WaterWired

Incredible Lunar Eclipse Photos!

Colleague Gary A. Whitton of Fairbanks, AK, President of Engineering and Environmental Internet Solutions (EEI) and Webmaster of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA), took these incredible pictures of the recent lunar eclipse and gave me permission to post these. He took the pictures at about 2 AM Alaska Daylight Time.

So what does a anything lunar have to do with terrestrial water? Think "tides".

Enjoy, and thanks, Gary!

"Guns don't kill people; husbands who come home early kill people." -- Larry the Cable Guy

Climate Change: Water Adaptation Summit in California

The Water Education Foundation (WEF) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) are sponsoring a one-day Climate Change: Water Adaptation Summit. It will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Monica, 3 October 2007.

You can get complete information, including registration ($225) by clicking here. The fee includes lunch, materials, and a reception. You may also get a chance to see The Governator, who has been invited to speak.

Although the topics are oriented towards California they will no doubt prove useful to the rest of us. Summit topics include:

• Coping with climate change within California's water system
• What to do when the well runs dry
• Bay-Delta challenges: salty water and slumping levees
• Agricultural perspective on adaptation to climate change
• Integrated regional water management opportunities
• Water, water, everywhere: the flood management challenge
• Local land use planning opportunities
• Call to action on water and climate change

I'd go if I could!

Hurricane Katrina made landfall two years ago today. Let's remember and honor our Gulf Coast friends who bore the brunt of this catastrophe. Remember - there but for fortune go you or I.

Tune into NPR for more on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, including an interview with historian Douglas Brinkley, who wrote a powerful Op-Ed piece in the 26 August 2007 Washington Post "Reckless Abandonment', which you can read at the NPR site here.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra

Briefing on New Web Resource for Safe Drinking Water

You are invited to a briefing on a new WWW resource: Safe Drinking Water Is Essential!

What:

Diseases caused by unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation are among the world's most serious public health threats, accounting for nearly 80% of illnesses in developing countries and killing millions of people - mostly children - each year.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Global Health and Education Foundation are joining more than 125 science, engineering, and medical academies around the world to take action on the global drinking water crisis by launching the WWW site Safe Drinking Water is Essential.

A public briefing will be held to discuss this valuable WWW resource, the first tool of its kind to provide international decision makers with peer-reviewed scientific and technical information about drinking water distribution and treatment options.

When:

Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 11 AM - noon EDT

Where:

Murrow Room, National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

Who:

Ralph J. Ciccerone, President, National Academy of Sciences

Kenneth Behring, Founder, Global Health and Education Foundation

Peter Gleick, President, Pacific Institute

Jose Tundisi, President, International Ecological Institute

Hame Watt, International Water Supply and Sanitation Consultant

The briefing will also be audiocast from the NAS WWW site in real time. Participants will be able to submit questions to the above expert panelists via email.

DVDs of the WWW site will be availbale at the briefing and by request.

To attend the briefing, contact Amy Shaw at [email protected] or 202-334-1612.

                          (Map below from the WWW site)

Sixth National Monitoring Conference

The National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) presents its 6th conference, Monitoring: Key to Understanding Our Waters. We invite you to join us in Atlantic City, NJ, a world-class [MEC comment: Say what?] city that boasts top tier convention facilities, hotels and family entertainment. Atlantic City is located near several river basin and coastal water initiatives, including the Delaware Bay, part of a network pilot study.

The conference will feature recent theme-related successes from a broad array of river basins and coastal waters, including overviews of the three pilot studies selected for the National Water Quality Monitoring Network for U.S. Coastal Water and their Tributaries, and plans for the Network’s future.

Selected Conference Themes:

• Connecting and Integrating Data About Hydrologic Resources
• Collecting, Assessing and Interpreting Data: New Technologies and Analytical Methods
• Describing the Sustainability and Condition of Water Resources
• Understanding Water Quality Stressors
• Exploring Federal, State, and Local Monitoring Needs
• Enhancing State, Regional, and Local Monitoring Programs
• Addressing Multi-Jurisdictional and International Monitoring Issues
• Improving Communication through Innovative Outreach

Abstracts are due 24 September 2007. Click here for complete information, or send an email to [email protected]. You can download a conference flyer below.

Download SavetheDatePrint.pdf

Water Wonks and Policy Wonks, Unite! A Conference for You Both

We scientists and engineers are forever complaining about policy-makers and decision-makers. They: 1) don't use our wonderful work to implement smart policy and make defensible decisions; 2) want us to reduce everything to the least common denominator; 3) are ignorant; and 4) dislike uncertainty - just give 'em a single number!

And policy-makers and decision-makers love to complain about us. We: 1) can't communicate effectively; 2) want to study everything to death; 3) waffle; 4) don't provide actionable information; and 5) are supercilious (Moi? Supercilious?).

Both groups are right to some extent. So why not have a conference to address these issues (not the first time this has been done)?

Water in the Pacific Northwest: Moving Science Into Policy and Action

will occur at the beautiful Skamania Lodge on the banks of the mighty Columbia River, just about 45 minutes east of Portland, OR, and easily accessible from Portland International Airport (PDX).

View the conference WWW site where you can download the brochure, register online, etc. The brochure is also downloadable below:

Download conference_brochure.pdf

Featured speakers will be Oregon State Rep. Jackie Dingfelder and Dr. P. Patrick Leahy, former Associate Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and current Executive Director of the American Geological Institute (AGI).

There will be pre-conference (7 November) activities: 1) field trip to Bonneville Dam (afternoon); 2) a workshop on Designing Collaborative Strategies to Integrate Science and Policy: An Interactive Workshop (afternoon); and 3) a showing of the film Waterbuster hosted by Paul VanDevelder (7-9 PM).

There will also be great oral and poster presentations and panel discussions.

See you at Skamania!

"The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished." -- George Bernard Shaw