ICWP: Streamgaging Funding

2nd National Stakeholders’ Roundtable for the USGS Cooperative Water
Program (CWP)

There was a very good turnout for the reception Monday evening, January 30, and for the Roundtable meeting Tuesday, January 31, 2006, including approximately 70 people representing Cooperators from 20 states and 45 people from USGS Headquarters and Water Science Centers in 18 states.
In addition to 18 very informative CWP project displays, 5 corporate sponsors (Sutron Corp, YSI Environmental, Hach Environmental, In-Situ and Tyco Environmental-Greenspan) displayed and described monitoring and information management equipment!

The stakeholders participated in an informative series of presentations regarding:

Current capabilities of the CWP;

Financial links between the CWP and the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP);

Management of both programs;

Opportunities for collaboration involving Cooperator and private consulting experts; and;

Relation between CWP interpretive investigations and the resource management decisions many Cooperators typically confront today.

At the end of the day, we broke into 5 smaller groups to identify and evaluate options for improving the CWP. Each Break-out Group engaged a mix of Cooperator and USGS representatives in a discussion and refinement of suggestions. However, USGS representatives decided not participate in the selection or prioritization of these recommendations, since they are especially interested in the Cooperators’ viewpoint.
On Wednesday, February 1, about 35 of the Roundtable participants attended a briefing on the latest results of several local investigations supported with CWP cost-share funds. These included an investigation of water pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (“PAHs”) associated with the use of pavement sealants in parking lots in relation to the Barton Springs System and the sensitivity of an endangered salamander that inhabits ponds and streams fed by those springs. We also visited the Barton Springs and observed the Acoustic Doppler velocity meter and learned how it recorded hydrologic patterns that illuminated surprising features of the limestone karst aquifer system behavior!

For your convenience, the Roundtable program is useful and the summary of information presented during the Roundtable has been summarized in four parts:

Introductory Remarks and Keynote Address;

Cooperative Water Program Overview & External Review;
                   Powerpoint Presentation by Bob Hirsch
                   Powerpoint Presentation by Glenn Patterson
                   Powerpoint Presentation by Dennis ("Woody") Woodward
                   Powerpoint Presentation by Bob Holmes
                   PowerPoint Presentation by Cindi Barton
                   External Task Force Review
                   Maps Showing NSIP & CWP Gage Locations

USGS Science and Resource Management Decisions;

Challenges to the CWP and Roundtable Recommendations.

Recommendations identified by Cooperators will be presented to USGS in June 2006 based upon commitments that the Cooperators should continue organizing and informing themselves about the CWP, its funding and the variety of ways that its coverage, reliability and accessibility can be extended and that the Cooperators need to participate more directly and more consistently in management decisions that affect the use of cost-share funds. Interested Cooperators are encouraged to contact Peter Evans or others on our leadership team and expect to see the recommendation letter (and any follow-up correspondence) posted here.

The Roundtable presentations on Tuesday included a panel of USGS and Union County (Arkansas) Water Conservation Board experts concerning water supply development and depletion of the Sparta Aquifer. In combination with the tour briefing on Wednesday by City of Austin and USGS experts, Cooperators witnessed a thought-provoking exposure to the choices involved in allocating limited cost-share funds between data collection and water resource investigations with scientific and resource management implications.

Impetus for this meeting came from the first CWP Roundtable, held in March 2005.