Feb
6
Two DC Water Events on 24 February 2010
February 6, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Over at WaterWired I posted about Jim Thebaut’s water event scheduled for 24 February 2010 in Washington, 
DC. The event will be held, but it’s now been split into two events, one in the afternoon (noon – 2 pm) and one in the evening (6 – 8:30 pm).
[Disclosure notice: Jim is a good friend of mine, and the followng iss based on information posted on his WWW site and from CSIS. I will be involved in these events.]
Here goes:
1) The Chronicles Group/Running Dry Project and The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in association with the Embassy of Australia and the CSIS Global Water Futures Project present:
Coping with Drought & Water Scarcity: Lessons Learned from Australia & the United States
WHAT: A lunch/panel discussion of what actions we need to take to tackle our unsustainable water future
WHEN: 24 February 2010, noon to 2:00 pm
WHERE: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20006, B-1 Conference Center (link to map)
2) The lunch/panel discussion is a prelude to the 24 February evening event which will be held at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm and will feature a special screening of Jim’s film Running Dry: Beyond the Brink.
How About Water: The Catalyst on Nation Building and National Security
On Wednesday, 24 February 2010, from 6 – 8:30 pm the Congressional Water Caucus and the Chronicles Group/Running Dry Project in association with the Embassy of Australia and the CSIS Global Water Futures Project are hosting an event to bring the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government together with the public and private sector in order to provide an educational dialogue about drought and water scarcity and its ultimate impact on national security. Congressional sponsors include Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Rep. John Linder (R-GA), co-founder of the Congressional Water Caucus), Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA), and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). Non-Congressional sponsors include the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, Adduci Mastriani & Schaumberg LLP, Golden State Water Company, Water Replenishment District of Southern California, StableRoad.org, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Acequia, Mesa Elementary School, Oregon State University, Water Charity. A special thanks also go to Water for People for their 
ongoing support – and to actress Jane Seymour, who will be a special guest at the event which will be held at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.
This promises to be an exciting day in water. Be sure to attend. I will see you there.
“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” – Voltaire
Feb
3
Hydrophilanthropists Needed in Haiti
February 3, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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I received the following message from Lori Carpenter, a longtime friend and former student (an alumna of my GEOL 484/684 – Groundwater Hydrology at the University of Nevada-Reno many years ago). I know Lori and her husband Dr. Clay Cooper, another veteran of GEOL 484/684 as well as GEOL 783 – Groundwater Hydraulics, very well. They have adpoted five children. Remarkable people.
Anyway, Lori’s looking for some folks to go to Haiti to locate and drill water wells. If you have questions, please contact her, not me. Contact information is at the bottom of the post. You might contact her before applying to see if she has enough volunteers.
Here is Lori’s message:
I’m on a board of directors of a Haitian orphanage called God’s Littlest Angels Haitian Baby Ministry (GLA).
We’ve been on the ground for more than 6 years and have the opportunity to drill ten community groundwater wells in Haiti. Another Board member has a potential grant from the Canadian government to cover much or most if not all the materials and expense costs. I’m trying to find volunteers (or, very cheap) and very competent groundwater folks to do the actual technical work. Would you please put this out in any circles that you know of? I can personally attest for the integrity of GLA.
Here is the message from GLA:
Qualified Volunteer Hydrologists, Well Drillers, Geologists and/or Hydrogeologists Needed for Well Drilling in Haiti to Develop and Implement Community Drinking Water Wells/Systems
God’s Littlest Angels Haitian Baby Ministry (GLA) is a faith-based ministry located in Haiti and seeks qualified VOLUNTEER hydrologists, well drillers, and/or hydrogeologists to site groundwater well locations, conduct groundwater reconnaissance studies, plan and implement a water resources plan for drilling/pumping for production wells within ten small Haitian communities after the 7.0 earthquake (outside of Port-Au-Prince). Drilling equipment may need to be imported to the Island as much was lost and/or destroyed. Volunteers are expected to manage as much of the travel cost themselves and/or raise funds to cover costs associated with “pay”. Room and board (to include security details) will be provided in country. Please list experience with projects in similar (disaster) situations whereby little local infrastructure was present to assist, references, and general qualifications why you believe you or your organization is a good candidate for this project. The first group of volunteers should be ready to deploy within 30 to 90 days depending on local situations and a second group could be expected to deploy thereafter.
Please send resumes to lori@nvwetlands.com
Lori Carpenter, PWS, CPESC
Huffman & Carpenter, Inc.
Hydrologist/Hydrogeologist
500 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Suite 929
Reno, Nevada 89521
(775) 828-1991
(775) 828-2302 – Fax
“Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die.” – II Samuel 14
Jan
30
Capitol Hill Briefing on University WASH Initiative – 3 March 2010
January 30, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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This is one of those ’save the date’ notices. I will post more information when I receive it.
[Disclosure notice: I am part of this initiative and will be a presenter]
Capitol Hill Briefing on new University WASH Initiative
Prominent university and college leaders working on international water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues will participate in a congressional briefing on a new University WASH Initiative from 2:00-4:00 p.m. on March 3, 2010, in Room SVC 203/202 of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Presentations will feature the variety of ways in which U.S. colleges and universities are already addressing the global WASH crisis and will highlight how their role can be enhanced, especially through a new informal WASH collaboration among American institutions of higher education. The presentations and briefing are open to Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and interested members of the public.
To RSVP, email name and contact information to universities.wash.rsvp@gmail.com
The Center for Strategic and International Studies and Water Advocates are co-sponsoring this event. Colorado State University and Emory University are the academic leads.
We owe a great deal to the aforementioned organizations for providing the impetus. Some of us have been waiting for this initiative for years.
Hope to see you there!
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Jan
26
Well-Worn Water Words
January 26, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Tired of a failure to connect the dots? Maybe not, but I suspect you’re tired of the 
expression “failure to connect the dots.”
A Tweet from Robert at Watercrunch provided the impetus for this post. In response to my saying that I was getting ‘burned out’ on water wars he suggested that we declare a truce and eschew the use of that term. I agreed.
But then I started thinking about some other phrases and words that have been overused by WaterWonks (yo tambien – me, too) and others (especially those who have no idea what they are talking about) as well. So I posted a couple of items over at my WaterWired blog that addressed some of these words and phrases that have become clichés.
Take a look at Well-Worn Water Words, Part 1 and Part 2. Readers also contributed. Be sure to read the comments that have been posted.
“We talk (water) scarcity, yet we have set (some of) our largest cities in deserts, and then have insisted on surrounding ourselves with Kentucky bluegrass. Our words are those of the Sahara Desert; our policies are those of the Amazon River.” – Richard Lamm, former governor of Colorado
Jan
24
Richard Heggen’s Excellent ‘Underground Rivers’ Book
January 24, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Richard Heggen is one of the savviest WaterWonks (and a pretty good upright bassist) I 
know. Even though he lives here in Corvallis (where he grew up) and got his PhD in Civil Engineering from OSU, I met him in Albuquerque when I arrived at the University of New Mexico in 1989. There, Richard was a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, where he is now Professor Emeritus.
We worked together on UNM’s Water Resources Program.
So why I am posting about Richard? Did I pull a ‘Gilbert Arenas’ and lose a bet with him?
Well, Richard has just written a book, Underground Rivers, that he’s placed online. You can download it free of charge as two pdfs (total of 279 pages).
CHAPTERS
1 Greek Mythology
2 Greek Philosophers
3 Roman Encyclopedists
4 The Church, the Arabs, and Back to the Church
5 The Concept of Circulation
6 Subterranean Engines
7 Superterranean Metrics
8 Hydrotheology/Theohydrology
9 Hollow Earth Geophysics
10 Underground Rivers in Classic Fiction
11 Boys Club
12 Waters of the Hollow Earth
13 Underground Rivers in Metaphor and Poetry
14 Underground Rivers in the Fine Arts
15 Groundwater Science
16 Karstology
17 Lava Tubes
18 Subterranean Geophysics
19 Dowsing
20 The Biology of Underground Rivers
21 Plying the Waters from Above
22 Constructed Waterways
23 The Dangers
24 The Rio San Buenaventura
Here’s what he asks:
The work is still in draft form. What have I missed? What did you like? What did you not?
Where you find typos and language errors, e-mail me (rheggen@unm.edu) the phrase and I’ll recognize the mistake and do the repair. Thanks.
Well done, Richard. Still the teacher extraordinaire!
Enjoy!
“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.” – John Cotton Dana
Jan
15
Helping Haiti
January 15, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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No need to explain what this post is about. Right now, aid organizations need money. I suspect many of you have your favorites but if not, you might consider the organizations accessible through these links.
Sarah van Gelder in the The Huffington Post
CNN (impressive list!)
NPR: Haiti – Some Ways to Help
Please give what you can.
You can vet your charity here.
For those interested in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Keep in mind that if you use the texting method, it may take a while for your money to show up. It’s not clear whether the carrier sends the money immediately or waits until you pay your bill.
Here is the New York Times’ Haiti Twitter. It has reports from individuals, news organizations, and relief agencies in Haiti.
There is a good discussion (debate) of what kind of help Haiti needs in the New York Times.
“Beyond mountains there are mountains.” -- Haitian proverb
Jan
10
Southwest Hydrology Sunsets
January 10, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Southwest Hydrology’s latest issue features Urban Water Management. As always, you can download the 
material free of charge, by section or the entire issue.
Here are the cover and T of C.
Here are the feature articles:
Possible Tradeoffs from Urbanization on Groundwater Recharge and Water Quality
Differential Impacts of Flash Flooding Across the Paso del Norte
Drywells: One County’s Novel Approach to Stormwater Management and Disposal
Pervious Pavement – Fact or Fiction?
Principles for Managing the Southwest’s Urban Water Environments
And don’t forget the departments: On the Ground; Government and Hydrofacts; R&D; The Water Page; In Print & Online ; Business Directory; Calendar.
Unfortunately, not all the news is good. Publisher Betsy Woodhouse announced that primarily because of a lack of funding, this will be the last issue unless more support is obtained. In any case, this is Betsy’s last issue as she will take a position at the Institute of the Environment.
Betsy deserves our heartfelt thanks for producing such an important resource. She started it eight years ago, and obtained support form the University of Arizona’s NSF-funded SAHRA program after a few years. But she’s been the person who started it and made it go.
Gary Woodard, SAHRA’s Associate Director for Knowledge Transfer, has promised to keep us apprised of any developments. If you have any suggestions or comments, he invites you to email him (gwoodard@sahra.arizona.edu) or call him at 520-626-5399.
We all owe you a huge debt, Betsy. Although I am in the Pacific Northwest, I found that many of the articles transcended the Southwest USA. Besides, I’m an unrepentant desert rat who’s spent most of my adult life in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, and reading SWH reconnected me to that part of the USA and its incredible hydrology.
Let me also include thanks to Howard Grahn, who was there from the beginning and served most recently as Technical Editor.
Thank you, and best of luck to you, Betsy.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Elliot
Jan
5
Should the USA Have a National Water Vision? What Should It Be? An Invitation to Comment
January 5, 2010 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Happy New Year! ¡Prospero Año Nuevo!
It’s not only the start of a new year but also a new decade. For many of us in the USA’s water community it’s a time to look ahead to see if we can’t devise a better way to steward the USA’s most precious natural resource.
But that ‘better way” begins with a vision. What should our ‘water future’ look like? Better yet, what do you think it should look like? Or perhaps you believe we do not need a water vision. Is the USA so diverse with a patchwork approach to water that to develop and adopt such a national vision would be futile?
And what if we could agree upon and adopt a vision? So what?
Whatever you believe, please let us know by participating in our national water vision project, a joint effort by the American Water Resources Association and some of its sister organizations. [Disclosure notice: I am AWRA's President-Elect.]
When you click on the vision’s website you’ll see an introduction by Jerry Sehlke, AWRA’s President (Past President as of 1 January 2010). He’ll explain the rationale, history, and explain what will become of the results. At the top, just below the heading, you can click on Leave a comment to provide your opinion. When you do that, a new page will open up that will have Jerry’s same blurb, but with the comments listed below it. Way down at the bottom will be a place to leave your two cents. We’d appreciate if you would provide your affiliation and discipline.
You can subscribe to the ‘Comments’ feed.
We want to hear from you. Let your friends and colleagues know, too. It’s open to all.
We’ll keep the site up for about three weeks.
“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.” — Marshall McLuhan
“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” — Helen Keller
Jan
1
Ari M. Michelsen, 2010 Greeting
January 1, 2010 | Posted by smcclung
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Ari M. Michelsen, President AWRA
I am pleased to offer New Year’s Greetings for 2010. This New Year brings many opportunities and challenges to the water resources community, but first, a confession.
I am an economist, the first as AWRA President in more than 20 years. While everyone doesn¹t view the world and water resources from the same perspective as economists, this highlights the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature and membership of AWRA. Together, we can and are making a real difference in improving water resources science, education, and management. It is a privilege for me to be a part of the leadership team of this stimulating and dynamic organization.
The AWRA leadership team and membership will be undertaking many exciting activities and exploring additional opportunities to advance interdisciplinary water resources science, management, policy, and professional development in 2010. As a sample, activities this year include implementation of a new five-year strategic plan, three major interdisciplinary conferences, expanded and continuing involvement with AWRA’s State Sections and with U.S. and international water resources organizations, development of AWRA water resource position statements, and, of course, publication of IMPACT focusing on special topical issues and the increasingly highly ranked Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) (thanks to the authors and our editors). More information on these and other activities is provided below and will be in forthcoming correspondence.
One of the most exciting undertakings is the implementation of a new five-year Strategic Plan for our Association. The Plan, which has been under development over the past year, has five focused goal areas including: expanding our leadership role in the understanding and use of multidisciplinary water resources science, education, management, and policy; advancing the concepts and use of integrated water resources management; expanding provision of valuable educational and communication opportunities to enhance the capacity of water resources professionals and students; and organizationally, ensuring AWRA has the structure, finances, process, and culture necessary to support the organization’s long-term vision and goals. At the heart of the Plan is AWRA’s core mission to advance multidisciplinary water resources science, management, and education, for the betterment of humanity and the environment.
As always, excellent opportunities will be provided by AWRA in 2010 for community, conversation, and connections in water resources at three major conferences. The first is the GIS Specialty Conference, March 29-31, in Orlando, Florida, which is the sixth in a series offered by AWRA recognizing the advances in, and importance of GIS as a fundamental tool for interdisciplinary analysis, planning, and management of water resource systems. The Summer Specialty Conference will bring together water resource professionals to address Tropical Hydrology and Sustainable Water Resources in a Changing Environment, August 30-September 1, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, another great location. The final meeting this year is the AWRA Annual Conference, November 1-4, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Delaware and New Jersey State Sections of AWRA are organizing a great annual conference full of information and opportunities to connect on the latest water resources topics covering a wide range of multidisciplinary research, policy, planning, management, and technical issues. I hope you have the opportunity to participate in one or more of these conferences and look forward to meeting you there.
I look forward to working with each of you. Your membership and active participation in AWRA make all of these activities and accomplishments possible and brings success in achieving AWRA’s member needs and goals.
Dec
31
Religion, Water, and Environmental Stewardship
December 31, 2009 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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I wracked my brain (an easy thing to do) searching for a ’significant’ post for the last day of the year.
Exempt wells? Been there, done that.
Las Vegas? Would I kick them while they’re down?
The California Bay-Delta? No can do, now that I’m on “The Committee“.
Implications of Year 2012 for water resources?
I then found a document I have had in a folder for several years, a document that is almost 9 years old. I’ve been meaning to post it for quite some time, but something else always came up.
It’s an international pastoral letter by the Catholic bishops of the Columbia River basin which exhorts Catholics and all others in the basin to act as watershed stewards and respect all living things in the basin.
Download Catholic Bishops-Caring for Columbia Watershed
The bishops make it clear where they stand: they don’t care for “economic greed” that despoils the environment nor do they support “environmental elitism” that tramples upon the legitimate rights of others. Both should be eliminated.
They also provide four reflections on the river (p. 4), three visions - spiritual, social and ecological (p. 13) – seven convictions (p. 16), and then ten considerations (p. 17).
I’d encourage you to read the document. It’s refreshing, uplifting, and thought-provoking. For more information take a look at this WWW site.
Here is a list of spiritual organizations that support environmental stewardship. Most, but not all, are Christian organizations.
The following is from the homepage of Christian Ecology:
In 1967, historian Lynn White published a now famous piece entitled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.”
White, himself a Christian, concluded that many of our environmental problems could be traced to the Christian notion that God gave this earth to humans for their use and specifically directed humans to exercise dominion over the earth and all of its life forms. While it is questionable that this is what White intended, the effect of the piece has been to serve as an indictment of Christianity as the source of our environmental problems, and to render laughable the idea that Christianity might have anything to contribute to our environmental crisis. As essayist Wendell Berry has observed, “the culpability of Christianity in the destruction of the natural world and uselessness of Christianity in any effort to correct that destruction are now established cliches of the conservation movement.”
Largely as a reaction and response to White’s piece, Christian thinkers have over the last three decades formulated a response to White’s indictment. The response has taken three distinct paths. One path, which can be called the Stewardship Model, concludes that God did indeed give humans dominion, but only on the condition that we act as wise stewards, exercising our dominion with prudence and care. This is the model that is preferred within evangelical and fundamentalist circles, to the extent that this wing of Christianity chooses to address the environmental issue.
Within mainstream and liberal Christianity are two more models, eco-feminism and creation spirituality. Eco-feminism observes that domination over women and over the earth spring from the same masculine, patriarchal institutions, and that salvation for the earth, women, and ultimately men, will flow from modifying those institutions. Creation spirituality attempts to help us recover the nature mysticism of some medieval Christians such as Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Madeburg, Hildegard of Bingen, and Francis of Assisi.
Good stuff.
And, for your information, here is the Evangelical Environmental Network.
The November 2009 issue of AWRA’s Water Resources IMPACT focuses on Spirituality and Water Management. It’s got some excellent articles. View the ToC.
It’s great to see religious organizations that are proactive with respect to water and environmental stewardship. I realize I’ve opened Pandora’s box. This is a rich subject that I’ve barely penetrated. There’s plenty more to discuss.
But that’s what why we have 201o!
Happy New Year! ¡Prospero Año Nuevo!
“The earth dries up and withers, the world languished and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth lies under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.” – Isaiah 24: 4-6
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