Emily Winkle Black, P.E.

Born and raised in Rome, Georgia, Emily Winkle Black is recognized for her technical and professional capabilities, for her rational approach to resolving complex environmental and water resource issues, and for her dedication to her profession and environmental resources. With more than thirty years of experience, some of which was with water resource-related governmental agencies, Ms. Black has a solid understanding of many of the current environmental and water issues like those facing the states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. In addition to her technical expertise and experience gained from operating her own company and working on behalf of other engineering firms, Ms. Black’s numerous professional affiliations and generous participation in various community activities has allowed her to develop positive relationships throughout the southeastern U.S.

Ms. Black’s personal history is deeply rooted in Northwest Georgia. Her family lineage, which includes the Watson, Winkle, Ford and Hicks branches, goes back many generations in Rome. Ms. Black’s cousin, J.W. Winkle, was the Tax Assessor for Floyd County in the 1900’s. Her father, Harlin Winkle attended Berry College and her mother, Gladys Winkle, graduated from Rome High School. Ms. Black’s maternal great-grandparents, the Fords, have family roots extending to pre-civil war times. Many of her ancestors are buried in a cemetery on the grounds of the restored Ford Plantation near Cave Springs.

A registered professional civil engineer, Ms. Black has the experience and expertise in civil engineering and environmental and water-resource related areas that enhance Etowah Water Bank’s ability to provide the highest quality professional services to its clients. From 1977 to 1990, Ms. Black established and operated Emily Black and Associates, Inc., to independently provide civil engineering consulting to clients such as state and local agencies charged with protecting water resources, other consulting engineering and land surveying firms, biologists, and private developers. This experience has given her the breadth of understanding to comprehend the complexities of managing, utilizing, and protecting water and land resources. Ms. Black’s work involved conducting major water resources studies, providing water management for urban development, site plans, drainage plans, economic analyses, watershed evaluation and planning and water supply studies, in addition to general consulting regarding environmental issues and land planning, development and design.

Ms. Black is the principal founding member of ASR Systems LLC, a certified Women Business Enterprise that provides water resources-related engineering and consulting services and develops aquifer storage recovery (ASR) systems throughout the United States. Ms. Black brings to Etowah Water Bank her leadership and management skills as well as an integrated knowledge of water supply issues and preservation of natural resources.

John B. Cook, P.E.

John Cook brings to Etowah Water Bank experience and success in all areas of utility leadership and management. Mr. Cook’s expertise includes overview of financial and capital project integration, revenue bond processes, administrative support functions, and operations of water and wastewater utilities. He is knowledeable in performance measurement, benchmarking and other competitiveness approaches as well as the application of water quality models for TMDL determination for point source and nonpoint sources. Mr. Cook has led in the development of plant process models, water and wastewater treatment process optimization, and operation and maintenance best practices for water distribution and wastewater collection systems.

As Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Data Mining International, LLC, Mr. Cook is responsible for overseeing work associated with solving complex environmental problems related to process optimization, hydrology and water quality modeling. His advanced problem-solving techniques include artificial intelligence, signal processing and chaos theory. Previously serving as CEO with Charleston Water System, Mr. Cook has thirty years of environmental engineering and utility experience in the areas of management, water and wastewater operations and process optimization, design and construction, research, and the application of environmental management systems to the company-wide operations of water and wastewater utilities. In addition, he led the first effort in the United States to achieve registration under ISO 14001 for a combined utility. Mr. Cook has also held the positions of Executive Director of Berkeley County Water and Sewer Authority, and District Director of South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Mr. Cook holds three degrees including a BS in Civil Engineering and MS in Structures and Mechanics from the University of South Carolina, and a MS in Environmental Engineering from Colorado State University. His expertise includes the development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems for water and wastewater utilities, integration of EMS with other management programs such as Partnership for Safe Water, QualServe, and other management programs such as Balanced Scorecard.

Edwin W. Finch, III

Ed Finch, Founder, President & CEO of FHL Capital Corporation, received both his undergraduate degree in Economics and his Jurist Doctor from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a Wall Street attorney with Conboy Hewitt O’Brien and Boardman, and later went on to become partner with the law firm of Balch & Bingham in Birmingham, AL. In 1984, he formed FHL Capital which specializes in mergers, acquisitions, and financial and management consulting. Mr. Finch has been actively involved in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance since 1970. Transactions in which Mr. Finch has been involved include international finance and acquisitions, the issuance of debt and equity securities in both the public and private markets, mergers and acquisitions for both public and private companies, municipal finance, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, turnaround management and start up and business plan development.

In February 2000, Mr. Finch purchased Diversified Drilling Corporation of Tampa Florida. Since that first acquisition, Mr. Finch has purchased, merged and integrated three additional drilling companies with Diversified Drilling. Coupled with internal growth, the combined entity has increased its run rate over 400 percent to become one of the largest water well drilling companies in the United States. In connection with these drilling company acquisitions, Mr. Finch founded and is President of the International School of Well Drilling, established in 2002.

Mr. Finch is a former vice president and board member of The National Association of Venture Capital Clubs, and is a founder and former board member of the Birmingham Venture Club, having served as its first president. He is also a founder and former member of the board of the Entrepreneurial Center. Mr. Finch has served on the board of directors and been chairman of the audit committee of public companies. He presently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and St. Martins in the Pines Retirement Home. Mr. Finch also serves on the board of directors of a number of companies and organizations including Florida Ground Water Association and the Ground Water Institute. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Diabetes Trust Fund and a lecturer at Miles College.


Greg W. Grosch

Greg Grosch manages the Georgia branch of Grosch Irrigation Company Inc. (GIC), which is based in Dublin. His company is one of the largest irrigation and well drilling operations in the Midwestern United States. This family-owned company has provided quality well drilling and pump service for the past 70 years. Mr. Grosch’s company is currently licensed in 18 states, operates offices in ten cities and holds membership in the National Ground Water Association and various other state-based associations. GIC Water Systems, a division of Grosch Irrigation Company, utilizes the latest well and borehole logging equipment on the market with the capability of conducting logging surveys down to 2000 feet. Leading the local Georgia office in the highest sales nationwide, Mr. Grosch supervises daily operations of several different types of work crews including service crews and drilling crews assigned to projects ranging from municipal, agricultural, industrial and individual.

Utilizing his experience as a geologist, Mr. Grosch brings his vast knowledge of successful well construction to Etowah Water Bank. In support of aquifer testing projects, Mr. Grosch utilizes the latest in technological equipment including gauged and absolute pressure transducers, data loggers, turbidity meters, and other water quality meters and test kits to ensure success on ASR and other well construction projects. Mr. Grosch’s professional rapport with municipal officials, business owners, and others who take part in the drilling experience, brings numerous benefits to Etowah Water Bank. A graduate of Georgia Southern University with a BS in Geology, Mr. Grosch also brings experience in soil sampling, reverse rotary and straight rotary drilling. He is experienced in the operation of Portadrill, Failing, Speed Star and Gardner Denver drilling rigs for the purpose of drilling wells, installing pumps and replacing pumps.

Mr. Grosch previously supervised the Conservation and Survey Drilling Department for the University of Nebraska. While there, Mr. Grosch served as a member of the research team charged with installing monitor wells to determine the main origin of water supplying the Republican River Basin. This research information was utilized in the lawsuit of the State of Kansas vs. the State of Nebraska over water rights.


William H. McLemore, PhD, P.G.

As a Consulting Geologist, Bill McLemore continues to solve the most difficult geologic, hydrogeologic and mineral resource problems in the southeastern United States. Dr. McLemore’s recent projects include sinkhole assessments associated with proposed quarrying, expert witness testimony, municipal well design aquifer testing, sand mining, limestone and granite quarrying, aquifer storage recovery, ground water supply, carbon dioxide sequestration, septic tank pollution potential, and municipal solid waste landfill siting. Dr. McLemore’s vast experience and professional expertise have been essential in the planning and development of Etowah Water Bank.

A three-time graduate of the University of Georgia, Dr. McLemore spent 26 years serving as the State Geologist of Georgia with the Georgia Geologic Survey. There he lead a Branch of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, which is part of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. His responsibilities included conducting and directing basic and applied research on the structure, composition, and the history of the earth as well as the behavior of fluids, including both groundwater and pollutants, in the subsurface. Dr. McLemore designed and managed complex geological and hydrogeological projects and insured that such projects were completed in a timely manner while directing numerous mineral resource investigations, including construction materials surveys, heavy mineral investigations, radioactive minerals, gold assessments, high calcium limestone investigations, ceramic minerals investigations, as well as studies of base metals. He also managed a program of landfill siting assessments with ancillary ground and surface water monitoring -- approximately 250 separate sites. In this role, Dr. McLemore served as the State of Georgia’s expert on sinkholes, sinkhole inducement, radioactive waste disposal (both high level and low level), salt-water intrusion and ground-water supply. In addition, he supervised the USGS’s cooperative program of ground and surface water monitoring, aquifer investigations including modeling, water-use studies, and geologic mapping. Dr. McLemore managed three drilling rigs, all of which might be working simultaneously and served as an expert witness at approximately 30 judicial hearings/trials. He directed onshore and offshore drilling projects, aquifer testing, ground-water modeling, monitoring well drilling, mineral investigations, water sampling, geochemical sampling, geophysical studies, data base management, peer review, and report preparation.

Registered as a professional geologist in Georgia and Alabama, Dr. McLemore has written or directed over 500 professional reports and has shared his expertise with over 250 audiences worldwide.


R. David G. Pyne, P.E.

David Pyne, president of ASR Systems LLC, is recognized as the pioneer and leader of aquifer storage recovery (ASR) technology, pioneering the development of technology for storage of water through wells in fresh, brackish, or seawater aquifers to meet seasonal, long-term, or emergency demands and to achieve sustainable water supplies. Mr. Pyne coined the term “Aquifer Storage Recovery” in 1983 and has devoted his professional career to spreading this effective technology worldwide. Mr. Pyne is the author of the definitive book published on ASR, Aquifer Storage Recovery: A Guide to Groundwater Recharge Through Wells (ASR Press, 2005).

Retired from the global engineering firm CH2MHill where he served as Director of Water Resources Engineering, Mr. Pyne has more than 35 years of water supply engineering and water resources management experience, including project management, investigations, design and construction of more than 30 wellfields. He has managed the development of several municipal and industrial water supply systems, including planning studies, conceptual and final design of wellfields, surface supply and storage facilities, and construction services. A considerable portion of this experience has been in Florida and the southeastern United States and also extends to North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. He has provided consultant assistance to the World Bank, International Atomic Energy Agency, UNESCO and USAID.

Mr. Pyne’s engineering responsibilities have included water resources and hydrogeologic investigations, design of wells, wellfields and related wellhead and pipeline facilities; construction services, startup and operational assistance, and permitting. His technical expertise encompasses groundwater hydrology, surface water hydrology, water quality, hazardous wastes, water supply and wastewater systems planning, stormwater management, environmental studies, deep injection wells and aquifer recharge. He has served as an expert witness in numerous legal and administrative hearings in the areas of hydrology, hydrogeology, and water resources engineering. He is active professionally in the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Groundwater Association, International Desalination Association, American Ground Water Trust, among other organizations, and frequently serves as an instructor for artificial recharge courses offered by these organizations. Offering water supply solutions to communities across the globe is one of Mr. Pyne’s highest goals and Etowah Water Bank is evidence of this goal.

E. William “Bill” Roberts

Bill Roberts has been serving as the Senior Vice President of the Greater Rome Bank in Rome, Georgia since 2002. In this position, Mr. Roberts manages $175 million in assets for this local, community bank. A graduate of both Auburn University with a BS in Business, and Louisiana State University’s School of Banking, Mr. Roberts has devoted his professional career to the banking industry. It is this expertise, and the successful management of million dollar holdings throughout the region, that makes Mr. Roberts a valuable asset to Etowah Water Bank. Previously, Mr. Roberts served for ten years as President of AM South Bank in Rome, and maintained responsibility over banks in Rome, Calhoun and Summerville. Before Georgia State Bank (GSB) was purchased by AM South in 1993, Mr. Roberts served as Senior Vice President for GSB between 1974 and 1993.

A long-time community leader, Mr. Roberts served as both Chair and Vice-Chair of the Rome Floyd Development Authority for 12 years. This Authority approved millions of dollars in tax abatements over those years to encourage companies to locate to northwest Georgia. As companies came into the area, thousands of jobs were created and communities flourished.

Mr. Roberts and is wife, the former Pamela Peartree, have been living in North Georgia for the past 35 years. Together they have two children and three grandchildren.