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Water Planning Committee Meeting Summary November 2, 2020 Conference Call

  1. Call to Order—Chair Jennifer Hoggatt-Missouri DNR—Jennifer called to order at 10:04 a.m. Central
  • Introductions of Participants on the call:  Jennifer Hoggatt, Chair, Sue Lowry, Pooja Kanwar, Kirsten Wallace, Brian Atkins, Jodee Pring, Mabel Jones, Kristina Peacock-Jones, Carrie Wiese, Jennifer Schellpeper.
  • Discuss Water Planning Session for 2020 ICWP Annual meeting held virtually (October 6)

Many felt that the State Planning Panel provided great information during the Annual Meeting session.  Pooja noted that she reached out to Jennifer Filbert to further discuss the planning activities in Wisconsin and asked Jennifer to present to Pooja’s staff.   Sue noted that the USACE has named a new PAS Program Manager and will include Susan Layton’s contact information when this meeting summary is sent to the committee members. Kirsten suggested that ICWP organize a webinar with Susan soon to introduce her to ICWP and discuss some troubling areas of PAS administration. 

  • Principle Statements topics from 2020 workplan
    • Workplan updates—New topics were discussed to add for 2021
    • Draft Statements presented at Annual Membership meeting to be finalized by Board later this week
  • Internship project ideas from this committee—Ideas for projects for Interns included:
    • Aging Infrastructure—Although this is a broad topic, what would be particularly useful and germane to this committee is review of approaches used by states to present the compelling need to state legislatures on the needs and risks of failure with aging infrastructure and any innovative funding methods or solutions. 
    • Use of Outside funding (grants, foundations, etc.) by Interstate organizations.  Intern could look into different funding models and how the receiving organization assures they continue to work on their core mission and not be overly influenced by those providing outside funding. 
    • An analysis of the states whose water plans address extreme events and/or adaptive management strategies for climate change. 
    • Other schools discussed included the University of Indiana, Haub School at the Univ. Of Wyoming, the Nichols Institute at Duke ant the Global Health Policy Center at U. of North Carolina.  John Boyer and Mabel Jones agreed to reach out to the schools they mentioned after the announcement is ready. 
  • President’s Water Management Executive Order
    • Section 8 on the Workplace Resiliency was discussed.  Jodee mentioned hearing a presentation by EPA ‘s Sustainability Office and the work they are doing to address possible shortages of personnel in the water field. 
    • There is broad support for the Water Sub-cabinet concept and it would be good for this to be carried over into the next administration. 
  • USACE Revolutionize Civil Works Stakeholder outreach—Regulatory Reform and Project Delivery
  • Topics and speakers for future water planning learning opportunities
    • Wildfires and how they impact watershed planning.  How to protect rural and dispersed water systems.  Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Funding was mentioned.
    • Atlas 14 and Extreme events—New climate science could be needed to predict the scale of events that could develop in the near future.  Steve Guan was mentioned as a potential speaker. 

Next call or webinar— All committee webinar set for January 7, 2021 at 2 p.m. Central time. Olsson, Sitka Technology Group and Paige Wireless discussing use of technology enhancements for day-to-day water management at the Twin Platte Natural Resources District in Nebraska.

Water Planning Committee:  Provide a forum of the exchange of ideas and concepts related to state and regional water planning. 

2019 Accomplishments:

  • Webinars from state planning efforts, including MN, MO, WY and Nebraska
  • Contributed Planning topics/speakers for Annual Meeting and Washington DC Roundtable

2020 Accomplishments:

  • Heard from FEMA on pre-disaster funding available to states through each state’s Homeland Security agencies
  • US Chamber of Commerce described their disaster mitigation work
  • Webinars from state planning efforts update from Kansas
  • Received an update on the planning related activities of the National Drought Mitigation Center

Issues for 2021 Workplan

  1. Continue with Webinar presentations from individual states on their water planning programs
  2. Support for PAS, including cost share change in WRDA letter
  3. Water Quality and Infrastructure—how ICWP might integrate these topics with our main mission topic areas
  4. Impact of Wildfires on Planning and rural/dispersed water systems
  5. Atlas 14 and Extreme Event planning and preparedness
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