Water Resource Management Commons^™

Who Decides: Is Water Life Or Capital? Contesting Visions Of Western Water Management In The 21st Century, Ceorl

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

There is an ideological divide between the goal of universal access to clean water and the outcomes of how water regulations are implemented. John Fleck, author of Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West and Sivas, et al. in California Water Governance in the 21st Century present contesting prescriptions for Western water management. The ideologies advocated by Fleck and Sivas, et al. differ as to who enacts and profits from each and exemplify the divide between the goals of water regulations and how they are implemented. Fleck regards water as property and an economic …

Quantifying The Extent Of Wildfire Impacted Streams In The Western United States, Grady Ball

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the number of fires and acres burned by wildfire in the United States has grown at an explosive rate. Several factors, anthropogenic and natural, have converged to create a new era of high frequency, high intensity fires, which is predicted to continue until at least mid-century. Investigations into wildfire impacts have largely focused on post-fire impacts on terrestrial systems, while effects on aquatic ecosystems have been underrepresented. The growing threat of fire to streams has accelerated the need for germane information regarding the spatial extent of fire impacts on watersheds and post-fire impacts to aquatic systems. …

Water Security And Wildfire In Municipal Source Watersheds Of The Western United States, Matthew V. Segura

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The goal of this study is to investigate water resource security for large metropolitan areas in the western United States and to identify cities that are at potential risk of water resource degradation due to wildfire. In this study, source watersheds for western cities are identified and ranked based on the potential resistance and resilience of their water supply to wildfire impacts. Next, the wildfire hazard potential of each of these catchments is determined and erosion potential estimates are used to infer how water quality will be impacted if the watersheds burn. The findings identify large populous cities that receive …

Inventory Of Restoration Needs Of National Forest Lands Of The Contiguous United States: An Assessment Using Watershed And Terrestrial Ecosystem Classification Tools, Kevin Carns

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Ecological restoration assists the recovery of degraded ecosystems by returning their structure, processes, and functions to within their natural range of variation, improving long term sustainability and resilience. The United States Forest Service has sought to increase the pace and scale of restoration treatments on lands that it manages in order to continue to provide important ecosystem services including timber production, fish and wildlife habitat, grazing, watershed protection, and recreation. The Agency developed two classification systems to identify restoration need on Forest Service managed lands, the Watershed Condition Classification (WCC) and the Terrestrial Condition Assessment (TCA). These two classification systems …

Considering Relationships Between Water Utilities’ Price Changes And Operating Data, Frejdyn Jarrett

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Do modern water utilities face a difficult operating paradox? Is encouraging water conservation could negatively affect the utilities’ abilities to maintain healthy operating ratios by driving down the utilities’ marginal revenues (from consumption) disproportionately relative to their costs (Environmental Finance Center, 2017). How do the financial circumstances of water utilities relate to price scheduling and rate changes? Do utilities’ rate increases result in reduced debt leverage? This research summarizes water utilities’ potable water operations and financial data in search of trends between user prices at 3 levels (6,000 gallons, 12,000 gallons, 18,000 gallons – per month), water utility’s total debts, …

Save Money, Save Water; Developing A Risk Model For Leak Detection And Pipe Replacement Using Spatial Analysis, Angelique Desiree Maldonado

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

It is imperative to properly and proactively maintain a distribution pipe system. The benefits to optimizing a pipe distribution system include ensuring a safe water quality, reducing water loss from leaks and line breaks, minimizing revenue losses and providing a reliable service. There are also economic concerns as pipe replacement is extremely expensive; in the state of New Mexico, an estimated $1.16 billion in drinking water infrastructure is needed over the next 20 years. (USEPA 2013). Because distribution pipe is so costly to replace, an approach that only looks at age or type or non-system specific data may overestimate the …

Preservation Protocols For Maintaining Species Stability Of Arsenic, Chromium, And Selenium In Water Samples, Contessa Lowery

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Water quality has become an increasing concern in recent years. The environmental challenges surrounding water quality include the presence of dissolved metals and their potential impact on human health and the environment. The challenge is exacerbated because many important metals have multiple oxidation states, which affect the health and environmental behavior of the metal. Many metals are known carcinogens and increased anthropogenic effects have inexorably made metals’ accumulation an imposing threat. Analytical instrumentation has advanced in many areas, making it now possible to measure very low concentrations of multiple elements in water. Current interest is determining the chemical speciation of …

Public Water Supply And Wastewater Management Options For Tamiahua, Mexico, Yasmin Khan

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Tamiahua is a small fishing community located on the Gulf of Mexico in the state of Veracruz. The community currently has no piped potable water supply or wastewater collection and treatment. In order to meet the water needs of the people of Tamiahua, a functioning potable water system and wastewater system must be completed. Residents are also concerned with increasing contamination in the lagoon and its possible effects on the lagoon’s productivity. Currently, residents of Tamiahua buy bottled water for cooking and drinking and release raw wastewater directly into Tamiahua Lagoon.

The purpose of this study was to develop information …

Environmental Disturbance Of Oligotrophic Bacteria And Effects On Water Quality In Deep Karstic Pools, Andrea Hunter

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Active intervention of humans in pristine water resource environments has caused both surface and ground waters to degrade in quality and natural purification capacity (Geldreich 1996). Groundwater is often considered to be less impacted than that of surface water due to the absence of climate changes and storm water migrations (Geldreich 1996). Shallow karstic limestone areas (less than 30 m deep) have a greater change of surface contamination since surface water runoff can rapidly percolate through areas lacking a protective bedrock layer.

Water Quality And Public Health Monitoring Of Surface Waters In The Kura-Araks River Basin Of Armenia, Azerbaijan, And Georgia, Amy Ewing

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Kura-Araks (sometimes spelled Aras) River Basin is an international river basin located in the South Caucasus with five separate countries contributing area to the watershed. These countries are Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Surface water from the Kura and Araks Rivers is used for a variety of uses, including municipal, agricultural, industrial, and mining, and the waste products from each of these uses are discharged back into the rivers. Many of the resulting contaminants pose significant risks to human health, including exposure to organic pollution derived from municipal use, organochlorine pesticides and high nitrate from agriculture, chemical contamination …

Regional Scarcity, Andrew Funk

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The foreseeable vulnerability of regional water supplies in the Lower 48 to shortages from over stressed basins is made worse by anticipated water resource impacts from climate change. Essentially, regional water scarcity will differ depending on state and local supply and demand portfolios and variability of climate. Since U.S. water supply vulnerabilities are regionally uneven, the strategic water use efficiency response needs to be regional as well. Regionally mandatory water use efficiency should replace the outdated paradigm of voluntary measures currently employed piecemeal and unevenly within state borders, which ignore regional watershed hydrology. Mandating the efficient use of regional water …

Preparing Water Users In The Lower Rio Grande For Adjudication Through An Informative Workshop, Leslie R. Kryder

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Lower Rio Grande basin in New Mexico is currently undergoing water right adjudication. The adjudication process is important to identify and quantify water uses throughout the Lower Rio Grande. It is intended to facilitate water rights administration by the Office of the State Engineer. Where water users do not understand the purpose and process, they may not participate effectively. Through conversations with irrigators and others familiar with the situation, I explore some of the water users perspectives regarding the adjudication. In general, the water users find the adjudication packets received from the Office of the State Engineer difficult to …

Quantifying, Monitoring, And Improving The Efficiency Of Flood Irrigation In The Hydrosphere Of Candelaria Farms Preserve, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Anders Lundahl

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Irrigation efficiency is the percent ratio of the amount of water applied to a field versus the amount of that water consumptively used by the crops on that field. Irrigation efficiency can be determined either by estimating the amount of water consumed by the crops, or the amount of water that is not consumed by the crops. Based on measured irrigation applications and reference evapotranspiration (ETo), the irrigation efficiency of Candelaria Farms Preserve, a representative farm serviced by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District during the 2005 water year, was 52 percent.

Point-Of-Use Water Treatment Using Solar Pasteurization, Eric C. Robinson

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

This paper reviews waterborne disease and a number of point-of-use water treatments emphasizing methods utilizing solar energy. This information was used to design two flow-through solar pasteurizers that were subsequently constructed for this project. The two solar water pasteurizers utilize a thermosiphon - water flow caused by the difference in density between two columns of water. The performance of the two panels was analyzed by measuring the input and output water temperatures, volume of water produced, and comparing this performance to the solar irradiance. The two solar water pasteurizers were fabricated at a respective cost of $134 and $214 and …

Fresh Water Supply Enhancement Through Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting For West Bank Rural Communities, Hani Iwhish

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The West Bank region has long faced water shortages, and recent drought has amplified the problem. Disruptions due to political conflicts have reduced the frequency, reliability, and quality of water delivered by truck. These disruptions also increase the cost of water and limit income. Almost a third of people have no access to the existing water network, because they live beyond the reach of existing pipelines and cannot legally drill new wells. About a sixth of all households have some form of rooftop harvesting system, connected to a cistern, but these systems are often cracked, dirty, and contaminated. This paper …

Restoration Treatments In The Middle Rio Grande Bosque: Effect On Soil Compaction, Cody Lee Stropki

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Mechanical removal of exotic woody plants that fuel catastrophic fires in the Middle Rio Grande Bosque (riparian forest) of New Mexico has the potential to compact bosque soils and alter soil properties. Salt cedar and Russian olive trees were introduced to the area in the early 1900's for erosion control and bank stabilization. In some areas these exotic trees out compete the native cottonwoods and willows. Flood control projects have exasperated the problem. Historic over-bank flooding helped to remove dead and downed wood while providing the right conditions for Cottonwood regeneration.

A Δ18o Calibrated Compartmental Mixing Cell Model Of Groundwater Flow In The Roswell Basin, Southeastern New Mexico, Michael M. Gabora

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

For this project fifty-four water samples were collected from sites throughout the Roswell groundwater basin in southeastern New Mexico that were previously sampled by Hoy and Gross in the 1970's. These data sets were used to evaluate the transience of δ18O values in the basin in hopes of simulating transient conditions with a compartmental mixing cell model. No long-term trend in the data was established. A compartmental mixing cell model was developed and calibrated with the spatial distribution of δ18O. The model was run using the steady-state simulation and produced estimates of groundwater flow paths, volumetric flow rates, recharge rates …

Constructed Surface Flow Wetlands For Oil Refinery Wastewater Treatment In New Mexico, Jessica Bentley

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

In New Mexico, water is scarce, so a wastewater treatment alternative for NM oil refineries that allows for the beneficial reuse of water is of interest. Currently, conventional treatment methods used at NM oil refineries result in the eventual evaporation or deep well injection of wastewater, consequently losing valuable water. Constructed surface flow (SF) wetlands are most commonly utilized for municipal wastewaters and are becoming an emergent treatment technology for industry, such as that of oil refining. A constructed SF wetland is designed for a hypothetical oil refinery in New Mexico considering wetland hydrology, wetland plants, wildlife habitat, and a …

A Convective Thunderstorm Case Study In Albuquerque, New Mexico: Does The Urban Heat Island Affect Precipitation?, Orlando C. Romero

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Modification of urban terrain creates changes in energy fluxes at the surface. As a result, temperatures in urban areas are typically 3-5 C warmer than surrounding areas, though differences of 10C are not uncommon. This temperature anomaly is called the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The primary impacts of urban heat islands result from increased energy consumption and degraded air quality. However, urban heat islands may also impact precipitation to varying extents at different scales. As a result, the primary objective of this study was to determine if a UHI in Albuquerque, NM, influenced precipitation.

Effects Of Summer Climate On Water Demand In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Joshua S. Nims

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

This project examines and characterizes climate and water demand in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The purpose is to determine what relationships exist between water demand and climate as represented by the North American Monsoon System (NAMS), an atmospheric circulation system largely responsible for summer precipitation in southwestern North America. The City of Albuquerque (CABQ) is the largest city and public water supplier in New Mexico. It has a population over six times the size of the state's next largest city, Las Cruces, and it withdraws over 100,000 acre-feet of water per year. Water demand in Albuquerque is influenced by many factors; …

Rancho West Estates Water Distribution System Replacement Funding Project, Sherry Evans-Carmichael

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rancho West Mobile Home Association (RWMHA or Association) needed funding to replace the aging Rancho West Estates (RWE) water distribution system to ensure a dependable future water supply, in terms of quality and quantity, for association members and residents of the RWE. The RWMHA did not qualify for commercial loans and did not have enough money to pay for the project. Association Board members stated working to obtain finding to replace the water distribution system in 1996. RWMHA Board members were very concerned about the health and welfare of all members and residents of the RWE. Concerns that were …

Microbially Mediated Reduction And Immobilization Of U(Vi) In Groundwater At A Site In Konigstein, Germany, Danielle D. Diehl

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Groundwater supplies are increasingly threatened by organic, inorganic and radioactive contaminants introduced to the environment by improper disposal or accidental release. WISMUT, a German government owned company conducted in situ acid leach mining for decades to extract uranium from a mine at Konigstein. The uranium mine is currently undergoing remediation. The first objective of this research is to determine whether dissolved U(VI) can be precipitated via microbially mediated reduction to its insoluble form.

Modeling Flow And Sediment Transport In The Rio Puerco Using A Swat/Gis Interface, Robin L. Just

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rio Puerco watershed in northwestern New Mexico is responsible for large quantities of sediment entering the Rio Grande and Elephant Butte Reservoir. The Rio Puerco has a large quantity of sediment movement and channelization as a result of the general erodibility of geologic units, the precipitation patterns, and high topographic relief.

A Mixing Cell Model Of The Fernley, Nevada Groundwater System, Casey W. Cook

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Fernley, Nevada is an agricultural community located 56 km east of Reno in the Truckee River basin. The subsurface hydrologic system in the Fernley area is driven by infiltration of irrigation water and leakage from the Truckee Canal, a diversion of the Truckee River. The return flow to the river from these sources is thought to contribute to excessive solute loading in the river. The Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno is constructing a groundwater flow and transport model to quantify the magnitude of solute loading and the effectiveness of proposed land use changes in mitigating the problem. The model …

Pcb Remediation Alternatives On The St. Lawrence River Near Massena, New York: Impacts To Industry, The Mohawk Indian Nation And The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Tobin K. Walters

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Massena, New York, located on the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York, is a small industrial town of 16,000 persons. The St. Lawrence River forms the international border between New York State and Ontario, Canada. Three major industries, General Motors, Reynolds Metals, and the Aluminum Company of America, operate large, primary aluminum smelting operations in Massena. Massena was the site selected for the first United Stated aluminum smelters near the Alcoa plant on the St. Lawrence River. All three aluminum smelters continue to operate today. Combined, they take advantage of abundant and cheap hydroelectricity harnessed by the New York …

Issues In Managing Erosion: The Spring Timber Sale Case Study El Rito Tanger District, Carson National Forest, New Mexico, Neil W. Gray

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The effect of logging, within the Carson National Forest in the Upper Rio Grande Basin of north central New Mexico, on soil erosion rates and downstream water quality and quantity within the acequia systems of the rios Tusas, Vallecitos and Ojo Caliente. Complicating the situation is that the Rio Tusas, of which Spring Creek is a tributary, has been identified as not meeting state water quality standards. The probable source of pollutant/threat is assessed as "rangeland agriculture" and the causes of non-support or threat status is "turbidity, siltation, reduction of riparian vegetation, streambank destabilization" (NMWQCC, 1998).

Water Supply Sustainability Through Water Banking, Linda I. Gordan

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Until relatively recently, the preferred approach to satisfying the water needs of growing communities has been to develop untapped supplies. As new water-supply sources have become less accessible, and as developing then has become more expensive and less acceptable environmentally, managing demand and enabling voluntary water reallocation have taken on increasing importance. Demand management and water marketing could be very important in coping with increasing demand and limited supplies, both because they promote efficiency and because they enable a considerable amount of flexibility in water resource management.

Estimates Of Radionuclide Loading To Cochiti Lake From Los Alamos Canyon Using Manual And Automated Sampling, Christopher T. Mclean

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Los Alamos National Laboratory has a long-standing program of sampling storm water runoff inside the Laboratory boundaries. In 1995, the Laboratory started collecting the samples using automated storm water sampling stations; prior to this time the samples were collected manually. The Laboratory has also been periodically collecting sediment samples from Cochiti Lake. This paper presents the data for Pu-238 and Pu-239 bound to the sediments for Los Alamos Canyon storm water runoff and compares the sampling types by mass loading and as a percentage of the sediment deposition to Cochiti Lake.

Coordinated Water Resource Planning For The Sandia Basin - A Perspective Into Regional Water Planning Needs, Jeffrey L. Peterson

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Regional water planning, a strategy adopted by the State Legislature to protect New Mexico's scant water resources from depletion and mismanagement, is evident in various water planning efforts that draw upon the cooperation of interested and vested stakeholders at the local level. Regional water-planning efforts that are currently underway can be found in the Estancia Basin, portions of the Rio Grande Basin, and the Tularosa Basin. This project utilized these water-planning efforts in order to assist in developing the basis of a regional water plan for the Sandia Basin.

Sediment And Nutrient Loss Following Prescribed Fire In Semiarid Grasslands: The Potential For Water Resource Impairment, Steven C. Hofstad

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Arid and semiarid landscapes compose one third of the earth surface providing critical resources for an ever growing population. Inherently water-limited, these landscapes are often severely impacted by human-caused disturbances. As a result, a great deal of attention has been drawn towards understanding and preventing resource degradation in these regions.