About RESPEC

1969

Established in South Dakota

Employees

Employee-Owned

Revenue in 2023

Experience You Can Trust.

Navigating the complexities of water storage tank designs demands more than skill—it calls for seasoned experience. With more than 40 years of expertise in water tank design, our engineers are your trusted partners for all your water storage needs.

Our Team

Gene Schaefer, PE, PMP

Structural Engineer Lead

Gene Schaefer has more than 45 years of engineering experience and an extensive background in the project management, design, and detailing of civil/hydraulic structures, including concrete water storage tanks, water and wastewater treatment plant structures, pump stations, drainage improvement structures, box culverts, bridges, retaining walls, and intake and diversion structures. Gene has provided design and engineering services during construction for more than 50 AWWA D115-type circular post-tensioned concrete water tanks..

He has experience in designing building structures and investigating and rehabilitating distressed structures of all types, including 25 tank investigations and tank design peer reviews. Gene is certified as a PMP through PMI. He has been the structural project manager for more than 100 projects involving water-related structures and many other types of structures. Services on many of these projects were provided as part of on-call contracts.

John McGinn, PE

National Water and Wastewater Practice Leader

John McGinn has over 46 years of experience in water, wastewater, and related fields, including the analysis, planning, permitting, and design of water and wastewater treatment facilities; water and wastewater system master planning; reuse treatment and distribution systems; hydraulic modeling, well sources; water distribution; wastewater collection facilities; groundwater systems; pumping and lift station facilities; raw and potable water storage; utility rate and revenue analysis and municipal systems; district management; water resource planning and studies; construction administration; grant application; expert witness/representation and administration; and project management.

John has modeled, designed, permitted, and performed construction services on numerous water storage tanks which include all types of concrete, steel, elevated, fiberglass, and HDPE tanks.

One of John’s first jobs was as an in-house engineer for a large water and wastewater entity; there, he developed an understanding of the operational and functional needs of overall water and wastewater systems. He is especially noted for having the ability to visualize the entirety of a complete water or wastewater system and be able to understand the impacts of a change in one element on the remainder of the system.

Gwen Dall, PE

Water and Wastewater Program Manager

Gwen Dall has 15 years of experience in civil engineering, water resources, and related fields, including the design of municipal water treatment systems, water storage, pumping and facilities design, large pipeline design, and other municipal drinking water engineering applications. Gwen is proficient in InfoWater Pro and WaterCAD. She has used both programs to complete hydraulic, dynamic, and water quality modeling and fire flow evaluation for numerous municipal water systems which includes dynamic storage evaluation and water age studies relating to storage. Gwen’s experience includes master planning, permitting, project management, bid and construction administration, and construction observations, allowing her to take projects from inception to completion. Gwen has completed design and permitting and performed construction-related services for concrete, steel, and fiberglass tanks.

Ryan Mangino, PE

Technical Design Lead

Ryan Mangino has more than 22 years of experience in civil engineering and related fields, including wastewater pumping and treatment, water storage, potable water systems, water pumping and facilities design, water and wastewater system studies, permitting, water distribution system modeling, and construction administration/observations. Ryan has completed designs, permitting, and construction observation and oversight on every type of water tank and every type of material. In addition to design, Ryan is particularly experienced in the construction phase of tank development and has expertise in erecting or constructing every type of tank and tank material.

John Peck, PE

Senior Project Engineer

John Peck has wide-ranging experience of over 27 years with design and analysis for cast-in-place concrete civil/hydraulic structures including water storage tanks; cantilevered concrete retaining walls; concrete box culverts; industrial concrete tilt-up panel warehouse; structural steel buildings and other framing systems. He has experience with several computer software programs for the analysis and design of structures and with the development of internal spreadsheets to facilitate design calculations. John has extensive experience with three-dimensional (3D) finite element modeling. He has performed the analysis and design of structures located in high seismic risk areas. John is experienced in on-site project observations during the construction phase, including written field reports and providing remedial repair details.