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December 14, 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
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| Montana’s Drought and La Niña |
Jesse Aber. |
Jesse Aber is a planner in the Water Management Bureau of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. He provides drought information for people throughout the state and helps keep the Governor’s Drought Advisory Committee functioning efficiently. This month Aber shares his views on Montana’s drought, La Niña and water storage projects in a question-and-answer session with the Montana Water Center.
Q: From your experience, is this the most expansive and the longest drought you have ever seen Montana go through?
A: One question I am often asked is, “Are we still in a drought?” And that’s a tough one to answer. Most climatologists say to look back in time and see what the trend-line was for years prior, and to look at the hydrological drought to determine how your data shakes out and whether or not there is recovery in those aspects of drought. Montana had droughts in 1992, 1994 and 1996. When we look at ground water levels from those years using Montana Tech’s ground water database, it says we started to see recovery from those droughts in 2004 and 2005. We won’t know until next year, when we look back at the 2006 and 2007 data, if we are currently in a drought. As it is right now, I think all would agree that we went into a drought in early 2000 and it lasted through at least 2005.
Q: Information you recently sent around suggests that this could be a "La Niña" year for Montana…
A: We were in an El Niño phase last spring. Then in March the climatologists determined that we started to see a neutral phase. Now there is a strong La Niña signal that we will have a cooler season than usual, meaning it will be cooler rather than wetter. Forecast indicates that as we look out into January, February and March, the temperatures will be about average in Montana, but the precipitation will be greater. Clearly, we really need a good water year.
With La Niña, you don’t see a huge ridge of high pressure, but a pathway for storms coming off the Pacific in a highly energized jet stream, bringing those systems right across Montana. Many people ask, “If we have a La Niña that’s building so strongly, where is it now?” If you go to our website, http://drought.mt.gov, there are El Niño and La Niña time sequence graphics showing where La Niña is currently building. People also ask, “What’s taking snow so long to get here this year?” The answer is a combination of things: windy conditions and the atmosphere is energized. We have an open invitation to any activity; however, the precipitation for this La Niña probably won’t start until December.
Q: With perhaps less snow and more rain in Montana due to global warming, are there any calls or plans for more dams in Montana to capture the faster runoff?
A: What’s involved in building a water storage project now is a lot different than twenty to thirty years ago. It’s hard to justify water storage because our growing season is short and we have a lot of environmental hurdles that we didn’t have back then. The American way to think is that we can engineer our way out of an environmental problem. Most likely we’re not going to see many more dam projects because we’re thinking about what we might see in the long run now. What we’re trying to do is take a demand reduction approach because we think there is a lot more to be done to reduce the demand for water. As long as people are open to scientific advancements, then we feel we can reduce the amount of water usage significantly.
Editor’s Note: Here is the link to the Final Winter Outlook from NOAA for the La Niña climate anomaly event now underway:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/20071115_winteroutlook.html. |
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| The Water Carriers |
The Water Carriers. |
The first of three installments of "The Water Carriers", the documentary film produced for MSU’s Engineers Without Borders by MFA student Jaime Jelenchick, is now online. This film shows the group’s work in Kenya and how villagers and MSU student engineers work together to bring safe drinking water to the people. The film is available to view online at http://www.lifeonterra.com/episode.php?id=124. |
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| USDA Designates Broadwater County, Montana, as a Primary Natural Disaster Area |
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated Broadwater County, Montana, as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by severe and ongoing drought. Farm operators in Gallatin, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and Meagher counties in Montana also qualify for natural disaster benefits and have eight months from the date of the drought declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures. Information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov. |
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| MWCC Partners with Trees Water & People for Training Program |
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Montana Watershed Coordination Council (MWCC) announces a new training program in partnership with Trees Water & People, supported by the EPA. This new program, Protecting the Water of the Arid West, will deliver trainings for watershed practitioners across the state on topics identified through recent surveys and the MWCC Outreach and Education committee. Upcoming opportunities will include fundraising, contract management and organizational development. These programs will be offered over the next two years and can be tailored to meet the needs of Montana watersheds. In addition, Trees, Water & People will offer coaching support to watersheds across the region for direct assistance. MWCC provides more information through its website at http://watersheds.montana.edu, or email Debbie Zarnt at dzarnt@montana.edu.
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| Watershed Education Network Internships |
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The Watershed Education Network (WEN) is looking for high school students for several intern positions. The positions are: Milltown Dam Program Assistant, Experiential Field Journaling Assistant, Native American Education Assistant, Stream Monitoring Field Trip Assistant, Flagship High School ‘Water Explorations’ Leader and Marketing and Communications Intern. For more information about benefits and the deadline to apply, visit http://www.montanawatershed.org or contact Deb Fassnacht or Josh Gubits by phone at (406) 541-9287 or email at deb@montanawatershed.org. |
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| National Network for Environmental Management Studies Fellowship Program |
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting the National Network for Environmental Management Studies (NNEMS) Fellowship Program. The NNEMS program is a comprehensive fellowship program that provides students an opportunity to participate in a fellowship project that is directly related to their field of study. The EPA expects to award approximately 20 to 30 fellowships in 2008 for an estimated total amount of $300,000. The deadline to apply is January 22, 2008. Email baker.michael@epa.gov for questions, or visit http://www.infoed.org/new_spin/spin_prog.asp?81278. |
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| College Students: Write about anything WATER |
| The Montana Section American Water Works Association (MSAWWA) is awarding $200 to the winning college student submission for their newsletter about anything having to do with water. In addition to the $200 earnings, the student will receive a one year membership to AWWA. Articles must be received by December 1, 2007 in order to be considered. Contact msawwamwea@dishmail.net or (406) 627-2478 for more information. |
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| Grant Opportunities |
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The National Forest Foundation is sponsoring the Matching Awards Program (MAP) grant. The grant provides funding in the areas of community-based
forestry, watershed health and restoration, and wildlife habitat improvement
and recreation. All grants must have a 1:1 match. Contact Adam Liljeblad, Conservation Programs Officer, for more information at aliljeblad@natlforests.org, or visit http://www.natlforests.org/consp_04_map.html. The deadline for the pre-proposals is Friday, December 15, 2007.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation seeks projects that
- initiate partnerships with private landowners,
- demonstrate successful collaborative efforts,
- address watershed health issues that would lead to restoring habitats and are key to restoring native aquatic species and their migration corridors,
- promote stewardship on private lands, and
- demonstrate a 2:1 non-federal to federal match.
Awards can be for as much as $60,000. The pre-proposal Deadline is December 1, 2007. For more information, go to http://www.nfwf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=
Sort_By_Proposal_Dates&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7448 |
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| Dirt and Gravel Road Maintenance Guides |
The Manual for Maintenance of Dirt and Gravel Roads has been reissued by the EPA. Dirt and gravel roads are recognized as having a significant impact on water resources. Environmentally Sensitive Maintenance for Dirt and Gravel Roads is a 300-page manual which identifies, documents, and encourages the use of environmentally sensitive maintenance of dirt and gravel roads. An electronic version of the document can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps
/sensitive/sensitive.html. |
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| Release of New MODFLOW Capabilities and Model-Analysis Computer Programs |
The USGS recently announced new MODFLOW capabilities and two new computer programs for model analysis. Each is briefly described below:
- SUB-WT: The new MODFLOW package SUB-WT has been developed to simulate vertical compaction in models of regional ground-water flow. The program simulates ground-water storage changes and compaction in discontinuous interbeds or in extensive confining units, accounting for stress-dependent changes in storage properties.
http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/gwsoftware/modflow.html.
- Ground-Water Management (GWM) Process for MODFLOW-2005 (MF2005-GWM): Both the 2000 and 2005 versions of GWM can be retrieved from the USGS Ground-Water Software website, or by going directly to the GWM website at http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/gwsoftware/gwm/gwm.html.
- The new computer program OPR-PPR assesses the relative importance of various kinds of data to model prediction uncertainty using the Observation-Prediction (OPR) and Parameter-Prediction (PPR) linear statistics. The computer code and documentation report are available at http://water.usgs.gov/software/OPR-PPR.html.
- The new computer program MMA (Multi-Model Analysis) evaluates results from alternative (multiple) models of a single system using the same set of observations for all models. The computer code and documentation report are available from the USGS Ground-Water Software website or from http://typhoon.mines.edu/freeware/mma.
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| New, Interactive Website Tracks Drought |
| The government released a new website for the public and civic managers to monitor U.S. drought conditions, find forecasts, and to know how drought impacts their communities or what mitigation measures exist. It is called the U.S. Drought Portal and was developed for the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Visit http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt for the new site. |
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| Do
you have more news?
The Montana Water Center News welcomes your stories about water and water issues that face Montana. If you have a short story you would like to see published in this newsletter, please send your information to water@montana.edu. |
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Take
special note of upcoming national and local water meetings
on the Events
Calendar at MONTANA WATER. |
 Watershed Support Network Training for Trainers, Seabeck, WA, December 5 - 8, 2007 [INFO] |
Introduction to Aquatic Toxicology, San Diego, CA, December 13 - 14, 2007 [INFO] |
Texas Aquaculture Association, El Campo, TX, January 16 - 18, 2008 [INFO] |
Climate Change; Science and Solutions, 8th National Conf on Science, Policy and the Environment, Washington, DC, January 16 - 18, 2008 [INFO] |
| Membrane Technology 2008, Atlanta, GA, January 27 - 30, 2008 [INFO] |
5th EverythingAboutWater EXPO 2008, Mumbai, Maharashtraa, India, January 31 - February 2, 2008 [INFO] |
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