history mankind has adapted to these problems and

moved ahead. Soon after the Clean Water Act was signed into law, the business of

developing and improving tools for erosion control picked up some serious momentum,

fueled by a demand for better products and techniques. Product innovation has been further

pushed by the ever increasing enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Designers and builders

were suddenly faced with solving erosion problems that were minimized or ignored just a

few decades earlier. Public knowledge and awareness have also increased the pressure for

implementation of appropriate and effective solutions. The Low Impact Development

movement has pushed the principle of responsible development and the maintenance of

historic runoff levels, and so, the demand for innovative ways to increase soil permeability

continues to grow. Today’s technology, while based on timeless principles, has opened

many new doors to designers and installers.

Special Events

Safety Stand Down - Nov 4th

Veterans Day - Nov 11th

GA DOT Letting - Nov 20th

EFS/Grassworx Closed - Nov 26th and 27th for Thanksgiving

Inside this Issue:

Safety Stand Down - Page 2

Employee Birthdays - Page 2

Employee Anniversaries - Page 2

Annual Food & Toy Drive - Page 3

Solid Pink & Atlanta 3 Day - Page 3

Look for the Good - Page 4

Crew of the Month - Page 4

Sales Corner - Page 4

Featured Jobsite - Page 5

Employee Spotlight - Page 5

Erosion Times Volume 5, Issue 10

November 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

We at E.F.S., Inc./Grassworx would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very

Happy and Blessed holiday.

Safety Stand Down - Work Zone Safety

Arturo Gonzalez, EFS Laborer,

November 2nd

Carmelo Chavez, Grassworx

Laborer, November 3rd

Todd Mapes, EFS Account

Manager, November 3rd

Edwin Colocho, Grassworx

Laborer, November 6th

Saul Gallegos, EFS Crew Leader,

November 19th

Carla Axel, EFS Sales & Marketing,

November 22nd

Fernando Valencia, EFS Fleet

Manager, November 22nd

Osman Velasquez, EFS Crew

Leader, November 23rd

Jacobo Bazan, EFS Production

Crew, November 23rd

Martin Fraide, Grassworx Laborer,

November 28th

Employee Anniversaries

Tracy Smith, EFS Purchasing

Manager, November 14, 1994

Jose Fuentes, EFS Laborer,

November 11, 1996

Robert Vazquez, EFS Night Shift

Manager, November 18, 1996

Arturo Gonzalez, EFS Laborer,

November 3, 1999

Luis Villanueva, EFS Laborer,

November 11, 2004

Rudy Roblero, EFS Crew Leader,

November 8, 2005

Osman Velasquez, EFS Crew

Leader, November 4, 2005

Liliana Tello, EFS Human

Resources, November 19, 2007

On Wednesday, November 4, 2009 E.F.S., Inc. / Grassworx joined GUCA, GHCA, GA DOT, OSHA, GA FHA and many others in a statewide Safety Stand Down from 7:00 to 8:00 AM.

These organizations are committed to sharing their collective expertise to help foster a culture of injury and illness prevention while sharing best practices and technical knowledge, especially in the area of work zone safety and “Struck By” hazards.

What is a Stand Down?

Construction companies, who know the value of safety training, use a Safety Stand Down to stop all work and provide a focused safety toolbox talk meeting in all their work zones, on one day, at the same time, on one particular topic.

These types of meetings provide effective communication of safety policies, goals and expectations through all levels of a construction team. While stand downs are commonly used in the military, they are not new to the construction industry.

Georgia Branch, AGC has hosted three safety stand downs in the past 18 months and many contractors regularly organize them for their employees.

OSHA believes there is tremendous value in committing 30 minutes to one hour of your day's work to talk about safety, leading to increased employee safety morale. Stopping to talk about safety brings it to the forefront of everyone's mind! It is very important to communicate your firm's safety message to front line workers who constitute the largest group of our industry's workforce.

Preventing Struck by Accidents

Employee Birthdays

Solid Pink

Atlanta Three Day

This year EFS/Grassworx was honored to be one of the many sponsors of Amanda Barber and Solid Pink, her team that participated in the Breast Cancer Three Day walk. The team began their journey at Lake Lanier and finished the walk 60 miles later at Turner Field.

The following is an exert from the team’s thank you letter…

“Solid Pink has accomplished the breast cancer three day. Believe it or not we all accomplished the entire journey. Out team toughly enjoyed the experience of raising funds to support such a wonderful cause. We couldn’t have done it with out each of our three day donors. Your generosity and support is what kept us going when we thought we couldn’t go any farther.

The quote of the weekend was “I didn’t know walking could be so hard” it was said by our youngest team mate and it was so true. We walked with two thousand two hundred and twenty five people and two thousand and twenty five of the participants were women. It was a very uplifting, invigorating, solid pink weekend. Thank you again for your support”. Amanda

Pictured below is Amanda and some of her teammates.

Annual Food & Toy Drive As you all know, the holidays are coming and it’s time to celebrate and give thanks. In these difficult times not everyone has the resources to celebrate. That is why, EFS/Grassworx ask you to lend a helping hand to those in need.

Norcross Cooperative Ministry is our adopted charity and we would like to help them out by conducting a Can Drive for Thanksgiving from Nov 2nd to Nov 24th and a Toy Drive for Christmas from Nov 2nd to Dec 16th.

This year to make things a bit more interesting, we have decided to turn our food & toy drive into a little competition. We have created five teams. Each team will have a captain and will keep a tally of the donations they bring in. There will also be prizes. 1) For each 6 cans you bring in you will receive a raffle ticket for Christmas prizes. 2) For every $4 in new and unopened toys you bring in you will also receive a raffle ticket for the Christmas prizes. 3) The team that wins will receive lunch at a nice restaurant (to be selected). 3) The person who brings in the most will receive a special prize.

We will have boxes with each team’s name on them in the Conference Room where the team captains can collect the items.

The following is a list of each team and it’s members:

C.A.T.S.F.C. (Cans And Toys For Christmas)

Liliana Tello, Fernando Valencia, Larry Lauer, John Phillips, Adolfo Castrejon, Juan Flores, Jose Lindero, Elder Diaz, Mauricio Castro, Francisco Diaz, Edwin Colocho, Geronimo Ruiz, Delfino Mendez, Carlos Herrera, Ruperto Hernandez, Jose Luis Flores

Team Miracle / Equipo Milagro

Carla Axel, Tracy Smith, Jose Salvatierra, Jay Lambert, Jose Alvarado, Epifanio Soto, Omar Tomeo, Jacobo Bazan, Amador Domingo, Genaro Garcia, Hector Romo,

Osman Velazquez, Santiago Merida, Ignacio Luis Bautista, Bersain Lopez, Felix Flores

The Infiltrators

Michelle Williams, Bernardo Figueroa, Don Chambers, Randy Bortles, Hamilton Alvarado, Santiago Cruz, Rudy Roblero, Gregorio Bazan, Honorio Delarosa, Martin Fraide, Francisco Galvan, Luis Villanueva, Pedro Ramirez, Rolando Aguilar, Tanislao Lopez, Mario Gonzalez

Trenching Hands

Reshma Fret t , Noe Garay, Denn is Jenovese, Todd Mapes, Ramon Guzman, Francisco Medina, Chino Ramos, Fernando Cruz, Luis Brenez, Jose Tovar, Edgar Sarabia, Emmanuel Ruiz, Siro Velazquez, Jose Fuentes, Arturo Gonzalez, Hector Aponte

Yes we CAN

Sandra Cruz, Joel Proctor, Robert Vazquez, Zane Martin, Julian Palacio, Saul Gallegos, Mark Johnston, Jose Ballesteros, Brian Duron, Osiel Castro, Boris Diaz, Santiago Encarnacion, Gabriel Merida, Santos Herrera, Jesus Hernandez, Francisco Garcia

Look for the Good

Congratulations to the winner of the October Look for the Good Contest; Reshma Frett who was nominated by Dennis Jenovese. The following is an excerpt from the nomination…

“ I cannot imagine how difficult the transition would be for me without her assistance. Reshma has guided me in learning the how to’s of MAS. She has been patient, cooperative and on countless occasions has been a knowledgeable resource.”

We would also like to congratulate Sandra Cruz on her honorable mention in Dennis’ nomination as well.

Thank you Reshma and Sandra for your continued hard work and dedication and thank you Dennis for the nomination.

Congratulations to the winners of the October Crew of the Month award; Rudy Roblero and his crew members Encarnacion Santiago and Gabriel Merida. This is the third month in a row that Rudy and his crew have won!

Rudy’s crew installed an average of 60 feet per man hour with a total of 17,882 lf installed for the month. With a total installed year to date of 218,606 lf.

Kudos to Ruperto Hernandez and his crew; who had the second highest at 57 feet per man hour. Ruperto and his crew also have the highest Y.T.D. total with 298,726 lf.

We would also like to congratulate Edgar Sarabia and his crew who had the highest footage installed for the month of October with 22,808 lf.

Congratulations to the winner of the October Salesman

of the Month Contest; Todd Mapes.

Todd has secured quite a few substantial contracts for

E.F.S., Inc. this month. One being the McGinnis Ferry

Road project with ER Snell Contractor. As well as the

Gravel Springs Road project for Strickland & Sons

Pipeline.

We would also like to congratulate Zane Martin on

receiving the contract for the SR 20 project in Gwinnett

County, from Gary’s Grading & Pipeline Contractor.

Look for the Good

Crew of the Month

Sales Corner

Featured Jobsite

Employee Spotlight

- Mauricio Castro

Mauricio has been a Crew

Leader for E.F.S., Inc.

since August 23, 2005

He is great team player

and a very valuable asset

to the installation team.

This month’s featured jobsite is the McGinnis

Ferry Road GA DOT project at Satellite Blvd.

E.F.S., Inc. has been contracted by E.R. Snell

Contractor, Inc. to perform the erosion

control for this project.

Since beginning the project EFS has installed over 5,900 linear feet of CPOP Sediment Control

System, 1,400 lf of Staked Haybale Sediment Barrier and 1,000 lf of Tree Protection Fence.

Veterans Day

November 11, 2009

Honoring all those who served

Thank you for your dedicated

and loyal service to our county.

We deeply appreciate the

sacrifices that have been made

to keep our country free.

“Patriotism is not short,

frenzied outburst of emotion,

but dedication of a lifetime.”

- Adlai Stevenson