MWCD Recognizes Outgoing Corps of Engineers Colonel
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District is applauding the service of an outgoing colonel of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) at the same time it welcomes his replacement.
Members of the MWCD Board of Directors will prepare a resolution of recognition for Col. William E. Bulen, the commander of the Huntington, W.Va., District of the USACE for his service over the past three years. Bulen’s replacement is Col. Dana R. Hurst, who recently assumed command of the Huntington District.
“Col. Bulen is an outstanding asset to the Corps of Engineers and provided excellent leadership to all of the projects in the Huntington District, especially the Muskingum River Basin projects,” said John M. Hoopingarner, MWCD executive director/secretary, during a recent meeting of the MWCD Board of Directors held in Atwood Lake Resort and Conference Center near Dellroy. “We congratulate Col. Bulen as he embarks on a new assignment in his career and look forward to working with Col. Hurst.”
During a ceremony held July 12 at Huntington, leadership of the Huntington District of the USACE was transferred from Bulen to Hurst.
Hurst’s most recent assignment was military assistant to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He also has been a student at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa.
The Huntington District of the USACE owns and operates the flood-reduction dams in the Muskingum River Basin. MWCD manages the reservoirs behind the dams. Originally constructed in the 1930s, the system of dams and reservoirs has saved property owners more than $6 billion in potential property damage from flooding, according to the federal government.
The Huntington District is one of 45 USACE districts and is responsible for 311 miles of the Ohio River, with the district’s boundary stretching across 45,000 square miles in parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina. The 900 employees of the Huntington District oversee water resource management activities, including commercial navigation, flood control, recreation at USACE-constructed lakes and wetland protection.
