H₂OSU is available at http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
October 2006

Michael's Musings

This column will be a feature in each issue of the IWW Newsletter. Through it I hope to inform, amuse, and attempt to satisfy my “frustrated writer” syndrome. Be forewarned: given my generation and connection to the 1960s, these reports may have stream-of-consciousness tendencies.

This first missive comes to you from Tbilisi, Georgia, where I am wrapping up the fifth year of a project I manage for NATO, South Caucasus River Monitoring. I work with some amazing colleagues from Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan (who do virtually all the work) and Belgium and Norway. I hate to sound like my parents, but working here has made me appreciate all that we have in the USA. At our meeting-ending banquet my Armenian colleague, Dr. Armen Saghatelyan, described the extreme difficulties (e.g., 8 ounces of bread per day per person) his country experienced in the three years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He summed up life in the Caucasus with one of his favorite sayings: “The optimist learns English. The pessimist learns Chinese. The realist learns Kalashnikov." But despite the problems, Armen and his colleagues are generally optimistic. What’s especially enjoyable for me is seeing how cooperation over water is building bridges and friendships among countries that have not always gotten along very well. Perhaps there is hope for the Western USA.

In the past 10 months I have attended two “roadmap” meetings: one pertaining to the energy-water nexus and the other to drought (and don’t forget the various “roadmaps to peace”). Sometimes I think the trouble with all these roadmaps is that they often get left in the glove compartment. Speaking of “meetings” and “big”, I attended the most recent World Water Week in Stockholm. No roadmaps, but you can read my report on the IWW website. Gail Achterman, Hannah Gosnell, and I also had a great little 3-day road trip in early August, visiting and listening to stakeholders in the Umpqua, Rogue, and Deschutes basins. A brief report describing what we learned and the needs mentioned by those we met is coming soon. I intend to make more of these trips; this one was quite enlightening.

Just an observation: North Korea may now have a nuclear bomb, but its men still have bad haircuts.

If you are in the vicinity of Strand 210 and have not seen my office (or have not seen it since late August), drop in. The books are no longer in boxes and stuff is on the walls. Come to think of it, you can drop in even if you have seen the office recently.

Till next month, Michael

"Until I came to New Mexico, I never realized how much beauty water
adds to a river." - Mark Twain

News from the IWW

Trace level, fresh water analysis now available through the IWW Collaboratory - The IWW just opened a community laboratory in Gilmore 206. Called "the Collaboratory" the facility provides University affiliates with access to trace level, fresh water analysis instrumentation and procedures.  Current and soon to be accessible instrumentation includes a Dionex IC, Alpkem Flow Solution IV AutoAnalyzer and pH meter as well as other basic laboratory equipment. Laboratory staff can perform analyses or researchers and students can train to use the equipment themselves. More equipment will be added over time -- if you have specific needs, please let us know. For information about fees and capabilities, please contact the lab at (737-6315) or Kathy Motter at 758-8764, kathryn.motter@oregonstate.edu.

Road Trip - IWW Director Campana, INR Director Gail Achterman, and Department of Geosciences Assistant Professor Hannah Gosnell spent August 7-8-9 on the road visiting locales in the Umpqua, Rogue, and Deschutes river basins. The trio, who visited Sutherlin, Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford, Bend, and Sisters, was primarily interested in listening to basin stakeholders – environmentalists, politicians, consultants, irrigators, water resource professionals, journalists, et al. – express their thoughts on a variety of water issues. The group also let all know of the IWW, and OSU’s commitment to helping the state’s residents address and resolve water problems. Michael is in the process of preparing a more detailed report of the trip for distribution, including some of the needs identified by the participants.

IWW-Extension Dinner - In an effort to foster collaboration with OSU Extension, the IWW hosted a dinner on the evening of September 20. About 75 IWW faculty, friends, WRP students, and Extension faculty attended the event at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center. Several people provided enlightening comments about the IWW and the various water roles of OSU Extension. We hope to make this an annual event.

Dr. Todd Jarvis - Many of you know Todd Jarvis recently successfully defended his PhD dissertation. What you may not know is that Todd is now a full-time employee of the IWW.  Todd will continue to handle the USGS Program and assume other duties. He is the point man for IWW’s work with Umatilla County and the Critical Groundwater Basin Task Force. We are glad to have him aboard on a full-time basis.

Adjunct IWW Faculty Members - We made two adjunct appointments over the summer: Dr. Richard J. Heggen and Ms. Julia Doermann. Richard was a long-time colleague of Director Campana’s at the University of New Mexico before his retirement about 5 years ago. He received his PhD in Civil Engineering from OSU under the tutelage of Ken Williamson. Julia is an expert in water policy and is currently working with Aaron Wolf on the IWW Program for Water Conflict Management and Transformation.  Both Julia and Richard will work on various projects as opportunities arise.

News from Around Campus

Gail Achterman, INR Director, participates in the Northwest Water Policy & Law Symposium - The September Symposium in Bozeman, Montana drew attention to three pressing water policy issues in the Northwestern states:  aging water infrastructure, surface water relationship to groundwater and water regulation versus land use planning. Gail reports that Donald Worster, a leading environmental historian, set the tone for the conference with his keynote address.  He characterized current water policy as “at an impasse” with society “milling around at the end of an era with no consensus on what should come next.”  By 2078 he predicted that our western water infrastructure will fall apart or be abandoned, like the Erie Canal.  He foresees radical increases in water use efficiency, environmental restoration and public participation in water policy. Gail participated in the Water Regulation versus Land-Use Regulation Panel - click here to download her speech or contact Gail for more information about the conference.

John Selker, Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering, is delighted to be back on campus after his year long sabbatical in Switzerland. Highlights of his year away included experiments on a Swiss glacier at 3,000m, in a mine shaft in the Czech Republic, and in a rural stream in Luxembourg. John will be presenting a lecture on his sabbatical research this fall. For more information contact John.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, October 18, 4:00-5:30 pm, 102 Owen Hall. Hydro-Hegemony: A Framework for the Analysis of Water Conflicts, Dr. Mark Zeitoun, King’s College, London, UK will be the speaker for the third seminar in the 2006 OSU Fall Water Resources Seminar Series. For the complete schedule see: http://water.oregonstate.edu/news/2006_FallSeries2.pdf.

Monday-Thursday, Oct 16-19, 2006, LaSells Stewart Center. - Predictions in Ungauged Basins Workshop. Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) is aimed at uncertainty reduction in hydrological practice. It is a bottom-up movement which engage hydrologists world-wide. Robert Glennon, Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of  Arizona and author of Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters, will address the banquet Tuesday evening. Link to the agenda.

Funding Opportunities

IWW-USGS 2007 Small Grants - Up to $30K grants available for faculty and, new this year, up to $10K grants available for graduate students. Projects should emphasize long-term water and watershed management issues. Proposals are due November 14. For complete RFP see: http://water.oregonstate.edu/funding/index.htm

NSF and EPA Graduate Fellowships - Applications for these prestigious fellowships are due in November. NSF awards Graduate Research Fellowships and EPA awards Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Fellowships. Both are intended for individuals in the early stages of their graduate career and provide three years of stipend and tuition funding. These are great fellowships - if you are a new graduate student, think about applying! FMI for NSF Fellowships: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=6201 FMI for EPA Fellowships: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2007/2007_star_fellow.html.

Featured Research Group

HST members include (left to right): Richard Cuenca (USA), Peggy Hill (USA), Jeppe Kjaersgaard (Denmark), Arístides Petrides (Mexico), Ariovaldo Lucas (Brazil), Suva Shakya (Nepal), Yutaka Hagimoto (Japan). Not pictured are Kent Hutchinson (USA), and Michael Collier (USA).

The Hydrologic Science Team is an international group within the Biological and Ecological Engineering Department. Led by Dr. Richard Cuenca, the group's focus is on the development of multi-national hydrologic datasets and the callibration of hydrologic models for different climate regimes and land phase conditions. Currently, the HST is working with partners in the US, Brazil, Ireland, Denmark and Spain, to compare and develop software packages that simulate components of the hydrologic circle. Currently under review are the hydrologic simulation models MIKE-11, MIKE-SHE and DAISY (all of the Danish Hydraulics Institute) and Integrated Water and Flow Model (IWFM-2) (California Department of Water Resources).  Multi-year databases to test model components have been collected at sites covering a range of latitudes and climatic conditions, including Foulum and Taastrup (Denmark), Córdoba and Zaragoza (Spain), Listowel (Ireland), Kimberly (Idaho), Bushland (Texas), Wood River Basin (Oregon) and Piracicaba (Brazil).  The datasets include quality-controlled meteorological and radiation data as well as precision lysimeter-measured evapotranspiration for various vegetative canopies on sub-hourly time-steps. For more information about the HST, visit their web page at: http://hst.bee.oregonstate.edu/index.html.