As most of you know, the 7Q10 is the streamflow that occurs over 7 consecutive days and has a 10-year recurrence interval period, or a 1 in 10 chance of occurring in any one year. Daily streamflows in the 7Q10 range are general indicators of prevalent drought conditions which normally cover large areas. 7Q10 values are also used by the State for regulating water withdrawals and discharges into streams.
A colleague and I just had an interesting discussion on the calculation of extreme hydrological events, such as the 100-year event. In the past, we Hydros, assumed that climate was unchanging and that the probability of extreme events such as flooding was treated as constant from one year to the next. With climate change, what now…?
The puzzle: should engineering designs account for shifts in the probabilities of extreme hydrological events? And if yes, how? For example the “100-year flood”, that value of annual peak flow with a 1% chance of being exceeded in a given year/storm. So how would you use historical data (time series of annual peak flow) under stationary conditions AND allow one to determine how the level might change over the historical record.
It appears that all you need to do is ask and you will be given a good scientific answer. As it turns out there is new software to analyze how extremes change over time called extRemes (http://www.isse.ucar.edu/extremevalues/evtk.html ) out of the Center for Atmospheric Research at Boulder Colorado. They call it the Extremes Toolkit (http://www.assessment.ucar.edu/ ). So Hydros go forth and make floodplain boundary determinations with peace of mind and let 7Q10 know how it goes, err, went.
Dear CorpsJD Users,
On June 30, 2010 at 7:10 pm CorpsJD went “live” with the Arid West Supplement. We packed up six laptops the next week and hauled donkeys to Salt Lake City, Utah for the 2010 Society of Wetland Scientists conference held June 28 to July 2nd. The conference was an incredible meeting of old colleagues, friends and mentors. For the remaining nine supplements, we should have acceptance testing completed by August, 2010. So rather than wait, we’d like you to have access to the beta versions of the remaining nine supplements. We’ll need feedback on what works, what’s okay versus great and what you’d change or think needs to be changed. Please, use CorpsJD; put it through its paces. Send us a support ticket with problems or issues, or simply call us and/or drop an email. We want to hear from you.
At the SWS conference a man from National Wetlands Institute stood up and said that CorpsJD was equivalent to TurboTax for wetlands. Yes! And it’s so much more. We realize that many of you (bankers, lawyers, real estate appraisers, engineers, and title companies, etc.) will want the aquatic assessments and mapping package only and will save the majority of CorpsJD’s strength for the “experts” you hire. The strength of CorpsJD is that it’s created by scientists to simplify the process through automation and technology resulting in error reduction which will save time and costs without reducing quality.
In closing, for a trial period CorpsJD is available FREE of charge. Please provide us with feedback if you find an error. The Arid West Supplement is good to go and the remaining supplements are being tested. If on a particular day you find a function (in the remaining supplements) that seems to missing, please give it an hour as we’re probably deploying something wonderful! Please use and enjoy!
Sincerely,
Lori Carpenter, PWS, CPESC
President, 7Q10, Inc., CorpsJD S-a-a-S
Please join us on Thursday, June 17th at 8:00 am. The breakfast features speakers, Duane Denson of Comnet Marketing Group from Medford, Oregon, and Lori A. Carpenter of 7Q10. Both companies will discuss their plans to expand in northern Nevada.
Immediate opening at 7Q10, Inc., a Reno based Wetland Science, Innovation, Economics and Regulatory Compliance consulting firm who seeks a motivated self starting Writer with excellent grammar for investigative writing assignments related to wetland science and the US laws and policies associated with section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The successful applicant must have experience in and be able to conduct technical research, investigate environmental law and policy, quickly assimilate technical factual information and write grammatically correct pieces for both technical and lay audiences. Time lines can be short, hours long and deadlines are often stressful. The company has created a disruptive technology theory product line and is launching a web-based software-as-a-service for US release in June 2010 and in India by 2011. Expedience is preferred in investigative journalism with a minimum of a BA in Journalism or English. The successful applicant must demonstrate the ability to prepare objective factually based pieces/articles on complex environmental issues that often invoke emotional responses. Pay is reasonable, hours long, rewards are great and the co-workers are committed. Dramatic skills are not required. The successful applicant must be a US citizen, with the ability to travel internationally for up to three weeks at a time, approximately twice a year. Short duration travel within the US is also required. This is not an internship. Please send resume and cover letter to lcarpenter@7Q10.com.
On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, an 7.0 earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As owner of H&C, I would like to take this opportunity to ask that you make donations to relief organizations within Haiti. The agencies located in Haiti were there pre-7.0 and will be there long after the news camera are gone.
Please make a donation to one of them today.
At 7Q10, we’re donating to God’s Littlest Angels Haitian Baby Ministry (GLA) which as been in Haiti for more than 16 years. The mission is run by an American couple, John and Dixie Bickel along with their children and extended family. I’ve volunteered with GLA since 2002 when on my first trip to Haiti I fell in love with a 4 year old Haitian girl. This girl later became my daughter; Dixie made it all possible. Whether you donate to GLA or some other organization – please consider a donation to an organization within Haiti. Some would say that there is no hope for Haiti, and yet in Haiti hope is everywhere. Please won’t you please take the next 10 minutes and donate today? www.glahaiti.org <http://www.glahaiti.org/>
Sincerely,
Lori Carpenter, PWS, CPESE
President of 7Q10
Guatemala Trip Group Photo
November 4th, 2009
All is well here in Guatemala! I mananged to make it through US security points without having any toiletries confiscated and arrived to Guatemala City last night at about 9 o’clock at night. My dad’s cousin, Mario, picked me up from the airport (his mother is Guatemalan and father Costa Rican (my parents are Costa Rican). Who would have thought? Small world). Mario is actually going to pick me up this morning to show me around the city, with another Rotarian who happened to have done the Peace Corps in Colombia (my sister is currently living in Colombia, again, small world). I am staying in a cute little area with a lot of outdoor restaurants (tables on the
sidewalks) and small shops.
As soon as I met Mario, he handed me a ¨Prensa Libre¨, local newspaper, with an article about the water quality of Lake Atitlan.
Basically about 15 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) need to be constructed to handle the sewage from 200,000 residents around the lake. Only 6 currently exist, only 2 of which actually function! (2 are under capacity, 1 is badly designed, and 1 badly located). It is thought that about 95% of black water (sewage) waste drains directly into the Lake; a small percentage of hotels and residents use septic tanks. There is no drainage system around the lake. The lake is currently suffering from excess cyanobacteria growth. Causes are thought to be: runoff from agriculture (which accounts for excess nutrient loading, especially phosphorus), untreated wastewater and or grey water (with soaps, another source of phosphorus) flowing into the lake, Hurricane Stan (2005) which caused landslides of soils with high concentrations of fertilizers to seep into the lake, erosion of lands adjacent to roads, the introduction of exotic fish since 1968 such as carp which feed on certain fish that typically consume organisms that the cyanobacteria use to develop, hence throwing the ecosystem off balance, and lastly, global warming, which has caused the temperature of the lake to rise by 5 degrees Celsius. The problem is not new and has existed for about 50 years, and there have been many warning signs in between, but the cyanobacteria growth has never before been this dramatic. Authorities have contracted a Chinese company, Blue Planet, to clean the lake, and locals have even taken it upon themselves to manually fill buckets to remove the bacteria. Fishermen are afraid to fish because the bacteria is thought to be toxic. Authorities plan on providing bottled water to the public at this time in some localities.
So far some steps taken are: the Minister of Agriculture ordered that no synthetic fertilizers be used in Solola and the Ministry of Communication, Corps of Engineers, and Ministry of Defense will conduct a soil erosion study, caused by the roads, and on the soils in the area to determine their chemical composition. Also an educational campagin, to let the public know that the problem is being worked on, and an environmental alert will be issued. The project to construct
15 WWTPs is thought to cost about US$29 million, and currently only US$10 million has been set aside, which for 8 years now has been earmarked for saving the lake. The lake is a major source of people’s livelihood in the area (fishing and tourism) and is thought to generate about US$200 million annually. (Source: Prensa Libre, 1 de Noviembre, 2009, “Lago de Atitlan esta en coma”, “De la Indiferencia hay que pasar a las acciones”, por Francisco Mauricio Martinez).
All of this just helps reinforce the need for water projects in this area. According to the Ministry of Health, 98% of water sources in Guatemala are contaminated with fecal wate and chemcial residuals (Ramirez, Alberto. ”El 98% del agua esta contaminada.” Prensa Libre).
Results from repeated testing of piepd water from 31 different municipal water systems indicated that between 70% (2003) and 93%
(2002) of municipal water systems were ocntaminated with fecal coliform bacteria! (Braghetta, Anne, P.h.D., P.E. Drawing the Connection between Malnutrition and Lack of Safe Drinking Water in Guatemala).
We’ll begin the installation of water filters at the home of community members (the filters have already been installed in the
schools) tomorrow. We are a group of twelve Rotarians from Reno (just me), New Jersey, Kansas, and Oregon. Today we leave for Panajachel, but for now I am about to take a small tour of the city until the other Rotarians arrive!
In response to the White House visit, in order to film the H&C story for the WhiteHouse.gov website, KOLO’s Ed Pearce dropped by H&C’s Reno offices to find out more about how stimulus funding was helping a growing Nevada firm create new white collar jobs during a recession.
Please accept my somewhat belated thanks for all your help in providing information on the Damonte Ranch wetlands for the Lahontan Audubon Society field trip in early November. Thank you so much for taking the time to gather several copies of the bird checklist and the pamphlet on the wetlands.
We had about 20 people on the field trip. Many had not visited these wetlands before and all were very impressed with the habitats that had been created, the diversity of birds, and the great opportunity that the paved walkways provide for close-up views of waterfowl and marsh birds. Thanks to you, we had enough checklists for everyone and they were a great hit – everyone used their checklist to keep track of the 31!! species that we saw that morning.
Highlights of the trip were great close-up views of several waterfowl, including green-winged teal, bufflehead, ring-necked duck, northern shoveler, northern pintail, redhead, common merganser, horned grebe, eared grebe, and of course, American coot. The northern harriers put on a great show, flying over the marsh and perching on submerged fence posts for good views. An adult and juvenile red-tailed hawk also added to the show, perching on adjacent roofs. We also got close views of marsh wrens, a great blue heron, meadowlarks, white-crowed sparrows, and a song sparrow.
Several people who attended the trip said that they planned to return on their own to bird the area. Also, we will be scheduling more LAS field trips in the spring and early summer to the wetlands.
Thanks again for all your help. I’m sure that all of your at Huffman and Carpenter are proud of the work you have done at the Damonte Ranch wetlands. Good job.
Sincerely,
Kathy Oakes
Membership Chairman
Lahontan Audubon Society
‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ is described by a disengagement among today’s young population, which can all too often result in a cavalier disregard for the natural world and the environment. Huffman & Carpenter would like to be a part of the solution, by encouraging and supporting wetlands, environmental and science education.
As more Americans dwell in cities and suburbs, our society becomes increasingly distanced from the natural world. This absence of everyday connections to nature has many negative effects-especially for children.
Pockets of remaining wetland in developed areas often provide the easiest access to nature. Yet these wetlands may be degraded and go unnoticed.
Urban and suburban wetlands are valuable resources to be restored, protected and enjoyed. These remnants of the natural world in the human landscape can play a key role in reconnecting people to nearby nature-thereby improving the health of our children and our communities.
Learn more about wetlands: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/
INCLINE, Nevada — Construction of the Third Creek Restoration Project is currently being completed nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. This project provides improved aquatic and riparian habitat along Third Creek, between Incline Way and Lakeshore Boulevard.
Prior to restoration, the Third Creek channel had been relocated, straightened, and entrenched and was approximately four to eight feet below the adjacent floodplain, precluding storm flow access except under the most extreme run-off events. Restoration provides improved and restored aquatic and terrestrial wildlife habitat, and reduced stream bank erosion. Additionally, the area will see improved riparian forest health. The project built upon previous restoration plans and studies conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The project was designed and implemented to increase fish spawning and rearing habitats as well as improved fish passage. The project also provides improved water quality through bank stabilization and increased overflow banking to an inset floodplain.
Project highlights included retaining as much of the original vegetation as possible in addition to utilizing several innovative restoration techniques such as log grade control structures, vegetated coir logs, salvaged wetland sod, log lunkers and boulder baffles in the Lakeshore Blvd. culvert. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were saved by not replacing the culvert.
Construction on the $1million project began on August 3, 2009. It was funded by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Nevada Division of State Lands. The project was designed by Entrix, Inc. of South Lake Tahoe, CA with environmental regulatory support from Huffman & Carpenter, Inc. of Reno, NV. Project coordination was conducted with permitting agencies including the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nevada Department of Wildlife, U. S. Fish and Wildlife, and Washoe County.
This project has not only provided environmental improvement within the Tahoe Basin, it has provided jobs within the construction industry. This project is an example of federal and state dollars supporting local work.
