Berkeley, CA - Bonneau Dickson, PE is a Sanitary Engineer. Sanitary engineering is a subset of civil engineering that deals with water and wastewater. He was a designer and team leader on exciting projects throughout his career and instead of retiring he took his concentrated knowledge in a new direction. Today he serves as a forensic analyst and expert witness in cases that relate to sewage, wastewater, septic systems and storm water.

Now if you are not an expert that might be hard to grasp. So, to put it simply he helps litigators and insurance companies to close their cases. For example, a new home buyer whose septic tank exploded, and the previous owner or realtor did not disclose that it hadn’t been functioning for a while. Or when an office building gets moldy from steady leakage of wastewater coming into the lower floors.

Bonneau (an old French Huguenot name, there is a town of Bonneau, South Carolina, about 40 miles inland from Charleston, SC) received his Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech and also did a Master’s in Engineering there. He got a second engineering Master’s from Harvard University and later a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School Bonneau has focused on areas of Civil Engineering related to water and wastewater. In most states, Sanitary Engineers can only be registered as Civil Engineers, and so that is what he is registered as.

In his lifetime, Bonneau led the design and construction of water lines, sewers, pump stations, and wells, and also served as a project manager and inspector. He spent a lot of his time with Harris & Associates, a civil engineering firm in Concord, California. He also worked abroad in various countries for a total of seven years. That included places like Rwanda and Vietnam, where the government sent him to check a base water system. You can learn more by reading the resumes on his website, each geared to a particular area of his engineering background.

“My brothers keep asking me when I am going to retire. I enjoy the technical challenges working as a consulting engineer and an expert witness, so, I never want to stop. I think that remaining active helps me fight off old age. I like to think that I do some good, too.”

Bonneau says his cases come from referral sources, such as lawyers, and on-line directories for expert witnesses with certain technical specialties. Sometimes those lawyers will request him for something that is not quite in his wheelhouse, such as water toxicity. He acknowledges that there are sometimes contaminants in municipal water, and that dirty water can help spread diseases like cholera, but that is not truly the water subject he aims to concentrate on. He is more of an expert in technical operations such as sewage backups into houses, failed septic systems, pump stations, sewer pipes, and water distribution systems.

For example, Bonneau assisted a New England city with a situation when 6 large wastewater pumps began to fail after only 4 months of service. His expert opinion was integral in the decision to replace (rather than repair and face repeated issues) those pumps. Overall, it saved that city money.

Bonneau is returning to the radio to discuss his work and how his expertise makes the difference not only for lawyers, but homeowners and realtors. Very often, he notes, the overflow port for a home water system is not fully above the sewer line and that can cause multiple problems. He jokes that homeowners who are not diligent are spending their grandchildren’s money.

Bonneau has been working independently since 1993, as a project manager, consultant, analyst, and expert witness. He has a lot of dynamic information and stories to share. Learn from this expert Civil Engineer in his podcast.

For more information about Bonneau and his craft, visit https://bonneaudickson.com/