News

Dr. Michael Brady, School of Economic Sciences, WSU

Wednesday, Feb 1, 2017 PACCAR room 202, 3:10pm WSU Pullman

In 2013, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled against a 2001 amendment that set aside groundwater reservations for development within the Skagit River Basin.  As a consequence, hundreds of properties no longer have a secure, uninterruptible water right. The objective of this study is to identify the least cost mitigation option in a spatially explicit manner for  all of the properties whose groundwater rights  were invalidated by the 2013 Supreme Court ruling. The core analysis focuses on piping and trucking water for streamflow augmentation, but we provide coarse comparisons to other alternatives, such as storage reservoirs for winter flow capture, trucking and piping for direct consumption, and rainwater capture based on information from existing studies. Further, while we focus on mitigation for the 451 properties developed since April of 2001, we provide several general results relating to water provision for future development in the otherwise closed sub-basins. This project was funded through the Engrossed Senate Bill No. 6589 and administered through the Department of Ecology, State of Washington Water Research Center and WSU. Co-authors include: J. Padowski, Q. Yang, E. Jessup, and J. Yoder. Project development, coordination, and review was accomplished with the help of David Christensen, Thomas Buroker, John Rose, Tom Culhane and Barb Anderson at the WA Department of Ecology.

AMS Connections: Puyallup REC, WSU Tri-Cities, WSU Vancouver The dial up number for all sites to dial for this event is 5701907. Meeting ID 01907 http://ams.wsu.edu/Events/Events.aspx For technical assistance call 509-335-6575

Sponsor:

CEREO – The Center for Environmental Research, Education and Outreach (http://cereo.wsu.edu/) or check our online calendar for all environmental talks and events happening around campus:  http://cereo.wsu.edu/seminars/

SWWRC – State of Washington Water Research Center: ( https://wrc.wsu.edu/)

January 25-26th, 2017 at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA

The theme of this event is to create a dialogue amongst the communities that use and value the PNW region’s water supply and quality within the context of a changing climate.

Click here to register

Conference website

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) will be holding a conference at the World Trade Center in Mexico City, Mexico, October 8-14, 2017. The Conference theme is Modernizing Irrigation and Drainage for a New Green Revolution.
Website

Come to the twelfth annual Palouse Basin Water Summit from 4:30 to 8:00 pm on Wednesday, October 5, at the Schweitzer Event Center in Pullman, WA.

The 2016 Summit – our annual community dialogue about our local water resources – will feature the internationally acclaimed environmentalist Maude Barlow and her recent book, “Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever“ – a powerful, penetrating, and timely look at the looming global water crisis, and what we can do to prevent it. “The coming grab for the planet’s dwindling resources is the defining issue of our time. Water is not a resource put here for our convenience, pleasure and profit but the source of all life. It is urgent that we clarify the values and principles needed to protect the planet’s fresh water,” notes Barlow.

Be challenged by great presentations from local water experts, area youth and our annual State of the Basin report. The event is free and open to all community-minded Palouse area residents. Additionally, we will draw names for some fabulous prizes, including a low-flow toilet and a $1,000 wisescaping^R yard makeover!

http://www.palousewatersummit.org/

The Columbia River Long Term Water Supply and Demand Forecast project team is preparing an updated long-term water supply and demand forecast for the Washington Department of Ecology, Office of Columbia River and would like your feedback. The Forecast team includes researchers from Washington State University, University of Utah, Aspect Consulting, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. This forecast, updated for the Washington Legislature every five years, provides a generalized, system-wide assessment of how future environmental and economic conditions are likely to change water supply and demand by 2035.

The team will host a series of FREE public workshops June 21^st – June 23^rd in Tri-Cities, Wenatchee and Spokane.  The purpose of these workshops is to share preliminary results from the 2016 Water Supply and Demand Forecast, provide an opportunity for public feedback and interaction, and gather input on possible improvements for the 2021 Forecast.

What to Expect:
• Presentations from researchers introducing the methodologies used and preliminary results found
• Q&A sessions with the researchers
• Open house, with time to explore results further and provide comments on the draft results

Workshop Details:

RSVP not required but appreciated for planning purposes: email your name, contact information, and date/location you plan to attend to brooke.saari@wsu.edu or call 509-663-8181 ext. 265.  Those who RSVP will also receive links to the draft and final reports when available.

The draft report and directions for submitting public comments will be available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cwp/2016Forecast.html. Public comments will be accepted from June 20 – July 20^th.

Seminar by Dr. Fabian A. Bombardelli

Date: Mon., April 25, 2016
Place: PACCAR 202
Time: 10:10 a.m.—11:00 a.m.

EXPLAINING THE INTRICACIES OF SEDIMENT TRANSPORT AT DIFFERENT SCALES WITH COMPUTATIONAL AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES
Examples of multi-phase flows are diverse: dust storms, sediment transport in rivers and estuaries, bubble plumes, and many other natural and man-made applications. To study sediment transport, the field is transitioning from old regressions of last 70 years, to mechanistic models, which combine deterministic and stochastic approaches. For reasons which are unclear, and despite the leadership of civil engineers in the field of sediment transport, the theory of two-phase flows has been developed elsewhere. These models address the interaction of carrier and disperse phases.
Still, it is not clear what to use for a given level of concentration, and for the objective of a given study. Furthermore, the action of turbulence needs to be quantified carefully depending on the problem at hand, and phenomena such as sediment entrainment need to be accounted for.
In this presentation, I describe a novel framework to analyze sediment transport, which clearly puts forward a pathway for the analysis of a host of problems. We present the application of this framework to solve the problem of sediment in suspension. For the case of transport of sediment as bed-load, we present a Lagrangian model which tracks each particle individually and addresses the Non-Fickian behavior of the particles; followed by a new computational algorithm for the Basset force. Finally, we describe theoretical and numerical approaches to deal with two-phase flows. The presentation concludes with an analysis of future work and the challenges to overcome

Examples of multi-phase flows are diverse: dust storms, sediment transport in rivers and estuaries, bubble plumes, and many other natural and man-made applications. To study sediment transport, the field is transitioning from old regressions of last 70 years, to mechanistic models, which combine deterministic and stochastic approaches. For reasons which are unclear, and despite the leadership of civil engineers in the field of sediment transport, the theory of two-phase flows has been developed elsewhere. These models address the interaction of carrier and disperse phases.
Still, it is not clear what to use for a given level of concentration, and for the objective of a given study. Furthermore, the action of turbulence needs to be quantified carefully depending on the problem at hand, and phenomena such as sediment entrainment need to be accounted for.
In this presentation, I describe a novel framework to analyze sediment transport, which clearly puts forward a pathway for the analysis of a host of problems. We present the application of this framework to solve the problem of sediment in suspension. For the case of transport of sediment as bed-load, we present a Lagrangian model which tracks each particle individually and addresses the Non-Fickian behavior of the particles; followed by a new computational algorithm for the Basset force. Finally, we describe theoretical and numerical approaches to deal with two-phase

A seminar by Dr. Eric Edwards
Friday, April 22 at 3:10pm in UI Hubert room 27

ABSTRACT
We present a lobby model to explain the adoption and persistence of seemingly costly environmental  policies relative to the likely benefits generated. The arguments of the model are illustrated by water  trade restrictions for mining firms in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The area is one of the driest  in the world but also the world’s top copper producer. Due to regulation of access to local water in  the region, firms have begun using desalinated water at a cost of up to $19,542 per m3/day while agricultural  water trades at median price of $343 per m3/day. We explore how governmental maintenance of environmental  and indigenous water supplies through restrictions on water trades causes these large price differentials.  We provide a simple framework that explains how this type of policy can be supported under reasonable  assumptions about lobbying. Interest group lobbying, limited information to unorganized general citizens  about policy costs and benefits, and their associated distribution can lead to strong regulation, even  when the protected environmental areas and agricultural populations are small and isolated. Differencein-  difference modeling of sector prices indicates that after an abrupt increase in regulatory denials,  prices diverged in a manner consistent with the lobbying model. Using market price and desalination  cost data, policy costs are estimated at $6.15 billion dollars or approximately $350 per citizen, which  may or may not equate to perceived general benefits.

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