H₂OSU is available at http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
February 2007

The View from 210

Todd Jarvis has been making waves with his presentations on the effects of Measure 37 claims on ground water resources. He spoke in Marion County in mid-January and was quoted in the Statesman-Journal. Todd’s research indicates that these claims could have a significant impact on ground water in the Willamette Valley and elsewhere throughout the state – an excellent example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Measure 37 has further amplified and exacerbated the disconnect between land-use planning and water resources planning. This is a problem not only in Oregon but also many other states as well. Once we solve that problem, maybe we can move on to the lack of coordination between the management and regulation of water quality and water quantity/use.

The above is a good segue to the announcement of the November conference Water in the Pacific Northwest: Moving Science into Policy and Action. The call for abstracts is forthcoming and should be out by February 9 – we will have a link to the announcement on our website. The conference will be held November 7-9 at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA. OSU is a co-sponsor.

Another conference following on the heels of the aforementioned meeting is the American Water Resources Association’s (AWRA) 43rd Annual Conference, to be held in Albuquerque, NM, November 12-17. Yours truly will be the general chair. A call for abstracts will be issued around the middle of this month.

I spent an enjoyable few days in the DC area at AWRA’s Third National Water Resources Policy Dialogue. Some of us wondered whether the title implied that we had a national water resources policy. There were many good speakers, including Oregon’s own Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who gave an inspiring speech (available in MP3 format). He is well-known for having introduced the Senator Paul Simon Water For The Poor bill, which was signed into law on December 1, 2005. The Congressman is wisely committed to making the funding of clean water and sanitation projects in developing countries a mainstay of our foreign policy. I hope that some funds from this landmark legislation find their way to the small, mainly voluntary, grassroots organizations that can be so effective in promoting sanitation and developing potable water supplies [Disclosure notice: I run such an organization – http://www.acjfoundation.org].

And speaking of potable water, the National Academy of Engineering recently awarded the Grainger Challenge Prize Gold Award of $1,000,000 to Dr. Abul Hussam of George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Dr. Hussam developed the SONO filter, a point-of-use household filter designed to rid drinking water of arsenic. It is fitting that he is a native of Bangladesh, which has been plagued by high arsenic levels in shallow water wells. The Grainger Challenge initiated a competition to find a simple method for filtering arsenic from water, suitable for use in developing countries. Silver ($200,000) and Bronze ($100,000) awards were also made. One problem with some of these methods is the disposal of the spent filtration media, which could pose a health hazard; the SONO filter claims to avoid this problem.

Five awards were recently announced as the culmination of the 2007 USGS Small Grants competition. They are listed elsewhere in this newsletter. I want to thank our tireless proposal reviewers: Ken Williamson, Denise Lach, Mary Santelmann, Desiree Tullos, and of course, Todd Jarvis, who administered the program.

The Water Collaboratory will be moving from Gilmore Hall to the Forest Sciences Lab (FSL), just west of Richardson Hall on Jefferson Way, effective April 1. More on this later.

Gail Achterman and I have begun discussions with OSU’s Facilities and Planning folks about an IWW-INR building. We have a ways to go, but things are in motion.

The IWW’s FY2008 Federal agenda request for $1.5 million successfully passed OSU’s review process. This request will fund OSU’s portion of the Joint Northwest Water Institute with INL and PNNL, who are in the process of preparing their own requests. Of course, this is not the year to be requesting a Congressional earmark. Nonetheless, I will be making a Capitol Hill presentation on the IWW-JNWI on February 14. 

Hope to see you all at the Water Resources Graduate Program Open House on February 28.

Michael 

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who are good at math and those who are not." --James Wilberg, 2006 World Champion Liar

IWW-USGS Small Grants Awarded for 2007

The IWW receives funding from the USGS State Water Resources Institute Small Grants Program to support projects related to critical water issues in the state. Researchers from all Oregon universities and colleges are eligible to apply. This year the IWW awarded research grants totaling approximately $82,000. Project abstracts are available on-line. Funded projects for 2007 include:

• Beyond Dollars and Acre Feet: Assessing the Social Sustainability of Emerging Environmental Governance Structures and Restoration Efforts on “Off-Project” Irrigated Lands in the Upper Klamath Basin. Principal Investigators: Hannah Gosnell, Geosciences, OSU; Denise Lach, Sociology, OSU; Gail Achterman, Institute for Natural Resources, OSU; Desiree Tullos, Biological and Ecological Engineering, OSU
• Contributions of Glacier Melt to Upper Hood River Streamflow and Implications of Climate Change. Principal Investigator: Anne Nolin, Geosciences, OSU; Co-Investigators: Anne Jefferson, Department of Geosciences, OSU; Sarah Lewis, Department of Geosciences, OSU.
• Campus and Community Monitoring and Restoration of Mill Creek/Shelton Ditch. Principle Investigators: Joe Bowersox, Political Science, Willamette University; Scott Pike, Geology, Willamette University; Tamara Smith, English as a Second Language, Tokyo International University of America; Khela Singer-Adams, Community Service Learning, Willamette University.
• Mitigation of Fuel Oxygenates: An Innovative Sustainable Eco-Remediation Technology For Surface and Ground Waters. Principal Investigator: Tarek A. Kassim, Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, OSU.
• Contaminant Transport in Highly Heterogeneous Subsurface Media. Principal investigator: Stephanie Harrington, Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering, OSU.

Featured Project:
The Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word

Conserving a world worth living in calls for all the resources humans can muster – not only science, not only technology, but all the power of human emotion and imagination and care.  How can we bring together the practical wisdom of the environmental sciences, the clarity of philosophical analysis, and the creative, expressive power of the written word, to find new ways to understand and re-imagine our relation to the natural world? That is the challenge of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. 

To probe the ideas that define our place on Earth, Spring Creek convenes interdisciplinary gatherings on a variety of scales in a variety of settings -- conversations, field seminars, workshops, conferences and celebrations, courses. In collaboration with the USDA Forest Service, Spring Creek hosts Long-Term Ecological Reflections: 2003-2004, a writer-in-residency program at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Station; it is designed to gather creative responses to the forest for 200 years.  Spring Creek has organized symposia on the concepts of 'catastrophe and renewal' (on Mt. St. Helens), the 'sacred in nature' (OSU campus/community), and 'watershed health' (Andrews Forest).  A major symposium and lecture series on 'the triumph and tragedy of the commons' is planned for winter 2008.  Other Spring Creek programs include "Confluences Communities" for interdisciplinary, collaborative creativity; writing retreats at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek; and courses in Native American Philosophy and the Philosophy of Nature.
            For more information about the Spring Creek Project, visit the website: http://springcreek.oregonstate.edu/  or contact: Kathleen Dean Moore, Director; or Charles Goodrich, Program Director.

Funding Opportunities

National Water Research Institute Fellowships - Fellowships of up to $10,000 a year support master's or doctoral graduate research related to water treatment technologies, water quality, water environmental chemistry, water policy and economics, public health and risk assessment, water resources management. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2007.

NSF Communicating Research to Public Audiences - Requests for up to $75,000 will be considered to support projects that communicate to public audiences the process and results of current research that is being supported by any NSF directorate through informal science education activities, such as media presentations, exhibits, or youth-based activities. The purpose of these efforts is to disseminate research results, research in progress, or research methods. Proposals may be submitted at anytime, but at least six months prior to anticipated start date. The Principal Investigator must have an active NSF-supported research grant.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, January 16 - Tuesday, March 13, 4:30 p.m., Memorial Union La Raza Room 208. Water Film Series. Sponsored by the IWW, this film series features Cadillac Dessert, the Oregon Water Story, Mountains in the Mist, Running Dry and more.

Wednesday, February 28. OSU Water Resources Graduate Program Open House, poster session held 1:30-3:00 p.m., MU 109. This event is designed to showcase the WR graduate program, and is intended for prospective students, the academic community, alumni, our External Advisory Board and potential employers. Graduate students are invited to submit a poster, and there will be a $100 prize. FMI: Mary Santelmann http://oregonstate.edu/gradwater/.

Wednesday, February 28. Deadline to submit abstracts to a Symposium on the Modeling of Dams. The purpose of this symposium is to formalize the state of the science and to document how dam-human-ecosystem relationships are measured, analyzed, and interpreted. Presenters will be asked to contribute to a special issue publication series resulting from the symposium. The symposium will be held April 11-13 at Skamania Lodge along the Columbia River. FMI: Desiree Tullos, Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering.

Link to a calendar of other upcoming water-related events...