WaterWired

National Academies Report: 'Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine'

New report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine:

Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

You can download a free PDF, purchase an e-book or a hard copy at this site: click here.

You can also download a PDF below:

Download NRC_Sexual_Harassment_of_Women

Preface 

Throughout our careers we have worked to encourage women to pursue their interests and capabilities in science, engineering, and medicine. And we aredelighted with the continual increase in the percentage of women in these elds.We have also worked to ensure a welcoming and safe environment in academia for women students, faculty, and staff. We believe that universities have a spe- cial responsibility to provide a welcoming and effective environment for women students. We believe that this report focuses on the issues that must be addressedfor our communities to take the next step.

Preventing and effectively addressing sexual harassment of women in colleges and universities has remained a challenge for decades, but over that timea strong research base has been developed that reveals the true nature of sexualharassment and its impacts on women’s careers—and also reveals what can be done to successfully address it. The Committee on Women in Science, Engineer-ing, and Medicine developed the idea for this study on the Impacts of SexualHarassment in Academia more than 2 years ago, and proposed that a specialstudy committee be appointed to examine the research on sexual harassmentto determine what could be done to prevent it in academic settings in science, engineering, and medicine.

With this charge, our study committee of distinguished scientists, engineers,and physicians, and experts in sexual harassment research, legal studies, andpsychology held a series of workshops and undertook a deep analysis of the literature to gather information for our study and to simultaneously help informthe broader community about the problem of sexual harassment. Over the courseof the study, which was launched in late 2016, the topic rose in prominence inthe national discourse, most signi cantly with the rise of the #MeToo movement, which dramatically increased awareness of how many women have experienced sexual harassment and what these sexual harassment experiences looked like inthe real world.

Through our work it became clear that sexual harassment is a serious issuefor women at all levels in academic science, engineering, and medicine, and thatthese elds share characteristics that create conditions that make harassment morelikely to occur. Such environments can silence and limit the career opportunitiesin the short and long terms for both the targets of the sexual harassment and the bystanders—with at least some leaving their eld. The consequence of this is a significant and costly loss of talent in science, engineering, and medicine.

However, we are encouraged by the research that suggests that the mostpotent predictor of sexual harassment is organizational climate—the degree to which those in the organization perceive that sexual harassment is or is not tolerated. This means that institutions can take concrete steps to reduce sexualharassment by making systemwide changes that demonstrate how seriously theytake this issue and that re ect that they are listening to those who courageously speak up to report their sexual harassment experiences.

Because of the strength of the research, we are optimistic that academic institutions (campuswide as well as within schools, programs, and departments)can meet the challenge of reducing and preventing sexual harassment, and caneven lead other industry sectors in addressing this issue. Ultimately, success in addressing this challenge will require committed leadership, hard work, initiative,and nancial investment from administrators at every level within academia, aswell as support, cooperation, and work from all members of our nation’s college campuses—students, faculty, and staff. We call on our fellow leaders and all the members of our campus communities to take on the responsibility for promot-ing a civil and respectful environment that prevents sexual harassment fromoccurring and creates a healthier environment for all people working in science, engineering, and medicine—and indeed in all academic disciplines. Eliminatingsexual harassment is everyone’s responsibility, and the time to act is now. Webelieve this report offers strong guidance for such action.

Paula A. Johnson and Sheila Widnall, Co-Chairs, Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia

Thanks to Julia Jones for sending this my way and our CEOAS Dean, Roberta Marinelli, for serving on the committee that wrote the report.

Enjoy - important work!

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."- Frederick Douglass

Kathy Robb Essay: 'On The Heads of Women'

I just met Kathy Robb a few hours ago albeit via phone. We were preparing for her AWRA webinar, Groundwater Discharges and Clean Water Act Compliance, that she and colleague Marcia Greenblatt will present on 19 September (more on that later). Kathy is an attorney and principal in the New York City law firm of Sive, Paget and Riesel, P.C.  

She saw a picture of me with my 'Got Water' T-shirt and when I told her what was on the back that prompted her to send me an essay 'On the Heads of Women', she wrote as a chapter for the book, Written in Water, edited by Irena Salina.    

 Here is the blurb preceding her chapter (written in 2010):

 Kathy Robb became interested in environmental issues as a child, while ridingin the backseat of the family station wagon out west. A partner with Hunton & Williams in New York, she focuses exclusively on environmental law, includinglitigation in federal district and appellate courts and advice on regulations,compliance, and environmental risks. She works on water issues under the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Natural Environmental Policy Act, water-related Superfund sites with PCBs and other contaminationin sediments and groundwater, representing clients that include waterdistricts, developers, electric utilities, energy companies, investors, lenders,chemical manufacturers, and paper mills. She founded and directs the WaterPolicy Institute, which seeks innovative, sustainable solutions to water supplyand quality issues. Robb is co-founder and chair of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, a nonprofit organization advancing sustainability, and a board member of the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C.

 Download her chapter here:

Download KR Essay WIW-c

 The first few paragraphs:

A girl awakes; washes her hands and face with warm, clean water running from the tap in her bathroom; dresses; grabs breakfast; brushes her teeth with cold, clean water from the same tap; flings her books and papers into a satchel that her mother worries is too heavy for her light and growing frame; and races out the door to the bus.

Another girl awakes, splashes cold water from a basin onto her face, grabs breakfast, and takes a large, empty container from the corner as she races out the door to join some other girls and start walking the six miles to her destination.

The first girl, my own daughter, is an American and lives in New York City. Every day she enjoys—without giving it a second thought, in the same way she breathes the air or assumes that she will have Internet access on demand—delicious water at the temperature of her choice from taps at home, at school, in museums, in public bathrooms, and in the pizza place around the corner.

The second girl lives in Africa but could be from any number of other places in the world today where there is no water service. She is the water service. And because she must walk more than six miles each way and stand in line for a couple of hours to bring water to her community, she does not go to school.

You'll enjoy her 8-page essay. She tells it like it is. .

As I mentioned above Kathy and Marcia Greenblatt a PhD engineer with Integral Consulting, Inc., will present the webinar Groundwater Discharges and Clean Water Act Compliance on 19 September from 1 - 2 PM EDT. It's free for AWRA members and $25 for others. You can register here.  They will also moderate a panel session on the same topic at the upcoming AWRA Annual Conference in Baltimore. It is Session 61 at 1:30 PM on 8 November. Register for the conference here. 

"It is estimated that in India alone, women spend 150 million workdays per year
fetching water, equal to a national loss of income of 10 billion rupees ($217,000,000)" - Kathy Robb

The Winters of Our (States') Discontent? More On Native American Groundwater Winters Rights

Friend and hydrogeologist extraordinaire Kate Ely of the CTUIR sent this my way.

Just published in Science: Indigenous Communities, Groundwater Opportunities by Philip Wombie, Debra Perrone, Scott Jasechko, Rebecca L. Nelson, Leon Szeptycki, Robert T. Anderson, and Steven M. Gorelick.

Download Science_article_GW_Tribes

Table S1:  Download Womble_Table_S1

Here is the first paragraph:

Instead of managing fresh water as one integrated resource, laws frequently treat groundwater separately from more visible, monitored, and managed surface waters. One under-recognized consequence of such legal fragmentation has been uncertainty about whether water rights for indigenous communities, which have been addressed in many countries to varying degrees for surface waters, apply to groundwater. In late 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court left standing a lower court ruling endorsing priority groundwater rights for Native American tribes by denying an appeal in Agua Caliente Band v. Coachella Valley Water District. This ruling establishes a new standard throughout nine western states within the lower court’s jurisdiction and establishes persuasive, although nonbinding, legal precedent for the rest of the United States. To evaluate the ruling’s broader potential impacts, we present new data cataloging existing Native American water rights and mapping unresolved tribal groundwater claims across the western United States. No court considered such a regional or national quantitative catalog or map. Drawing lessons from past U.S. experience, we then discuss how tribal rights may offer new opportunities to achieve sustainable groundwater management for society at large, with implications beyond the United States.

 

Cutting to the last section: 

Global Implications
After Agua Caliente, indigenous community groundwater claims are probably more prominent in the United States than any other nation. Yet many nations face the prospect of incorporating water claims for indigenous communities into contemporary water governance. For example, similar challenges and opportunities exist in Australia, Canada, Chile, and New Zealand, though no two nations legally recognize these claims in the same manner.

As in the United States, surface water claims for indigenous communities have received more attention than groundwater claims in these nations. The Agua Caliente ruling offers an opportunity to increase awareness of groundwater claims in these nations. By bridging surface water and groundwater, the ruling may also offer persuasive, though nonbinding, legal precedent for courts outside the United States, particularly in Canada and Chile, where courts have previously adopted terminology or approaches in U.S. indigenous water law.

The U.S. response to the Agua Caliente ruling may also develop transferable lessons for improving water access. As in the United States, opportunities for major legal settlements to improve water access for indigenous communities exist in Canada and New Zealand, where treaties establish water claims. These opportunities may be more limited in nations without treaties (e.g., Australia and Chile). Additionally, U.S. experience with water markets may be relevant to Australia and Chile, where markets also exist. In Chile, because markets historically transferred water out of indigenous communities, a national Indigenous Land and Water Fund now finances reacquisition of water rights for these communities. In Australia, although indigenous land accounts for >30% of all land, indigenous water entitlements constitute <0.01% of diversions, and similar to the United States, disputes persist regarding whether indigenous groups should be able to market water.

In the United States, meanwhile, the response to the Agua Caliente ruling holds potential to improve Native American water security. It also holds potential to demonstrate to the United States and other nations the importance, feasibility, and opportunities of recognizing groundwater claims for indigenous communities. 

My Ten Cents
This is an excellent paper, with much information and a plethora of data. I was pleased to see the authors correctly note that sustainable groundwater extraction rates do not necessarily equal aquifer recharge rates. Hooray! See my post on Groundwater: The Water Budget Myth. The last section on 'Global Implications' is very good and spot-on.

What perplexes me about the article is the fact that it strongly suggests that these rights will lead to more sustainable groundwater management. I am guessing that most Western states and tribes don't know how much usable (not to be confused with sustainable) groundwater they have. I don't know this for a fact, but am using my own state, Oregon, as representative of other Western states (see this WaterWired post) in terms of not knowing how much groundwater it has.

Since states did not really consider these 'additional' amounts of water as rights - the Winters groundwater - I am assuming that . these amounts will be a burden to the states who will view this as 'extra' water that must be 'found'. I am unsure how this was produce overall sustainability in a given state. 

And what about reservations that cross state lines? That could be messy. Maybe the pending Mississippi v. Tennessee SCOTUS case would come into play.

And then there is the pore space ownership issue that is currently being negotiated between the Agua Caliente Band and the water district defendants.

Interesting times ahead....

Here is some related material you may find useful:

CRS Report: Indian Water Rights Settlements 

My presentation and short article: The Winters Doctrine Goes Underground

I'm glad this decision was resolved in the way it was. I wish that SCOTUS had ruled in the tribe's favor so that Winters rights for groundwater would apply to the entire USA.

Our Native Americans deserve this - it's been a long time coming. It'll take some doing but I believe we can make this work.

"No policy without a calamity." - Dutch saying

CRS Report: 'Indian Water Rights Settlements' (17 July 2018)

Here is an updated (17 July 2018) CRS report, Indian Water Rights Settlements. The author's name is redacted.

Download CRS_Indian_Water_Rights_17July2018

Summary

In the second half of the 19^th century, the federal government pursued a policy of confining Indian tribes to reservations. These reservations were either a portion of a tribe's aboriginal land or an area of land taken out of the public domain and set aside for a tribe. The federal statutes and treaties reserving such land for Indian reservations typically did not address the water needs of these reservations, a fact that has given rise to questions and disputes regarding Indian reserved water rights. Dating to a 1908 Supreme Court ruling, courts generally have held that many tribes have a reserved right to water sufficient to fulfill the purpose of their reservations and that this right took effect on the date the reservations were established. This means that, in the context of a state water law system of prior appropriations, which is common in many U.S. western states, many tribes have water rights senior to those of non-Indian users with water rights and access established subsequent to the Indian reservations' creation. Although many Indian tribes hold senior water rights through their reservations, the quantification of these rights is undetermined in many cases.

Tribes have pursued quantification of their water rights through both litigation and negotiated settlements. The settlements involve negotiation between tribes, the federal government, states, water districts, and private water users, among others. They aim to resolve conflict between rights holders and allow the parties to determine specific terms of water allocation and use with certainty. Over the last 50 years, negotiated settlements have been the preferred course for most tribes because they are often less lengthy and costly than litigation. Additionally, many stakeholders have noted that these negotiated agreements are more likely to allow tribes not only to quantify their water rights on paper but also to procure access to these resources in the form of infrastructure and other related expenses, at least in some cases.

After being negotiated, approval and implementation of Indian water rights settlements require federal action. As of 2018, 36 Indian water rights settlements had been federally approved, with total costs in excess of $5.8 billion. Of these, 32 settlements were approved and enacted by Congress and 4 were administratively approved by the U.S. Departments of Justice and the Interior. After being congressionally authorized, federal projects associated with approved Indian water rights settlements generally have been implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation or the Bureau of Indian Affairs (both within the Department of the Interior), pursuant to congressional directions. Congress has appropriated discretionary and mandatory funding (and, in some cases, both) for these activities, including in recent appropriations bills. In the 115^th Congress, S. 3168 proposes to extend certain mandatory funds for these settlements in perpetuity (the funding currently expires in FY2029).

Several individual Indian water rights settlements recently have been considered and enacted, including three that were enacted during the 114^th Congress. Three settlements had been introduced in the 115^th Congress as of July 2018. A primary challenge facing new settlements is the availability of federal funds to implement ongoing and future agreements. Indian water rights settlements often involve the construction of major new water infrastructure to allow tribal communities to access water they hold rights to, and obtaining federal funding for these projects can be difficult. As a result, some settlements have been renegotiated to reduce their federal costs.

At issue is under what circumstances (if any) Congress should approve new Indian water rights settlements and whether Congress should fund (and in some cases amend) existing settlements. Some argue that resolution of Indian water rights settlements is a mutually beneficial means to resolve long-standing legal issues, provide certainty of water deliveries, and reduce the federal government's liability. Others argue against authorization and funding of new settlements, either on general principle or with regard to specific individual settlements and activities.

This report provides an overview of Indian water rights settlements. It analyzes issues surrounding water rights settlements and the negotiation process, as well as implementation challenges and related issues for Congress.

Figure 1. Indian Reservations with Water Rights Settlements or Negotiations

I found this on new site EveryCRSReport.com. Give it a try.

Enjoy!

 “Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future.” – Lumbee proverb

U.S. Water Alliance Report: 'Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action'

This report looks fascinating. Thanks to friend and colleague Lisa Beutler for sending it my way.

Download USWA_artsculture_FINAL

 Here is the preface from U.S. Water Alliance CEO Radhika Fox and ArtPlace America ED Jamie Bennett.

 Preface
The urgent and multifaceted nature of our water challenges
calls for new ways of thinking, acting, and investing.
Water leaders across the nation are embracing the One
Water approach—managing water resources in a more
integrated, inclusive, and sustainable manner in order to
secure a bright and prosperous future for our children,
communities, and country.

ArtPlace America and the US Water Alliance believe
there is tremendous opportunity to utilize arts and culture
strategies to advance One Water. As creative thinkers
and doers, artists can be powerful partners for water
leaders seeking to reimagine traditional approaches to
water planning and management and connect with
communities in new ways.

Our partnership has been a collaboration in the finest
sense of the word. Together we learned about each
other’s sectors, challenged assumptions, and have
developed a powerful framework for how to use arts and
culture to forge One Water progress. We are so inspired
by the creative ways that utilities, environmental groups,
public agencies, and other water practitioners are
collaborating with artists and cultural leaders. But it is
only the beginning.

We hope this blueprint sparks a new era of partnership
between arts, cultural, and water leaders in communities
across the country. To do so, we need to invest in building
a robust field of practice—one that cultivates the commitment
and capacity of the water sector and arts and culture
leaders to work in tandem.

I thought for sure my former UNM colleague Basia Irland would be in this report. She's quite remarkable.

Enjoy. 

“Combining water and sewer improvement projects with artwork, or something that attracts the attention of the community, is critical—because otherwise, the community doesn’t see the
progress of the work were doing.” - John Nichols, Rural Utility Management Services, Director, Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative