The Resource for Semi-Arid Hydrology

Volume 5/Number 3 May/June 2006

Southwest Hydrology University of Arizona - SAHRA Dealing with Data P.O. Box 210158-B Tucson, AZ 85721-0158

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Solinst Canada Ltd., 35 Todd Road, Georgetown, ON L7G 4R8 Tel: +1 (905) 873-2255; (800) 661-2023 Fax: +1 (905) 873-1992; (800) 516-9081 Visit our website: www.solinst.com E-mail: [email protected] Southwest Hydrology The Resource for Semi-Arid Hydrology Publisher Betsy Woodhouse Technical Editor Howard Grahn Editor Mary Black Art Director Kyle Carpenter A bimonthly trade magazine for hydrologists, water managers, and other professionals working with water issues. Graphic Designer Mike Buffington Software Review Coordinator Eileen Poeter SAHRA Knowledge Transfer Gary Woodard Contributors Carla Bitter Richard P. Hooper Tom Myers Andrew Burns Jeffery S. Horsburgh Timothy K. Parker From Gar Clarke Jeff Johnson Jeff Phillips the Cliff Dahm Selina Johnson Sophia Seo Dustin Garrick Kathy Jacobs Jennifer Follstad Shah Steve Gloss Yuqiong Liu Anthony G. Willardson Publisher Jack Hampson David R. Maidment Ilya Zaslavsky Nick Melcher None of us could do our jobs without data. We seek the highest quality data to produce the best results. And generally, having more data to work with is a good thing – as long as we Advisory Board David Bolin, R.G. can manage it. Where do we get data? Although most groups collect a certain amount on Charles Graf, R.G. their own, many water professionals count on hydrologic data from the U.S. Geological Jeff Johnson Survey and other federal agencies: it’s reliable, relatively accessible, and covers most areas. David Jordan, P.E. Karl Kohlhoff, P.E., B.C.E.E. But budget cuts chip away at data collection programs annually, and we cannot afford Stan Leake to take USGS or any of the large, federally funded data collection programs for granted. Ari Michelsen, Ph.D. Effectively managing data is another challenge, and many efforts are underway to create Nabil Shafike, Ph.D. Martin Steinpress, R.G., C.HG. data management systems that provide access to and format data from a variety of sources, enabling greater amounts of data to be assembled and used for more informed decision- Printed in the USA by Arizona Lithographers making. This issue’s feature articles address large-scale data collection programs and the Southwest Hydrology is published six times per year by the management of large amounts of data from multiple sources, as well as guidance for smaller NSF Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and shops in setting up a geospatial data framework. Riparian Areas (SAHRA), College of Engineering, The University of Arizona. Copyright 2006 by the Arizona Board of Regents. We are pleased to offer a Point-Counterpoint discussion in this issue, looking at Southern All rights reserved. Limited copies may be made for internal Nevada Water Authority’s proposed transfer of water from rural Nevada to the Las Vegas use only. Credit must be given to the publisher. Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior area. Nevada’s State Engineer has the ultimate authority to approve or deny the transfer, but written permission of the publisher. our authors weigh in on what aspects of the proposal they believe are most critical for him ISSN 1552-8383 to consider. Subscriptions Subscriptions to Southwest Hydrology are free. To receive the Thanks to all the contributors to this issue, and to our advertisers. Remember to keep us magazine, contact us as shown below. informed of your company’s or agency’s activities, whether it’s a new office, a new leader, Advertising or a new project. Advertising rates, sizes, and contracts are available at www.swhydro.arizona.edu. Please direct ad inquiries to us as shown below. Space must be reserved 50 days prior to publication date. Job Announcements Southwest Hydrology will publish job announcements in the Betsy Woodhouse Employment Opportunities section. The first 70 words for Publisher each announcement is free; after that, the charge is $70 per additional 70 words. To place an ad, contact us as shown below. All announcements, of any length, may be posted on our Web site for no charge (www.swhydro.arizona.edu). Cover design by Kyle Carpenter. Editorial Contribution Southwest Hydrology welcomes letters and contributions of news, project summaries, product announcements, and items for The Calendar. Send submissions by mail or email as shown below. Visit www.swhydro.arizona.edu for additional guidelines for submissions. Web Sites Southwest Hydrology - www.swhydro.arizona.edu SAHRA - www.sahra.arizona.edu CONTACT US Southwest Hydrology, The University of Arizona, SAHRA PO Box 210158-B, Tucson, AZ 85721-0158. Phone 520-626-1805. Email [email protected].

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May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology •  Inside This Issue Departments Dealing with Data “We need more data.” Water professionals seemingly always wish for more data, 8 On the Ground which may ultimately lead to better-informed decisions. But simply improving access • CO River: surplus to drought to and management of existing data can make a difference. In this issue, we consider • Lessons learned in restoration large-scale hydrologic data collection programs, the importance of having sufficient data to ably manage our water resources, and the importance of providing context to data. We also look into the financial struggles of federal long-term hydrologic 12 Government data collection programs. Finally, we include examples of data management schemes from national to local levels, and tips to improve data management. • Perchlorate guidance earns mixed reviews • AZ farmer loses out to thirsty 16 24 neighbor Hydrologic Data Access Using Web Services Transforming Data to Information: Setting • Updated California Water Plan David R. Maidment, Ilya Zaslavsky, and the Context for Environmental Data Jeffery S. Horsburgh • Colorado stormwater authority Richard P. Hooper Web services allow users to access stays with DPHE “Contextualization”—coming soon to disparate data sources, select and a database near you! Interpreted data • Arsenic testing postponed in NM extract data, and import them into • CO River pipeline proposed for Utah products provide data and metadata, a variety of database applications and also add context and visual cues and programming languages. that aid in understanding the data. The challenge is to provide these products 12 HydroFacts 18 The USGS Water-Resources at a pace that matches advances Data Program: Present and in data collection technologies. 14 Point/Counterpoint Future Challenges 26 A GeoData Management Practicum GW transfers to southern NV Jeff Phillips and Nick Melcher Gar Clarke USGS databases contain volumes Small organizations have needs, too. 30 Society Page of groundwater, surface water, and This practical guide to establishing water quality data. But as long-term a geospatial data framework • International Hydrology Prize records become increasingly valued, • NWRA’s 2006 conference looks at planning considerations; insufficient funding threatens to erode issues in data acquisition; units, the numbers of long-term stations. standards, and parameters; and facilitating the organization and 33 Business Directory 20 The Critical Need for Data in Managing documentation process. and Job Opportunities Western Water Resources Anthony G. Willardson 28 One Technology, Many Solutions: 34 Company Line The Western States Water Council Enabling Water Resource • PG&E chromium settlements recently identified accurate and timely • ACEC-AZ water awards information on water supplies as the top Management in the South • FloodWorks 5.0 released concern of its representatives. Federal Jack Hampson • HDR drinking water standards poster funding for NRCS snowpack data Arc Hydro, a data model for storing • Geomatrix adds air quality collection and USGS’s national stream and managing water information, is gauge network is especially critical. useful for a variety of water resource management projects, such as supporting infrastructure planning 35 R&D 22 California Sets the Stage and water quality maintenance in a • Yucca Mt. lead lab changed for Comprehensive fast-growing county; flood control • Looking beyond privatization Groundwater Management and storm water management of the • EPA wetlands grants San Antonio River; and providing Timothy K. Parker • Managers rank conservation options a single GIS-driven management California’s new comprehensive tool for a large water district. • CAP doubles underground storage groundwater quality monitoring program aims to standardize and 38 Around the Globe systematize data collection, assign responsibility to a single state Monitoring Sino-Soviet waters agency, and make data accessible to users and agencies statewide. 40 Education Science Olympiad hydro competition Publishing Southwest Hydrology furthers SAHRA’s 41 Software Review mission of promoting sustainable management THWELLS, reviewed by Sophia Seo of water resources in semi-arid regions.

This publication is supported by SAHRA (Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas) under the STC Program of the National Science Foundation, Agreement No. EAR-9876800. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the 42 The Calendar views of SAHRA or of the National Science Foundation.

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Noble BBDS • HACH •35301• OTT Southwest Hydrology • 4 Color • Trim: 7.75 x 10 • Bleed: 8.5 x 11 • 8/30/2005 ON THE GROUND Water Management on the Simulation System, to project future a shortage plan that could avert costly Colorado River: From Surplus to reservoir levels under different surplus litigation among the states. On Feb. 3, alternatives. Because the five-year dry 2006, all seven basin states approved Shortage in Five Years period from 1999 to 2004 has no precedent a preliminary shortage management Dustin Garrick – University of Arizona and in the instrumental streamflow record, the proposal. This was the product of two Kathy Jacobs – Arizona Water Institute model projections did not simulate any years of public and closed-door technical On Jan. 16, 2001, then-Secretary of water supply scenarios that resembled meetings where operations and policy Interior Bruce Babbitt approved a set of the actual reservoir declines that occurred alternatives were examined using the rules to manage surplus water supplies from January 2001 to April 2005, when Colorado River Simulation System. in the Colorado River Basin. These Lake Powell hit its 37-year low. The preliminary proposal attempts to juggle Interim Surplus Guidelines (ISG) were competing demands for the river water Striving for Consensus on Shortage motivated by the other basin states’ and avert a rupture of the complex legal By spring 2004, declining reservoir storage desire to curb water use by California, and operational rules that are collectively which had exceeded its allocation of river prompted then-Secretary of Interior Gale referred to as the Law of the River. If water for many years. The new rules Norton to urge the seven Colorado River approved, the shortage proposal would provided a way of gradually enforcing Basin states to begin informal discussions remain in effect through 2025 and would: the state’s water allocation before water about shortage to avert crisis-driven • Coordinate reservoir management in shortages emerged as a more urgent decisions. The ensuing negotiations have lakes Powell and Mead to protect Upper threat under future water use scenarios. forced Colorado Basin water managers and users to reconsider elements of the Basin reservoir capacity and hydropower Few imagined the transition from surplus ISG and several other long-standing production in Lake Powell during early to shortage planning would occur so legal, operational, and water-use issues. years of low reservoir conditions, while soon, as basin-wide storage dropped In June 2005, Norton initiated a public providing some relief to the Lower from 94 to 50 percent of capacity from process in conformance with the National Basin’s reservoir capacity in Lake 1999 to 2004 due to the combination of Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to Mead during later phases of shortages. increased demand and five consecutive develop both shortage guidelines and • Administer a tiered system of years of below-average inflow into management criteria for coordinating escalating Lower Basin annual Lake Powell. Despite the river’s operations of lakes Powell and Mead shortage volumes according to Lake notorious over-allocation, this rapid during low-reservoir conditions. As part Mead elevations (see table below). reservoir decline threatened to diminish of the planning process, Reclamation hydropower production and led to the is preparing an Environmental Impact • Discontinue use of the “partial first-ever water shortage in the basin. Statement (EIS) for a range of alternative domestic surplus” designation under operating scenarios (see timeline at right). the 2001 ISG guidelines, thereby In 2000, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation preventing surplus water deliveries utilized its long-range planning river Costly Litigation Temporarily Averted from Lake Mead when reservoir levels operations model, the Colorado River The NEPA process has advanced toward fall below 1,145 feet in elevation.

Proposed Tiered Shortage System Compared to Historic Lake Mead Elevations 1250 1225 1200 1175

n (ft.) 1150 o i

t 1125 a

v 1100 e l Elevation below (ft.): Shortage to Lower Basin e 1075 400,000 acre-feet 1050 1075 500,000 acre-feet 1025 1050 600,000 acre-feet 1000 1025 Increased reductions to be 975 1000 Lake Mead annual max consistent with consultation(s) 950 925 annual min 900

1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970Year 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Proposed tiered shortage system for the Lower Basin, showing the annual quantity of shortage proposed in the basin at various reservoir elevations, compared to historic elevations. The distribution of such shortages among Lower Basin states and Mexico is being discussed as part of ongoing negotiations. Source: Seven Basin States’ Preliminary Proposal Regarding Colorado River Interim Shortage Operations, Feb. 3, 2006.  • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • Delay discussions on “catastrophic” Arizona’s Shortage Planning History Lower Basin shortages (greater Jan. 2001 Former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt signs Record of Decision for Interim Surplus Guidelines than 600,000 acre-feet per year). May 2004 Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) initiates Shortage Sharing Stakeholder Workgroup Such shortages would trigger a set of emergency consultations. Dec. 2004 Secretary Norton establishes April 2005 deadline for consensus plan from seven states Deadline passes without consensus shortage plan; on April 8, 2005, Lake Powell reaches 37-year low Apr. 2005 • Temporarily augment supplies for before rebounding slightly in summer 2005 water-strapped Nevada to delay Secretary Norton conducts first-ever midyear review of the Lower Colorado River Annual Operating Plan May 2005 and determines no changes are needed from “normal” operating plans controversial Virgin River diversions. Federal Register notice announces start of public process to develop management protocol during “low June 2005 This preliminary agreement bodes well reservoir conditions” for a consensus among the seven states, ADWR initiates series of five meetings in five weeks for Shortage Sharing Stakeholder Workgroup to review July 2005 modeling scenarios and develop intrastate shortage sharing agreement and it has already triggered changes Federal Register publishes notice of intent to prepare Environmental Impact Statement for shortage guidelines to the scope of analysis for the NEPA Sept. 2005 process. Reclamation released an EIS Feb. 2006 Seven states meet deadline for consensus preliminary proposal scoping document on March 31, 2006, Sept. 2006* U.S. Bureau of Reclamation aims to release Draft Environmental Impact Statement on shortage guidelines that expands the scope to consider a Dec. 2007* Secretary of Interior intends to sign Record of Decision for shortage guidelines credit system that would provide Lower * Anticipated Dates Basin states with a mechanism to store junior priority of Central Arizona Project Central Arizona Project water users and “intentionally created surpluses” in water during shortages makes the state water users along the river. The next major Lake Mead during relatively wet years relatively more vulnerable than the other step is for Reclamation to release its draft for use during shortage conditions. basin states. Shortages in Arizona will EIS in late summer 2006 in anticipation of a record of decision in December 2007. In Arizona, discussions regarding intrastate require interpretations of water contracts shortage issues continue because the to address competing priorities among Contact Dustin Garrick at [email protected].

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology •  ON THE GROUND (continued) Lessons Learned from Restoration Practitioners Jennifer Follstad Shah and Cliff Dahm, Ph.D. – University of New Mexico, and Steve Gloss, Ph.D. – USGS, Tucson This is the final article of a 3-part series.

In the last issue of Southwest Hydrology, we reported that the roughly $1 billion spent on restoration in the Southwest has supported more expensive projects with more monitoring activity relative to the rest of the country. Here we share the lessons restoration practitioners have learned, as we discovered through standardized telephone interviews with 48 individuals associated with projects across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

Most interviewees would have made some changes to the way restoration projects were conducted, although the vast majority of interviewees considered their projects successful. Most of the desired changes related to project monitoring (see chart and table). Interviewees would have measured more variables, increased the duration of monitoring, or conducted pre- project monitoring if constraints such as limited funding and staff had not existed.

The distribution of improvements to the restoration process, by category, as suggested by 48 restoration practitioners in telephone interviews.

Improved collaboration and communication between project partners were cited by interviewees as a means to improve project management. Interviewees also noted that projects ran smoothly if a single, well-organized individual served as manager throughout the project duration and established clear roles for participants. Adaptability was 10 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology ON THE GROUND (continued) cited as a key characteristic of effective • pre- and post-project assessment, with by installing silt fences, avoiding the use project implementation, especially in data made publicly available. of heavy equipment when possible, and the face of changes in project design preserving intact vegetation. Although or environmental conditions. A comparison of survey responses to pre- and post-project monitoring was these standards produced mixed results. conducted for the majority of projects Almost one-third of interviewees would Most interviewees stated that project surveyed, it rarely included reference have preferred greater citizen participation goals and restoration sites were most often sites. Multiple parameters were measured during the restoration process, although selected to stem ecological degradation for most projects, often for two or citizens were involved to some degree as opposed to other motivations, but more years. Yet, just one-quarter of in 82 percent of projects. A third of only a few described a post-restoration interviewees of projects with monitoring interviewees would have improved project system that would support a mosaic of data sent reports of monitoring results evaluation by developing criteria for stream habitats and varied ecological to funding or regulatory agencies. success prior to project implementation, and physical processes. The majority of more rigorously analyzing monitoring interviewees reported that success criteria Our evaluation of survey results with data, or establishing a formal evaluation had been established before projects were respect to the suggested standards reveals program that included independent review. carried out, but less than 10 percent based that restoration practitioners can improve project success on the fulfillment of these the likelihood of ecological success by: Palmer and others (2005) recently published five standards for judging criteria. Many interviewees observed • articulating success criteria in the ecological success of restoration. improvements—usually in abundance —to quantifiable terms prior to project Projects must demonstrate: fish, plants, and wildlife, and more than implementation and describing a half used monitoring data during the range of desired conditions; • the establishment of a guiding image for project evaluation process. Almost three- restoration to the least degraded and most • reducing the maintenance needed to quarters of interviewees noted that ecologically dynamic state possible; sustain projects by prioritizing projects ongoing project maintenance was needed, located in areas where supportive • measurable improvement of indicating that restoration efforts should ecosystem processes are intact or by ecological condition based on success focus more on the promotion of resilient, using innovative design and materials; criteria established prior to project self-sustaining systems. Determining • promoting ongoing coordination of implementation; whether lasting harm has been inflicted regional restoration activities; • system resilience and self- downstream of restoration sites is sustainability so that little or no difficult because the cumulative effects • collecting pre-project baseline or project maintenance is required; of multiple restoration projects within a reference-site data that mirrors • avoidance of lasting harm inflicted single watershed are rarely quantified. post-project monitoring; upon the ecosystem during project However, interviewees reported that the • evaluating projects by reviewing construction; and impact of construction was often mitigated pre- and post-project monitoring data in relation to the established Category Lessons success criteria; and Project “Many practitioners think problems are mainly technical … [It also is important to] develop • reporting monitoring data to management backgrounds in law, politics, negotiation, and business management.” funding and regulatory agencies Partners “A broad team of advisors should be involved in all phases of a [restoration] project.” that compile restoration information Public involvement “Get as many stakeholders involved at the outset of the project and make sure all stakeholders in publicly available databases. are viewed as equals.” Contact Jennifer Follstad Shah at [email protected]. Costs “The difference in project cost is not great when comparing costs associated with designing a project for best ecological gain versus just getting by, so why not shoot for best ecological gain?” Design process “Experimental treatments for project implementation would have created more opportunities to Reference learn from the project.” Palmer, M.A., E.S. Bernhardt, J.D. Allan, P.S. Lake, G. Alexander, S. Brooks, J. Carr, S. Clayton, Implementation “Restoration takes a long time to be effective, so it is important to watch natural processes and C.N. Dahm, J.J. Follstad Shah, D.L. Galat, S. process work with them.” Gloss, P. Goodwin, D.D. Hart, B. Hassett, R. Monitoring “It is important to set up a monitoring program prior to project implementation.” Jenkinson, G.M. Kondolf, R. Lave, J.L. Meyer, T.K. O’Donnell, L. Pagano, and E. Sudduth, Evaluation “Do baseline inventories so project outcomes can be quantified.” 2005. Standards for ecologically successful river restoration. Journal of Applied Ecology, Needs “There is a great need for monitoring data to be accessible online in order to better facilitate the 42(2): 208-217. design process for future projects.” Examples of lessons learned, as stated by restoration practitioners.

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 11 GOVERNMENT EPA Issues Perchlorate Guidance contamination comes only from drinking in fact, said AP. That volume flooded water. Furthermore, she said, it is the basins and was drained into a ditch In January, the U.S. Environmental “based on the consumption of water that ran off the property. As a result, Protection Agency issued new protective for a 155-pound adult. So this doesn’t the company was fined for violating its guidance for cleaning up perchlorate accurately reflect the risk to children.” permit conditions, and paid about $6,500 contamination, recommending to the state, according to the report. EPA’s guidance document is available at epa.gov/ a preliminary clean-up goal of newsroom/perchlorate.pdf. Feinstein’s comments are 24.5 parts per billion (ppb) perchlorate at feinstein.senate.gov/06_releases.html. Meanwhile, AP said, the pecan farmers in water. EPA’s guidance is derived next door lost their orchards after the from the agency’s reference dose for water table fell 16 feet in response to perchlorate, which is based on the 2005 OK to Suck Your Neighbor Dry in the pumping, so they sued Abbott. They recommendations and conclusions of AZ (as long as it’s for good use) initially were awarded $1.2 million by a the National Academy of Sciences. U.S. district judge, but Abbott appealed In a ruling late last year, the 9th U.S. on the grounds that the company was Circuit Court of Appeals determined that According to EPA, this preliminary goal not liable because its pumping had been “landowners harmed by a neighbor’s is a starting point for an evaluation of a reasonable use for their property. In pumping of groundwater can legally be site-specific conditions. The recent action reversing the judgement, the 9th Circuit left high and dry without a right to sue was designed to offer clear guidance to panel cited the Arizona Supreme Court’s for damages if the water was used in site managers to help ensure national 1953 ruling “that use of groundwater connection with reasonable use of the consistency in evaluating perchlorate in in Arizona is governed by a common- neighbor’s own property,” reported the light of widely varying state guidance. law doctrine under which pumping is Associated Press. The case concerned allowed as long as it is a reasonable U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein from a pecan farmer in Casa Grande, use of the property,” reported AP. California issued a statement saying she Arizona, who lived next door to Abbott “was surprised and disappointed” by EPA’s Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company. Visit www.azcentral.com. guidance, and found it “unacceptable.” “The fact that California … has set a According to AP, Abbott had a permit Updated California Water target for perchlorate remediation at from the state to pump about two acre-feet 6 ppb for drinking water, and considers of groundwater from its property in order Plan Released exposure to perchlorate contamination to build an underground storage facility. The final California Water Plan Update from both water and food sources, The company planned to store the water 2005 was released in late January 2006 should cause real concern.” EPA’s in on-site retention ponds, from which by the California Department of Water preliminary standard is four times it would eventually drain back into the Resources. According to Director Lester greater and, according to Feinstein, aquifer. But Abbott ended up having to Snow, the most recent version “represents wrongly assumes that perchlorate pump more than expected—122 acre-feet, a fundamental transition in how we look at water resource management in California” in that it considers a broader HydroFacts range of management issues, competing The take-home message of the March/ • Percent leakage rate for Mexico City’s public water system: 40 water demands, potential new water April ‘06 issue on aging infrastructure • Percentage of sewage generated in Mexico City that is treated: 12 supplies, and alternative financing could be summarized as “maintain, • Estimated expenditures needed over next 5 years just to maintain options. The plan calls for California to rebuild, and expand, or else.” Mexico adequate wastewater and storm water pumping capacity: $2 billion invest in efficient water management, City, host to the recent World Water • Percentage of drinking water in Mexico City obtained from bottled Forum, is a cautionary example of what water: 77 development of water supplies and that “or else” might be: public water Top markets for bottled water as Top markets for bottled water technologies to sustain the state’s future, supplies that are inadequate, unreliable, a percentage of world demand: (liters per capita per year): and reliable, high-quality, sustainable, nonsustainable, and nonpotable. This USA 16.7 Italy 183.6 and affordable water conservation. begets inconvenient, expensive, and Mexico 11.5 Mexico 168.5 inequitable coping strategies by affected China 7.7 France 141.6 The plan also emphasizes the need individuals. Rebuilding our aging Brazil 7.5 Spain 136.7 for the state government to work with infrastructure will be expensive, but Italy 6.9 Switzerland 99.6 consider the costs of wildcat hookups, Rest of world: 49.6 USA 90.5 regional, local, and tribal entities and reliance on bottled water and cisterns, interest groups to address the state’s water Sources: El Universal, 16 March 2006; Associated Press and subsidence from groundwater “Mexico City thirsts for drinking water: Big issues as city hosts issues. However, it calls for the state overdraft in Mexico: World Water Forum,” Associated Press, March 13, 2006. to take the lead in large-scale projects

12 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology that regions could not accomplish on The decision pleased environmental through the Rio Grande, according their own. The state is also responsible groups, farmers, water-conservation to the Tribune. The river water has for defining and articulating the roles, districts, and other groups, particularly much lower concentrations of arsenic, authorities, and responsibilities of in Colorado’s Western Slope, who so once it is used either as the sole state, federal, and local agencies and complained that all the new oil and gas source or blended with groundwater, governments dealing with water issues. operations were causing widespread compliance should not be a problem. erosion and impacting streams, said the In a related news release, the Pacific Post. Nearly 14,000 new wells have been Visit www.nmenv.state.nm.us and www.abqtrib.com. Institute, a nonprofit research and policy permitted in the state in the last five years. analysis organization, praised the new Utah Ready to Receive water plan for acknowledging the risks Visit www.denverpost.com. climate change poses to the state’s water CO River Water resources, but criticized it heavily for NM Struggles with Utah is not using all of its 1.7 million acre- failing to pay even greater attention to Arsenic Standard feet per year allocation of Colorado River the potential improvements in water water; 420,000 acre-feet per year remain use efficiency that could be attained. In Since the more stringent arsenic drinking unused. Concerned that its unused water addition, the Pacific Institute said the new water standard went into effect in January, could be given to another state, Utah’s report predicts substantial increases in communities throughout the country House and Senate worked this spring to urban water use in the future, but states reported having difficulty complying, pass legislature supporting a pipeline from that past projections have far exceeded particularly in rural areas where naturally Lake Powell into the southern part of the actual use. Such overestimations, the occurring arsenic is plentiful and budgets state, reported the Deseret Morning News. Pacific Institute said, drive water planners for advanced removal technologies The Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act to seek expensive and potentially are nonexistent. New Mexico has would authorize the State Board of Water environmentally damaging new water found one way to comply – or at least Resources to build the project and contract sources, while its own research has shown to not be in violation: by postponing for the sale of the water and operation of that a more aggressive conservation testing. No data equals no violation. the project, but it would not appropriate program could provide sufficient water any money for it, Senator Tom Hatch, A spokesman from the New Mexico for the state’s future and still maintain a the bill’s chief sponsor, told the paper. Environment Department told the growing population and healthy economy. Costs would be repaid by water users. Albuquerque Tribune that the department The California Water Plan Update 2005 is available plans to delay testing some water The Morning News said the pipeline would at www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/cwpu2005/index.cfm. Also visit www.pacinst.org. systems for as long as it can to help those cross Arizona, requiring that state’s support communities that are struggling hardest to of the project. The issue is complicated meet the new standard. However, all of the by the fact that Utah is in the Upper Basin CO Maintains Stormwater state’s 1,280 drinking water systems must and Arizona is in the Lower Basin, and Authority over Energy Industry be tested by the end of 2007, according Colorado River water rights are divided to the EPA rules, said the Tribune. It is by basin. According to the newspaper, After the 2005 Energy Act exempted hoped that the additional time will enable the Upper Basin supports the project, oil and gas operators from complying utilities to consider more options, bring as does, Hatch said, “everyone from with federal stormwater runoff rules, the new technologies to the market, and allow environmentalists to government officials.” oil and gas industry urged Colorado’s funding mechanisms to be worked out. Water Quality Control Commission to The pipeline would bring water to transfer state regulatory responsibility The Tribune reported that Albuquerque Washington County in the far southwest from the Department of Public Health and and some larger communities have used corner of Utah, where the population has Environment to the Colorado Oil and Gas a different option and filed a three-year jumped from 13,000 to 130,000 since Conservation Commission, which recently extension to meet the new standard. 1970, Ronald Thompson of the Washington adopted its own stringent stormwater rules, Albuquerque’s drinking water source is County Water Conservancy District told reported the Denver Post. However, the groundwater that averages 13 to 15 parts the newspaper. However, the project has water-quality control commission voted per billion (ppb) arsenic, the paper said, also attracted the interest of neighboring in January to keep the responsibility compared to the new 10 ppb standard. Kane and Central Iron counties. with DPHE, the agency it deemed most In early 2008 the city plans to begin The text of the proposed legislature can be read at qualified to enforce Clean Water Act supplementing its supply with surface www.le.state.ut.us/~2006/bills/sbillint/sb0027.htm. provisions in the state, the paper said. water from the San Juan Basin diverted Also visit deseretnews.com.

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 13 POINT / COUNTERPOINT: Nevada Groundwater Transfer: Do We Know Enough to Decide? In 2004, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA)—the agency responsible for the region’s water supply management, treatment, and transmission—initiated plans to export unused groundwater from Clark, Lincoln, and White Pine counties for which it has water rights applications. Some people are concerned about what adverse effects such development might have on the water table. Before construction begins, the Nevada State Engineer must determine how much water should be permitted and the Bureau of Land Management must complete a comprehensive environmental analysis of the project. The Nevada State Engineer has not yet announced hearing dates. The project is expected to take approximately 10 years to complete.

Southwest Hydrology solicited two different viewpoints on the review, monitoring, and permitting process, presented below. POINT: Proceed Carefully: Much Still COUNTERPOINT: Concerns Unwarranted: Sufficient Remains Unknown Data Exist to Permit Pumping Tom Myers, Ph.D. – Hydrologic consultant Andrew Burns and Jeff Johnson – Southern Nevada Water Authority In the arid West, groundwater is the only source of water for Many concerns voiced by rural residents and environmental growth beyond what meager surface water sources provide. As activists about adverse effects to the water table are based on Nevada’s apportionment from the Colorado River becomes fully the presumption that groundwater withdrawals by the SNWA utilized, water purveyors for southern Nevada now look to at are both inherently harmful and irrevocable. This premise is least 18 basins in northern and eastern Nevada for additional simply untrue. Two of the most commonly voiced theories are water to support the rapid growth prevailing in Las Vegas. that 1) no new recharge enters the carbonate aquifer system— often referred to as the “ancient water” theory; and 2) localized The hydrogeology of SNWA’s proposed development area drawdown associated with groundwater pumping will expand is very complex and not well studied. A carbonate aquifer indefinitely and unimpeded from the wellhead. Scientific data system underlies much of the area, but many of the valleys and explanations including the occurrence of natural recharge, are topographically closed and contain a valley fill aquifer. geochemical evidence, and the complex hydrogeologic framework Interbasin flow occurs primarily through carbonate rocks such that forms the Basin and Range Province, which overlays the that discharges in one basin may depend on recharge in another. project basins, have done little to assuage stakeholders’ concerns. The connection between carbonate and valley fill aquifers is variable and poorly understood. For these reasons, a conservative Monitoring is Key approach to analyzing developmental impacts is essential. SNWA believes a comprehensive monitoring program is the key to sustainable groundwater development. While a The Nevada State Engineer administers water rights by allocating tremendous amount of evidence exists that a large volume up to the perennial yield in any given basin, accounting for of groundwater can be safely withdrawn, the only way interbasin flow and discharge to water resources such as springs, to ensure that senior water-rights holders and sensitive streams, and wetlands. He must protect existing water rights environmental resources are protected is by closely monitoring and the public interest. For large projects based on limited hydrologic conditions while groundwater pumping occurs. data, the State Engineer often requires a monitoring and mitigation (M&M) plan to protect valued water resources. The State Engineer’s Role The Nevada State Engineer has wide latitude and broad Identify Key Resources authority in terms of imposing terms and conditions. These The first step of an M&M plan is to determine which resources may range from a comprehensive groundwater-monitoring require protection. These could be nearby water rights, program to a combination of permanent rights and rights springs that support endangered species, such as the Ash conditioned on effects from pumping over time. Meadows complex near Death Valley, or wetlands that support biodiversity, such as the shallow lakes in Spring Valley. SNWA’s most recent experience with the Nevada State Engineer involved applications to change the agency’s points-of-diversion Most model predictions show that significant impacts to of existing permits in the Three Lakes and Tikaboo South valleys water resources may take decades to centuries to manifest. northwest of Las Vegas. The principal issues in the hearing related But the carbonate aquifer has very transmissive zones that to potential effects of pumping on senior water-rights holders probably are not! adequately considered by the existing ¡ models, therefore the time estimates could be wrong by and natural resources in the vicinity. The Nevada State Engineer orders of magnitude (Winograd and Thordarson, 1975). will protect water-rights holders by determining if unreasonable Monitoring must be designed to detect those errors. lowering of the water table occurs and imposing measures to continued on next page continued on next page 14 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology POINT / COUNTERPOINT:

Proceed Carefully, continued Concerns Unwarranted, continued Establish Warning Systems ensure their water rights are protected. This determination Therefore, the second step is to determine which parameters would can accurately be made only through the implementation of a provide adequate warning of impending damage to a resource monitoring program. Thus, SNWA worked with the National and where; these should be monitored. Managers must recognize Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land that drawdown cones continue to expand after the stress ceases Management, Department of Energy, and Air Force to design and the deficit caused by the stress is replenished. Monitoring a comprehensive monitoring program to quantify the effects of water levels or discharge at a protected spring is insufficient groundwater pumping in the area and protect senior water rights. because monitoring will merely document the degradation. The same process will hold true for the basins of east-central Water level is the most frequently monitored parameter. But in Nevada. SNWA views this groundwater not as a short-term complex regions with multiple geologic layers, stress effects solution to be extracted at any cost, but rather as a renewable propagate through the layers at different rates, therefore wells resource that will help protect Southern Nevada’s residents and must monitor multiple levels. The monitoring point should the entire state’s economy. Therefore, the agency is receptive be based on the fastest rate that a drawdown cone could to provisions that ensure its withdrawals are sustainable. expand so that mitigation can actually prevent degradation. The Data Are Extensive and Reliable Flux may be the most important, but difficult, parameter For nearly half a century, scientists have been analyzing to measure directly, therefore a system of multilevel Nevada’s aquifers and groundwater flow systems. The monitoring wells located to measure changes in gradient Nevada Division of Water Resources, the U.S. Geological and transmissivity may be necessary to provide adequate Survey, and even the Department of Defense have dedicated advance warning of impacts. Such a system also would extensive resources to understanding the nature and capacity provide data for improved model calibration, thereby refining of Nevada’s groundwater systems. Scores of hydrological predictions about the timing and extent of potential impacts. and geophysical studies, along with hundreds of thousands of hydrologic data points, have served as the basis for many Hydrologically defensible monitoring can be designed; the permits issued by the Nevada State Engineer in this region. hard part is mitigation. Often the only way to protect a water resource is to stop or substantially decrease pumping before This information has been used for decades by the State it is harmed. However, once a certificated water right has Engineer to respond to applications for water diversions in been established and supplies drinking water to thousands of the area. Moreover, SNWA, in conjunction with USGS, has people, the pressure to maintain that source of water, even if been furthering the studies of these basins to help refine our spring flow appears threatened, is likely to be considerable. knowledge base and provide the information necessary for the Attempts to replace an impacted resource by artificial recharge Nevada State Engineer to act upon these and other applications. see Proceed Carefully, page 32 see Concerns Unwarranted, page 32

Southern Nevada Water Authority plans to draw upon the basins of east-central Nevada for a new water supply.

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 15 Hydrologicusing Data Access Web Services David R. Maidment, Ph.D. respondent to read it and reply. Web – Center for Research in services perform this mediating Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin; Ilya function among computers Zaslavsky, Ph.D. – San in a more general way Diego Supercomputer Center, and enable particular University of California, San Diego; and Jeffery S. functions to be Horsburgh – Utah Water executed, such as “get Research Laboratory, Utah stations” to identify State University the locations where hen a measurements hydrologist have been made, wants to “get parameters” Wstudy a watershed, stream, to determine what or aquifer, one of the parameters have been first tasks is to assemble measured there, and pertinent information, “get data” to obtain the including data on precipitation, measured information itself. streamflow, water quality, groundwater levels, and climate. At the WaterOneFlow national level, much of this information The CUAHSI team has also developed is available on public websites, such as Hydrologic Information System team WaterOneFlow, a web services library the USGS National Water Information developed the Hydrologic Data Access that enables users to extract data from System (NWIS), the National Climatic System (HDAS) with the aim of providing national water data archives, transform the Data Center’s Climate Data Online, and a common “data window,” or web portal, data to an appropriate format, and load it the EPA Storet system for water quality. to these disparate data sources. The idea into common working environments (see Additional information is available from is for a hydrologist to be able to quickly figure above). HDAS and NWIS Time the web pages of state and local water find out what information is available for a Series Analyst (discussed below) are two agencies. All these websites are designed particular region, select the required data, applications that use WaterOneFlow web uniquely, each with its own method of then import that into an application such as services to facilitate data analysis. presenting data. The end result is that the Excel, ArcGIS, Matlab, or a programming hydrologist sets off on an Easter egg hunt language such as Visual Basic. The Users have quickly recognized the value searching through all these information magic needed to make this happen is an of web services. The availability of sources trying to discover how each one innovation in computer science called web services for NWIS was announced operates and eventually assembling a set “web services,” which is based on a set during a CUAHSI cyberseminar on Oct. of output files in various formats that of protocols developed by the World 28, 2005. On Nov. 2, Jason Love, from then have to be homogenized into the Wide Web Consortium and enables one RESPEC, a private firm in Sioux Falls, format needed to support a particular computer to request services of another. South Dakota, posted an announcement analysis. More extensive data sources, such as Nexrad precipitation or MODIS A rough analogy can be made with on the EPA Basins list server about what remote sensing, have large files in arcane e-mail: when we write an e-mail message, a valuable tool web services for NWIS is, formats that require significant effort we don’t worry about what software or and included a tutorial he had developed before they can be accessed and used. operating system the recipient will use on how to use the services with Matlab. to read the message, we only know their Thus, technology transfer from academia CUAHSI’s (Consortium of Universities e-mail software will somehow properly to the private sector to the public sector for Advancement of Hydrologic Science) interpret the sent message to allow the occurred in less than one week!

16 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology The Hydrologic Data Access System: locating a site (left), querying a station for available data (center), and viewing time series data (right). Hydrologic Data Access System WaterOneFlow library, supplying the Time Series Analyst is now integrated HDAS is a web portal that provides a parameter code and the “from” and “to” with HDAS: when users select a station, map interface to WaterOneFlow web dates as inputs. The NWIS web service variable, and measurement interval in services (see figure above). Users then queries the USGS NWIS archive HDAS, they can request advanced time can zoom in anywhere in the United and returns the requested time series data. series charts to be generated by the Time States, query a station and find out The time series data are then displayed Series Analyst application. The two what variables are measured there, the as a graph and a table of values within components remain at different locations, period of record, and the number of HDAS, and can be downloaded in Excel in San Diego and Logan, Utah, but measurements made. The information or CSV formats. We are working on work in concert and rely on the common needed to respond to these queries expanding its capabilities to serve other set of WaterOneFlow web services. is extracted from the data sources national hydrologic data archives as well using web service requests and is as various local observation data sets. Putting It All Together locally compiled to form a database HDAS and WaterOneFlow are the first unique to each hydrologic observation NWIS Time Series Analyst available components of CUAHSI’s network. This work is complete for Another application empowered by Hydrologic Information System, a the streamflow gauging stations in WaterOneFlow web services is the NWIS geographically distributed system of the NWIS, and will be accomplished Time Series Analyst developed at Utah functions and datasets that are connected later for other data sources accessible State University. This Internet-based through the Internet. These tools allow through WaterOneFlow web services. application graphs hydrologic data as a variety of national data archives to be time series, cumulative frequency curves, directly queried in a consistent manner, Having discovered which variables are frequency histograms, and box and and user applications can be written that measured at a station and when, a user whisker plots, and provides summary automatically operate on data measured can retrieve a time series for a selected statistics about the data. The Time Series anywhere in the nation. By exposing tools variable directly from NWIS through Analyst was originally programmed to through web portals, applications such as HDAS. HDAS contacts the “get data” query data from a local database into HDAS and the Time Series Analyst are method of the NWIS web service of the which was loaded data from NWIS available to users anywhere. Combining and other sources for the Bear River local applications, web services, and Links watershed of northern Utah. When web portals into a connected Hydrologic WaterOneFlow web services became Hydrologic Data Access System Information System offers great available, the Time Series Analyst was river.sdsc.edu/HDAS/ potential. However, building information adapted to acquire data from NWIS Web Services for NWIS systems using web services is a new using web services, and in so doing, the river.sdsc.edu/NWISTS/nwis.asmx innovation and a significant amount of Time Series Analyst became applicable Time Series Analyst work remains to make these systems water.usu.edu/nwisanalyst/ anywhere in the nation without any robust, efficient, and comprehensive. USGS National Water special database compilation. It now Information System effectively uses the national data archive The authors acknowledge the contributions of waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/ their colleagues in the CUAHSI HIS team, and the as its local database. And, the Time support of this research by the National Science National Climatic Data Center’s Series Analyst is now available online Foundation grant EAR – 0413265. Contact Climate Data Online so that it can be accessed from and David Maidment at [email protected], hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/cdo Ilya Zaslavsky at [email protected], or Jeffery U.S. EPA Storet System applied anywhere in the nation, vastly Horsburgh at [email protected]. www.epa.gov/storet/ increasing its value. Furthermore, the

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 17 The U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Data Program Present & Future Challenges Jeff Phillips and Nick Melcher – U.S. Geological Survey USGSince its establishment in 1879, to basin area, mean elevation, and mean record pH, specific conductance, the U.S. Geological Survey has annual precipitation. Once developed, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and collected water data that are used such relationships can be applied to percent dissolved-oxygen saturation. Sby stakeholders and decision makers to ungauged streams within a defined Air temperature and barometric pressure minimize loss of life and property and hydrologic area (Wahl and others, 1995). are also available at some sites. At to manage and protect groundwater and about 1,230 stations from which this surface-water resources for a variety Surface and Groundwater Data information is transmitted automatically, of uses. Users of USGS data represent USGS maintains a national database data are available from the real-time essentially all hydrologic sectors, of more than 850,000 station years data system. USGS also maintains including regulators, researchers, of time-series surface water data that a database of more than 4.2 million consultants, lawyers, policy makers, describe stream levels, streamflow, water quality analyses collected by and conservationists, as well as other reservoir and lake levels, and rainfall. its districts for various projects. scientists, agencies, recreators, and others. Data are collected in the field or relayed by telecommunications for storage and USGS’s National Water-Quality Early Stations Retain Their Value processing. Data from 8,160 stream Assessment Program (NAWQA) focuses USGS established its first streamflow- gauges are relayed on water quality gauging station in 1889 on the Rio through satellite Although the total number in major river Grande near Embudo, New Mexico; telemetry, processed of gauging stations remains basins and the streamflow-gauging program now automatically, and fairly constant, the number aquifer systems. includes more than 7,000 continuous- are available online in undeveloped areas or The program record stations in the United States and within minutes. with greater than 50 years of addresses its territories. More than 90 percent record continues to decline. national- and of the stations are supported at least USGS also provides regional-scale partially by other federal, state, and regional evaluations, questions such local cooperators (Wahl and others, baseline and time series data, and as: What is the condition of our streams 1995), and many likely would not be predictive tools to help promote the and groundwater? What are the factors operated without such support. Although sustainability of groundwater resources, affecting the condition? Is water quality the total number of gauging stations particularly in areas at risk from overuse changing over time? The NAWQA data remains fairly constant, the number in and contamination. Groundwater-level warehouse currently contains data on: undeveloped areas or with greater than data are collected at approximately 25,000 • chemical concentrations in water, bed 50 years of record continues to decline. stations nationwide. When spatial area sediment, and aquatic organism tissues studies are conducted, supplementary for about 600 chemical constituents Streamflow data from long-term stations water-level data occasionally are collected • site, basin, well, and network are critical to assess climate variability, on a shorter-term basis. USGS maintains characteristics anthropogenic impacts on water resources, a groundwater database of more than and hydrologic trends. For example, 850,000 records of wells, springs, test • daily streamflow information for trend analysis of the 102-year streamflow holes, tunnels, drains, and excavations. fixed sampling sites record from the San Pedro River at the • groundwater levels for sampled wells Charleston, Arizona gauging station Water Quality Data and Monitoring • 7,600 surface-water sites and 8,100 wells allowed USGS to determine that annual USGS collects water quality data from flow diminished by more than 50 percent thousands of groundwater, stream, and • 48,000 nutrient samples, 30,000 during the period of record. In other lake stations. The specific parameters pesticide samples, and 8,800 volatile areas, multiple regression analysis is measured vary by location, but at organic compound samples used to develop equations for “regional selected surface-water and groundwater • 2,600 samples of bed sediment and relations” that relate stream discharge sites, instruments continuously aquatic organism tissues.

18 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology Above: Bank-mounted radar for continuous river veolocity measurement, San Joaquin, California. USGS Right: Locations of USGS stream gauges in the West illustrating the relative dearth in less-developed regions. New Instruments and Dissemination Methods USGS maintains the National Water Information System (NWIS), a distributed methods network of computers and fileservers, to using sensors store and retrieve water data. NWISWeb mounted on river provides an interface for both the public banks. Several successful and agency users to access a large volume velocity experiments were of USGS water data maintained on 48 conducted on the San Joaquin and Cowlitz separate NWIS databases nationwide. rivers using varying radar wavelengths. Financial Data are regularly updated from NWIS Together with University of Michigan Constraints versus sites; real-time data are transmitted research that uses multi-position long- Long-term Needs to NWISWeb several times daily. wave-length radar to measure river depth, The “shared support” basis for the USGS NWISWeb provides numerous output this new radar-based approach has the hydrologic network has been effective options, including real-time streamflow, potential to provide accurate discharge at distributing the program’s financial water-level and water-quality data and channel cross-section information burden among the many users of the data. graphs, and station location maps. without the need for frequent discharge Cooperators pay a relatively small portion measurements for stage recalibration. In recent years, USGS has employed see USGS, page 31 advanced technologies to improve the reliability of streamflow-gauging instrumentation, reduce the time required for field measurements, and extend the range and scope of the data-collection network. Water Resources Data Arizona Water Year 2005, by G.G. Fisk, N.R. Duet, E.H. McGuire, W.P. Roberts, N.K. Castillo, and C.F. Smith. The Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler http://pubs.usgs.gov/wdr/2005/wdr-az-05-1/ (ADCP) sits on the river surface and bounces sound waves off sediments and debris to produce detailed measurements Lithology and thickness of the Carmel Formation as related to leakage between the D and N aquifers, Black Mesa, Arizona, by Margot Truini and J.P. Macy. of flow velocities and cross sections http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5187/ in a fraction of the time required for standard streamflow metering. It enables measurements to be made of some waters Evaluation of Metal Loading to Streams near Creede, Colorado, August and September 2000, by B.A. Kimball, R.L. Runkel, K. Walton-Day, and B.K. Stover. otherwise not feasible. USGS is working http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2004/5143/ with private sector vendors to improve this technology and increase its applicability to a wider range of riverine environments. Water Resources Investigations at Edwards Air Force Base since 1988, by Michelle Sneed, Tracy Nishikawa, and Peter Martin. USGS’s Hydro 21 Committee was tasked http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3112/ with developing a method to monitor river discharge by noncontact (out of the water)

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 19 The Critical Need for Data in Managing Western Water Resources Anthony G. Willardson – Western States Water Council

he Western States Water Council issue areas where federal and state network of some 8,000 stream gauges, (WSWC) is as an advisory body “cooperative conservation” efforts might most of which provide real-time data. whose members are appointed by be most effective. It shouldn’t come This network is critical to informed Tthe governors of the seventeen western as a surprise that accurate and timely water management and emergency flood states and Alaska. Its members include information on water supplies and uses operations, but every year more gauges are the state engineers and other resource was recognized as the top priority. Good lost as funding is eroded by inflation. CWP agency heads responsible for water data and sound science is a 110-year-old jointly administration, planning, management, are prerequisites to good funded partnership that supply, rights permitting, quality decision-making. Even as USGS and includes some 1,400 state, regulation, and dam safety. Water use data more and more analytical cooperators tribal, regional, and local collection, analyses, and dissemination tools and decision support face this organizations. Originally, a are also important functions. The council models become available, fifty-fifty matching program, is closely aligned with the Western we still lack enough “death by a non-USGS cooperators now Governors’ Association (WGA). basic data to paint a thousand cuts” pay roughly 67 percent of complete picture of our each year. costs. To the extent that The arid Southwest includes some of western waterscape. Congress does not cover cost the fastest growing states in the nation: increases, cooperators face Arizona (3.5 percent from 2004 to 2005), Data Collection the distasteful choice of either shouldering Nevada (3.5 percent), Utah (2.0 percent), Programs Struggling an increasingly disproportionate share Texas (1.7 percent), Colorado (1.4 Regionally, the council has focused its of the expense or dropping support for percent), and New Mexico (1.3 percent). efforts on two federal programs threatened particular gauges. In the past, USGS did State water managers must have good data by an erosion of federal funding that are not have authority to unilaterally fund to plan to meet future demands. Western of particular concern to western water gauges, and many of national significance water laws, plans, and policies must managers. First, snowpack data and water were lost, some with over 30 years of operate within the context of considerable supply projections are provided by the U.S. record. USGS and cooperators face this uncertainty and year-to-year fluctuations in Department of Agriculture’s National Water “death by a thousand cuts” each year. snowpack, precipitation, streamflow, and and Climate Center in Portland, Oregon, A few years ago, USGS sought and temperature. Future climate changes could under the Natural Resources Conservation received authority for NSIP, a fully lead to increasing variability and greater Service (NRCS). This regional system federally funded system of gauges, as the extreme events, such as drought and of 731 automated SNOTEL sites and backbone of a national stream-gauging floods. Moreover, small temporal changes 920 manually measured snow courses network. To control costs, some states in runoff patterns could significantly provides invaluable data for projecting have established their own separate stream impact water availability. Scientists spring and summer streamflow. NRCS gauge networks. USGS and its cooperators predict that global warming in the middle also supports a growing Soil and Climate continue to consider cost containment latitudes will lead to more rain and less Analysis Network (SCAN) for direct alternatives such as allowing greater in- snow, earlier snowmelt and seasonal soil moisture monitoring in 32 states. kind contributions or having USGS serve peak runoff, extended growing seasons, WSWC urged Congress to appropriate as a clearinghouse and provide quality and greater summer evapotranspiration. $12.3 million for FY2006, but Congress control for data gathered by others. What effect will such changes have on appropriated $10.65 million, well short of States have expressed a preference for water supply and demand, particularly for that amount. The Bush Administration’s federal spending on basic data-gathering current surface-water storage systems? FY2007 budget request is $10,588,000 rather than interpretive studies, while – again short of the amount needed to cover recognizing that both are important. In September 2004, WSWC sponsored inflation and increasing program costs. a workshop on western water supply challenges attended by council Second, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Funding Falls Short of Requests representatives and senior federal water Cooperative Water Program (CWP) and Last August, WSWC and nineteen other officials. Following the workshop, the National Streamflow Information Program diverse organizations asked the Bush council representatives met to discuss (NSIP) together comprise a national see Critical Need, page 31

20 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology USGS Feels the Pinch The Bush Administration’s budget request for 2007 of $204 million for the USGS Water Resources Program represents a decrease in funding of $7.7 million. Changes in funding to major programs are summarized below. The 2007 request represents a $2.3 million increase for stream-gauging to add 30 real-time gauges to the network and a $940K decrease for the National Water Quality Assessment program.

National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) • One of its design components was to “provide a ‘backbone’ or core of From 1980 to 2004, 2,051 streamflow gauges with records of 30 years or streamgauges that are of such critical importance to national streamflow more were discontinued. (Source: water.usgs.gov/nsip/history_slide6.html) information needs that their operation should be assured with Federal funds.” • 13 percent of network stream gauges are federally funded. Water Resources Investigations Budgets • In the Southwest for 2005 and 2006, Arizona had one stream gauge discontinued (Laguna Creek at Denehotso, with 10 years of data). Eight gauges were 2005 2006 2007 request discontinued in Colorado, one with a 56-year record (Cherry Creek below Cherry ($ million) ($ million) ($ million) Creek Lake). Hydrologic Monitoring, 142.5 142.5 141.8 Assess, & Research 13.8 14 16.76 Cooperative Water Program NSIP portion Cooperative Water Program 62.3 62.8 62.2 • Originally had 50 percent federal support, now 33 percent. Water Resources Research 6.4 6.4 0 • More than 20 professional water organizations and NGOs sent a letter to Institutes Program Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and David Anderson, Associate Director, Total, Water Resources 211.2 211.7 204 Natural Resource Programs, Office of Management and Budget requesting From USGS Budget in Brief and usgs.gov/budget/2006/fy06_justification.html $74 million for FY 2007 to restore purchasing power to FY 2003 level. see Critical Need, page 31

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 21 Timothy K. Parker – Schlumberger Water Services

n the past seven years, California’s groundwater California management has made great strides with the groundwater basins adoption of legislation followed by the design and (colored), ranked in order of sampling Iimplementation of a statewide comprehensive groundwater-quality priority (from Belitz monitoring program. But much work remains before a comprehensive et al., 2003). understanding of the groundwater resources can be achieved. As the state that pumps the most from the ground —18 percent of the total national extraction (Huston et al., 2004)—it would seem appropriate for California to lead the nation in understanding its groundwater resources.

A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC, 2001) was the catalyst for the new comprehensive monitoring program. The report concluded that California’s groundwater basins were significantly contaminated by several major sources, but that available information was often of dubious quality. NRDC recommendations included:

22 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology 1) instituting an ongoing, more state of California. Generally, anyone percent of square-mile sections of land systematic monitoring program who owns a piece of land can install with pesticide use (Huston et al., 2004). involving the relevant state a well and start pumping. The lack agencies, including standardizing of permitting and regulation breeds California has committed nearly the format of collected data; sensitivity and opposition to proposals $12 million to the assessment of 44 of these priority groundwater basins (38 2) assigning to a single state agency that would require widespread reporting of percent), and under a full services contract the responsibility for compiling groundwater quality, levels, or pumping. to the SWRCB, the USGS commenced and making groundwater data Another complication not mentioned in groundwater sampling field work in June available to the public; and the report nor discussed in the public 2004. Prior to implementing the program, 3) ensuring adequate state agency process is the issue of well drillers’ the SWRCB and USGS are supposed to funding for groundwater. log confidentiality. The logs contain coordinate with stakeholders, including information on location, lithology, state and local agencies and local water This publication spurred the adoption well construction, and depth to water, purveyors. The full statewide program of California’s Groundwater Quality and are considered confidential and of sampling 116 of the 515 groundwater Monitoring Act of 2001 (Assembly Bill proprietary in California, basins and sub-basins 599), which authorized the State Water the only state to have this is estimated to be a $50 Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to An estimated provision. Consequently, 3,000 to 3,200 million, 10-year effort, develop and implement a comprehensive this information cannot excluding future decadal and groundwater quality monitoring and be obtained from the wells will triennial trend monitoring. assessment program now incorporated California Department of be sampled into SWRCB’s Groundwater Ambient Water Resources, which statewide The program focuses Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) manages the reports, unless to provide primarily on public-supply Program. As required by AB 599, the the requester is a public wells in basins where complete spatial groundwater is an important program was developed through a public agency or under direction coverage of the process involving an interagency task for a contamination source of drinking water force and a public advisory committee, cleanup. Furthermore, priority basins. and utilizes water-quality which met regularly over an 18-month this confidentiality data already assembled period. During that time, SWRCB must be maintained in reports and in the DHS database for regulatory prepared a report to the Governor documents unless or until releases compliance. Additional water samples and Legislature (SWRCB, 2003) and are obtained from well owners: a from public-supply wells and domestic- supply, irrigation, and monitoring wells contracted with the U.S. Geological formidable task for hydrogeologists! Survey to prepare a technical plan for will be collected as needed. An estimated the program (Belitz et al., 2003). Finally, the SWRCB report and public 3,000 to 3,200 wells will be sampled process did not thoroughly address the statewide to provide complete spatial SWRCB’s report showed spottiness of issue of improving communication and coverage of the priority basins. The monitoring locations and inconsistencies involving local agencies in the statewide proposed network of wells will be used in the types of groundwater quality groundwater quality monitoring program. to assess the status of the groundwater analyses being undertaken throughout the resource, assess trends in water quality, state, indicating inadequate coordination Monitoring and Assessment Begins and provide a basis for understanding of effort among the agencies collecting the Primary goals of the GAMA Program the factors that affect water quality. data. A large amount of federal, state, and are to produce groundwater basin The overall approach largely follows local water-quality data relevant to basin assessments that: describe constituents the USGS National Water Quality assessment had been collected, but these affecting groundwater quality; identify Assessment (NAWQA) program, which data had not been centralized into a digital trends in groundwater quality; identify provides guidelines for broad-scale database. Further, the state’s Department emerging constituents of concern; relate assessments of groundwater quality and of Health Services (DHS) database on groundwater quality to human and natural for detailed studies of the effects of land water quality for public-supply wells was factors; and identify data gaps. The use on groundwater quality. For example, found to be the only statewide, digital program prioritizes 116 of California’s sampling density was targeted to be one water-quality database available at the 515 groundwater basins for assessment, well per 25 square kilometers, midway time SWRCB prepared its report. based on groundwater use. These 116 between NAWQA’s recommendations for basins account for 76 percent of the state’s broad-scale and detailed assessments. What Wasn’t Addressed public water supply wells, 98 percent of A complication that SWRCB’s report municipal groundwater use, 88 percent Approximately half of the wells are did not address is that groundwater of agricultural pumping, 74 percent of being sampled for a basic schedule of is not regulated or permitted in the leaking underground fuel tanks, and 71 see California, page 32

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 23 Transforming to Information Setting the Context for Environmental Data Richard P. Hooper – CUAHSI he Consortium of Universities for the Advancement readily interpreted by ordinary citizens. Experts can quibble of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) is developing a about the statistics (for example, serial correlation is ignored comprehensive multiscale data access and analysis system, because each day is effectively treated as independent Tknown as the Hydrologic Information System (HIS). HIS consists of the next), but such issues are clearly secondary. of multiple components, including a single portal to access data from multiple providers, a web services library to imbed data Another example from USGS contrasts the sources of sediment within user-specified applications, a “digital watershed” to integrate and water in the Mississippi Basin (Meade et al., 1995). The different data types, and modeling tools to permit the development viewer can see at a glance (below) that water comes primarily of a community modeling framework. These components are in from the Ohio River while sediment comes from the Missouri various stages of development (one of which, the Hydrologic River. The data are spatially contextualized and the concept Data Access System, is described more fully on pages 16-17). of the connectedness of a river basin is reinforced. The overall goal of HIS is to provide scientists greater data access, thereby accelerating research in hydrologic science. These examples should challenge us to develop effective presentations for our data that place them within a context. And In the process of developing this system, we came to realize that these displays just scratch the surface. Using the same visual simply delivering data and metadata is not sufficient. A context must strategy as the Mississippi maps (i.e., the width of the line indicating also be provided. This ranges from providing the physical setting discharge), consider animating the data for daily discharge. At for data (Is this an arid or humid landscape? What is upstream the scale of the Mississippi, rainstorms would appear as bulges or downstream of this station?) to providing an interpreted data making their way down the river, much like a rat going through a product that transforms the raw data into a more useful form. The snake. Chemical concentrations could also be shown using color advantages of contextualization go beyond the hydrologic sciences so that, for example, spills could be depicted as they disperse and and are applicable to environmental data in general. The effort move through a river network. The possibilities are numerous. expended to provide this context is well worth it because, if done well, the data will be transformed to information that will be useful Relevance for Different Users to a broader range of stakeholders, decision-makers, and citizens. Moving beyond simply environmental or regulatory contexts, we are finding that interpreted data products are necessary even Examples from USGS for audiences of research scientists. Consider precipitation: For hydrologic data, the U.S. Geological Survey provides some specialists may be interested in the data originating at individual excellent examples of contextualization. Consider its “WaterWatch” precipitation stations or in the raw radar reflectance values used feature shown on the next page. Each dot represents the current to estimate precipitation rates. Most environmental scientists, conditions at a real-time stream gauge expressed as a percentile of historic discharges for the date. Only stations with at least 30 years of record are displayed on the map so that the percentiles will be stable. Coding of the percentiles is designed to highlight extremes: the wettest and driest deciles of discharge.

This display very effectively conveys which areas in the country are dry and which are wet in a manner Sources of water (left) and sediment (right) in the Mississippi River (from Meade et al., 1995).

24 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology the data are measured at a point or over a small “footprint,” but a spatially extensive property must be estimated.

There are no simple solutions to this challenge. Knowledge of the local system, considerable technical expertise, and a fair amount of creativity and effort will be required to develop the contexts for effective data delivery. Progress will come incrementally as monitoring programs increasingly develop displays that automatically update, such as USGS WaterWatch, or computer models that convert data to a more useful, visually meaningful product.

CUAHSI’s Approach Percentile Class Within the CUAHSI community, HIS is being designed to support teams of scientists organized around river basins or aquifers. Part of the charge to these groups will be to develop The USGS WaterWatch display (water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/) depicts real- a “Basin User’s Manual” to provide the environmental setting time streamflow compared to percentiles of historic daily streamflow. of the basin, including geology, soils, cultural development, and land-use history. Another product will be the construction however, are simply interested in how much it rained over a of water, energy, and chemical budgets for the basins that will particular area during a particular time. Clearly the raw data require construction of “benchmark” data sets of stores and fluxes must be averaged, combined, or manipulated in some manner that will be accessible to the hydrologic community. With this to develop this estimate, but the appropriate technique depends incremental approach, we hope to develop a set of representative on many factors: the temporal resolution, terrain characteristics, basins to be used by researchers as well as to provide examples and many others. How do we develop the “expert system” that can be replicated in other river basins around the world. required to make this calculation? Alternately, if some estimates are provided, how can they be sufficiently documented so Reference that any user understands their limitations? Similar issues Meade, R.H. (ed.), 1995. Contaminants in the Mississippi River, 1987-92: U.S. exist for many data series, such as groundwater levels, where Geological Survey Circular 1133, pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1133/

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 25 A GeoData Management Practicum Gar Clarke – GIT Coordinator, New Mexico Office of the State Engineer

tatistical modeling of water systems that have huge complexities the database design, hardware, software, resources usually demands an not realized in a small organization. For and analytical capacity can grow without evaluation of historical trends and the “small shop,” with an environment having to retool, rethink, or redo. For Sthe establishment of current conditions to of deadlines and billable hours, the example, when designing a groundwater predict future impacts. Linking diverse following approaches are offered to help model, bear in mind what expansion of data on wells, water levels, surface runoff, establish a geospatial data framework. data standards and design would allow hydrogeology, topography, precipitation, its applicability to another region. evapotranspiration, soils, vegetation, Project Planning and land use with the 3-D analytical Data Requirements: What data are Data Acquisition requirements for surface and groundwater needed to solve a problem? For spatial Data Sourcing: Many hydrology projects models can produce a chaotic soup of data. data, the important steps are defining combine data from local, state, federal, the features, establishing and even private sources, To protect their integrity, these data accuracy thresholds, and some of which may must be managed with appropriate identifying the content. A Consider what be redundant. Use the organizational and quality assurance simple matrix can describe practical steps “data shopping list” procedures. The identification, harvesting, a task or subtask, list the can be taken with a tiered approach assessment, acceptance, integration, and data layers required to by accessing and documentation of information demands to ensure that accomplish the task, show downloading federal, systematic procedures to validate the data. the database scale/accuracy thresholds, state, and local data, in Most of the published information on data design, hardware, define the contents or that order. In each of development focuses on large “enterprise” attributes for each layer, and software, and these arenas, first access list possible sources for these analytical the “data clearinghouse” data. This exercise helps capacity can sources, which contain to prioritize data needs and grow without data from multiple sources define what is either ideal having to retool, that can be downloaded or marginally acceptable, rethink, or redo. free of charge. The and creates a “data federal equivalent is the shopping list” where type, Geospatial Onestop, and content, and accuracy are articulated. many states have similar services (see sidebar). Depending on the size of the This process also helps define attributes study area and your data requirements, or fields that may categorize or stratify a individual federal agencies (such as for feature. Attempt to categorize attributes soils data), state agencies (for bridge as core, mandatory, or optional. Core locations), and local governances (for attributes (such as a Hydrologic Unit parcels) may be accessed for specific data. Code for a basin) are essential to keeping records unique, providing a means to link A systematic approach to data acquisition to other data tables, and/or noting source can minimize costs. When acquiring or accuracy. Mandatory attributes, such data, be sure to document the who, as depth of well and static water level, what, and why. This is a form of internal are essential to the project’s success accounting, but is not to be confused with and include analytical requirements. metadata. A simple spreadsheet suffices Optional attributes may be temporary to record the person who acquired the flags or comments, or may direct the data, contacts, date acquired, storage user to a picture or a document. location, and miscellaneous comments. This spreadsheet can be used to document Expansiveness: Many projects outgrow alterations such as conversion or migration their original parameters. Consider what processes that were applied to each practical steps can be taken to ensure that dataset during the course of a project. 26 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology Units and Standards will occur before data layers Data Sources Spatial Standards: The world of mapping are considered “analysis- has a slew of specifications incorporated ready.” This directory may have National Atlas www.nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html into federal and international standards. In subdirectories that categorize adopting geodata standards for a project, data by source (federal, Federal Agencies state, local), thematic layer an essential first stop is the Federal FEMA Flood Data Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), (hydrology, transportation, www.fema.gov/fhm/mh_main.shtm boundaries), or region (state, whose standards must be used for many Geospatial Onestop projects funded with federal dollars. The regional, county). A structured www.geo-one-stop.gov FGDC represents a marriage of federal work area directory for NOAA NGS Geodetic Control Data agencies that have incorporated local, temporary files or interim www.ngs.noaa.gov state, and professional interests to provide products may also be necessary. USACE National Inventory of Dams crunch.tec.army.mil/nid/webpages/nid.cfm “layer” standards for major feature • Data Home – for storing data datasets, such as hydrology, cadastral, USDA Aerial Photography once they have been projected, www.apfo.usda.gov and transportation. Incorporating project consolidated, verified, and USDA Data Gateway specifications into the federal standards prodded. These “base data datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/NextPage.asp can prevent compliance problems later. layers” need restricted-write USDA NRCS Soilmart access to protect the integrity soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov Globe Parameters: Most projects are of the data. Separating the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science defined by a geographic jurisdictional digital imagery from vector edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/EarthExplorer/ area. Federal agencies may use longitude/ or feature datasets facilitates USGS Mapping Products latitude, state projects may use UTM mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/status/ performance and access. (Universe Transverse Mercator), and USGS National Water Information System local governances often use State • Production Area – for analysis waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/ Plane Coordinate Systems. Establish a of results and work products. projection and a spatial unit measurement In many cases, this space will State Clearinghouses standard early on to guard against future duplicate the structure of Data Arizona: www.land.state.az.us/alris/ problems. Recognize that each projection Home, adding a work area for New Mexico: rgis.unm.edu has both a unit of measurement and a temporary or interim files. The Texas: www.tnris.state.tx.us “datum,” such as the North American Production Area must be backed Utah: agrc.utah.gov/agrc_sgid/sgidintro.html Datum established in 1983 (NAD83), up daily; in some cases files Standards which replaced one established in must be saved out separately. Federal Geographic Data Committee 1927 (NAD27). Some software will www.fgdc.gov/standards/projects/FGDC-standards- convert projections dynamically. • Administration – for the projects/accuracy/part3/index_html/?searchterm=nssda business side of a project. International Organization for Standardization Migratory Converts: Migrating This is where correspondence, www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage or converting geospatial data can reports, standards material, National Institute of Standards and Technology/ inadvertently turn good data into bad digital pictures, sample Federal Information Processing Standards data. The essential key is to standardize materials, and other supporting www.itl.nist.gov coordinate projections, units of documentation belong. Open Geospatial Consortium measurement, attribute needs, data www.opengeospatial.org warehousing, naming conventions, and Document: In the geospatial world, three main areas are procedures. For example, define and metadata. This will simplify replication in important to document: feature document systematic procedures to the future as memory dims or staff changes. convert CAD drawings into geographic layer metadata, processing logs, and procedure. All federally sponsored data, compress imagery, import These approaches are not a comprehensive geospatial projects require compliance spreadsheets to append to a geodatabase, listing of geodata practices nor may they with FGDC standards for metadata, but and validate data accuracy and content. be appropriate for all users. In fact, some any documentation is preferable to none, of the suggestions will grate on a few regardless of funding. Documentation can Organization and Documentation professional purists. But the suggestions are be as simple as creating a text file with the Data Warehousing: Data organization based on experiences that small shops may same prefix as the feature layer file name, can be facilitated by creating the find useful. The websites above may clarify listing what was done, who did it and when, following primary directories: some of the terms and suggestions noted. how well it was done, and if it will be • Development – where all the conversion, repeated. Only the analyst who produced Contact Gar Clarke at [email protected]. migration, integration, and alterations the data has the knowledge to provide these May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 27 One Technology, Many Solutions: Enabling Water Resource Management in the South Jack Hampson – PBS&J

t first glance, the Gwinnett predict where it is going for virtually models in one system to support county County Department of Public any scenario. Able to manage multiple planning activities. With its consultants, Utilities (GCDPU), San Antonio large GIS-based datasets and store results the agency developed a county-wide ARiver Authority (SARA) and South Florida from complex hydrologic models, Arc Arc Hydro database. Gwinnett-Arc Water Management District (SFWMD) are Hydro is a synthesis of geospatial and Hydro supports the hydrologic and quite different from each other. GCDPU temporal data that supports hydrologic hydraulic models for each watershed, manages water-resource and water-quality modeling and decision-making. populates the database framework for issues for a 400 square-mile area of the Chattahoochee, Ocmulgee, and Gwinnett County, Georgia, among other Managing Growth for Public Oconee basins within Gwinnett County, public utility responsibilities. SARA is Utilities: GCDPU and even, at a future date, will include responsible for the health and welfare of Located just north of Atlanta, Gwinnett dam breach and water quality models. the 240-mile San Antonio River and those County is one of America’s fastest- The Gwinnett-Arc Hydro data model citizens that live along its boundaries. growing counties. The region’s current displays information for the three basins The SFWMD manages water resources population is over 700,000 within its as a whole, but each watershed in 16 counties, including the Everglades. 437 square miles, which include over model and its associated GIS While different in scope data are managed independently. and scale, these entities …the real value of the Arc Thus, while GCDPU engineers have one thing in common: Hydro data model may manage their models individually, they each is in the midst of a can see a complete regional picture. water resource management be its common framework project built around the that can help organizations Because Arc Hydro emulates ArcGIS Hydro data model collaborate and converge hydrologic systems, new (Arc Hydro). Developed critical information. data types such as time by ESRI and the Center for series of rainfall and Research in Water Resources temperature can be easily 40 distinct watersheds. For years, (CRWR) under the guidance of added to Gwinnett-Arc GCDPU engineers have maintained David Maidment of the University Hydro. Adding new data and new individual, extraordinarily detailed of Texas, Austin, Arc Hydro is models will become a streamlined hydrologic and hydraulic models a “data model” for storing and process, freeing resources to perform for each of these watersheds. As the managing information about water. more advanced analyses that aid in the population continues to grow, these decision-making process. models are increasingly critical for sound PBS&J is working with each of public policy and decision-making. these organizations to bring water The goal is for the resource information together in database to be GCDPU sought a way new ways. From hydrologic and to integrate and hydraulic flood models to water display these quality systems, Arc Hydro data can be used to track where water has been, how it is moving, and to

A portion of the 1,800 miles of canals and levees maintained by SFWMD.

28 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology continually updated from multiple sources models for automated prediction of PBS&J, in collaboration with CRWR, such as regional reports, FEMA studies, flooding risks by running the models in ESRI, and DHI Water & Environment, or environmental permit information, so GIS with real-time rainfall predictions. is developing a set of concepts, database that it becomes a near-real-time water Overall, this system provides spatial, extensions, and tools called Geospatial management planning and response tool. time, and flow linkages between selected Time Series Management (GTSM). flood models such as HEC-RAS and When integrated into ESRI’s Arc When It Rains, It Floods: HEC-HMS models, and water quality Hydro geodatabase, GTSM translates Watershed Management by SARA models, such as HSPF and QUAL-TX. water-related data, such as levels and The San Antonio River is more than flows from SCADA and rainfall from The RWMS will make it possible for 240 miles long and flows through radar rainfall and rain gauges, into SARA to keep all of its GIS-based five counties. It comprises six major a single GIS-driven water resources models updated. Program members can watersheds, with numerous jurisdictions, information system, accessible to the use the information independently for agencies, and organizations dependent entire water resource management team. flood mitigation planning, identification, on the river’s quality and quantity. and prioritization of water-related GTSM links data from lakes, canals, To manage this critical resource, SARA, capital improvement projects, floodplain control structures, monitoring points, the City of San Antonio, and Bexar management, and flood-alert system and drainage basins together into water County jointly created the Bexar Regional development. The management system control units. Most importantly, the spatial Watershed Management (BRWM) will also be used to manage and update data are linked to time-series data, thus program, a collaborative, regional Federal Emergency Management providing the ability to translate modeled approach to flood control and storm Agency (FEMA) flood maps. and measured rainfall, evapotranspiration, water management, including both water heads, and flows into volumes. Measured quantity and quality. The goal is to develop Watching Water Move in and predicted volumes provide system a single, comprehensive system to assist in Real-Time: SFWMD status and projections using water flood mitigation planning, capital project The South Florida Water Management balancing. By integrating historic and prioritization, and floodplain management, District (SFWMD) operates and maintains predicted data, GTSM can compare and help manage water quality in storm approximately 1,800 miles of canals measured watershed performance to water runoff and ambient waters. and levees, 25 major pumping stations, predicted responses over short or long and about 200 larger and 2,000 smaller time periods. This is the foundation BRWM and its consultants developed an water control structures. The area of for performance monitoring, decision Arc Hydro-compliant Regional Watershed responsibility spans 16 counties and support, and adaptive management. Management System (RWMS), which 17,930 square miles with a population Overall, GTSM will help SFWMD included an inventory and assessment of of more than six million residents. flood and water-quality data and models. operators make more informed decisions Because all the flood models were by providing integrated operational and similar, detailed watershed model scientific data for watershed management, data could be integrated into a basin- hydroperiod analysis, operations wide geodatabase with capabilities decision support, and hydrologic and to extract subsets of the regional hydraulic modeling activities. model and re-insert updated versions into the regional framework. National Impact While these examples illustrate how Arc The agencies also agreed on the U.S. Hydro has helped organizations improve Geological Survey’s Hydrological their water management abilities, the Simulation Program – Fortran (HSPF) real value of the Arc Hydro data model as the standard water quality may be its common framework that model for the basin. While can help organizations collaborate and more complex than the converge critical information. It could be Gwinnett County solution, a much-needed catalyst for developing standardizing the hydrologic, a national water data standard, one that hydraulic, and water quality will help federal, state, and local agencies models allows much greater effectively manage water resources, water control and automation of the quality, and water-related disasters on a model review process, integration much broader and more accurate scale. The Regional Watershed Management System for the of flood models with water quality San Antonio River enables a collaborative, regional Contact Jack Hampson at [email protected]. data, and maintenance of regional approach to water management. May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 29 SOCIETY PAGE Shuttleworth Wins International Riparian Areas (SAHRA). Shuttleworth Shuttleworth’s work has produced new Hydrology Prize is the fifth U.S. resident to receive the theories and methods in the field of prize in its 25-year history. It recognizes natural evapotranspiration, and new The International Association of outstanding and practical contributions understandings of the relationships among Hydrological Sciences awarded the 2006 to hydrology on an international hydrology, climate, weather prediction, International Hydrology Prize to W. James basis. Shuttleworth was cited “for his and ecology. An advocate of the direct Shuttleworth, professor of hydrology innovative, international leadership over application of hydrologic research in and water resources at the University of more than thirty years, contributing to support of societal needs, his collaborations Arizona and director of the Center for the growth of hydrology into a major and field studies have taken him to Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and discipline of Earth System Science.” Brazil, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere.

Visit www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs/.

Elvis Sighted at NWRA Meeting

About 250 people attended the Nevada Water Resources Association’s 2006 Annual Conference, held Feb. 21-23 in Mesquite, Nevada. The first day of the meeting offered options of a golf tournament, a field trip along the Virgin River, or workshops on groundwater principles and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The formal meeting started with a keynote talk by Grady Gammage, a Phoenix attorney and former member of the Central Arizona Project Board, on water resources issues in Arizona and Nevada. Throughout the remainder of the meeting, panel discussions addressed topics related to habitat conservation plans, desalination, mediation, floodplain management, treated effluent, conservation- focused nongovernmental organizations, and climate change. Many of the concurrent technical sessions related to the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s proposals to transfer water from rural portions of the state to Las Vegas, particularly with regard to quantifying evapotranspiration and improving understanding of carbonate-aquifer systems.

On a lighter note, Elvis showed up to entertain meeting participants after Wednesday’s dinner, even convincing the venerable state engineer to sing a few notes into the microphone. Not only did Elvis sing and groove, he also was an auctioneer, helping NWRA raise nearly $3,000 for its scholarship fund.

Visit www.nvwra.org.

30 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology USGS, continued from page 19 managed rivers. Diversions, withdrawals, and/or cooperative funding is no longer of the cost of the total network but enjoy and regulation of water use are usually available. Consequently, too few areas equal access to the entire hydrologic responsible for hydrologic issues deemed have long-term surface-water records. database. Nearly all of the network data sufficient to justify river gauging. This is particularly true of undisturbed are accessed and used by multiple sources. Consequently there is a dearth of network areas, from which long-term basin and stations and corresponding hydrologic climatologic inferences could be drawn. This financially opportunistic process data to represent undeveloped conditions. Nevertheless, USGS remains committed to for supporting the hydrologic network providing high-quality data for a multitude provides parity for support; however, We are only beginning to fully understand of users, and in recent years the agency it also creates some systemic program the value of long-term databases and the has received appropriated resources that at limitations. Financial support for a gauging important role they play. Stations that least temporarily have helped reverse the station generally is dependent on two have been operated for 50 years or more decline of numbers of long-term stations. factors: a management issue of sufficient provide insight on hydrologic conditions importance to justify the construction and and trends that may not be available from Contact Jeff Phillips at [email protected]. any other source. Natural climatic wet continuing support for a network station, USGS Data Websites and the availability of discretionary tax and dry periods as well as climate change Real-time and historic surface-water, groundwater, revenues. These requirements tend to bias occur in cycles of decades or more, and and water-quality data from NWISWeb: the establishment of stations in developed long-term records are essential to detect waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/; use sw/, gw/, or qw/ extensions, respectively. and densely populated areas (see map, real trends and impacts on water resources. page 19). While this benefits highly NAWQA data warehouse: Unfortunately, too many data recorders infotrek.er.usgs.gov/traverse/f?p=NAWQA: populated regions which are generally HOME:2200096155959254017 near critical locations for river discharge and data collection sites in the USGS accounting, it causes network gaps in less- network are discontinued or relocated Reference developed regions. Funding restrictions when the issue that motivated their Wahl, K.L., W.O. Thomas, and R.M. Hirsch, 1995. An overview of the streamflow-gauging program, also create a bias toward regulated or establishment matures or is resolved U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-066-95.

Critical Need, continued from page 21 circumstances, that require good water for continuing calculations of Administration for $16.2 million for data, including multi-decade droughts, evapotranspiration that increasing numbers NSIP and $74 million for CWP, along dramatic increases in water demands due of states are using to monitor water with significant future increases. The to population growth, regional impacts use and improve water management. President’s FY2007 budget request includes of climate change, river management The current Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 $16.8 million for NSIP—an increase of impacts on ocean environments, monitoring satellites provide valuable data, but age $2.8 million over FY2006—but only river health, understanding required total and equipment malfunctions limit their $62.2 million for CWP—representing maximum daily [pollutant] loads (TMDLs), future reliability. The President’s Office of a cut of $2 million to CWP interpretive hydropower production, and real-time Science and Technology Policy recently studies. Neither the NSIP nor CWP flood warning and emergency response. directed NASA to acquire a single Landsat requests include enough money to fully data continuity mission in the form of a offset anticipated federal cost increases. WSWC also supports other data-related free-flyer spacecraft to collect land surface initiatives, including enactment of a data and deliver it to USGS. Reportedly, On Sept. 30, in a letter to then-Interior National Drought Policy bill introduced $98 million is in the 2007 request for Secretary Gale Norton and Joshua Bolten, by Senator Pete Domenici and the related this purpose, but the “actively cooled director of the Office of Management creation of a National Integrated Drought thermal sensor technology” used in the and Budget, ten U.S. senators called Information System (NIDIS). NIDIS would Landsat 7 spacecraft was a large factor for a much more ambitious effort to facilitate public access to real-time data and in the overall cost of both systems and is increase spending on CWP and NSIP by help water users and others anticipate and no longer a firm baseline requirement. $180 million over the next five years, with mitigate drought-related impacts. The WGA minimum annual increases of $15 million is leading efforts to make NIDIS a reality, It will take a significant grassroots and $20 million respectively. The letter with or without authorizing legislation (see effort from all those with a stake in the stated, “Over the last seven years, Congress www.westgov.org/wga/initiatives/drought/). quantity and quality of hydrologic data and the Administration have struggled in the West to raise the political will to understand and achieve a balance in Further, the council has urged the necessary to produce the information the appropriate federal investment in Administration to ensure the next we will need to assess and address our the collection and management of water generation of Landsat instruments future water resources challenges. resources data.” It continues listing various is capable of thermal imaging and Contact Tony Willardson at federal programs, as well as events and observations at a resolution sufficient [email protected].

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 31 Proceed Carefully, continued from page 15 Concerns Unwarranted, continued from page 15 or other means are rarely successful because using local water Further, as previously indicated, the Nevada State exacerbates the problem. Therefore, mitigation also requires Engineer’s authority over groundwater does not end when that alternative water sources be available to the water users. a permit is issued. His primary interest is the responsible, sustainable use of Nevada’s groundwater supplies, which Conservative Approach Warranted is in the best interest of Southern Nevada as well. Regarding the proposed groundwater transfer, the best decision may be to minimize the risk by granting only those water rights The assertion that information about the regional for which a high degree of certainty exists that their use will carbonate aquifer is not sufficient to allow carefully not impact springs and wetlands. Because recharge estimates controlled, monitored withdrawals is a ploy intended are among the most uncertain of any parameters in the basins to create a Catch-22. The idea behind this tactic is targeted for development, acceptable risk reduction may mean that water should not be permitted because there is that only a few tenths of the currently projected perennial yield not enough hydrologic information, while the absence should be allocated initially. Long-term monitoring―on the order of pumping precludes the gathering of such data. of multiple decades―may be required to ensure that the water right can safely and sustainably be increased in the future. An ongoing groundwater-monitoring program will answer the questions that form the core of anxiety about this project. Contact Tom Myers at [email protected]. That program can only be implemented once the SNWA begins withdrawing water from the system—water that Reference the Nevada State Engineer has ample evidence exists. Winograd, I.J. and W. Thordarson, 1975. Hydrogeologic and hydrochemical framework, south-central Great Basin, Nevada-California, with special Contact Andrew Burns at [email protected]. reference to the Nevada Test Site. Hydrology of Nuclear Test Sites, Geological Survey Professional Paper 712-C. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington D.C.

California, continued from page 23 constituents, which include environmental data at the part-per-trillion level also has will need to keep forging ahead to tracers, such as stable isotopes of water raised concerns: What do the data mean implement a comprehensive statewide and tritium/helium age-dating, and in terms of future groundwater quality, groundwater monitoring program low-level concentrations of volatile human and ecologic risk, public perception that provides adequate and accessible organic compounds. The other half are and uncertainty, and districts’ potential information on both groundwater quality being sampled for the basic constituents liability for serving water with these and quantity and involves all stakeholders as well as an expanded schedule of extremely low levels of constituents? in order to achieve a sustainable constituents, including field parameters Another concern is interpretion of these resource for future generations. (pH, electrical conductance, dissolved low-level groundwater analytical data, Visit the SWRCB GAMA website at oxygen, alkalinity, and temperature), which are not representative and are much www.swrcb.ca.gov/gama/. Contact Tim Parker at major ions, trace elements, pesticides, lower than drinking water maximum [email protected]. and emerging contaminants. contaminant levels. One groundwater management agency believes the low- The program aims to have online data References level data are being mischaracterized and Belitz, K., N.M. Dubrovsky, K.Burow, B. Jurgens, and reports available by basin, posted on the sensationalized in the reporting, leading T. Johnson, 2003. Framework for a ground- SWRCB Geotracker data management water quality monitoring and assessment to concerns about how and by whom program for California, U.S. Geological Survey system website within four months of these data will be interpreted and used. Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4166. completion of sampling. Interpretive Huston, S.S., N.L. Barber, J.F. Kenny, K.S. Linsey, reports are expected to be available nine Although California has made D.S. Lumia, and M.A. Maupin, 2004. Estimated use of water in the United States in 2000, months following the data reports. considerable progress with its groundwater USGS Circular 1268, pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/ data programs in the last few years, the circ1268/ Bumps in the Road Natural Resources Defense Council, 2001. road ahead is long, especially regarding California’s Contaminated Groundwater: Is The GAMA program has been somewhat the coordination of state, local, and federal the State Minding the Store? www.waterboards. challenged since its inception. Sseveral programs. Even with the GAMA program, ca.gov/gama/docs/nrdcgw_4_01.pdf groundwater management agencies State Water Resources Control Board, 2003. multiple agencies still collect and manage Report to the Governor and Legislature, have cited a lack of coordination that their own data according to different A Comprehensive Groundwater Quality has led to some miscommunication, standards. Given the importance of this Monitoring Program for California. www.swrcb. ca.gov/gama/docs/final_ab_599_rpt_to_legis_ misunderstanding, frustration, and lack public and private resource on the state 7_31_03.pdf of cooperation. The issue of collecting economy and public health, Californians

32 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology Business Directory

john j ward, rg groundwater consultant

- water supply - water rights - peer review - litigation support - expert witness - due diligence

Tucson AZ phone: (520) 296-8627 email: [email protected] cell: (520) 490-2435 web: www.wardgroundwater.com

Employment Opportunities

Daniel B. Stephens & Associates seeks Staff Hydrogeologist/Modeler in Albuquerque. Ideal candidate has MS degree in hydrology, geology, or related field with 1-5 years experience, including familiarity with aquifer testing and well hydraulics, and flow and transport modeling. Detail-oriented, motivated individual with excellent communication and multi-tasking skills needed. Familiarity with modeling software, GIS, and programming languages desired. For more information, click on Job no.321 under Career Opportunities – Albuquerque at www.dbstephens.com. Water & Water Science in the Southwest Water Management Consultants, an international company specializing in groundwater, – Past, Present, and Future surface water, and environmental geochemistry, seeks qualified candidates in Tucson: Senior Project Manager: M.Sc. preferred, 10+ yrs experience managing multi-disciplinary September 13 - 16, 2006 projects. Broad experience in hydrogeology and hydrochemistry related to mining, groundwater Glendale Civic Center resources and environmental geology. Senior Groundwater Modeler: M.Sc., 10+ yrs modeling related to mining hydrogeology, 5750 W. Glenn Drive groundwater resource development/management, and environmental permitting. In-depth experience Glendale, Arizona with standard flow and transport modeling codes required; unsaturated flow desirable. Project Geochemist: M.Sc.preferred, 4+ yrs experience with quantitative geochemical and Please join us for the AHS Annual Symposium, the premier event in modeling experience (PHREEQC, MINTEQ, Geochemist Workbench), particularly related to mine the southwest for hydrology and water resources science, activities. Advanced database management skills desirable. engineering, and public policy. Come learn about projects and Staff/Project Hydrogeologist: M.Sc., 2+ yrs experience with quantitative hydrogeology, field research from hydrologists, geologists, engineers, planners, water investigations and aquifer test design and analysis. Groundwater modeling experience desired. policy and legal professionals, and teachers. This year’s technical AutoCAD/GIS/IT Technician: 2+ yrs experience in AutoCAD, ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcGIS, MS Access, sessions will focus on topics related to the past, present, and future with strong GIS skills. of water and water science in Arizona and the Southwest. Visit our Contact Jeremy Dowling, Water Management Consultants. 3845 N. Business Center Dr., Ste. 115, Tucson, AZ website for more info: www.azhydrosoc.org. 85705 520-319-0725, [email protected]. For further details visit www.watermc.com/news/recvac/

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 33 COMPANY LINE PG&E Settles More for the cluster of cancer cases in children conditions within river basins, drainage Chromium Claims from that area. In 1996, PG&E paid systems, and coastal zones. The software $333 million to 650 people; the recent is considered particularly effective for In early February, Pacific Gas and Electric settlement covered an additional 1,100 real-time flood management because Company (PG&E) announced it had cases, the newspaper reported. it provides forecasts of water level, flood depth, and sea state for the hours reached a $295 million legal settlement Visit www.pge.com and www.latimes.com. to resolve litigation related to the use of or days ahead, and automatically chromium at three of the company’s gas disseminates detailed flood warnings. compressor stations from the 1950s to Carollo, CH2M Hill Honored 1970s. The settlement resolved more than by ACEC-AZ As with earlier versions, FloodWorks can send out warning information by 10 years of litigation and brought closure fax, e-mail, or SMS to a specified to substantially all of the outstanding Carollo Engineers and CH2M Hill list of parties when certain critical chromium-related claims against PG&E, were two of ten winners of the 2005 conditions or levels were reached. In the company said. The case was made Grand Award given by the American addition, it is now simple to publish the famous by the film “Erin Brockovich.” Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona last fall. These two latest flood forecasts to a website and A news release from PG&E stated that, companies were recognized for their to provide access to authorized users. “This case resulted from events that water-related engineering projects. This feature allows more detail to be occurred many decades ago. In the 1960s, made available than can be contained Fountain Valley, California-based Carollo some PG&E workers became aware that in a text message and information Engineers was honored for its design of chromium was present in groundwater can be updated more frequently. Yuma’s Desert Dunes Water Reclamation wells near our operations and, regrettably, Visit www.wallingfordsoftware.com. Facility. The facility was noted both for the facts suggest that they did not share its ability to blend into the residential that information with others in the neighborhood where it is located and company or the public at the time. HDR Poster Displays Drinking its flexibility to expand from a current Water Standards “Clearly, this situation should never capacity of 3 million gallons per day have happened, and we are sorry that (mgd) up to 12 mgd in the future. HDR Inc. has released a free, updated, it did. It is not the way we do business, easy-to-use reference poster of federal CH2M Hill was recognized for its drinking water regulations, including and we believe it would not happen in engineering infrastructure at the Rio a detailed list of contaminants and our company today. In 1987, when we Salado Environmental Restoration Project maximum contaminant levels, health discovered what had happened, we acted in Phoenix. The infrastructure supports effects, and monitoring requirements. immediately to address the problem.” the establishment and maintenance of a This 11th edition of the poster focuses riparian habitat, provides a 100-year flood The company acknowledged that not on simultaneous compliance with capacity in the river channel, and also all differences between the plaintiffs multiple regulations, including EPA’s new offers opportunities for public interaction. and PG&E were resolved with the Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection settlement; the primary differences Visit www.acecaz.org. Byproducts and Long Term 2 Enhanced concern the health effects of chromium. Surface Water Treatment rules. Request or download the poster at Chromium was added to cooling water to Wallingford Upgrades FloodWorks www.hdrinc.com/SDWA/. reduce corrosion at compressor stations in Wallingford Software recently released Mojave Desert towns such as Hinkley and version 5.0 of FloodWorks, a real- Geomatrix Adds Air Kettleman Hills. Excess water was stored time flood forecasting and flood Quality Services in unlined retention ponds, from where warning system. The most significant it drained into the underlying aquifer, improvement of this version is that it The Geomatrix office in Phoenix recently contaminating local water supplies. can automatically publish flood forecasts added air quality as a core practice area on a website for viewing by remote with the hiring of Ron Vernesoni as a According to the Los Angeles Times, users via a standard web browser. senior air quality engineer. Vernesoni the plaintiffs claimed that up to 140 has more than 30 years of public- and times the federal standard for chromium According to the company, FloodWorks private-sector experience in air quality. in drinking water was measured in provides real-time simulation and Hinkley’s supply, and was responsible forecasting of hydrological and hydraulic Visit www.geomatrix.com. 34 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology R & D Sandia to Lead Yucca review process, including the allocation versus private is not the bright line that Mountain Science of funding and the assignment of separates success from failure. Instead, technical tasks to selected supporting performance depends on effective staffing, In January, the U.S. Department of organizations such as other national consistent public support for sufficient Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive laboratories, subcontractors, federal funding, better asset management Waste Management (OCRWM) agencies, universities, and expert panels. systems, performance measurements announced that Sandia National and rewards, and more stakeholder Laboratories would become its lead Bechtel’s budget for the Yucca Mountain involvement and transparency. When laboratory to integrate repository science project was about $325 million in increased private involvement or changes work for the Yucca Mountain Project, 2005, according to the Las Vegas in public operations create significant taking over the responsibility from Review Journal, but it is uncertain what cost savings, as they have in some cases, OCRWM’s contractor Bechtel SAIC. proportion of work funded under that it is because specific improvements budget will be transferred to Sandia. were identified and implemented in DOE said that the decision to designate Visit www.ocrwm.doe.gov and www.sandia.gov. one or more of these categories. Sandia as the lead laboratory builds on DOE’s successful experience “Beyond Privatization” provides a at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Role of Privatization in Water framework for urban and rural municipal- New Mexico, where a single national Management Considered level public decision-makers to assess laboratory coordinated post-closure problems, identify possible solutions, and from the Pacific Institute science work while a contractor choose among these solutions. It provides performed work on the design of pre- Water managers face significant practical information and examples closure, or above-ground facilities. challenges meeting the freshwater, about improving the effectiveness of wastewater, and stormwater management water, wastewater, and stormwater Bechtel will continue to be responsible needs of the communities they serve. systems, whether public or private. for above-ground design efforts, Numerous solutions have been The 123-page report is available at while Sandia will concentrate on proposed, including privatization— pacinst.org/reports/beyond_privatization. integrating all post-closure science. the controversial involvement of the private sector. The debate over Sandia will provide management privatization overshadows discussion New Wetlands Projects Funded and integration services for all Yucca of the determinants of performance. Across the Southwest Mountain scientific programs. These services will support OCRWM’s Pacific Institute’s recent report, “Beyond The U.S. EPA has awarded more than license application and its defense in Privatization: Restructuring Water Systems $1.5 million to nine organizations, tribes, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s to Improve Performance,” finds that public continued on next page

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 35 R & D (continued) and local governments to protect wetlands In California, the Association of Bay will hire a full-time wetland specialist in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Area Governments’ (ABAG) Wetland to assess current risks associated Project Tracker will use its grant to with potential contaminants and In Arizona, the Hualapai Tribe will expand a public, web-based information potential degradation and loss that use its grant plus additional funds to: system. ABAG will use a second grant may have affected the wetland. continue monitoring and protecting to help protect and restore vulnerable Visit www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/. 18 wetlands; incorporate water quality wetlands systems in the northern and biomonitoring data into long-term and coastal areas of the state. databases to track success of protection Conservation Strategies Ranked activities; document wetland expanse The San Francisco Bay Conservation by Managers where wetlands have been protected from and Development Commission will cattle and feral animals through fencing; help to update the San Francisco Bay Researchers at Texas A&M University and and fence and monitor additional wetlands. managed wetlands plans for Suisun New Mexico State University conducted Bay and San Francisco Bay. a survey of elected city officials and Santa Cruz County will use the funds water managers in the Rio Grande Basin to: support vegetation mapping along The California Resources Agency will of Texas and New Mexico to determine the Santa Cruz River; prioritize areas for be applying its funds to a new pilot which water conservation strategies they protective action; develop native plant program to determine environmental deemed most viable for their communities. lists; draft ordinances to support repair results from wetland programs and In 2004, surveys were sent to 239 and development guidance; recommend to protect wetland acreage. conservation tools and strategies; and officials and managers in 30 cities in recommend effective methods to ensure The Torres Martinez Tribe in Southern the basin that have populations greater that vegetation maps and conservation tools California will use its grant to help than 5,000. Responses were received remain in use and are updated as needed. monitor and assess the quantity and from decision-makers in 27 of the cities. condition of tribal wetlands at the Of 15 possible water conservation The Ak-Chin Indian Tribe plans to use its Salton Sea to provide a baseline for options listed in the survey, the funds, with others, to develop a wetlands monitoring and subsequent assessments respondents ranked as the top three: inventory and assessment; map existing of anticipated gains in acreage. • encouragement of drought- and potential wetland areas; define tolerant landscapes; parameters for “no net loss” to the tribe’s In Nevada, the Yerington Paiute Tribe • public education campaigns on established wetlands; determine best will use its grant with additional funds water conservation; and management practices; and develop a to evaluate the impacts of mining and long-term monitoring plan. agriculture on its wetlands. The tribe • residential water audits to review use, check for leaks, and suggest conservation measures. 2006 ANNUAL CONFERENCE Universities While respondents considered all Council INCREASING FRESHWATER SUPPLIES of the conservation projects to be On Water July 18-20, 2006 possible, projects judged least feasible Resources Santa Fe, New Mexico and least preferred offered rebates, restricted landscape and planting, and For On-Line Conference Registration increased prices to reduce use. https://www.worldwideregistration.com/ucowr/registration.php4 The most important barriers to water For Hotel Information and Reservations Session Topics Include: La Fonda on the Plaza conservation programs cited were financial 6 Desalination 1-800-523-5002, #1 6 Water Harvesting and Reclaimation concerns, including revenue loss, cost www.lafondasantafe.com/group_email.html 6 Aquifer Storage and Recovery to implement programs, and increased Special Events Include: 6 Conservation and Reclaimed Water Use prices to consumers; lack of awareness; 6 6 Reception at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Water Resources Education and public opposition. Developer 6 Innovative Treatments 6 UCOWR Banquet & Awards Ceremony opposition and lack of expertise were 6 Full & Half Day Rafting Trips 6 Energy - Water Nexus judged the least important barriers. 6 Valles Caldera Technical Tour 6 Alternative Water Management Policies 6 Integrative Modeling For more information, contact: 6 Interbasin Transfers See the full report,“Views from the River Front,” published by Texas Cooperative Extension, at ROSIE GARD, UCOWR Headquarters, [email protected] 6 Water Marketing CATHY ORTEGA KLETT, NMSU, [email protected] tcebookstore.org/pubinfo.cfm?pubid=2108.

36 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology Environmental Remediation CAP Completes Newest, Biggest Costs Squeezing Recharge Facility Your Budget? from the CAP Newsletter, February 2006 The Central Arizona Project has completed construction of the 207-acre Tonopah Desert Recharge Project (TDRP), more than doubling CAP’s previous underground storage capacity to more than 400 acres in six recharge projects.

Work on TDRP began in 2000 with the goal of siting a large-scale recharge project in Maricopa County that would increase the amount of underground storage capacity available for the Central Environmental Compliance Sampling and Data Collection Arizona Groundwater Replenishment Groundwater and SVE Treatment System Installation, Operation, District, the Arizona Water Banking Maintenance and Repair Authority, and other CAP customers. Well Field Maintenance and Pump Repair Instrumentation and Controls MSHA and HAZWOPER Certification After an 18-month hydrologic feasibility study, the next two years were spent VERDAD GROUP, LLC on design, permit acquisition, and land Environmental Remediation Contractors 520-743-8553 purchase. Construction began in August www.verdadgroupllc.com email [email protected] 2004. The facility contains 19 spreading ROC169357 ROC169358 ROC182680 basins separated into four groups. Individual basins or groups of basins can be taken out of service for maintenance or to remove basin-clogging sediment.

TDRP is the first recharge facility with sloped bottoms constructed by CAP, designed to minimize the amount of earthwork and associated costs. Seven- foot-diameter pipes feed the recharge project, allowing more than 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) to enter the site, or roughly 10 percent of the canal capacity. This provides sufficient capacity to meet the design recharge rate of two feet per day. The project was designed to store 2 million acre-feet of Colorado River water over a 20-year period.

The project can be monitored and operated remotely. Aquifer water levels will be monitored by two 500-foot-deep monitor wells and four 200-foot piezometers.

Site acceptance testing began Jan. 27, and once completed, CAP will begin operations.

Visit www.cap-az.org.

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 37 2 8 0 0 ° ° ° 0 OSTROV CHUCKCHI 40 ° 8 VRANGELYA St. Lawrence I. L B A 60 1 SEA (U.S.A.) A R A 0 V D ° 10 ° 6 S 0 N ° R C A NO R W E G I A N S E A T E E A S T A ° I C E 0 C O 6 Pevek ZEMLYA FRANTSA S 0 S I B E R I A N ° IOSSIFA Anadyr' 0 ° yr' 8 ad 1 S E A n A NOVOSIBIRSKIYE G Y N O R W A SEVERNAYA OSTROVA Cherskiy N Oslo ZEMLYA B A RE N T S I E N E D R DENMARK S E A LA P TE V Om W olo D I n E S L Y A nd E M A SE A ig N i B Murmansk Z E r k

A S a Stockholm A Y Copenhagen A A K a L V R oly m I N O F N A K A Tiksi a E Helsinki K Dickson Y lin B S W a in A L C n g T I H A a r I T E a E S d Tallinn a K in ta Khatanga a 1 s e m St. Petersburg a h 2 c Arkhangel'sk y K R.F. h POLAND P Magadan 3 Riga Petrozavodsk Nar'yan Mar a S t

L k Pskov e K k

Warsaw e a Vilnius v o t e n 2 . hora Vorkuta Noril'sk u n a Novgorod D P ec y e 0 Dudinka l v Petropavlovsk- 0 ° ° i O 6 Minsk n Y Kamchatskiy 1 Cherepovets a e n

Ukhta i

s

Vologda T e

Kotlas a y S E A BELARUS Smolensk Tver' Salekhard z Igarka o r a g r ap Vol Yaroslavl' Syktyvkar Yakutsk L'viv y u Turukhansk n P O F D Moscow (Moskva) b O Bryansk ilyu n Nizhniy Tura V y a Kyiv ld OKHOTS K A Ryazan' Novgorod A I N nguska N iz u Orel a Kirov hnyaya T Mirnyy A Chisinau k O Surgut M Lipetsk Kazan' Serov O 4 UKRAIN E Kursk Perm' Izhevsk O R Nizhnevartovsk Saransk a l l o Pod e Voronezh am b kh ka k K a m a nipro Penza To V m s D e a e n r Nab. Chelny Yekaterinburg n u Od aya Tung Vitim Saratov Tyumen' usk m Donets'k Tobol'sk a A Ufa a D V a Samara Ir ' AROUNDn THE GLOBE o ol g ty Ket Y e Yuzhno- SEA OF n sh e L n a Sakhalinsk AZOV i r Sevastopol' s Anga Monitoring Chinese-Russian Magnitogorsk Chelyabinsk e Rostov- y Transboundary Waters l) BLAC K na-Donu Volgograd Orenburg ' a b Bratsk Yuqiong Liu, Ph.D. – SAHRA, University r Oral m Tomsk hi Omsk O U s Krasnoyarsk of Arizona SE A Krasnodar Elista ( Orsk I q Qostanay Novosibirsk Kemerovo Because of their strategic location, water y Stavropol' y resources associated with transboundary 4 a Aqtöbe 0 Astrakhan' h rivers and other water bodiesChita play ° Z - Novokuznetsk J Ankara Nal'chik Aturau Abakan an important role in regulating the a Astana Ulan-Ude A 5 l economic, trade, and cultural exchanges 0 a Barnaul 4 ° E between China and Russia. The Chinese- k Irkutsk P h r c t Russian transboundary river system TUR K E Y ha is Tbilisi Mak is largely located in the province of A

D A ° ° Kyzyl S K AZA KHS TA N R N - A C Heilongjiang, China. It consists of I A N S E A T E E A S T A ° I C E 0 C O 6 Pevek ZEMLYA FRANTSA S Aqtau S I B E R I A N Anadyr' 6 IOSSIFA 0 ° Qaraghandy yr' 8 ad 1 S E A n A NOVOSIBIRSKIYE G SEVERNAYA OSTROVA Cherskiy N N Yerevan ZEMLYA Semey four rivers (Heilongjiang, Wusuli, B A RE N T S I Zhezqazghan R S E A LA P TE V Om olo D I n E L Y A nd E M A SE A ig N i B Murmansk Z E r k

A S a A Y A A L Kol ma N V R y O A N Tiksi K Dickson Y Erguna, and Suifen) and Xingkai Lake a W n H A a I T E S E a K in ta Khatanga a n s e m St. Petersburg a h c Arkhangel'sk y K h P Magadan Ulaanbaatar a Petrozavodsk Nar'yan Mar S t

L k e e K k

e a v o t e n . hora Vorkuta Noril'sk u n a 7 A gorod D P ec y e l l Dudinka v Petropavlovsk- 0 ° i O SYRIAN n Y 6 Kamchatskiy 1 vets a e ARAL n Ukhta i r s

(see map). In Russia, these waters are e

Vologda T a y Kotlas Salekhard z Igarka S E A a g Yaroslavl' Syktyvkar r Yakutsk e u Turukhansk P O F E Moscow (Moskva) b O ilyu n 0 200 400 km Nizhniy Tura V y a Baku ld ARAB OKHOTS K azan' Novgorod A Niz nguska a Kirov hny Tu Mirnyy H k aya Kazan' Surgut Izhevsk Perm' Serov S Nizhnevartovsk O respectively referred to as the Amur, Saransk a l l o Pod e SEA am b h ka k k K a m Penza To V m

e a n r Nab. Chelny Yekaterinburg n u aya itim REPUBLIC Saratov Tungusk V m Tyumen' Tobol'sk a A Ufa a V a Samara Ir t' n Yuzhno- ol g ty Ke Y e Komsomol'sk- sh e L n a Sakhalinsk i r na-Amure Vanino s Anga Skovorodino Magnitogorsk Chelyabinsk e y Qyzylorda ) l Orenburg ' a b Bratsk N r Tomsk Oral m hi Omsk O Khabarovsk U s Krasnoyarsk Blagoveshchensk ( Orsk I q Qostanay Novosibirsk Kemerovo U Ussuri, Arguni, Razdolnaya rivers and y s 100 200 250 mi y s 0 a Aqtöbe u h Chita r Z - Novokuznetsk i J Aturau r Abakan u Astana Ulan-Ude a A m u 40 ° Barnaul A h E Irkutsk g P r on SE A 4 ti S s A U - K AZA KHS TA N Kyzyl Aqtau Qaraghandy O F N N Zhezqazghan Semey Vladivostok 0 Ulaanbaatar n ARAL le Lake Khanka. Basic characteristics er JA P A N SEA H S Qyzylorda U S y MONGOLI A Tokyo Z r D.P.R. D A kmenbashi B a r OF KOREA E y y a P'ongyang Tokyo K Almaty TURKMENISTAN I I A S I Soul Ashgabat Tashkent li m T Beijing Z u REP. OF r A Bishkek N ° D 9 of these water bodies are listed in the a uan KOREA N H g r ary y n Locations of China-Russia transboundary rivers and the city of Jilin,ISLAMIC a P REPUBLIC Dushanbe YEL LO W D 8 S E A PA CI F I C N CHIN A OCE A N S T A N S N I A Turkmenbashi B H Kabul Jammu G table below. Water quality ranges from and CHIN A a where the November 2005 chemical spill occurred. F A Islamabad Kashmir 80 S E A A PAKISTAN 100 IRA Q C r ° ° ° E y good to poor (level I representing the a countries are necessary, as each country and Wusuli.P'ongyang The two sides are also TURKMENISTAN K Almaty best, and level V the worst). Rivers I identified as cross-border are those that has access only to its own part of the river. expected to conduct a joint feasibility S AshgabatA Tashkent Ili flow from one country into another; study on pollutionSoul prevention/control m T As industrial,Beijing agricultural, and other for the two rivers and to work together u A Bishkek boundary rivers form the political REP. OF N socioeconomic developments become on other environmental issues. D 9 boundary between the two countries. KOREA a N Huang increasingly active in the China-Russia r ary y n Response to Water Pollution a Joint Monitoring of Cross-Border Rivers border regions, environmental problems ISLAMIC and Other Emergencies For cross-border rivers, water quality in these regions, especially water Timely warnings and quick responses REPUBLIC Dushanbe monitoring is relatively easy, as both quality problems, have intensified. Over YEL LO W to unexpected water pollution accidents countries can conduct tests on a whole the past few years, the two countries OF 8 in transboundary rivers are critical cross section of the river within their have increasingly cooperated on water S E A PA CI F I C to minimize the potential damage IRA N CHINown territories. Water qualityA monitoring conservation and environmental protection to ecosystems and those who live OCE A N T A N is more difficult for boundary rivers, efforts in the border river areas. Both I S along the river in both countries. N Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control and coordinated efforts between the two countries recognize each other’s water A Kabul H Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. quality standards, assessment and On Nov. 13, 2005, a chemical plant G The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been technological systems, and set up a blast in the city of JilinCHIN in northeastA F and working group and expert team for agreed upon by the parties. China contaminated the upper reaches A Islamabad Kashmir periodic meetings. In 2002 and 2003, of Songhua River, whichS atE 1,927A km in 60 80 100 ° PAKISTAN ° China and Russia jointly performed length (about 1,200 miles) is the largest ° eight environmental assessments for two tributary to the Heilongjiang River. About of the border rivers, the Heilongjiang 100 tons of benzene and other chemicals Map No. 3840 Rev. 2 UNITED NATIONS Border river/ Length/Storage Drainage Area/ Water Quality January 2004 River Type lake Capacity Surface Area (km2) Levels Heilongjiang River 4370 km 1,855,000 III-IV Boundary Wusuli River 890 km 187,000 IV-V Boundary Erguna River 1608 km 161,000 I-III Boundary Suifen River 443 km 17,300 I-III Cross-border 3 View along the Heilongjiang River Xingkai Lake 2.71 km 4,380 III-V Boundary (from www.chinaculture.org). Characteristics of China-Russia transboundary waters (from Ke et al., 2002).

38 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology were released. The Chinese government responded by increasing water releases from big reservoirs to dilute the toxic slick, using activated carbon to remove nitrobenzene and other chemicals from the water, and establishing over 50 monitoring stations along the Songhua River. Russia was notified about the incident on Nov. 22, about one month before the slick reached its waters.

The two countries launched a joint mission to monitor the flow of the plume in the Songhua and Heilongjiang rivers. The concentrations of toxic chemicals in the plume had declined sharply by mid- December, meeting the safe drinking water standard by Dec. 22 when it reached the Heilongjiang River on the international border. Findings from 48 monitoring wells along the Songhua River indicated that the groundwater resources were not polluted. Owing to the quick emergency response and active cooperation of the two countries, no poisoning of humans or livestock has been reported. However, an ecological impact assessment indicated that the ecosystem along the corridor of Songhua (OWDOYOUMANAGE River may take a long time to recover. ONEOF%ARTHSMOST Plan for the Future PRECIOUSRESOURCES To prevent future water pollution accidents in the border river regions, !SK'OLDER China and Russia signed a five-year agreement on Feb. 21, 2006 to jointly monitor the water quality of their transboundary waters, including all four rivers and the lake. Experts from the two countries will regularly exchange information and work together to develop comprehensive environmental protection 7EFOCUSONSUSTAINABLEWATERRESOURCESOLUTIONS and emergency response plans. 4HEWORLDSMOSTPRECIOUSRESOURCEISBECOMINGMOREPRECIOUSBYTHEMINUTE4HATS Contact Yuqiong Liu at [email protected]. WHYRESPONSIBLEMANAGEMENTISCRITICALTOENSURINGWATERFORINDUSTRYANDAGRICULTURE FOR China Daily (www.chinadaily.com) was the major HOUSEHOLDNEEDSANDFORTHEFUTURE'OLDERHASBEENPROVIDINGCOST EFFECTIVESOLUTIONS source of information on the water pollution accident TOSATISlEDCLIENTSFOROVERYEARS lNDINGBETTERWAYSTODISCOVER PRODUCE TRANSPORT and the 5-year China-Russia agreement. MANAGEANDTREATWATER 'LOBAL)SSUES,OCAL3OLUTIONS ¥ '!# Reference ,OCALOFFICES Ke, C., X. Yang, J. Jia, and S. Jia, 2002. Water 4UCSON   environmental problems of Sino-Russian !LBUQUERQUE   SOLUTIONS GOLDERCOM boundary rivers and countermeasures, Water WWWGOLDERCOM Resources Protection, 1: 43-44.

May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 39 EDUCATION Science Olympiad students prepare for during the school year. preparation for the regional tournaments. Hydro Competition The competitions are balanced among The teams get hands-on, experience- the science disciplines of biology, earth based problem-solving opportunities Selina Johnson – Science and Math Education science, chemistry, physics, and computers in hydrologic concepts during the Center and Carla Bitter – SAHRA, University of Arizona and technology; more competition and the than two million students, coaches and judges help Spring is science season. Signs of coaches, teachers, cultivate an atmosphere springtime in the Southwest include a parents, and experts of collaboration, bounty of local, state, and national science will participate in the inquisitiveness, competitions for grades K-12. These tournaments this year. and creativity. events range from traditional science Winners of the state fairs to highly focused engineering and competitions will advance The Awesome Aquifers robotic competitions, and sophisticated to the 2006 National competition requires “envirothons” that challenge students Science Olympiad middle school students to (and their teachers) to creatively Tournament hosted exhibit an understanding employ the scientific method to solve by Indiana University, of groundwater in the old and new science quandaries. Bloomington, in late May. hydrologic cycle and the physical makeup The Science Olympiad is one of the In the Southwest, Washburne Jim Photo: of an aquifer, and to largest and most dynamic of the science Arizona, New Mexico, Competitors build an aquifer in demonstrate changes to Arizona’s 2006 Science Olympiad. competitions. The supporting organization Nevada, Southern the groundwater system. was founded in 1983 with the goals California, and Utah offer events for The Water Quality event encourages of improving the quality of science sixth to ninth graders, including two a strong understanding of the ecology education, increasing student interest in hydrology competitions, Awesome and chemistry that contributes to water science, and providing recognition for Aquifers and Water Quality. With regional quality, and involves building homemade outstanding achievement by students and and state finals occurring this spring, the hydrometers to test water quality. Students teachers through classroom activities, competitors have been busy with their are also judged on written tests covering research, training workshops, and a series volunteer coaches building groundwater their knowledge of groundwater and water of tournament-style academic competitions models, hydrometers, and salinometers, quality basics and vocabulary, their ability for individual and team events which and studying macroinvertebrates in to apply what they’ve learned, and their ability to use scientific references within the 50-minute tournament timeframe.

Volunteer coaches for the water events and judges with expertise in hydrology are needed every year in every region of the Southwest. If you are interested in contributing your time and energy to these events, visit the National Science Olympiad Site at www.soinc.org, or the Science Olympiad websites for your region.

Arizona - Selina Johnson, University of Arizona: www.soinc.org/states/arizona.htm or Agripina Paluch: www.gc.maricopa.edu/biology/so/ Nevada - Richard Vineyard, Nevada Dept. of Education, [email protected] New Mexico - Tony Ortiz, NM Institute of Mining and Technology: infohost.nmt.edu/~science/olympiad/ Southern California - Ed Rodevich, Orange County Office of Education and Sharon Writer, Cal State University: scienceolympiad.ocde.us/olympiad/ Utah - Sharon Ohlhorst, Weber State University: departments.weber.edu/sciencecenter/ ScienceOlympiad/Olympiadpage.htm

40 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology SOFTWARE REVIEW THWELLS A THWELLS model can be constructed quickly and provides reliable results Review of THWELLS Sophia Seo, Ph.D. – Colorado School of Mines when applied to an appropriate setting. THWELLS is an analytical solution that Computational accuracy has been calculates the drawdown or buildup of verified by comparing results with those piezometric head caused by multiple obtained using IMAGEW-1, WALTON35, pumping or injection wells. The model can CAPZONE, and GWFLOW. Boundary be used for a confined, leaky, or unconfined effect can be considered using image wells. Application aquifer based on the assumptions that Ease of Use: A primary weakness of THWELLS is that Drawdown from multiple- the aquifer is homogeneous, isotropic, GUI: N/A wells (analytical solution) graphic results cannot be routed directly uniformly thick, and of infinite extent. Output/Plotting: Best Features It is ideal where geology and hydrologic to a printer. Instead, a Surfer-compatible Documentation: Ease of use ASCII file, containing grid information conditions are fairly simple and the required Speed: Worst Feature and calculated drawdowns, is generated for Graphic Result information about the aquifer (such as OVERALL RATING: presentation of contours and other post- hydraulic conductivity, storage coefficient, Rating System: Excellent Poor processing tasks. Another shortcoming is and saturated thickness) is reliable. that the result-screen view always uses a International Ground Water Modeling Center THWELLS is an interactive DOS-based full screen and cannot be resized. Thus, it program. Data entry is facilitated through a Department of Geology and Geological Engineering is cumbersome to use simultaneously with sequence of screens. Results can be viewed other programs. Significant improvement from single or multiple pumping wells in in table format or graphically on screen in the output graphics should be simple settings. or in a file, and saved for post-processing. considered in developing future versions. The graphic display includes both time- The program can be purchased from International Ground Water Modeling Center (typhoon.mines.edu/ drawdown curves for selected locations and THWELLS is an inexpensive yet readily software/igwmcsoft/) for $50. Contact Sophia Seo at contour plots for a user-specified time. adaptable code for evaluating drawdown [email protected].

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May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology • 41 THE CALENDAR

MAY 2006

May 7-11 National Water Quality Monitoring Council. 5th National Monitoring Conference: Monitoring Networks - Connecting for Clean Water. San Jose, CA. water.usgs.gov/wicp/acwi/monitoring/conference/2006/calendar_annct_06.pdf May 8-10 American Water Resources Association. 2006 Spring Specialty Conference: GIS and Water Resources IV. Houston, TX. www.awra.org/meetings/Houston2006 May 10-12 Groundwater Resources Association of California. Vadose Zone Hydrology, Contamination, and Modeling Short Course. Redwood City, CA. www.grac.org/vadosemain.html May 11-12 CLE International. Law of the Colorado River. Tucson, AZ. www.cle.com/dev/seminars.php May 15-16 WateReuse Foundation. 10th Annual Water Reuse Research Conference. Phoenix, AZ. watereuse.org/Foundation/2006conf/ May 16-17 National Ground Water Association. NGWA Western Focus Ground Water Conference. San Francisco, CA. info.ngwa.org/servicecenter/Meetings/ May 17-19 Nevada Water Resources Association. Regional Tour of the Carbonate System. Southern and eastern NV. www.nvwra.org May 21-24 International Ground Water Modeling Center. MODFLOW and More 2006: Managing Ground-Water Systems. Golden, CO. www.mines.edu/igwmc/events/modflow2006/modflow2006.shtml May 21-25 Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE. World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. Omaha, NE. www.asce.org/conferences/ewri2006/ May 23-25 US EPA, USDA. 2nd National Water Quality Trading Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. cfpub2.epa.gov/npdes/courseinfo.cfm?program_id=0&outreach_id=267&schedule_id=851 May 23-26 Waterloo Hydrogeologic Inc. Applied Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport Modeling (short course). Sacramento, CA. www.waterloohydrogeologic.com/training/groundwater_training_course_aftm.htm May 30-June 2 University of Castilla-La Mancha. III International Symposium on Transboundary Waters Management. La Mancha, Spain. www.uclm.es/congresos/twm/

JUNE 2006

June 4- 8 World Meteorological Association, World Weather Research Programme, NCAR. 2nd International Symposium on Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting and Hydrology. Boulder, CO. box.mmm.ucar.edu/events/qpf05 June 7- 8 Groundwater Resources Association of California. Emerging Contaminants in Groundwater: A Continually Moving Target (symposium). Concord, CA. www.grac.org/contaminantsmain.html June 11-15 American Water Works Association. AWWA 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition. San Antonio, TX. www.awwa.org/ace06/ June 14-16 Water Education Foundation. Bay-Delta Tour. Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay, CA. www.watereducation.org/tours.asp#watertours June 20-21 Arizona Water Resources Research Center. Providing Water to Arizona’s Growing Population: How Will We Meet the Obligation? (conference). Phoenix, AZ. cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/ June 26-28 American Water Resources Association. Adaptive Management of Water Resources (conference). Missoula, MT. www.awra.org/meetings/Montana2006/

JULY 2006

July 18-20 Universities Council on Water Resources. UCOWR/NIWR Annual Conference: Increasing Freshwater Supplies. Santa Fe, NM. www.ucowr.siu.edu/ July 22-26 Soil and Water Conservation Society. 2006 Environmental Management Conference. Keystone, CO. www.swcs.org/en/swcs_international_conferences/2006_international_conference/ July 24-27 Forester Communications. StormCon, the North American Surface Water Quality Conference and Exposition. Denver, CO. www.stormcon.com/sc.html AUGUST 2006

August 7- 8 CLE International. New Mexico Water Law SuperConference. Santa Fe, NM. www.cle.com August 7- 9 USEPA, NIEHS, and the Center for Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State University. International Conference on the Future of Agriculture: Science, Stewardship, and Sustainability. Sacramento, CA. www.dce.ksu.edu/dce/conf/ag&environment/ August 10-11 CLE International. Arizona Water Law SuperConference. Phoenix, AZ. www.cle.com

42 • May/June 2006 • Southwest Hydrology

3 Parameters in Every Monitoring Well

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