November 10, 2008

I gave a preliminary presentation to Board of Directors of the Network of Oregon Watershed Councils at its 4 November meeting. Rep. Jackie Dingfelder and I will be doing a Roundtable tag-team presentation to the Oregon Water Resources Commission at its meeting in Salem on 21 November. I will make presentations at the Calapooia Watershed Council meeting on 10 December and to the Environmental Quality Commission meeting in Hillsboro on 12 December. Gail Achterman, Terry Buchholz (David Evans Associates, Inc.) and I will have a panel discussion at the upcoming Oregon Water Utilities Council’s 2008 Legislative Symposium on 9 December in Salem.

Nonrenewable Ground Water Resources Conference Report. The aforementioned conference was a resounding technical, if not financial, success, and that’s not simply my assessment. The attendance (55) was lower than we had hoped for, but the small number translated into a more intimate venue with a tremendous degree of speaker-audience interaction. Many attendees commented on this.

It was obvious that there is much interest in this topic, so much so that we agreed another meeting on the topic would be warranted in two or three years. Albuquerque has been mentioned as a venue, since the area is grappling with the issue. In New Mexico, the Office of the State Engineer (analogous to OWRD) does not have regulatory authority over ground water deeper than 2,500 feet. West of Albuquerque, groups are vying to pump water from as deep as 10,000 feet, purify it, and market it as potable water. This could get real ugly.

You can access the conference report online.

Winter Water Film Series. We will once again show water films during the winter term. All films are free and open to the public. Todd Jarvis has done his usual yeoman’s job assembling a great bunch of fluid flicks. We’ve posted the schedule on our WWW site. One of the featured films will be Jim Thebaut’s  The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry? Jim’s Running Dry was a huge hit when he showed it here several years ago and we are pretty sure Jim will be able to make it up here to feature his latest opus, scheduled for 28 January. Jim has promised to leave any climate refugees at the border.

Wells and the Well-Being of Oregon Symposium – 11 December. We will partner with Oregon Sea Grant Extension to convene this one-day symposium on 11 December. It’s designed to provide information to individuals and groups on wells with a focus on domestic wells. It will be held at the Northwest Viticulture Center outside Salem. Keynoting the conference will be Kevin McCray, Executive Director of the National Ground Water Association. Doug Woodcock, Ground Water/Hydrology Section Manager for OWRD, and Jerry Schmidt of the Oregon Ground Water Association will speak, as will Melinda Kassen of Trout Unlimited, who will discuss ground water use in other states. Kathy Motter, our Collaboratory Director, will discuss water quality/quantity testing. Other speakers include Mike Gamroth (OSU Extension); Adam Stebbins (Benton County) and Dave Livesay (GSI Water Solutions, Inc.), who will discuss the Benton County Water Project; Barbara Rich (Deschutes County); Turner Odell (Oregon Consensus Program at PSU); and Genie and Glenn Harden. Water Resources Graduate Program student Abby Brown, the Oregon Sea Grant-Oregon Water Resources Department Fellow, will present a case history on her Eola Hills study. The symposium will conclude with a facilitation to determine needs. The WWW site is: http://oregonstate.edu/conferences/wells2008/.

President-Elect Obama Speaks on Water, Climate, and Science. Alberto Palombo has collected and synthesized President-Elect Obama’s thoughts on the aforementioned topics and written an article. It originally appeared in Portuguese in a Brazilian online water publication but Alberto provided an English version as well.

In a related item, the American Water Works Association released an election report describing, in part, what Sen. Obama’s election might mean vis-a-vis drinking water.

Needed: White House Water Advisor. No sense beating around the bush: we've got some serious water issues facing the USA (and the world). If I have to enumerate them, then you've been living under a rock or not reading WaterWired, or both. Paramount among these issues is the fact that the USA has no national water policy/strategy/vision/plan (choose your favorite term).

President-Elect Barack Obama needs to appoint a White House Water Advisor. I eschew using the sexier term "water czar" because I am not talking about someone with absolute life-or-death authority. But I want someone who has the ear and confidence of the President and can speak for him on water issues. He/she would have an office in the West Wing and a staff as well. That person would attend Cabinet meetings, and be distinct from the Science Advisor. Water is too important to be rolled into "science" with a bunch of other things. So what would this person do?

• Advise the President on water and related issues, both domestic and foreign
• Be the administration's water "point man/woman"
• Make policy recommendations
• Liaise with Capitol Hill and the states
• Coordinate Federal water agencies and policies (I know, dream on!)

Obviously, we need someone smart and who "thinks outside the box" (sorry for using that hackneyed term); 'Joe/Jane Six-Pack' or 'Joe the Plumber' won't do. Let's also get someone who is OTB (Outside The Beltway) and doesn't espouse the SOS. That's a tall order! My choice: Dr. Peter H. Gleick, President and co-founder of the Pacific Institute. He’s the smartest guy in the pool when it comes to water. You can read why and post comments on WaterWired.

Back From Tbilisi, Georgia. I returned from Tbilisi on 10 October after an uneventful trip, always good when visiting the South Caucasus. I did manage to travel 50 miles up the Kura River to the town of Gori, Stalins’s birthplace. This month’s photo shows me sitting on Stalin’s front steps. In the Gori area I did see some destruction from the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia. I did not visit regions that bore the brunt of the invasion. I posted some pictures and comments on my personal blog, Campanastan, between the dates of 5-12 October. You’ll also see me attempting to decipher the famous ‘Pankisi Panel’, an artifact that depicts a seminal event in Georgian history.

Little was said by my colleagues about the invasion, other than a few comments. I got the impression that people did not want to discuss it but that they were still worried, now that Russia had shown its hand.

Till next month,

Michael

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
– Oscar Wilde

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Professor Jeff McDonnell of the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, will receive the 2009 Dalton Medal from the European Geophysical Union. The EGU John Dalton Medal is awarded by the Division on Hydrological Sciences in recognition of the scientific achievements of John Dalton. It is awarded annually for distinguished research and exceptional service to the field of hydrology, and is one the highest honors a hydrologist can receive. Jeff will receive his award at the EGU Annual Meeting in Vienna, Austria in April 2009.

Dr. Takahiro Sayama, a post-doctoral researcher in Jeff McDonnell's Hillslope and Watershed Hydrology Lab, recently was won the Best Paper Award from the Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources. Jeff writes, "Taka received the award for one of his Ph.D. papers completed prior to coming to OSU for his 2-year fellowship. This is a terrific accomplishment and we are all very proud of him."

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Colleges in Oregon get high marks for green (The Oregonian, 10/31/08) - The school year has just begun for Oregon's colleges and universities, but several already are bragging about their report cards -- and we're not talking about law school admissions or party life. The University of Oregon was listed among the nation's top green universities by The Princeton Review. Oregon State University received the same accolade from the Kaplan College Guide. Meanwhile, Willamette University was recognized as first in the nation by the National Wildlife Federation for engaging in the most sustainable activities. And the Sustainable Endowments Institute timed the launch of its greenreportcard.org for the start of classes. Oregon, Oregon State and Willamette each earned high grades from the institute.

Salmon study under fire for minimizing effect of dams (Seattle Times, The Oregonian, Associated Press, others, 10/28/08) It's a startling finding with potentially big political implications: Young salmon running the gantlet of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers fared just as well as salmon on an undammed river. The dams, after all, are widely considered a chief culprit in the decline of endangered salmon in the West's biggest river. The online scientific journal PLoS Biology, which released the study Monday, jumped on the apparent contradiction with a news release trumpeting that "Dams make no damn difference to salmon survival." …Several of [the study’s] co-authors warned that the similar survival rates don't mean anything about the effect of dams. If both rivers have serious problems for salmon, that doesn't mean either one is doing well, said co-author Carl Schreck, head of the Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Oregon State University. The study also could have missed fish that die in the ocean from the stress of passing through the dams. He and colleague Shaun Clements said they stayed involved in the study partly to make sure the findings weren't overstated.

'Water Before Anything' - Student filmmaker takes on 2050 Plan (The East Oregonian, 10/22/08) - A year ago, Sarah Sheldrick didn't know much about water issues, let alone water in the Umatilla Basin. Since then, the English graduate student at Oregon State University has made six trips from Corvallis to Umatilla County and learned more than she ever wanted to know about water issues facing Eastern Oregon. Sheldrick's done this to shoot a 30-40-minute film "Water Before Anything" about the Umatilla Sub-Basin 2050 Plan, which the Umatilla County Critical Groundwater Task Force completed in August.

The secret's out: Tons of water in Oregon's Cascades (The Oregonian, 10/18/08) The most valuable resource in the national forests atop the Oregon Cascades may not be the timber and recreation spots they're known for, but something else that's largely invisible: water. Scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University have in recent years quietly realized that the high Cascades in Oregon and far Northern California contain an immense subterranean reservoir about as large as the biggest man-made reservoirs in the country. The secret stockpile stores close to seven years' worth of Oregon rain and snow and is likely to become increasingly precious, even priceless, as population and climate add pressure to water supplies. Includes quotes by Gordon Grant, Julia Jones and Michael Campana. See also, a response the the Oregonian article (10/31/08) by scientists from OWRD and USGS and related posts on Michael Campana's blog, WaterWired (10/21/08 and 10/29/08).

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Patrick MacQuarrie is an Ph.D. student in geosciences working on transboundary water issues in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North America. His research focuses on the ability of transboundary river basins to response to stress due to rapid development – specifically dams and water resource infrastructure. Patrick has developed a framework to understand and address potential conflicts in river basins – one that addresses both institutional and community needs thereby preventing conflict at basin and local scales. Also, as part of his research assistantship at OSU, Patrick manages a Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD) under the direction of Aaron Wolf in the Department of Geosciences.

Patrick spent the summer of 2008 working on two projects with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in Southeast Asia. The first was an Internship with the Basin Development Program (BDP) at the MRC in which is designed a Conflict Prevention and Management Strategy (CPMS) for the Basin. This activity involved assessing activities throughout the Mekong River Basin region and streamlining an action plan to address potential conflicts that may arise during development of the basin. Patrick’s second project addressed conflict prevention and management at a community scale by developing a pilot study using a Collaborative Learning approach pioneered by Gregg Walker and Steven Daniels at OSU. Partnering with Eco-Asia’s (USAID) Environmental Governance program out of Bangkok, Thailand, Patrick designed a pilot study program to collaboratively address potential conflict zones on the Mekong River Basin – bringing together Thailand, Laos, and Cambodian riparians as part of a collaborative learning cycle. The pilot study received member country approval in September and is now proceeding into Phase One of the program.

Linking Southeast Asian water issues to North America, Patrick’s research compares the Mekong’s approach to conflict management to the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest. Last April a delegation from the MRC came to study the Columbia River, comparing its response to development to the Mekong Region, prompting the Internship at the MRC. After returning from SE Asia, Patrick presented his comparative approach at the Transboundary Water Management Symposium in Thessaloniki, Greece, where the focus was on managing transboundary waters through cooperative mechanisms. Remarkably, the Columbia and Mekong Rivers Basins face similar challenges, providing opportunities to enhance international cooperation in address potential conflicts now and in future.

For more information please contact Patrick at patrick.macquarrie@geo.oregonstate.edu.

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IWW participates in Spencer Creek Watershed Forum. Spencer Creek watershed residents hosted a watershed forum, where IWW Associate Director Todd Jarvis was invited to speak on issues related to exempt wells and what might happen if Measure 49 is repealed through the efforts of ongoing grass roots efforts. The Spencer Creek area is unique as it is designated by Lane County as a groundwater limited area; however, the Oregon Water Resources Commission has not recognized this area as one of the many groundwater limited areas within the Willamette Valley. Todd was joined by experts with the Oregon Water Resources Department, Oregon Toxics Alliance, and the Long Tom Watershed Council. County Commissioner Faye Stewart moderated the sessions. Over 30 people were in attendance, as well as four exhibiters showing domestic dwelling scale Aquifer Storage and Recovery, well servicing and pump testing services.

H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest receives a grant for a Sno-Cat and "virtual access". A new grant from the National Science Foundation will provide a welcome boost to the research and education capabilities at the H.J. Andrews Forest. Titled “Enhancing Physical and Virtual Access to Research and Education at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest,” this funding is from NSF’s FSML (Improvements in Facilities, Communications, and Equipment at Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories) Program. The “physical access” component of this proposal comes in the form of a brand new Tucker 2000XL Sno-Cat. This will not be the first Sno-Cat at the Andrews – two others were purchased in 1989, and one even before that – but after almost 20 years of use to access climate and stream gaging stations for routine downloading of data, as well as for classes and research, they are showing their age. But boy, is this new one cool! Last year we had 14 feet of snow at the Upper Lookout Meterological Station. Plenty of folks at the Andrews will be crossing their fingers for another heavy snow season this year.

The “virtual access” component of the new proposal will fund first stage of an ambitious “cyber-forest” vision for the Andrews site. Ultimately, we aim to create a wall-to-wall “wireless cloud” throughout the entire 6,400 ha site. With this “cloud” nestled over our site, we envision being able to conduct field classes throughout the Andrews site and to provide real-time, two-way video connectivity to students anywhere in the world with internet access. Networks of sensors – perhaps including acoustic sensors that Dr. Mathew Williams hopes to use to monitor behavior and population dynamics of birds – will send data wirelessly to Headquarters and on to OSU in “real time”. The T1 line that currently provides communications between the Andrews and OSU is already near its maximum capacity and will not be able to handle the volume and speed of communications we’ll need for this future vision, so we also aim to establish a network of towers for wireless communications that connect the Andrews to Oregon State University. While the complete vision is still beyond our financial reach, it is feasible with current technology, and the FSML grant will let us take some important first steps. Over the coming year we’ll be testing line-of-site radio communications between major peaks and ridges within the site, and about this time next year we plan to begin construction of the first of the series of towers. The technical capability is alluring, but even more exciting is the enhanced capability to measure, monitor and understand the complex ecosystems at the Andrews and to share with colleagues and students all over the world. For more information, contact Barbara Bond.

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Wednesday, November 12, 4:00-4:50 p.m., 206 Nash Hall. Freshwater Conservation and Climate Change: Embracing Uncertainty (Fisheries & Wildlife Seminar). Speaker: John Matthews, World Wildlife Fund.

Wednesday, November 12, 4:00-5:20 p.m., 102 Owen Hall. Water Law vs. Economic Efficiency in Water Administration (Fall Water Resources Seminar Series: When Water Does Run Uphill: The Economics and Politics of Water in the 21st Century). Speaker: Chuck Howe, University of Colorado. FMI: Todd Jarvis.

Thursday, November 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Governor Hotel, Portland. Climate Change and Water Supply Reliability in the Pacific Northwest (NEBC Luncheon). Speakers: Phillip Pasteris, CH2M Hill; John Porcello, GSI Water Solutions; Lorna Stickel, Portland Water Bureau Location: Governor Hotel 614 SW 11th Ave. Portland, OR 97204.

Friday, November 14, Salem Conference Center, Salem. Toward One Oregon: Rural-Urban Interdependence. Join researchers, policymakers, journalists, community leaders and the public who will gather to discuss what links us together and what, strategically are the ways that these links can be strengthened for the benefit of the state.

Wednesday, November 19, 4:00-5:20 p.m., OSU 102 Owen Hall. Texas experiences with water marketing and water pricing (Fall Water Resources Seminar Series: When Water Does Run Uphill: The Economics and Politics of Water in the 21st Century). Speaker: Ron Griffin, Texas A & M. FMI: Todd Jarvis.

Tuesday, November 25, 4:00-5:00 p.m., OSU ALS 4000. Team Learning at a Distance: With Technology You Can Run a Graduate Seminar across Multiple Institutions from the Comfort of your Desk, but Should You? (Horticulture Seminar Series) Speaker: John Lambrinos, OSU Horticulture. FMI: gina.hashagen@oregonstate.edu.

December 1. Deadline to submit abstracts for Water Engineering for a Sustainable Environment (33rd International Association of Hydraulic Engineers & Research Congress). Co-located with the 19th Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference. The conference will be held Monday, August 10 - Friday, August 14 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Monday, December 8, 9:00-10:00 a.m., OSU 10 Nash Hall. Climate change and anadromous salmonids in freshwater (Monday Morning Stream Team). Speaker: Gordie Reeves, PNW Research Station, US Forest Service and Department of Fisheries & Wildlife, Oregon State University. FMI: Stan Gregory.

December 11. Northwest Viticulture Center near Salem, Oregon. Wells and the Well-Being of Oregon. A symposium convened by IWW and Oregon Sea Grant Extension. It is designed to provide information to individuals and groups on wells with a focus on domestic wells.

Read about more upcoming events on the IWW's calendar.

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Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships Program for Achieving Excellence in College and University Teaching. Fellowships for individuals planning a career in teaching and research at the college or university level in a research-based field of science, social sciences, or humanities. Stipends and Allowances: predoctoral--$20,000 to the fellow, institutional allowance of $2,000 for three years; dissertation--$21,000 for one year; postdoctoral--$40,000 for one year, $1,500 employing institution allowance, to be matched by employing institution. Application Deadline Dates: Predoctoral: November 14, 2008, Dissertation: November 28, 2008, Postdoctoral: November 28, 2008.

Columbia University Earth Institute, Postdoctoral Fellows Program in Sustainable Development of the Planet - "The Fellows Program provides innovative post-doctoral scholars with the opportunity to build a foundation in one of the core disciplines represented within the Earth Institute (i.e., any of the social sciences, earth sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences and health sciences), while at the same time acquiring the cross-disciplinary expertise and breadth needed to address critical issues related to sustainable development and reducing environmental degredation, poverty, hunger and disease. The program offers a unique intellectual surrounding that fosters cross-disciplinary interaction, research and education. Earth Institute fellowships will ordinarily be granted for a period of 24 months. Applications due: December 1, 2008.

AAAS Science and Technology Fellowships. These paid post-doctoral fellowships "provide the opportunity for accomplished scientists and engineers to participate in and contribute to the federal policymaking process while learning firsthand about the intersection of science and policy". The fellowships are highly competitive and include individual interviews in Washington, DC. Applications due: December 15, 2008.

Association for Women in Science Undergraduate and Predoctoral Fellowships. Awards of $1,000 are to female students enrolled in a behavioral, life, physical, or social science or engineering programs.The award may be used for any aspect of education, including tuition, books, housing, research, travel and meeting registration, or publication costs, for example. Applications due: January 23, 2009 for undergraduates; January 30, 2009 for predocs.

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(listed by due date)

 

14 November 2008. IWW-USGS Water Resources Grants.

Description: Through the federal Water Resources Research Act (Program 104(B)), the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds receives federal matching funds to support water resources research and education activities in the Oregon. All faculty at Oregon universities and colleges are eligible to apply. In recent years, IWW has supplemented the USGS funds with additional funding from the OSU Water and Watersheds Initiative. Priority will be given to proposals that examine issues related to long-term water and watershed management, although creative proposals on other topics are highly encouraged.
Funding Details: Up to $30,000. All projects require a 2:1 match of non-federal funds.This match can be made in multiple ways including “forgiven overhead” (on both the USGS and matching funds) since no overhead is provided to the faculty’s institution.

LOI due November 21, 2008 (Full proposals due: January 22, 2008). Letters of Intent (to the OSU Rearch Office) for the NSF - Major Research Instrumentation.

Description: The MRI program assists with the acquisition or development of shared research instrumentation that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. This is a limited submission program so applicants must submit a letter of intent to the OSU Research Office. For more information contact Debbie Delmore at 737-8390. Information about the NSF program is available online.
Funding Details: The MRI program now accepts proposals requesting over $2 million in NSF support (to the maximum request of $4 million) for the acquisition of a single instrument.  For proposals requesting $2 million or less, investigators may seek support for instrument development or for acquisition of a single instrument, a large system of instruments, or multiple instruments that share a common or specific research focus.

1 December 2008. NSF Hydrologic Science.

Description: Hydrologic Sciences focuses on the flow of water and transport processes within streams, soils, and aquifers. Particular attention is given to spatial and temporal heterogeneity of fluxes and storages of water and chemicals over a wide range of scales, to geolimnology and to interfaces with the landscape, microbial communities, and coastal areas. Studies may also deal with processes in aqueous geochemistry and with the physical, chemical, and biological processes within water bodies. Study of these processes requires expertise from many basic sciences and mathematics, and proposals often require joint review with related programs.

 

 

6 January 2009. USEPA STAR Integrated Design, Modeling, and Monitoring of Geologic Sequestration of Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide to Safeguard Sources of Drinking Water.

Description: Seeking applications to conduct research to support the development of sound risk management strategies for the underground injection of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) in candidate subsurface geologic formations. To further the scientific understanding of this practice, research is needed to investigate how integrating approaches in design, siting, modeling and monitoring of CO2 in the subsurface can provide safe and effective storage, mitigate potential risks, and prevent endangerment of existing and potential sources of drinking water.
Funding Details: Four three-year awards of up to $900K each anticipated.

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

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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) and the Web. 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.