H₂OSU is also available at: http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
March 5, 2008

The View from 210

My stress level has plummeted and my physician is pleased. Why? Our recent one-day (February 28) symposium on Aquifer Storage and Recovery and Artificial Recharge in Oregon, hosted by the Oregon Water Resources Department and the IWW, was a success. Over 170 attendees heard 13 oral and saw 4 poster presentations, and networked during the breaks, lunch, and reception. Todd Jarvis has a recap elsewhere in this newsletter.

At the Symposium, Dr. Cat Shrier, of Watercat Consulting and member of the National Research Council Committee on Managed Underground Storage of Recoverable Water, invited attendees to a follow-up Forum on Policy, Regulatory and Economic Issues identified in the 2008 NRC report, Prospects for Managed Underground Storage of Recoverable Water. The forum is scheduled for March 19, 2008, in Washington, DC, and is sponsored by the Ground Water Protection Council.

Todd and I must confess: we were remiss in failing to issue the “Corvallis Communiqué” after the symposium. This is becoming fashionable at water and other conferences, where the organizing committee issues some “profound” statement, replete with numerous sentences beginning with “whereas”. One conference, to be held in Irvine later this year, already has an “Irvine Declaration” and an “Irvine Agenda”. Needless to say, we plan to promulgate the “Portland Proclamation” and the “Portland Principles” for our non-renewable ground water conference next October. We will not be out-declared!

The IWW has announced the second annual graduate student research awards. Twenty-one proposals were submitted and twelve funded, totaling about $55,000. The awardees and the projects are listed later on in this newsletter. Congratulations!

More serious news: Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies has released the report, Global Perspectives on Large Dams. It’s based on a conference held at Yale in November 2006. Also, Western Progress just published a new policy report, A New Western Water Agenda: Opportunities for Action in an Era of Growth and Climate Change, by Lawrence J. MacDonnell and Denise D. Fort.

I just returned from Washington, DC, where, for once, I did not get stuck in someone’s hub airport (DEN, SLC, ORD) or delayed because of Eastern snow/ice storms. I “discovered” that Alaska Airlines has a great (as great as a 2,400 mile coach-class plane flight can be) nonstop from SEA to Reagan National (DCA), which is just across the Potomac from DC. You might consider this the next time you want to fly across the country to DCA without changing planes at one of the mid-continent hubs. But so much for my airline advice.

The DC trip was busier than usual. I arrived a day early to attend a Government Affairs Committee meeting of the National Ground Water Association, held during its annual Fly-In, where I learned of the latest legislative initiatives of interest to the ground water industry. But the main reason for the trip was the annual meeting of the National Institutes for Water Resources, the organization of the 54 state water institutes (the IWW is Oregon’s institute). The institutes receive a total of slightly over $6M annually through the U.S. Geological Survey, most of which the institutes distribute as research grants. There is also an additional $1.5M component for nationwide competitive grants. The NIWR budget usually gets “zeroed out” of the Federal budget, and FY 2009 is no exception. So one of the important tasks of the NIWR directors is to lobby their Congressional delegations to restore institutes’ funds. We’ve been successful in restoring these funds each year, and hope we can get an increase in our allotment for FY 2009. 

This “zero-out” budget gambit is one that’s played frequently in DC. To meet budget goals, popular programs are excised from the President’s budget because the executive branch knows that Congress will restore them. Rep. David Price (D-NC) told the NIWR directors that this is a “dangerous game”, because budgetary pressures towards the end of a session may preclude restoration of these programs.

My visits to Oregon Congressional offices were designed to support the NIWR requests and the Oregon Water Institute, a request from OSU, the University of Oregon, and Portland State University. I am cautiously optimistic. Stay tuned.

I heard from a number of sources that the FY 2009 budget may not be approved till after the 111th Congress is in session. The Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, plus the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will likely get their funds before the 110th Congress adjourns. But the rest will have to wait.

At the NGWA meeting I received an update on the SECURE (Science and Engineering to Comprehensively Understand & Responsibly Enhance) Water Act, introduced by New Mexico’s dynamic duo of Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R). Nothing like a good APE (Acronym-Producing Expression). The legislation (S. 2156) emanated from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Bingaman. Mike Connor of the committee is the Act’s author. Bob Hirsch, USGS Associate Director for Water, who addressed the NIWR directors, called the SECURE Water Act a “significant piece of legislation” and the first he’s seen that deals with water science and data on a national scale; it is not some parochial “my watershed” viewpoint. Bob gave particular credit to Mike Connor, who really did his homework and “absorbed” a lot from a variety of sources. 

Bob, always an astute observer of the “water scene”, also discussed a variety of other water issues: ASR; geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (“Remember, you’re essentially injecting carbonic acid into the subsurface.”); the demise of stationarity vis-à-vis hydrologic processes; non-point source pollution; climate change; and the Water for America Initiative. The latter is something new from the Department of Interior and involves the Bureau of Reclamation and the USGS.

The visit to Sen. Gordon Smith’s (R-OR) office was a most interesting one in the sense that I wasn’t there primarily to ask for money. Refreshing, to say the least. Prior to my visit, Candy Fenn, a Legislative Fellow from EPA working in the Senator’s office, had asked me what suggestions I had for improving the implementation of the Water for the Poor Act, the landmark legislation whose passage was spearheaded by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). As often happens, the implementation and the legislative intent are two different things. She and Valerie West, the Senator’s Natural Resources Director, are working to improve the Act. In an earlier phone conversation I had provided Candy with suggestions after consulting with Aaron Wolf, Todd Jarvis, and David Douglas of Water Advocates. When I told her I was heading to DC, she said to drop by for some “brainstorming” with herself, Valerie, and Michael Curley, President of Environmental Finance LLC. The four of us and another staffer sat around for an hour kicking around ideas and developing preliminary plans to assemble a meeting of some “heavy hitters” and others from what I call the “hydrophilanthropy” realm. This is great work, and I applaud Valerie, Candy, and Sen. Smith for trying to get the executive branch folks on target. I hope to remain involved in this effort.

If you want to read more about my DC impressions regarding water, you can visit my blog and view the posts of February 25, 26 and 27.

My last item deals with a seemingly innocuous email I passed to a number of colleagues and a couple of lists. It announced the debut of a new electronic interdisciplinary water journal, Water Alternatives that promises “full and free access”. The latter phrase is the operative one. The money to launch the journal was provided by the Irrigation and Water Engineering group of Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and L’Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (France). What generated discussion are the journal’s “full and free access” and its sustainability,  which may be problematic unless its two patrons continue to contribute funds. One colleague commented that we may see more institutions or consortia of institutions publish free-access (or nearly so) e-journals. One acquaintance, a Fortune 500 corporate library manager who spends about $2M per year on journal subscriptions, favors “free” publications and is a keen observer of the “journal problem”. She’s more curious than I to see if this thing will fly, and finds it ironic that one of the backers of the journal is Dutch, because the giant Dutch company Elsevier (she refers to them as “our Dutch masters”) is one of the most aggressive for-profit scientific publishers. Can you say “full and free access” in Dutch? Probably not very easily.

Awfully verbose this month; it’s time to go.

Till next month,

Michael

“The difference between economists and political scientists is that economists believe people behave rationally.”
– Unknown, courtesy of Tony Willardson, Western States Water Council

back to top

Congratulations to the Winners of IWW Graduate Student Research Awards

The IWW is pleased to announce the recipients of funding from its second annual call for proposals from graduate students.  Twenty one proposals were submitted for the competition.  The twelve awards totaled nearly $55,000.  The titles and student from the funded projects are listed below.  Congratulations to the recipients!

• Marco Clark, Department of Anthropology, Dam Construction and Ethnic Minorities in China: Human-Environment Relationships in the Nu River Basin.
• Monica Hubbard, Department of Political Science, Assessing Rural Communities Adaptive Capacity in Response to Changes in Aquatic Ecosystem Services.
• Janet Rasmussen, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Reactive Polyphenols and Dissolved Nutrients in an N-Limited Headwater Catchment in Western Oregon, USA.
• Gwenn Kubeck, Marine Resource Management, Convene a Three-day Dynamic Facilitation Training.
• Jay Frentress, Water Resources Science, Differentiating Seasonal Sources of Stream DOM at Large Spatial Scales Using a Novel Isotopic Characterization Method.
• Eric Sproles, Department of Geosciences, Modeling Basin-Wide Distributions of Current and Future Snow Water Equivalent in the McKenzie River Watershed.
• Joel Murray, Environmental Sciences Program, GIS-Based Model for Predicting Nutrient Loads in Oregon Watersheds.
• Adam Stebbins, OSU Benton County Extension, Benton County Water Planning Internship.
• Brock Tabor, Water Policy and Management, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Studies, Identification and examination of conservation strategies available through Government agencies in Southeast Alaska.
• Danielle Jansik, Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Film Flow Velocities and Quantify the Physical Constraints on the Capillary Barrier System.
• Patrick MacQuarrie, Department of Geosciences, International Freshwater Policy in Mekong River Region of Southeast Asia.
• Elizabeth Copeland, Water Resources Science, Future Climate and Debris Flow Activity at Mount Rainier.

back to top

Recap of the Water Resources Graduate Program Open House

by Mary Santelmann, WRGP Director

Another successful Open House for the Water Resources Graduate Program was held at the OSU Memorial Union on Wednesday, February 27th. About 50-60 people attended this year's event. Participation has expanded to include not only students and faculty currently involved in the program, and several prospective students, but also members of the OSU and Corvallis community.

Open House activities started off at 9 a.m. with presentations by graduate students Denise Elston (WRPM) on a dam removal project in Brownsville and Aristides Petrides (WRE) presenting his thesis research on an irrigation model for the region around Milton Freewater, Oregon. Faculty members Roy Haggerty, Anne Nolin, and Jeff McDonnell also spoke, highlighting their recent research and teaching in water resources.

At noon, several of the prospective students visiting campus met up with current students who hosted them for lunch and conversation about the program. Also at noon, the External Advisory Board (EAB) met to review the accomplishments of the program in the past year, to be updated on prospects for the future, and to provide input to the program director and associate directors on future directions for water resources education at Oregon State University.

We welcomed several new members to the EAB this year, including Robert Lackey of the US EPA (Bob is also a courtesy faculty member in the OSU Fisheries and Wildlife Department); Brenda Bateman, senior policy analyst for the Oregon Water Resources Department; Jay Frentress (Graduate Student in the WRS program); and Todd Jarvis, Associate Director for the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds. The External Advisory Board also includes Mark Taratoot, Water Quality Specialist for the City of Corvallis; Erick Burns of the USGS; and two charter members of the EAB who continue to serve on the board but could not attend this years meeting, Erick Strecker of GeoSyntec and Michelle Girts of CH2M Hill.

The annual poster session showcasing water-related research at OSU was held between 1:30 and 3:30. Posters were presented on a wide range of topics. Some explored the human dimensions of water resource issues, such as Sarah Sheldrick's poster entitled "An Exploration of Groundwater Rights and Community-based action in Umatilla County". Others highlighted geochemical research, for example, the posters presented by Jay Frentress - "Characterization of dissolved organic matter in subsurface flow and stream flow during a fall storm event in a small (10 ha) Pacific Northwest catchment" and Janet Rasmussen - "Reactive polyphenols and dissolved nutrients in an N-limited headwater catchment in Western Oregon, USA".

This year we were able to offer two $100 awards for Best Poster; one from the OSU Water Resources Graduate Program, OSU Foundation Account for Faculty Awards, the other came from members of the Portland based office of the USGS, and was presented by Dr. Erick Burns, an OSU alumnus.

Although it was difficult to select just two posters for awards from the nearly twenty excellent posters presented, the poster presented by Eva Lieberherr (WRPM) entitled "Acceptability of Market-based Approaches to Water Management: An Analysis of the Deschutes Groundwater Mitigation Program" won the WRGP Best Poster Award, and the poster presented by Nicole Czarnomski (WRE) "Vegetation as Hydraulic Resistance Along Stream Banks" (Authors: Nicole Czarnomski, Desiree Tullos, Andrew Simon, and Natasha Pollen-Bankhead) was selected for the USGS Best Poster Award by the team of judges. Water Resources Science PhD student Jay Zarnetske (who was last year's Best Poster Award winner) received an Honorable Mention this year.

Finally, at 4 p.m., the events of the day were capped with two great films from the IWW winter film series; "The Blue Danube" and "Cadillac Desert".

We appreciated the participation of all those who attended this year's Open House and especially the faculty members and students who presented posters or gave presentations. We hope to see all of you back next year!

back to top

Symposium Recap: David Pyne Recharges ASR/AR Symposium Attendees

by Todd Jarvis, IWW Associate Director

Co-convened by the Oregon Water Resources Department and the Institute for Water & Watersheds at Oregon State University, the one day symposium focusing on obstacles and opportunities to ground water recharge in Oregon at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University on February 28, 2008 was attended by over 170 attendees and not a moment too soon.   The symposium was opened by OWRD Director Phil Ward who announced that the Oregon Legislature had approved Senate Bill 1069 in the closing hours of the special session that ended February 22.  SB 1069 appropriated $750,000 to study the feasibility of replenishing ground water in the Umatilla basin.  IWW Director Michael E. Campana echoed the legislative momentum by stating that the gathering of technical, social, and legal experts at the symposium could not have been better timed.

Thirteen oral and four poster presentations covered a wide variety of ASR and AR issues: legal, regulatory, hydrogeologic, engineering, water quality, aesthetic, and social.

Internationally-renowned managed recharge expert David Pyne of ASR Systems and author of the seminal book Aquifer Storage and Recovery, 2nd Edition, served as the keynote speaker for the event.  He made it clear that while there were over 80 managed recharge projects underway in the United States, the international water community was quickly embracing the technology and beginning to develop innovative technologies and policies that the United States should consider integrating into their programs.  On the basis of the “buzz” overheard during the breaks, the concept of using in-situ treatment of injected water through Aquifer Storage, Treatment and Recovery (ASTR) currently used in Australia, and the emerging development of “leasing” underground space for ASR, captured the attention of many attendees.  On the basis of the abstracts submitted for the upcoming National Ground Water Association conference on Non-Renewable Ground Water scheduled for October in Portland, Oregon, there is some crossover of topics between managed recharge and the use of non-renewable ground water.

Read more of Todd's recap on the symposium Web site along with links to PDFs of presentation abstracts and slides.

back to top

Get Involved

March 7, 2008 - Deadline to submit abstracts for the International Conference on Nonrenewable Ground Water Resources - Sociotechnological Aspects of Nonrenewable Ground Water Resources. The meeting will be held October 13-15, 2008 in Portland, Oregon. Hosted by the National Ground Water Association, in association with the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds, The World Bank, and the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO. There will be presentations on all aspects of nonrenewable ground water: legal, social, economic, scientific/engineering, institutional, policy, and management. (Note that the abstract deadline is listed incorrectly on the Web page, it is really March 7 not February 4.)

Are you daydreaming about summer? Now is the time to start thinking about summer field courses. Here are a few planned in our area:

• Monday, June 2 - Saturday, June 7. The Second Hands-on CUAHSI/HMF Workshop: Fiber Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing for Ecological Characterization. This workshop presents a complete introduction to the technique, including fiber and instrument selection, fiber placement, fiber repair, data acquisition, and data analysis. Instructors: John Selker – Oregon State University; Scott Tyler – University of Nevada, Reno; Barry Freifeld – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; John Lane – USGS, Office of Groundwater. Held at HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. FMI: John Selker.

• Monday, June 16 - Wednesday, June 25. Summer Field Course in River and Riparian Studies. Offered by Patricia McDowell, Department of Geography, University of Oregon. This course will focus on interactions between biological and physical processes in river floodplains, including geomorphology and plant ecology, and concepts and techniques for river assessment and restoration planning. Students will live and study in the Sprague River valley, part of the Upper Klamath Basin and a tributary to Upper Klamath Lake. Preliminary meeting June 6; wrap-up meeting July 1.

• July 14 - August 8, 2008. PSU River Restoration Field Institute. Successful completion in conjunction with two elective courses leads to the PSU River Restoration Professional Certificate. The first and fourth week of the Field Institute will be held at Portland State University; the second and third weeks will be spent in the field near Seaside, Oregon. Lead instructors: Janine Castro, USFWS and Clayton Anderson, FWR Ecoresource Consultants.

back to top

Upcoming Events

Today, March 12, 4:00 p.m., Memorial Union La Raza Room. Water First: Living Drop by Drop (IWW Water Film Series). (30 minutes) A documentary that tells two stories: the first is about the remarkable Charles Banda, a preacher and retired fireman who founded the Freshwater Project in Malawi and the second concerns the volatile issue of water privatization in South Africa.  Discussion to follow the film. FMI: Todd Jarvis.

Wednesday, March 12 4:00 p.m., Memorial Union La Raza Room. Precious Water (IWW Water Film Series). (23 minutes) A film by Swedish film producer Lasse Johansson. This film traces the path of water from source to sea, with slight diversions into wastewater treatment plants and water reuse in small breweries. Innovative imagery, and some wonderful lessons that can be learned and transferred to Oregon. Film courtesy of Court Smith of the Department of Anthropology and Jan-Olof Andersson, Coordinator of Sustainable Development, Falkenberg, Sweden. Discussion to follow the film. FMI: Todd Jarvis.

Wednesdays, 4:00-5:30 p.m., starting April 9 in ALS 4000. Spring Hydrology Seminar Series: Water in the West. Topics range from modeling climate change impacts on mountain hydrology to water and land use planning in Oregon. Students can register for credit (WRS 507 CRN: 37797) and can also sign up for the journal club which meets 11:00-11:50 in Wilkinson 203 (WRS 505, CRN 37771 or GEO 599, CRN 37750).

May 22, 2008, Lloyd Center, Portland, Oregon. Ecosystem Markets: Taking Action. An educational and working conference reviewing the progress made in the Northwest on Ecosystem Services Markets, and preparing attendees to advance the development of the integrated services concept as an effective tool for protecting and restoring ecosystems. Presented by the Institute for Natural Resources, the Northwest Environmental Business Council, and the Willamette Partnership.

back to top

Funding Opportunities for Students

NSF Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Projects (DDEP). NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering supports dissertation research conducted by graduate students at a foreign site. Students are expected to work in close cooperation with a host country institution and investigator. The applicant is responsible for making all necessary arrangements with the host country institution and scientist. The doctoral faculty advisor, on behalf of the student, submits the dissertation enhancement proposal. Proposals may be submitted at any time.

Sigma Xi Student Research Grants. Grants of up to $1,000 to support undergraduate and graduate student research in any field of science and engineering. International students and non-U.S. citizens are encouraged to apply. Proposals due March 15, 2008.

National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) Internships. Preference is given to students or graduates of NCSE's University Affiliate institutions. Internships last 3 months and are occasionally extended to 6 months. Internships carry a stipend of $1,400/month except for interns on "Semester in Washington" programs for which they receive academic credit. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2008.

National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation Len Assante Undergraduate Scholarships. The applicant must be entering a field of study that serves, supports, or promotes the ground water industry. Applications due April 1, 2008.

Oregon Natural Resource Policy Fellowship. This program will place one graduate student fellow in an Oregon state agency for one year beginning in July 2008. This fellowship is intended to give a student first-hand experience in natural resource policy at the state level. The student chosen for the fellowship will interview with five Oregon state agencies to find the best fit for the student and the agency. Includes a $30K stipend. Application Deadline: April 4, 2008.

back to top

Funding Opportunities for Faculty

OSU Research Equipment Reserve Fund. RERF may be used to acquire, repair, renovate, or improve equipment directly used for research. The equipment may be inventoried capital equipment =>$5,000 per unit, fabricated capitalized equipment, or minor equipment costing less than $5,000 per unit which lasts at least two years. Award amounts vary. Each application must show at least 20% cost sharing from the department, college, or other funds. The Research Office has budgeted approximately $125,000 for the 2007-08 Spring solicitation. Proposals due Monday, March 17, 2008.

National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation Research Grants. NGWREF seeks to fund leading-edge programming that stimulates new knowledge, information, programs, and products to advance ground water science and technology. It particularly encourages and values those proposals that bridge the gap between research and practical applications of the research findings. In 2008 it will prioritize funding for projects that contribute to achieving the Foundation's mission related to sustainability and pubilc concerns about ground water quality. Research grants are usually in the $3,000 - $8,000 range. Deadline extended to April 15, 2008.

EPA NCER Consequences of Global Change for Water Quality. The goal of this solicitation is to assemble modeling systems capable of capturing important linkages between regional climate drivers and terrestrial hydrologic systems and to apply these modeling systems to improve the overall understanding of the sensitivity of key water quality or aquatic ecosystem management targets to the types of climate changes anticipated over the next several decades. About five regular awards (up to $800k) and two early career awards (up to $250k) will be made. Proposals are due May 8, 2008.

A list of additional water-related external funding opportunities is available on the IWW Web site.

back to top

H₂OSU is a periodic e-mail news briefing provided by the Institute for Water and Watersheds. It is distributed through the OSU Hydro Email lists and the Oregon Water List (http://water.oregonstate.edu/news/email_lists.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.