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WATER RESOURCES

March 2016 | Volume 18 | Number 2

AmericAn WAter resources AssociAtion

DroughtResponse, Adaptation and

Long-Term Planning in a Changing Environment

2 • Water Resources IMPACT March/April 2016

Volume 18 • Number 2 www.awra.org • 3

FEATURE ARTICLES 8 Drought Planning and the

Hydrologic Impact of Wildfires The increased potential for wildfires is a primary concern when periods of drought occur in mountainous, vegetated areas in the western United States.

12 More than a Silver Bullet – Maintaining Reliable Water Supply During Extreme Drought Sacramento’s water agencies are positioned to continue providing reliable water supplies through long-term water resource planning and additional short-term actions.

16 Smoky Hill River Restoration and Other Kansas Drought Planning Measures The Smoky Hill River restoration project in Salina, Kansas, addressed major technical issues such as physical and legal water supply, drought period operations and sediment management.

19 A History of Planning – Droughts to Draughts To accommodate population growth and water needs, Coors Brewery has evolved, accommodating environmental changes and population increases as well as social changes and preferred beer tastes.

21 Using Subcatchment Monitoring Data to Prioritize Stormwater Treatment Control Placement – A New Statistical Methodology Stormwater discharges from Santa Susana Field Laboratory are regulated by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board through an individual industrial National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

24 Building a More Drought Prepared and Resilient California This article focuses on providing a high level overview of the long-term and short-term measures that have been implemented to help California cope with drought conditions in urban areas.

C O N T E N T S

OTHER FEATURES Messages

5 President’s Message Martha Narvaez, AWRA President

7 Interview with President-Elect Rafael Frias III, AWRA President-Elect

Columns

28 The New Economics of Water: Colorado Explores Alternatives to Buy-and-Dry Water Right Transfers

29 What’s Up with Water? Childhood’s End, the Apocalypse and COP 21

AWRA Business

31 State Section and Student Chapter News

32 AWRA Thanks Charlene Young and Dick Engberg for Years of Service

33 Spring Conference Preliminary Program

34 February JAWRA Highlights

34 2016 Editorial Calendar

35 2016-2017 Richard A. Herbert Memorial Scholarship Opportunities

4 Index to Advertisers

About this issue Issue theme: Drought, Response, Adaptation, And Long Term Planning In A Changing EnvironmentAssociate Editor: Jonathan E. Jones, Wright Water Engineers, Inc.Given the economic, social, environmental, and other implications of the 2012-2015 drought in the American south and west has become one of the most costly natural disasters in American history, water resources professionals have learned that drought response, adaptation, and preparation must be forefront in planning and operations. Our authors address multiple perspectives on drought management and preparation, using case studies from California, Kansas, and Colorado: Paton of Wright Water Engineers addresses how climate change and drought have combined to create an increase in wildfires across the Front Range, forcing community planners and regulators to change their approaches to fire management; Swartz and Woodling of the Regional Water

Authority in central California detail the 2012-2015 drought’s effects on central California and delve into how water usage and drought planning were managed prior to the El Nino relief of 2016; Tasker of the City of Salina, Kansas describes the long and difficult process of river restoration in an urban environment with period droughts; Moline of Coors Brewing Company tackles the issue of corporate water rights management in water-scarce regions; Costa et al of Boeing analyzes the necessary changes in water treatment processes when dealing with periodically dry or low-flow sources; and Zu and Hann of Geosyntec Consultants discuss short and long-term strategies for municipal drought management. Communicating the risks of drought to the public in a balanced, fair, and rational manner—and in terms that are understandable to the general public—will be of paramount important for water resources practitioners.


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AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION 4 West Federal Street • P.O. Box 1626 Middleburg, VA 20118-1626 (540) 687-8390 / Fax: (540) 687-8395 [email protected] • www.awra.org

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: ERIC J. FITCH Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Leadership Chair, Department of Biology and Environmental Science Director, Environmental Science Program Marietta College, 215 Fifth St., Marietta, Ohio 45750 (740) 376-4997, Fax: (740) 376-4753 E-Mail: [email protected]

AWRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2016

VOL. 18 • NO. 2 • MARCH/APRIL 2016 •ISSN 1522-3175

Have Questions About IMPACT? Contact AWRA HQ (540) 687-8390, Fax (540) 687-8395 [email protected], www.awra.org

MARTHA C. NARVAEZ President

RAFAEL E. FRIAS III President-Elect

NOEL GOLLEHON Secretary-Treasurer

JOHN C. TRACY Past President

BRENDA O. BATEMAN Director

LISA BEUTLER Director

BETSY A. CODY Director

L. DONALD DUKE Director

LAUREL E. STADJUHAR Director

WAYNE S. WRIGHT Director

Water Resources IMPACT is owned and published bi-monthly by the American Water Resources Association, 4 West Federal St., P.O. Box 1626, Middleburg, Virginia 20118-1626, USA. The yearly subscription rate is $89.00 domestic and $99.00 for international subscribers. Single copies of IMPACT are available for $15.00/each (domestic) and $20.00/each (international). For bulk purchases, contact the AWRA Headquarters (HQ) office.

CLAIMS FOR MISSING ISSUES should be sent to the AWRA office in Middleburg, Virginia. No claim allowed for (1) insufficient notice of address change; (2) issues lost in the mail unless claimed within (a) 90 days for U.S.A., or (b) 180 days for other countries, from last day of month of publication; or (3) such reasons as “missing from files.”IMPACT is a magazine of ideas. Authors, Associate Editors, and the Editor-in-Chief work together to create a publication that will inform and will provoke conversation. The views and conclusions expressed by individual authors and published in Water Resources IMPACT should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the American Water Resources Association.Mention of any trademark or proprietary product in works published in the Water Resources IMPACT does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the product by the American Water Resources Association and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable.

Contact the AWRA HQ office if you have any questions pertaining to your membership status. For information on advertising rates and deadlines, contact Christine McCrehin at the e-mail address or phone number given above.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Water Resources IMPACT, American Water Resources Association, 4 West Federal St., P.O. Box 1626, Middleburg, VA 20118-1626. Copyright © 2016 by the American Water Resources Association.Special thanks to Ara Ogle, Assistant to the CEO, Wright Water Engineers, Inc., for her efforts in helping to compile this IMPACT issue.

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Publisher: Pam BlasettiProject Manager: Josh AbramowitzEditor: Robin Lamerson Marketing Associate: Kevin TranPublication Director: Joseph WatkinsLayout and Pagination: CloudberryCo.PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2016/AWRAS0216/2812©2016 Naylor, LLC. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

ASSOCIATE EDITORSJOE BERG ([email protected]) Biohabitats, Inc. – Baltimore, Maryland

LISA BEUTLER ([email protected]) MWH – Sacramento, California

MAE A. DAVENPORT ([email protected]) University of Minnesota – St. Paul, Minnesota

JONATHAN E. JONES ([email protected]) Wright Water Engineers – Denver, Colorado

CLAY J. LANDRY ([email protected]) WestWater Research – Boise, Idaho

RICHARD H. MCCUEN ([email protected]) University of Maryland – College Park, Maryland

E. TIM SMITH ([email protected]) Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable

MICHAEL CAMPANA ([email protected]) American Water Resources Association Middleburg, VA

Index to AdvertisersThe Water Report ............................ 20 www.thewaterreport.com

Wright Water Engineers .................. 20 www. wrightwater.com


IN MY INTRODUCTORY column, I mentioned my intent to bring greater recognition to, and form a stronger connection between, AWRA and the organization’s 23 state and local sections. My interest in highlighting this topic comes from my experiences with AWRA and the Delaware State Section of AWRA (DEAWRA). As a student and new professional, I was an active member in national AWRA, enjoyed attending the conferences and learned so much from the colleagues I met. One thing that was missing, though, was a local connection to water resource professionals outside of my daily project work.

After meeting members from other AWRA state sections, it became clear that Delaware would benefit from a state section. In 2004, with the support of my director and several colleagues, we founded the DEAWRA. For those of us involved, this was an avenue to meet water resource professionals in Delaware and the tristate region, many of whom we would not otherwise have come into contact.

In 2007, three years after establishment, DEAWRA worked with AWRA’s New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia sections to host the American Water Resources Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC). This conference was one of the first in the region to focus on the connection between water resources and economics and, under the AWRA umbrella, convened a robust group of experts to discuss the topic. In partnership with New Jersey, DEAWRA has since coordinated MAC 2013 and MAC 2016 is scheduled for this fall.

Following the success of the MAC in 2007, Delaware and New Jersey teamed up to plan the 2010 AWRA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA. As the conference, one of AWRA’s largest, commenced with the Philadelphia Mummers (costumed entertainers who traditionally welcome the New Year with a parade) jubilantly marching through the opening session, the local planning committee and national leaders agreed that the energy, expertise and connections brought to the conference would not have been possible without the national organization and state sections working together.

Based on my experience at the national and local levels of AWRA, and conversations with state section leaders across the country, I have made it my goal to strengthen the relationship between the national organization and the local sections. AWRA has 23 state/regional sections composed of the best and brightest local water resource experts working on critical issues across the nation. Although these groups are often considered separate organizations, it is critical

Collective Expertise and EnergyP R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

that they are viewed as entities that promote and cultivate one another and serve a mutually supportive relationship.

It is important to note that this effort is not only important to me, the AWRA staff and the Board of Directors, but also to our current and former members. In a recent AWRA marketing analysis conducted by Marketing General, Inc., it was found that “current and former members indicate that the value of the AWRA membership would increase with the development of a partnership with local, regional, or state sections of AWRA.” So, what is national AWRA doing to facilitate this?

In January 2015, the AWRA Board of Directors restated the value and benefit of local sections and committed to strengthening those relationships. A national-level committee was established, which then hosted two listening sessions for state section leaders to gather ideas on how to strengthen the relationship and add value to both national and state/regional sections. In response to that feedback, AWRA has moved forward on several recommendations, including: • Host quarterly state section leader webinars.• Continue the state section leader lunch at the

annual conference.• Dedicate space for state section updates and content

in Water Resources IMPACT magazine.• Create a state section online communication tool.• Provide expertise, as feasible, in areas such as

membership management, finance and water resources content.

• Consider a membership fee structure that will account for state section membership at the national membership level.

• Establish liaisons between the AWRA Board of Directors and the state sections. In closing, I would like to thank those involved at the

local level for all the work you and your section have done to improve water resources locally, as well as your efforts to extend the AWRA name. To those working on the national level, please consider reaching out and joining your local section and sharing all the great things that national has to offer.

There is so much to gain from the collective water resources expertise and energy of our members, both nationally and locally. I believe that working together as much as possible will make state sections and national AWRA the strongest multi-disciplinary water resources organizations out there.

Please contact me if you have feedback, questions or comments. I look forward to working together on this topic in the coming year. ■

Martha Narvaez, President, AWRA [email protected]

I believe that working together as much as possible will make state sections and national AWRA the strongest multi-disciplinary water resources organizations out there.

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President-Elect Frias Looks to Increase AWRA’s Thought Leadership Role in Water Resources

2016 AWRA President-Elect Rafael Frias III

RAFAEL FRIAS III, client director for water business at Black and Veatch, was recently voted AWRA president-elect and began serving his term on January 1, 2016. He will become president of AWRA on January 1, 2017.

January 1, 2016, also saw AWRA member Martha Narvaez, a policy scientist in the Water Resources Agency of the Institute for Public Administration at University of Delaware, begin her tenure as president of the organization. She replaced John C. Tracy, director of Texas Water Resources Institute, who became immediate past president. Newly elected National Board of Director’s members Betsy Cody, Congressional Research Service and Laurel Stadjuhar, West Sage Water Consultants, also assumed their seats on that day.

Frias has been an active member and a strong advocate of AWRA since shortly after joining Black & Veatch in 1999. In 2006, he received AWRA’s A. Ivan Johnson Outstanding Young Professional Award. After receiving the news of his election, Frias agreed to take a few moments to tell AWRA members a bit about the goals he has for his tenure as an AWRA officer.

How does it feel to be elected president-elect of AWRA? It’s truly an honor and I’m actually very humble in having the trust of AWRA and its great members to lead the organization in 2017. I was introduced to AWRA by a mentor of mine and past president, Bob Moresi, over 10 years ago. At that time he was president of AWRA and from that

moment, I always wondered what it could be like to lead this great organization.

What are the issues or goals that you plan to address during your year as AWRA President? During my 3-year term as a member of the AWRA Board of Directors, we have undertaken strategic steps toward increasing the value AWRA provides its members. During my presidency, I will further the work of my predecessors, as well as the work of our current president, Martha Narvaez, to achieve our strategic goals and maximize the value to our members. I will also focus on increasing the level of thought leadership provided by AWRA in the water resources field, as well as the water resources science value that AWRA provides its members.

What will you do over the next year to ensure your goals can be achieved? I will work closely with our current president, Martha Narvaez, in support of her presidency and goals. Martha is a proven professional with great energy and I will work to support her strategic goals and build the foundation for my term in 2017.

Where would you like to see AWRA once you finish your term as president? I would like AWRA to have the momentum needed to achieve continued success. That success could be measured by continuing to be fiscally sound with a bullish perspective on the value provided to our members, resulting in continued membership growth.

Frias can be reached through the AWRA National Office at [email protected]. ■

2016 AWRA Officers and Board of Directors The following officers and directors will begin their terms of service on January 1, 2016:President – Martha Corrozi Narvaez, University of Delaware President-Elect – Rafael E. Frias III, Black & Veatch, Pompano Beach, FLDirector – Betsy Cody, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DCDirector – Laurel Stadjuhar, West Sage Water Consultants, Denver, CO

Continuing their remaining terms as AWRA Board members for 2016 are:Past-President – John C. Tracy, Texas Water Resources Institute, College Station, TXSecretary-Treasurer – Noel Gollehon, USDA-NRCS, Beltsville, MD Director – Lisa Beutler, MWH Global, Inc., Sacramento, CaliforniaDirector – Wayne S. Wright, GeoEngineers, Inc., Seattle, WashingtonDirector – Brenda O. Bateman, Oregon Water Resources Department, Salem, OR Director – L. Donald Duke, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL

For more information on AWRA’s Officers and Board of Directors, including bios, visit www.awra.org.

I would like AWRA to have the momentum needed to achieve continued success.

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Drought Planning and the Hydrologic Impact F E A T U R E


The increased potential for wildfires is a primary concern when periods of drought occur in mountainous, vegetated areas in the western United States. Following a wildfire, new

concerns are raised by the effect the burned area has on the hydrology of the watershed and the resulting likelihood of substantially increased runoff and erosion, which can surprise residents in terms of its destructive force. Awareness of the increased potential for flooding and debris flows following wildfires is an important consideration for officials responsible for public safety.

Drought Planning and the Hydrologic Impact

Ian Paton

of Wildfires


F E A T U R E

By December 2015, Folsom Lake, a primary water supply for nearly 2 million Sacramento region residents, had hit its lowest-ever-storage, just under 14% of capacity. Operated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation,

and used to capture American River flows, the lake is situated in the shadow of majestic oak trees and surrounded by foothills that lead to California’s iconic gold rush country and rugged Sierra Nevada. In a condition more resembling a moonscape than a lake, many wondered how long it would be before the water levels in the nearly one-million acre-foot reservoir would fall below the intake structures used for local supply. Conditions were so dire that Reclamation installed portable pumps on barges in the lake as a stand-by option to continue providing water for public supply.

More than a Silver BulletMaintaining Reliable Water Supply During Extreme Drought

Folsom Lake became the face of California’s drought as images of the barren lake bottom were broadcast nationwide. Photo by Dan Brekke.

Robert J. Swartz and John K. Woodling


River restoration projects require a sound engineering analysis of a wide range of issues,

such as physical and legal water supply, water quality, channel design, regulatory requirements and public safety—to name a few. The Smoky Hill River restoration project in Salina, Kansas, addressed major technical issues such as physical and legal water supply, drought period operations and sediment management in conjunction with the proposed planning improvements to ensure compatibility and to align with the goals and objectives identified by public input. The Smoky Hill River Renewal Master Plan (Master Plan) identifies appropriate planning, design and preliminary engineering responses to the restoration and redevelopment of the existing river channel within the city of Salina, Kansas.

F E A T U R E

Martha Tasker

Smoky Hill River Restoration and Other Kansas Drought Planning Measures

Figure 1. Smoky Hill River Watershed in Kansas.

The Smoky Hill River Renewal Master Plan was accepted by the Salina City Commission in August 2010, and is utilized as a planning document for projects along the Old River Channel.

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F E A T U R E

A History of Planning – Droughts to Draughts Benjamin Moline

dolph Coors arrived in Golden, Colorado in 1873 with his sights

set on starting a brewery utilizing the spring water abundant from the Clear Creek Watershed. Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Adolph started a brewery which would eventually become the world’s largest single site brewery.

visionary, was the CEO of the brewery. He had the foresight to see that the greater Denver area was growing significantly and water availability might start becoming a concern for sustainability of the brewery. In addition to the population growth, Bill was focused on protecting the brewery operations from the dramatic swings in snowpack; from abundance to scarcity during times of drought. In an effort to get ahead of the issue, Bill Coors started acquiring water rights from various ditches in the Golden Valley. For clarity, a ditch in Colorado is typically a water conveyance tool used to transport water from the main stream—Clear Creek in Golden—to agricultural lands, cities or reservoirs. Ditch companies are set up to manage and operate the systems.

After acquiring water rights in many ditches, the water rights were held until the 1970s, when the brewery undertook the process of changing the rights to support industrial and municipal uses rather than only agricultural uses. This process was undertaken by engineers and water managers from the brewery, as well as outside consultants, such as Ken Wright with Wright Water Engineers. While not the first time a water right had been changed in Colorado, the endeavor set out on by Bill was unique in its number of rights to be changed and a new look at stream administration to protect the brewery. The research, negotiations and legal change of water rights ultimately provided protection against droughts and snowpack fluctuations for the brewery, while also commencing a new era of water rights administration in

A lot has changed since Adolph first strolled into town. The population of the state has gone from 40,000 to 5.36 million. The brewery has grown from a 3,500 barrel brewery to the ability to produce 21 million barrels. The snowpack—source of the vast majority of water to Clear Creek—has a typical runoff time of 2.5 months versus the historical three months. And the demand has changed to the year-round needs of cities instead of the seasonal demands of agricultural communities. To accommodate these changes through the years, the brewery has evolved, accommodating environmental changes and population increases as well as social changes and preferred beer tastes.

In the 1950s, Bill Coors, the grandson of founder Adolph Coors and company

A


F E A T U R E

Using Subcatchment Monitoring Data to Prioritize Stormwater Treatment Control Placement A New Statistical MethodologyPaul Costa, Megan Otto and Brandon Steets

The 2,800-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory (Santa Susana

Site), located in the Santa Susana Mountains of eastern Ventura County, California, was formerly a rocket engine testing site and energy research facility for the federal government (1950-1988). It is currently owned by the Boeing Company (post-1996) and the United States government. Activities at the site are now limited to demolition, remediation and restoration. The site will ultimately be dedicated as parkland and open space.

Stormwater discharges from the site are regulated by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB) through an individual industrial National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The permit sets numeric effluent limits (NELs) for a wide range of constituents, including

Figure 2. At Flow in Wate rshed 009 during a rain event.

Figure 1. Advanced Stormwater Treatment System.


F E A T U R E

Building a More Drought Prepared and Resilient


Building a More Drought Prepared and Resilient

Zita L.T. Yu and Mark Hanna

Climate change is expected to bring more extreme weather events around the world. In the relatively arid southwestern region of the United States with its historically classic Mediterranean climate, prolonged

droughts are anticipated as the “new normal” in the era to come. Since the beginning of the 20th century, according to the California Department of Water Resources, Californians have experienced five significant hydrological droughts, with two of them occurring in close succession within the last decade: the 2007-09 drought, and the current drought, which started in 2012 (DWR, 2015). We have learned important lessons and adopted creative measures along the way to make us more drought prepared and resilient. California has made substantial progress considering that our population has grown from 1.5 million in year 1900 to current 39 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 1995 and 2015) and the current irrigated acreage is about six times of that in the beginning of the 20th century (DWR, 2015). This article focuses on providing a high level overview of the long-term and short-term measures that have been implemented to help California cope with drought conditions in urban areas. The long-term measures are those that produce long lasting positive impacts; while the short-term ones focus on those that have been introduced to yield necessary water demand reductions in the current drought.

California


T H E N E W E C O N O M I C S O F W A T E R

Colorado Explores Alternatives to Buy-and-Dry Water Right Transfers Tanner Ketellapper

POPULATION IN COLORADO has grown by more than 15% over the last decade and is projected to continue to rise in the future, leading to increased municipal water demand to support this growth. Historically, rising municipal water demand in the state has been met with “buy and dry” water right transactions permanently transferring agricultural water rights to municipal uses and removing irrigated acreage from production. Permanent dry-up of irrigated

farms under this transaction structure has caused concern in rural communities whose economies are largely dependent on irrigated agriculture. In response, the state is exploring alternative transfer methods (ATMs) which allow farmers to transfer water from agricultural to municipal uses without permanently drying up irrigated land. The 2015 Colorado State Water Plan establishes a goal of sharing 50,000 acre-feet annually between municipal and agricultural water users through ATMs, enough water to serve 350,000 people or irrigate approximately 30,000 acres.

ATMs may take many different forms, but involve voluntary agreements whereby farmers are compensated for temporarily fallowing land or implementing deficit irrigation to provide water to municipal or industrial water users. Under many ATM structures, farmers retain ownership of their water rights and farmland is not permanently taken out of production, preserving the long-term agricultural economy. Although similar fallowing programs have been implemented with success in the Palo Verde Irrigation District in California and the Yuma Mesa Irrigation District in Arizona, the use of ATMs in Colorado has been limited largely due to the state’s water law, court process, and challenges quantifying and accounting for conserved water to avoid injuring other water right holders.

In 2013, the Colorado state legislature passed House Bill 13-1248, authorizing the Colorado Water Conservation Board to administer pilot projects throughout the state to demonstrate the feasibility of temporarily fallowing irrigated cropland to provide water for municipal use. The first pilot project, known as the Catlin Pilot Project, was approved in 2015

and involves six farms irrigated with surface water from the Arkansas River delivered through the Catlin Canal, and three municipal water providers in the Arkansas River basin. The project was developed by the Lower Arkansas Water Conservancy District, and the Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company (“Super Ditch”), a private organization of farmers owning Arkansas River water rights established in 2008 to promote leasing of agricultural water rights to municipalities.

Under the Catlin Pilot Project, six participating farms representing 911 irrigated acres have agreed to rotationally fallow fields for a ten-year period from April 1, 2015 through March 31, 2025. The program established some protective measures for fallowing including a limit of no more than 30% of enrolled acreage may be dried up in any given year and that no single parcel may be fallowed for more than 3 out of 10 years. Three local municipal water providers have agreed to lease portions of the water made available through fallowing. During the first year of the agreement, farmers received a payment of $150 per fallowed acre, plus $500 per acre-foot of consumptive use water made available through fallowing.

After the first year of operation, the program appears to have been successful. In 2015, 235 acres were fallowed, transferring 409 acre-feet to municipal use. In addition, Colorado Springs Utilities, the water provider for the City of Colorado Springs, recently expressed interest in participating in the program as a means to provide additional water for the city during dry years. Overall the pilot project is an important first step and will provide valuable data for implementing further ATM transactions in Colorado. ■


W H A T ’ S U P W I T H W A T E R ?

Eric J. Fitch

AS THIS IS written on Dec. 21, 2015, the Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year – thoughts turn as they have for peoples and cultures back to time immemorial to endings. A period in a life, changing jobs, even death are a part of a continuum. Humans have long thought about a permanent end for the collective existence of humankind. Many in faith communities associate these “end times” with terms such as Apocalypse and Judgement Day. Artists look at it often as a subject of despair and destruction such as Albrecht Dürer’s famous woodcuts focusing on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or John Martin’s The End of the World (aka The Great Day of His Wrath). Scientists tend to look backward to see forward and look at the five (or perhaps more) Global Extinction Events/Mass Extinctions/Extinction Level Events (ELEs) to foresee that potential for our own fates. And creative writers imagine for their readers how it might be from the human perspective, e.g. “The Hollow Men” (1925) a poem by T. S. Eliot where he famously writes “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”

The most famous ELE that most people have heard about it the K/T event Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) aka The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary that is associated with the collective extinction of Clade: Dinosauria, i.e. the End of the Dinosaurs (if you don’t count Avifauna!). Ever since Luis Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro and Helen Michel published their seminal paper in 1980 hypothesizing a massive asteroid impact as the source of high levels of iridium in specific corresponding geologic depositions/layers globally, this has been seen as the dominant hypothesis explaining this mass extinction. Like most scientific hypotheses, it explains much about the observed phenomena, but not all. Many scientists further hypothesized that the asteroid impact wiped them out only after long periods of volcanism “softened” them up. Most recently, a group of scientists came up with a plausible explanation why dinosaurs and other dominant landforms were so thoroughly wiped out, even at the most remote sites from impact. Earth had a warmer climate at that time and on land

dinos could be found from what is today the South Pole to the North and many places in between. They shouldn’t have been so thoroughly extirpated just by the impact or even a “global winter” from atmospheric cooling from the massive amounts of particulates blocking out sunlight. This new theory deals with the idea the that impact would have thrown debris not only up into the atmosphere but out into space with some going so far that it would even escape the Earth-moon system’s gravity. Most, however, would fall back down to Earth. Some would make it to the surface as micrometeorites; most would burn up by friction in the atmosphere. This would happen quickly and the incineration of these particles would within hours raise global heat levels in the atmosphere. It is believed that this relatively short term heating would raise global mean temperature up to around the level of a pizza oven; a short lived global heat flash up to over 700 F. Looking at all these related explanations of this mass extinction, there is a critical consistency. In all of these theories, there was nothing that the dinosaurs could do to save

Childhood’s End, the Apocalypse and COP 21

“Now I understand,” said the last man. – Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

“It’s the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine” – R.E.M.


S T A T E S E C T I O N N E W S A N D E V E N T S

Utah AWRA State Section THE AWRA UTAH Section holds four events each year. They include the January Luncheon, Student Paper Competition and Conference, May Conference and the Fall Tour.

In April, we will have our 2016 J. Paul Riley Student Paper Conference. This is a great opportunity for university students interested in water resources to come together with faculty, researchers and practitioners to present their water resources research results. All students chosen to present their papers at the conference will receive a $250 scholarship and each division winner will receive an additional $500 scholarship and a chance to present at our upcoming Annual Conference.

Our Annual Conference will be held on May 10 at the University of Utah Rice Eccles Stadium. A variety of topics will be covered that day with the theme of the philosophy, law and science behind Utah’s Water Future. Visit our website at state.awra.org/utah for more details about our section.

Delaware AWRA (DEAWRA) State Section THE DELAWARE SECTION of the American Water Resources Association will be co-hosting the Mid-Atlantic Conference, September 15-16, 2016, with local AWRA Mid-Atlantic chapters including the New Jersey State Section, National Capital Region Section, Pennsylvania State Section and Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Section.

Set along the Wilmington, Delaware Riverfront, the 2016 MAC will provide a great opportunity to share information, find resources and have a lot of fun with colleagues from around the region.

If you are interested in helping plan this event or just want more information, check out www.deawra.org/MAC2016!

AWRA Florida State Section MS4 Symposium A Success! THE AWRA FLORIDA Section is off to a strong start in 2016 as we have all of our meeting locations and meeting chairs confirmed. Please come join us! Meeting information can be found on our website at www.awraflorida.org. The meeting schedule is: • March 18–Steinhatchee• May–Tampa Area• August 4-5–Annual Meeting in Key Largo• September–Joint meeting with FICE in the

Jacksonville Area• November 14-17, 2016 – Orlando (AWRA 2016

Annual Water Resources Conference)The Florida Section looks forward to hosting

a social event for those attending the National Conference in Orlando in November. Please check the Florida Section and Conference webpages for details. Contact Kristin Bennett, Florida Section AWRA president, for information ([email protected]).

Attendees enjoy the DEAWRA Fall Symposium.

THE DELAWARE SECTION held a fall symposium to help new local MS4 communities navigate regulations and prepare for what will be expected of them. For more information and to see all of the presentations, check out www.deawra.org/Symposium2015.


AWRA Thanks Charlene Young and Dick Engberg for Years of ServiceAS WE MOVE into a new chapter with Water Resources IMPACT, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge two individuals who have been instrumental in the development of the publication over the years. Charlene Young and Richard “Dick” Engberg recently retired from their roles as Water Resources IMPACT managing editor and AWRA technical director, respectively.

Charlene Young began her tenure with AWRA in 1977 as a staff member and typesetter for the organization’s journal, proceedings and the newsletter that would eventually become Water Resources IMPACT magazine. During her tenure, there were many transitions in technology and focus of the organization, and Charlene was always there behind the scenes to keep things on track and on time. In 2009, after many years of service on staff, Charlene transitioned from staff member to independent consultant, but maintained responsibility for production of IMPACT and AWRA’s conference publications. After nearly 40

years with AWRA, she will again cut back on her activity with the organization; moving to production of conference materials only. We thank Charlene for her many years of service, and are glad that she will continue to be a part of the AWRA family.

Dick Engberg came on board with AWRA in 1999 after retiring from the Department of the Interior (DOI). A longtime AWRA member and supporter, he was the perfect fit to serve as AWRA’s technical director. In this position, Dick organized and co-chaired four AWRA National Water Policy Dialogues. He also worked closely with volunteers and technical program chairs to create AWRA’s three yearly conferences. Dick also provided support for IMPACT, not only writing for and organizing special issues, but also voluntarily taking on the role of copy editor for most issues. Dick’s retirement from his position with AWRA will allow him to continue volunteering in the water resources arena, and he has promised to keep in touch! ■

S T A T E S E C T I O N N E W S A N D E V E N T S

AWRA National Capital Region Section (NCRS) THIS SPRING THE NCRS will sponsor the fourth Annual National Capital Region Water Resources Symposium: The Value of Water: Innovations in Research, Technology, Policy, and Management, with keynote speaker, Tracy Mehan, III. The Symposium will be held at the University of the District of Columbia on April 8, 2016.

This year’s AWRA National Capital Region Section (NCRS) program includes evening presentations and panel discussions by national and regional experts and professional tours of local cutting-edge projects. Visit the NCRS’s website at www.awrancrs.org for information on upcoming and past events, and on how to become a member. ■

NCRS-sponsored stream restoration tour of Donaldson Run in Arlington County on May 2015.


• Tavakoly et al. present a framework for integrating a regional GIS-based nitrogen dataset and a GIS-based river routing model to simulate steady-state riverine total nitrogen (TN) transport in river networks containing thousands of reaches. They applied the approach to examine TN export in urbanized and rural Texas drainage basins.

• Barik et al. evaluated a remotely-sensed and two ground-based potential evapotranspiration products for hydrologic application in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

• Hill et al. developed an extensive, publically available database of landscape metrics for ~2.65 million stream segments, and their associated catchments, within the conterminous USA. These data greatly reduce the specialized geospatial expertise needed by researchers and managers to acquire landscape information for near stream catchments (i.e., the nearby landscape flowing directly to streams) and full upstream watersheds of specific stream reaches.

• Ganguli and Ganguly examined the robustness of a suite of regional climate models (RCMs) in simulating meteorological droughts and associated metrics in present-day climate (1971–2003) over the conterminous United States (US). The RCMs that are part of North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) simulations were compared with multiple observations over the climatologically homogeneous regions of the US.

• Pandey et al. developed a sub-model for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict E. coli levels in stream bed sediment and the water column.

• Castro et al. performed a sociocultural preference assessment for a suite of ecosystem services provided by the Kiamichi River watershed in the south-central U.S., a region with intense water conflict. The goal was to examine how a social assessment of services could be used to weigh trade-offs among water resource uses for future watershed management and planning.

• Asarian and Walker used nonparametric tests to assess long-term (1953–2012) trends in streamflow and precipitation in Northern California and Southern Oregon at a range of regulated (by dams) and unregulated streams. ■

2016 Editorial CalendarJANUARY 2016 Hydrophilanthropy

MARCH 2016 Drought, Response, Adaptation and Long Term Planning in a Changing Environment

MAY 2016 National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

JULY 2016Water Reuse and Recycling: Once Is Not Enough

SEPTEMBER 2016Issues in National Water Governance

NOVEMBER 2016Morality, Ethics and Water Resource Management

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Volume 52, Issue 1, February 2016

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