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March 6, 2007
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Welcome
to the newsletter about all things water in Montana!
MONTANA
WATER NEWS will come your way via email every month
with fresh news about meetings and water topics that we hope
is of interest to you. If you do not want to receive this
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| Multimedia
Water Training Proves Its Power |
Contamination
Explorer Screenshot: Stormwater Runoff |
Those who operate,
advise or regulate small public water systems must understand many aspects of microbiology,
chemistry, hydraulics and law. But in most Montana cities and towns, and elsewhere, water system
personnel come from eclectic backgrounds, rarely from a water science background. Water operations
personnel need professional training so they can keep clean drinking water flowing. For the
last eight years, the Montana Water Center has dedicated a group of media specialists to developing
training courses for this audience. The media team's goal is to take advantage of the power
of personal computers to teach water resources in a way that's both engaging and informative.
The team's products have evolved from basic cartoons demonstrating water quality fundamentals
to 3-D environments that allow users to feel as if the are “inside” the program, touring the
sites themselves.
The latest release from the
media team is called Contamination Explorer. It features narrated case studies of water system
contamination, a cellular-level look at the pathogens that taint drinking water, and stunning
3-D environments. According to Vince Cusomato, a media developer on the team, “we have really
raised the bar with this product… it tackles today’s pertinent issues for water systems in
a way that pulls the user right into the course.” This becomes evident within your first few
minutes of using the program, as the in-depth analysis of contamination problems is illustrated
by a seamless combination of 3-D simulation, video footage, graphics and text.
The media
team is led by a water engineer, and includes programmers, a videographer and audio media specialist,
and graphic artists. Team leader Ben Cichowski credits “a great team dynamic,” and “the need
to one-up ourselves every year” as the motivation for incorporating more challenging (and more
engaging) media in each product.
Contamination Explorer Screenshot:
Viruses |
Contamination Explorer will
be released next month, March 2007, the latest in a series of courses for water operations
personnel. Several courses include practice problems and tests, with tracking and scoring of
user performance. Nearly every state grants continuing education credit for operators who complete
the most popular course, Operator Basics 2005.
Besides water operators, training
courses have been designed for wastewater lagoon operators, water-system boards and managers,
and general contractors. The media team is always on the lookout for new challenges in multimedia
illustration of water concepts. "We'd like to take on fisheries biology, and maybe the
art and science of stream restoration," according to Cichowski.
More than 75,000 CD-ROMs of
past courses have been distributed nationwide, and thousands of copies are downloaded from
the Internet each month. Cichowski notes two characteristics that make the media team's courses
particularly popular: "they're very convenient, since the user sets his or her own schedule
for training, and they're very powerful. A three-dimensional simulation of a filter backwash
cycle shows more than a dozen diagrams."
For more information, visit
the Water Center's training website at http://watercenter.montana.edu/training/.
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| Scientists
to World: It's Serious |
Grinnell Glacier and Grinnell
Lake Glacier National Park, 1910-1997. |
The scientific consortium known
as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created by the World Meteorological Organization
and the United Nations Environment Program more than 20 years ago. Periodically the IPCC convenes
independent scientists to examine worldwide data and issue an assessment of climate change.
The fourth assessment, released February 5, was drawn up by 50 lead authors and 450 contributing
authors who were nominated by 40 governments. After reviewing 30,000 comments submitted by
600 other earth scientists, they issued Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis,
subtitled A Summary for Policy-Makers.
After reviewing an enormous
amount of data and model projections, the scientists concluded that recent warming is unusual: "Northern
Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher
than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years…and likely the highest in at least
the past 1300 years." This conclusion was based on air and ocean temperatures, sea level,
and the extent of winter snow cover, ice sheets and glaciers. The scientists were unable to
attribute these changes to natural factors such as volcanic eruptions or variations in solar
radiation. They concluded it is "very likely" that human activity -- release of greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere -- is responsible for the observed warming ("very likely" is
defined as characterized by 90% scientific certainty).
What should we expect in coming
years? Average warming during this century is projected as in the range 2° - 4.5°C, and is "very
unlikely" to be less than 1.5°C. For comparison, the very-warm recent years were less
than one degree warmer than the beginning of the 20th century, on average. The assessment report
projects fewer and warmer cold snaps plus more and warmer heat waves, increased areas subject
to drought and more precipitation falling in very intense events. These trends will characterize
continental areas in general, but their intensity will vary from one region to another. Worldwide,
we can anticipate continued or accelerated ice sheet melting and sea level rise, more energetic
tropical storms and a continuation of the seawater acidification that jeopardizes coral reefs.
The IPCC Fourth Assessment has
two lessons for those of us who don't act on the global scale. First, change of a serious magnitude
is already underway, and will affect our lives and our decisions -- even in Montana -- far
into the future. Second, decision-makers need more information to make the right choices in
this new warm world. Should we expect more or less precipitation in Montana? How much and how
fast will our winter snowpack diminish, and do we have enough storage capacity on our watercourses
to compensate? What will summer temperatures be, and how will their rise affect soil moisture
and the crops we can grow? Here in Montana, the certain conclusions expressed in the IPCC report
should impel us to begin a thoughtful program to gather the information we'll need to succeed
in this changing world.
-- Gretchen Rupp
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| 2007
Last Chance Audubon Natural History Lecture Series |
| The 2007
Last Chance Audubon Natural History Lecture Series begins March 6th with Steve Running, Ecology
Professor at University of Montana. His lecture is titled Climate Trends for Montana: Will
We Have More Fire or Ice? The lectures will be from natural resource professionals and
will explore the evidence for Global Warming, its implications in Montana, and tips to help
you conserve energy. The six-week series takes place every Tuesday evening at 7 pm at the Covenant
United Methodist Church (2330 Broadway) in Helena. Other topics include: Climate change effects
on Montana’s bird populations, aquatic species populations, snow pack, and snow dependent species.
Cost is $5 per lecture or $20 for the entire series. |
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| 8th
Annual Association of Montana Floodplain Managers (AMFM) Conference |
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Need Help with the
Floodplain Permitting Processes? The 8th Annual Association of Montana Floodplain Managers
(AMFM) Conference is holding a workshop and field tour to help ease floodplain permitting
confusion. The conference, titled Back to Basics, will be held April 2-5, 2007 in Bozeman.
A permitting workshop and field tour will be held April 3rd that will teach what permitting
agencies look at in the 310, 404, 124, and floodplain permitting processes. A CFM study session
and exam will be held April 2nd and April 4th and 5th. Visit the AMFM website at http://www.mtfloods.org for
more information. |
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| Two
Training Programs from the Montana Watercourse |
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May 7th through
9th provides two opportunities to take advantage of the great programs created by the Montana
Water Course. The 2007 Water Summit will be held the 7th and 8th for secondary students,
teachers, and professionals at Boone & Crockett's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch near
Dupuyer. The two-day program will address the need for water conservation and the challenges
Montana water supplies may face. Field exercises and a chance to see monitoring first hand
is also part of the Summit. The cost for the Summit is $50 for teachers and $25 for students,
however scholarships are available.
On May 9th the Design Your
Monitoring Plan & Data Management
Workshop will be held at the same site. The workshop will help anyone interested in monitoring
take it to the next level. The first half of the day will be used to create a monitoring plan,
while the second half will be spent learning how to collect, manage, and organize the information
received from your monitoring plan. The cost is $25 for the workshop. Sponsored by the Montana
Department of Environmental Quality, The Boone and Crockett Club, and the Sun/Teton Watershed
Groups.
Contact Ted Sedell of the Montana
Watercourse at Edwin.sedell@montana.edu or 406-994-6317,
or visit the website at http://www.mtwatercourse.org.
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| Small
Utility Board Training CD-ROM Now Available |
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Another of the
Montana Water Center Media Team’s projects released in early 2007 is the Small Utility
Board Training CD-ROM. The program is designed for water board members and elected officials
to help them understand the basic principles of public water system regulation, operation,
planning, budgeting and communication. The training takes about three hours and features video
interviews, water system procedures, animations and quizzes on each topic.
For a free copy
of the CD-ROM, contact the National Environmental Services Center at: (800) 624-8301 or (304)
293-4191. Request Product #DWCDTR23. With a fast connection, you can also download the software
from the Water Center website at http://watercenter.montana.edu/training.
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| Do
you have more news?
Many
Montana Water News articles are generated by the Montana Water
Center’s new student intern, Evan Tennant. Evan is studying
public policy at Montana State University with a special interest
in water policy. He spends what free time he has writing stories
for this e-newsletter. Do you have some stories of interest
you would like him to feature? If so, please contact Evan at
etennant@montana.edu.
He’d like to hear from you. |
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Take
special note of upcoming national and local water meetings
on the Events
Calendar at MONTANA WATER. |
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2007 Last Chance Audubon Natural History Lecture Series, Helena,
March 6, 2007 [INFO]
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16th Annual MEEA Conference: Best Practices in Environmental, Bozeman,
March 9 - 10, 2007 [INFO]
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Montana Watershed Stewardship Award: Nominations, March
9, 2007 [INFO]
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ASABE Conference on Watershed Managemant, San Antonio, TX, March
11 - 13, 2007 [INFO]
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4th EverythingAboutWater Expo 2007, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, March
15 - 17, 2007 [INFO]
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Sustainable Northwest Auction and Awards Gala, Portland, OR,
March 16, 2007 [INFO]
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Paying For Sustainable Water Infastructure, Atlanta, GA,
March 21 - 23, 2007 [INFO]
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8th Annual Association of Montana Floodplain Managers (AMFM) Conference,
Bozeman, April 2 - 5, 2007 [INFO]
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