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

The View from 210

Mild-mannered Todd Jarvis is stirring things up again. He gained a following with his “Measure 37 and Groundwater” talk (see the link on our homepage), and has now captured an even bigger audience with his “Bottled Water and the Environment” talk. He’s been in the newspapers, magazines, and on TV and radio so many times I’ve lost count. I even blogged him on WaterWired. Todd does not lambaste the bottled water industry, but simply elucidates the “environmental footprint” of bottled water. His M37 talk is also even-handed, illustrating the downside of M37 and the disconnect between land use planning and water planning. This seems to annoy some officials, but Todd’s doing it not to annoy folks but to indicate potential problems and the need for reassessment of how we do certain things. Oregon is not alone when it comes to the aforementioned disconnect; pick a state. In my April column I reported on a bill introduced in the Nevada State Senate that would have prohibited the State Engineer from coordinating land use planning and water planning; it was defeated. 

By the way, Todd is casting about for another controversial topic that desperately needs airing. I’ve suggested one of my favorites: the disconnect between the regulatory aspects of water quantity and water quality. Stay tuned (literally).

We were successful in our effort to secure funds to purchase a gas chromatograph (GC). The Research Equipment Reserve Fund (RERF) granted the IWW almost $45K to fund 80% of an Agilent 6890N GC. I want to thank Mark Harmon, Stan Gregory, and Roy Haggerty for writing letters of support and the Research Office for its support. Water Collaboratory Director Kathy Motter deserves most of the credit for pulling together all the relevant information. Funds will be available July 1.

Nick Pisias of COAS and his working group have done a great job assembling OSU’s Climate Initiative Workshop at the LaSells Stewart Center, 14-15 June. A new draft agenda and collection of “white papers” has been posted on our WWW site.

The Energy-Water Nexus: Meeting the Energy and Water Needs of the Snake/Columbia River Basin in the 21st Century, A Science and Technology Summit will be held June 25-27, 2007 at the Red Lion Downtowner Hotel in Boise. The WWW site is fully operational for registration and hotel information.

The Water Resources Graduate Program presented its annual awards this past Monday. We’ve listed the winners elsewhere in this newsletter. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to Mary Santelmann, Elena Maus, Denise Lach, Richard Cuenca, and Anne Nolin for their tireless efforts in making the WRGP what it is today.

Todd Jarvis has the fall term’s speakers (see below) lined up; the series theme is Revisiting Restoration, Reconstruction, and Renaturalization of Engineered Landscapes: Technical, Political, Legal and Natural Resistance. It’ll be a great series, just like the one assembled by Jeff McDonnell this spring term.

The 5 June 2007 issue of the High Country News has an interview with OSU College of Forestry PhD student Dan Donato, the lead author on the controversial Science paper on salvage logging after the Biscuit Fire. It’s good.

I gave a talk on my water project work in Panama and Honduras before the OSU chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Over 200 students are involved. The group is open to all students, not just engineers; I met with Brian Wood of Environmental Engineering, one of the faculty advisors, who emphasized this point, adding that they are actively seeking students with non-engineering backgrounds. It’s a great bunch of people, doing good work.

Till next month,
Michael

"No good deed goes unpunished" – Clare Booth Luce

Congratulations

Mary Santelmann, director of the Water Resources Graduate Program, recently announced the following award winners:

• Barbara Burkholder is the 2006-2007 recipient of the Kenneth Williamson Water Prize ($500). Barbara was nominated by Dr. Gordon Grant of the USFS and OSU Geosciences, with additional supporting letters from her colleagues. An excerpt from her nominating letter illustrates the qualities that we value in the Williamson Water Prize winners: “Her qualifications for the award rest on the strength of her scientific research, leadership skills, and overall dynamism and effort on behalf of the Water Program...In less than two years, she has developed a master’s research project that promises to significantly advance a key aspect of the emerging field of river restoration.”
• Amy McNally, Kelley Thomas, and Jason Hatch recipients of The Water Resources Faculty Award ($500) for showcasing OSU through the excellence of a presentation or paper. “Kelley and Jason recently represented the Water Resources Graduate Program in a special poster session at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in San Francisco, April 17-21. Amy McNally presented an excellent poster on the “Coupled Human-Natural Systems Modeling of Dam Impacts” at the NSF-sponsored conference on Dams and Dam Removal”organized by Desiree Tullos, Brian Tilt, and Aaron Wolf.
• Suva Shakya, the Hydrophiles Webmaster recipient of The Water Resources Alumni Award ($250) for leadership and service to the water resources community. Suva helps those of us who are less skilled at web and email list communication get the word out about events and opportunities in the hydro community.
• Dr. Erick Burns of the USGS in Portland OR recipient of the Distinguished OSU Alumnus Award. Erick currently serves on our WRGP External Advisory Board. The nominating letter had this to say about Erick: “Erick was a remarkable member of the community when he was a student here (extensive involvement in Hydrophiles, came to every seminar, helped countless other students…), and has continued to be a huge supporter of our program since leaving 3 years ago. He has completed a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship in Canada and has been engaging us in his research efforts right from the get-go since coming back to Oregon.”
• Monica Hubbard received a Scholarship from the OSU Foundation through the Sports Lottery Fellowship Fund – this fellowship is awarded based on academic merit and the funds are raised through the Oregon Sports Lottery program.

We applaud the achievements of all of our students and faculty members this year, and we thank our entire participating faculty for their involvement and leadership in Water Resources Graduate Program.

Upcoming Events

June 14-15, LaSells Stewart Center. - OSU’s Climate Initiative Workshop. A new draft agenda and collection of “white papers” has been posted on our WWW site. Contact Nick Pisias of COAS for more information.

Saturday, June 23rd, Willamette River Paddle Trip from Peoria to Corvallis. The trip is co-sponsored by the Marys River Watershed Council, Willamette Riverkeeper, Willamette Kayak & Canoe Club, City of Corvallis, Oregon Trout and Free Spirit Rivers. They will have presentations on birds, geomorphology of the river, native trade language, water quality, and more at stops along the way. Details and sign up information is available on the Web.

Monday, June 25 - Wednesday, June 27, Boise, Idaho. The Energy-Water Nexus: Meeting the Energy and Water Needs of the Snake/Columbia River Basin in the 21st Century. The purpose of this Summit is to identify and explore the science, technology, infrastructure, and policies that need to be developed and implemented to meet future energy and water demands in the Snake and Columbia River basins. The outcome of this Summit will be a web-published document describing those needs and potential approaches.

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

Fall 2007 Seminar Preview

The theme for the Fall 2007 Water Resources Seminar Series is: Revisiting Restoration, Reconstruction, and Renaturalization of Engineered Landscapes: Technical, Political, Legal and Natural Resistance. It will meet Wednesdays, 4-5:30 pm, Room 102, Owen Hall. Planned speakers include:

Oct. 3 - Robert Elofson & LaTrisha Suggs, Klallam tribe river restoration director, Elwha River Dam Removal

Oct. 10 - Daniel McCool, Professor, Political Science, Univ. of Utah, The Politics of River Restoration in the Western U.S.

Oct. 17 - William Woessner, Professor, Geology, University of Montana, Topic to be announced

Oct. 24 - Joe Bowersox, Associate Professor, Political Science, Willamette University. The Politics of Restoring an Urban Watershed in Oregon

Oct. 31 - Desiree Tullos (tentative), Assistant Professor, Biological & Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University. Topic TBA

Nov. 7 - Gabriel Eckstein, Law Professor, Texas Tech University. Topic TBA

Nov. 14 - Janine Castro, Ph.D., U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Global Perspectives on River Restoration

Nov. 26 - Gidon Bromberg (tentative), Israeli Director, Friends of the Earth, Middle East. Good Water Neighbors: A Model For Community Development Programs In Regions Of Conflict

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Undergraduate Research, Innovation, Scholarship and Creativity (URISC) - Undergraduate students can apply for up to $2300 for the 07-08 school year - funds can be used for research expenses, including student wages. Applications are due in the Research Office by Monday, June 25.

USAID Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Program - "This program will provide technical assistance to increase accessibility and adoption of new and improved technology in agriculture production and post harvest activities in Afghanistan. The program will also address issues on land security and efficiency in water management. The program areas and activities to be covered by the program include integrated water management, technology tTransfer, and policy. $2 Million is available to Land Grant Universities and partners in Afghanistan through this program." This is an advanced notice. Close date to be provided when RFA is published.

NSF - Ecosystem Science Cluster - Ecosystem Studies - "Supports investigations of whole-system ecological processes and relationships in ecosystems across a diversity of spatial and temporal (including paleo) scales. Proposals may focus on areas such as: biogeochemistry; decomposition of organic matter; belowground nutrient cycling and energy flow; primary productivity; radiatively active gas flux; element budgets on watershed, regional, continental, or global scales; relationships between diversity and ecosystem function; ecosystem services; and landscape dynamics. Proposals will be considered that focus on advancing ecosystem science through either the pursuit of new theoretical paradigms or novel modeling efforts. Inter- and multi-disciplinary proposals that fall across traditional programmatic boundaries are welcomed and encouraged." Proposals due: July 9, 2007.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Pathogens in Drinking Water - "EPA is seeking applications proposing development and evaluation of innovative approaches to quantitatively detect pathogens or toxigenic cyanobacteria or the identified high priority cyanotoxins: microcystins, anatoxin-a, and cylindrospermopsins, in drinking water. The purpose of this request for applications is to improve the suite of available detection methods for known and emerging microbial drinking water contaminants including freshwater algae or its toxins. Any proposed method should be applicable to source water, treated water, and/or water in the distribution system." Proposals due: July 10, 2007.

Don't forget, a list of water-related external funding opportunities is available on the IWW Web site.

H₂OSU is a periodic e-mail news briefing provided by the Institute for Water and Watersheds. It is distributed through the OSU hydro e-mail lists -- to subscribe or unsubscribe, go to http://oregonstate.edu/groups/hydro/email.htm. Questions, comments and ideas for news briefs may be sent to the IWW at iww@oregonstate.edu. More news from the IWW is available at http://water.oregonstate.edu/news/index.htm.