John W. France, PE, D.GE, D, WRE
JWF Consulting LLC
Principal
John W. France, P.E., D.GE, D.WRE is a registered professional engineer and Diplomate, Geotechnical Engineering and Water Resources Engineer, who is currently practicing as an independent consultant. He received his BS degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in 1973 and received an MS degree in geotechnical engineering from the same institution in 1976. Mr. France has over 45 years of consulting engineering experience, during which time he has been responsible for the analysis, design, and construction of embankment and roller compacted concrete dams and their appurtenant structures. He has served on senior technical review boards and panels for dam safety projects for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; BC Hydro and Brookfield Renewable Energy. Mr. France has been a consultant to the dam safety programs of the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for over 30 years. He has served on Independent Review Panels, who have conducted annual review of Reclamation’s dam safety program, and he served on similar review panels for the dam safety programs of the National Park Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mr. France was the team leader for the Independent Forensic Teams tasked with investigating the 2017 Oroville Dam spillway incident and the 2020 failures of Edenville and Sanford Dams, and he chaired a five-person team for a review of the dam safety risk analysis practices of the Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
