WaterWired

Sunday Seattle Workshop - Aaron Wolf and Todd Jarvis: 'Water Conflict Management and Transformation'

Friends and colleagues Aaron Wolf and Todd Jarvis are delighted to offer a half-day workshop on 'Water Conflict Management and Transformation in advance of the American Water Resources Association’s annual conference in Seattle on the afternoon of November 6 from 1:30 to 5 PM. You can attend even if you are not attending the conference - just pay the $199 fee onsite. The workshop will be held at the conference venue: Hyatt Regency Lake Washington, 1053 Lake Washington Blvd. N, Renton, WA 98056. 

Overview:

"Water Conflict Management & Transformation” offers an opportunity for water resources professionals regardless of background to learn about current and leading-edge ways to work effectively in contentious water situations. It explores conflict tolerance, prevention, management, and transformation through collaborative structures as well as through models of negotiation and dialogue. Water management is conflict management. Regardless of the scale, ensuring that the needs of the people and ecosystems that rely on this critical resource are met effectively requires comprehensive understanding of both water science and water conflict management, including dispute mitigation, transformation, and resolution. To address these needs, the instructors have designed a highly interactive approach to capacity-building, including theoretical approaches, case studies, role plays, and serious gaming. The goal of this course is to broaden the scope of approach to the conflicts inevitable in the water world, and to provide a more theoretical dimension to conflict, engage multi-level scales of conflict dimensions and strengthen skills through highly experiential learning opportunities.

Learning Objectives

• Increase participants’ understanding of the issue of shared waters from various perspectives and scales.
• Develop the ability of participants to reframe interpersonal differences and apply this within the context of shared waters.
• Increase skills of participants to analyze stakeholders, issues and conditions for negotiations within a shared waters context.
• Introduce the participants to a wide range of negotiation tools, models and frameworks.
• Provide a space for participants to practice and demonstrate their negotiation/mediation skills.

Aaron and Todd are two of the world's best experts on water conflict management and transformation. They are often found in the far reaches of the globe. We are fortunate to have them here with us for a day. Take advantage of their skills.

See you then!

"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations." - Unknown

CRS Report: 'Responding to Drought in the Colorado River Basin - Federal and State Efforts'

Charles V. Stern authored this CRS Insight report (updated 14 October 2022): Responding to Drought in the Colorado River Basin - Federal and State Efforts'.

Note that Insight reports often have URL-embedded material in the report that you won't find here - check the online version highlighted above. 

Download CRS_Report_Responding_Drought_CRB_14Oct2022

Introduction
The Colorado River Basin (Figure 1) covers more than 246,000 square miles in seven U.S. states and Mexico. Basin waters are managed and governed by multiple laws, court decisions, and other documents known collectively as the Law of the River. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 established a framework to apportion water supplies between the river’s Upper and Lower Basins (divided at Lee Ferry, AZ). Each basin was allocated 7.5 million acre-feet (MAF) annually under the compact; an additional 1.5 MAF in annual flows was made available to Mexico under a 1944 treaty. Since the Upper Basin’s waters were developed after the Lower Basin, its apportionments are less than the full amount allowed under the compact and are framed in terms of percentages of available supplies. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) plays a prominent role in basin water management due to the many federally authorized projects in the basin.

Check out figures 1- 3: Colorado River Basin, Lake Powell storage, Lake Mead storage. 

More to read...

Enjoy!

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West 

Paul J. Pickett Opines: 'A Dream Water Regime for Washington State'

The latest September-October 2022 issue of Water Resources IMPACT has hit the streets and I will feature its 9 articles as I previously did with the July-August issue that focused on Hydrophilanthropy. The current issue highlights Pacific Northwest Water. Yesterday I opened with Robert T. Lackey and salmon. Today I will showcase Paul J. Pickett's 'water vision' for Washington State.

You can tell this will be a good one. Here's how Paul starts:

NO WAY. NOT GONNA HAPPEN! That may be your reaction after reading this article. That’s okay. But sometimes we need to dream. And after four decades of work and learning in water resources, I see a lot of things I wish were different here in Washington State. Better. Brought into the 21st century. 

This, then, is my Washington Dream Water Regime.

That's all I'm going to say; the rest I will leave to Mr. Pickett's wit and wisdom.

Click on the graphics to enlarge them.

Download Pickett_Water Resources IMPACT September:October 2022

Enjoy! And dream!

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” ~ Harriet Tubman.

Robert T. Lackey Opines: 'The Great Pacific Northwest Salmon Conundrum'

The latest September-October 2022 issue of Water Resources IMPACT has hit the streets and I will feature its 9 articles as I previously did with the July-August issue that focused on Hydrophilanthropy. The current issue focuses on Pacific Northwest Water.

I will start with the lead article by my friend and colleague Robert T. Lackey. As far as I'm concerned, Bob is 'Mr. PNW Salmon' The title of his article is The Great Pacific Northwest Salmon Conundrum: 

Download Lackey_Salmon_PNW_IMPACT

Here are the first few paragraphs - click on the graphics to expand them.

When people think of the U.S. Pacific Northwest he iconic salmon often come to mind. Although universally treasured, wild salmon are well on their way to disappearing from the region (Oregon, Washington, and Idaho). Why? Certainly not for lack of concern or because society has been unwilling to spend money to save them. In fact, many billions have been spent on salmon recovery. A large, well-funded “salmon recovery industry” has long thrived in the region, and there appears to be no end to this funding stream.

Indeed, the sheer amount of research focused on salmon is greater than any other fish in the world. As a result, we have quite a clear picture of these animals, their environment, and what has caused their long-term decline. But the reality is that despite the massive sums spent on salmon science, Pacific Northwest wild salmon runs—or the mass migration of salmon to spawn in the upper reaches of rivers—continue to decline.

In other words, this is not a policy challenge that can be solved with more science. It is, rather, a question of political will. And therein lies the rub.

Wild salmon decline is a natural resource policy conundrum. Everyone supports the recovery of these popular and iconic species and a steady flow of money continues  to fund an army of scientists and other technical experts tasked with reversing the decline. But a reversal in declining salmon populations will remain unachievable unless there are substantive public policy changes, some of them politically contentious.

Great reading!

"Assuming the most likely rate of human population growth in the U.S. Pacific Northwest there will be somewhere between 35 and 45 million people by the year 2100. Based on experience elsewhere the devastating consequences for wild salmon in the region are predictable."  - Robert T. Lackey (from the article)

How Clean Is Your Water? An Oregon Initiative Brings Water Testing to the People

Time for another article from the July-August 2022 issue. Here is a PDF of the entire issue on 'Hydophilanthropy':

Download AWRA JulyAug 2022_IMPACT

and a flipping-book version: click here.

Here is a brief description of the Brown et al. article: 

How Clean Is Your Water? An Oregon Initiative Brings Water Testing to the People
Oregon needs hydrophilanthropy? Think tribes. Underserved communities. Infrastructure that is nonexistent or nonfunctional. The authors are on top of the problems and the water future is looking up.
Lynny Brown, Todd Jarvis, Alaí Reyes-Santos

Here is a PDF of their article:

Download LB Oregon_Water_Initiative

Here is the Introduction to the article (Note: the PDF has embedded links):  

As the Federal government uncreases its focus on rural infrastructure investments, Oregon has an opportunity to update critical infrastructure for rural drinking water and wastewater systems to increase the health of residents across the state. Oregon senators Ron Wyden (D) and Jeff Merkley (D) recently introduced a bill to expand access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation for underserved communities through the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Sector Development Act of 2022. The WASH Act seeks to increase data on communities’ access to clean, potable water and create grant programs to empower rural, low-income, and tribal communities, among others, struggling to replace or remediate wells that serve small water systems. According to the act, “Federal data currently fails to accurately measure the water and sanitation access gap in America, resulting in a lack of adequate investment in critical infrastructure for rural tribal, and underserved communities.”

Enjoy!

"Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery