[Nfb-science] Nathanael Wales presentation on water management

[j8miller at soe.ucsd.edu]

 Hello, I asked Nathanael Wales, who is blind and a long time member of
the science division to prepare his remarks he gave to the science
division in Dallas. Nathanael works for the state of California in water
management. His professional experience offers much from which each of us
can learn. Here is a copy of his presentation.

Nathanael Wales Presentation:
Many of you may know that in my job I work on the preliminary engineering and
environmental planning for the construction of new dams and reservoirs.  One
alternative that any new dam must consider is underground storage-it's the
reality
of politics and environmentalism.  Engineers such as myself will also
consider
groundwater storage in conjunction with a new or expanded dam and
reservoir: this is
called conjunctive use (or conjunctive management).  Water is conveyed
from the
surface reservoir to recharge basins and facilities when the reservoir is
full;
groundwater is then used by cities and agriculture for their uses when the
reservoir
is low.



Investigating conjunctive use is what I have been doing as a large part of
my job
this last year in my work on the proposed expansion of Lake Millerton on
the upper
san Joaquin river.  Previous studies have already determined that there
is-and with
an expanded reservoir there would be-enough water to send down the river
at the
right time of year.  These studies confirmed that there are good soil
conditions,
enough manmade channels and pipelines, and enough water when it is
plentiful to put
it into the ground.  In short, these studies confirmed that the Central
Valley
generally and its hydrology specifically would support further investigating
conjunctive use.



My job began with sorting through two databases with over 200 potential
projects:
some just concepts (such as diverting water from a given river to ground
at a given
location to some very well defined projects.  In particular, near Bakersfield
several projects have additional capacity for recharging and withdrawing
water as
needed; my work included looking at expanding those water banks in
particular.  My
supervisor and branch chief gave me three specific criteria to narrow
these to about
a dozen or so real possibilities to be used in addition to an expanded
reservoir on
the upper san Joaquin River: 1) the quality of technical information (such as
information included in applications for funding from other Department
programs), 2)
political support, and 3) meeting a minimum yield (the ability to store
water and
withdraw it from the aquifer).  In addition to the two databases of
projects, I
reviewed dozens of funding applications and other Department engineers'
evaluations
because these co-workers had considered these projects for more local
uses.  In
particular I consulted with our staff in Fresno and local government
agencies.



I found it most convenient to use Microsoft Excel to keep track of data
and my
notes.  The vast majority of the information I used was available
electronically,
having been prepared via department servers and outside applications
having been
submitted in both hard copy and CD-ROM.  In using Excel one of my greatest
challenges was presenting my work-my sorting process and listing of
projects-In a
way easily accessible and understandable to my supervisor and branch chief
looking
at their computer screens.



After applying the selection criteria, co-workers in my branch and I put
all of this
work into a report for public release.  This report does not contain a
tremendous
amount of technical detail; it is one politicians and the public can
understand.
There has been quite a bit of revision to get our report into a format
that people
can understand and in continuing to refine our criteria and selection
process.  We
have finally completed this report, but we are still waiting to release it
until a
lawsuit over the original damming of the San Joaquin River is resolved.



For a person using a Braille display and a screen reader to access a
computer this
was something pretty straightforward to do.  In struggling to make my work
accessible and understandable to my supervisor and branch chief I got a
taste of
something in reverse to what some of us dealt with yesterday morning with the
MathCounts competition and product test: very poorly put together tables.



This work that I have done in the past year is in large part because of the
inspiration and technical knowhow that I received as a student myself.  I
look
forward to continuing to give back along with all of us here in the room
tonight.


IN ANSWER TO A QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE:

Our branch is not looking at seawater desalination; we are looking at surface
storage.  Other Department engineers are looking at desalination
projects-you might
be familiar with two competing projects in Carlsbad.  Our overall
challenge is how
to re-distribute all of the water in California to 35 or 40 million
people.  Our
branch sometimes looks at desalination for our economists to put into
perspective
how much an acre-foot costs from the operation of a reservoir versus
desalinating 1
acre-foot of seawater.