H₂OSU is also available at: http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
September 11, 2007

The View from 210

It’s good to be back after a two-month newsletter hiatus.

The big news from the IWW is that Dr. Todd Jarvis is now Associate Director of the Institute. It’s not a new position, but an upgrade of his current position to reflect what he’s been doing for quite some time. We are fortunate to have someone of his ability. Please join me congratulating Todd.

The OSU Water Vision is morphing into the OUS (Oregon University System) Water Vision. I received approval from OSU’s powers-that-be to work with my counterparts at Portland State University (Dr. Roy Koch, Provost and VP for Academic Affairs), the University of Oregon (Dr. Patricia McDowell, Professor and Chair, Department of Geography), and the Oregon Institute of Technology (Dr. Joseph Sarsenski, Professor and Chair, Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics) to craft a unified vision. We had our first concall on 30 August and decided that each institution would submit a 2-3 page vision to me by 17 September 2007, which I will then conflate into a single document. All were enthusiastic at the prospects for institutional collaboration and Roy closed the meeting with, “I’ve waited 20 years for this.” I’ll keep you posted.

I just returned from a one-day trip to Toronto to help the Canadian Water Network (en francais: Réseau Canadien de L’Eau) prepare for its second and final 7-year funding cycle. The Network develops and supports multidisciplinary projects that address critical Canadian water issues. The CWN is comprised of 37 universities, private industry, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. It’s a remarkable organization with good support – both financial and in-kind -- from a variety of sponsors. While there, I asked some colleagues about the head of the new Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research, which is well-supported by money derived from the province’s booming energy industry. They mentioned that an offer was tendered, but nothing else.

Two months ago I told you that The National Research Council’s Committee on Hydrology, Ecology, and Fishes in the Klamath River Basin would submit its final report to its sponsor, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, by 31 August 2007. Well, I lied. I’ve got 40+ pages of single-spaced comments to wade through, so with two more reviews still out there, it’ll be a while.

I spent a delightful 8 days in Chile as the guest of Dr. Anthony Wylie, Dean of Natural Resources, and Mr. Pablo Garcia, Forestry Instructor, at Universidad Santo Tomás in Santiago. Dan Neary of the U.S. Forest Service in Flagstaff was also a guest. The main purpose of our visit was to explore collaboration among the IWW, USFS, and UST. I gave a lecture before 100 people at UST’s Santiago campus on Effects of Climate Change on Water Resources: Lessons from the Western USA. We then flew to Copiapó, a mining/agricultural center in the southern Atacama Desert, and one of the wettest places in that desert – the city last had rain in 1997, two events totaling about 110 mm. The city’s long-term average is 10 mm per year. I decided on the spur of the moment that a lecture on climate change here would be silly: “Hey, you’re going to get hotter and drier.” “Thank, you, O wise man from the North. You are truly prescient.” I switched to an impromptu talk about Water Resources Conflict: Lessons from the Western USA. That went over real well, because in terms of water, the region is conflicted over mining (mostly copper, but also some gold, silver, and manganese) vs. agriculture (red table grapes are big). Both industries unsustainably pump a lot of ground water, and both are looking to expand. There is some surface water – streams fed by melt water from the snowpack and glaciers in the Andes. But just like we have in the Cascades, the glaciers are diminishing.

In July, Aaron Wolf, Lynette de Silva, Todd Jarvis, and I hosted Mr. Victor Bardyuk, Director of the Environmental Protection Department, Khabarovsk Krai (a “krai” is administratively akin to a US state), Russian Federation. The city of Khabarvosk, the administrative center of the krai, lies on the Amur River, which was badly polluted a few years ago by a chemical spill from China that severely impacted the city. Khabarovsk is also one of Portland’s sister cities, and Portland (especially the Portland Water Bureau) has helped Khabarovsk with its water pollution problems through a joint Clean Water Initiative (visit www.users.qwest.net/~trbenke/Html/index.html). Mr. Bardyuk’s host was Thomas Benke, an environmental attorney/engineer from Portland. We hope to assist Mr. Bardyuk and the Russian Federation as both work with the Chinese to develop transboundary agreements covering the Amur Basin.

This Thursday (13 September 2007) I will be speaking at Water, Water, Everywhere??, a meeting convened by the Benton County Commission. The meeting’s purpose will be to begin a discussion on the possible development of a countywide water policy and water plan. It will be held from 3:30 – 5 PM in the Plaza Meeting Room (basement) in the Benton Plaza, 408 SW Monroe, across from the Benton County Courthouse (change in venue from the Corvallis-Benton County Library). Phil Ward and Debbie Colbert of OWRD will also speak, and there will be a panel discussion of future water challenges featuring Tom Penpraze (City of Corvallis), Dan O’Brien (Greenberry Irrigation District), Sandra Coveny (Marys River Watershed Council), Roger Irvin (Benton County), Phil, Debbie, and yours truly (click her for the agenda).

Webmaster Maria Wright is revising our WWW site this fall. We’re looking for some pictures of people “doing water” to post on the site. Just plain pictures of faces are welcome, too. Please send any you have, plus a caption/description, to Maria ASAP.

Till next month,

Michael

“Into the well from which you drink do not throw stones.” – Arab proverb

News from the IWW Collaboratory

It has been a busy six months for the IWW Collaboratory!  We have moved the lab from its original site in Gilmore Hall to the Forestry Sciences Lab and will be having an open house to celebrate our new facilities in the beginning of October.  The move has allowed us more room to diversify and expand capability. Our features now include:

• Revised fees to make the laboratory widely accessible to OSU researchers and students!
• A variety of lab instrumentation including:
  • A Dionex Ion Chromatograph for analysis of anions
  • A PerkinElmer Flame Atomic Absorption Spectometer for analysis of cations
  • A Shimadzu Total Organic Carbon Analyzer and a Shimadzu Spectrophotometer
  • A pH meter, conductivity meter and other peripheral equipment.
  • An Alpkem Flow Solution IV for nutrient analysis (soon to be qualified).
  • A Thermo Jarell Ash Iris ICP for trace metals (soon to be qualified).
  • An Agilent Gas Chromatograph (purchased using Research Equipment Reserve Funds and expected to be on line in late October)
• Field equipment for short term use.  Currently on hand are YSI Data Sonde, pH meters, and conductivity meters, Onset Hobos, a GeoPump and Filter Kits for sample preparation. 
• Lab space for general use.
• Computers and office work space for data processing and transfer.

Watch the IWW Newsletter and IWW Homepage for an announcement about the upcoming Open House. If you have questions please contact Kathy Motter, Collaboratory Manager (758-8764).

Get Involved

Hydrophiles Fall BBQ - Wednesday, September 26, 5:00 p.m., Maple Grove Shelter in Avery Park (the usual spot). A great way to get to know others in the OSU water resources community! Contact Jay Frentress if you can help with set up. Held at the Maple Grove Shelter in Avery Park (the usual spot).

Collaborative Governance in the West: Prospects, Problems and Theory - Monday, October 1 - LaSells Stewart Center, free and open to the public. "Cooperative and collaborative strategies are increasingly used to address some of most intractable natural resource problems in the West. What are the strengths and limitations of these new governance strategies?  How do they operate within the existing local, state, and federal legal frameworks? When are they effective and when do they merely postpone hard decisions?  And, what is there about existing institutions in the Western United States that seem to promote, sustain, or limit these new governance approaches?" The symposium is sponsored by OSU and Washington State University. Download a draft agenda with speaker abstracts.

Other Upcoming Events

OSU Fall Water Resources Seminar Series - Wednesdays, starting October 3, 4-5:30 p.m., 102 Owen Hall, OSU. The theme is: Revisiting Restoration, Reconstruction, and Renaturalization of Engineered Landscapes: Technical, Political, Legal and Natural Resistance. Students can register for credit. FMI: Todd Jarvis, 737-4032.

Water in the Pacific Northwest: Moving Science into Policy and Action - November 7-9, Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, Washington. This regional conference merges water science and policy to promote collaboration between scientists and policy makers on water-policy decisions. It was developed in response to comments from previous water quality and groundwater conference participants who stressed the need to better integrate science and policy. Abstracts for the poster session will be accepted until September 21. Contact Tarrin at watercenter@wsu.edu for details on submitting new abstracts.

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

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Oregon Governor’s Fund for the Environment - Funded by a court settlement, this fund provide monies for projects in the Willamette River Basin that: (a) develop and implement strategies to eliminate and/or reduce pollution and otherwise restore the quality of Oregon rivers, streams and coastal areas; restore and conserve fish, wildlife, and plant resources critical to Oregon rivers, streams and coastal areas;  (c) identify continuing sources of pollution of Oregon rivers, streams and coastal areas; and (d) improve state and local criminal enforcement of environmental and wildlife protection laws intended to protect Oregon rivers, streams and coastal areas.   The people living in or near such habitats are intended to be the beneficiaries of the Fund, on behalf of such species and habitats. Priority will be given to projects that improve conservation on private lands through incentive programs for private landowners. Grants in the range of $5,000 - $50,000 will be made, with a total of about $300K available. Preproposals due: October 5, 2007.

OSU General Research Fund (GRF) - The intent of the GRF is to enable OSU faculty to carry out scholarly, creative work that should lead to the pursuit of other funding sources, or promote the development of scholarly activities. Projects funded through the GRF could include: pilot research, emergency funding, emerging research opportunities, new research field or new research field for investigator, developing research laboratories, or centrally-shared research resources. Maximum award is $10,000. Proposals due: October 8, 2007.

OWEB Grants for Restoration/Acquisition Technical Assistance, and Outreach/Education Monitoring - OWEB focuses on projects that approach natural resources management from a whole-watershed perspective. OWEB encourages projects that foster interagency cooperation, include other sources of funding, provide for local stakeholder involvement, include youth and volunteers and promote learning about watershed concepts. There are four general categories of projects eligible for OWEB funding: 1. On-the-ground watershed management (restoration and acquisition). 2. Assessment and/or monitoring of natural resource conditions. 3. Opportunities for learning about watershed concepts (education/outreach). 4. Watershed council support. Proposals due: October 22, 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.