CAN BUILDING CODES LIMIT YOUR RIGHT TO PRACTICE?

In the mid 1990s the Uniform Building Code (UBC) development process marched on without participation by geologists. As a result, the 2000 International Building Code (IBC) contained no provisions for Excavation and Grading, and the developers of the new code came close to assigning geologic work in building siting, design, and construction to architects and engineers. Lobbying by others in the absence of geologists resulted in a provision in the 1997 UBC that specifies that an engineer or licensed architect shall “determine the possibility of the groundwater table rising above the proposed elevation of the floor or floors below grade.” For the past several years the California Council of Geoscience Organizations has, independently and at times with the Association of Engineering Geologists and the American Institute of Professional Geologists, begun to return geologic work to geologists in the interest of public safety. After 3 years of testimony by geologists and enlightened building officials, elementary grading provisions were added to the 2002 amendments to the IBC.

Constant vigilance is needed. The erosion of geologic provisions from the code when geologists are not active participants is like coastal erosion; it can proceed for years at a slow rate, as happened with the Uniform Building Code, or experience sudden catastrophic retreat as happened when the International Building Code was drafted. The erosion is ongoing; each year competing organizations submit proposed code changes, and proposals defeated one year can be resubmitted the next year. Regular participants at the semiannual code development hearings include the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of California. Geologists whose work is related to building siting, design, and construction must also be present to protect their right to practice their profession.