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Water Planning Committee Meeting Summary November 22, 2021 Webinar–John Boyer and Mark Maimone–CDM-Smith

Recording of Webinar can be found at:  https://youtu.be/cyQcjRyzHxU 

  1. Call to Order—Chair Jennifer Hoggatt-Missouri DNR called to order at 2:02 p.m. Central.
  2. Introductions of Participants on the call: Jennifer Hoggatt, Chair; Sue Lowry; Drew Dehoff; Amy Shallcross; Katherine Zitsch; Ed Swaim; Pooja Kanwar; Brian Atkins; Kay Whittington; Julie Westerlund; John Boyer; Mark Maimone.
  3. Webinar Presentation – John Boyer, Vice President, and Dr. Mark Maimone, CDM-Smith

John and Mark’s complete presentation can be found at the link above.  Mark began discussing the impacts on water availability and management caused by climate change.  These can manifest as either too much (flooding, more extreme events) or too little (drought, decreased snowpack and runoff).  Continuing to use the past record as an indicator of future conditions is no longer an adequate method for planning.  He briefly described the various Global Climate Models and the methods for downscaling to the river basin geographical extent.  Temperature predictions can be accurate to the daily scale, but rainfall projections are generally only reliable to the monthly or seasonal scale. Generally, the Global models are underpredicting extreme rainfall events.  The water quality impact of climate change also needs to be considered, such as increased nutrients coming into reservoirs and lakes from increased runoff from extreme events.  John then discussed some of the work CDM-Smith is completing for states, such as Missouri and Colorado.

 

  1. Discuss Resiliency/Infrastructure opportunities passed in IIJA—the various funding sources available under IIJA and American Rescue Act Plan programs could be the focus of a future meeting.

 

  1. ICWP Internship Program for Spring, 2022—Potential Study Projects—if you have any ideas for study projects or for additional universities for posting the notice, please let Sue know by December 1.

 

  1. Report out of other ICWP committee activities—Interstate Water Management Committee’s topic of Trans-basin Transfers series of webinars will be advertised as all-committee events and anyone on one of the four ICWP committee rosters will receive an invitation/notification.

 

  1. Additional items to add to 2022 committee workplan
    1. Suggested topics– discussion of innovative funding approaches and North Dakota and Colorado were suggested as possible speakers

 

  1. Next call or webinar—tentatively set for January 24 based on speaker availability.

 

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

 

2019/21 Accomplishments:

  • Webinars from several state planning efforts
  • Contributed Planning topics/speakers for Annual Meeting and Washington DC Roundtable

 

Issues for 2022 Workplan

 

  1. Continue with Webinar presentations from individual states on their water planning programs
  2. Support for PAS
  3. Water Quality and Infrastructure—how ICWP might integrate these topics with our main mission topic areas
  4. Planning topics at 2021 Washington Roundtable and Annual Fall Meeting
  5. Funding approaches used by various states:
    1. North Dakota
    2. Washington
    3. Colorado