BLOG: Groundwater Foundation Participates in Nitrate Strategy Meeting

Leaders from across Nebraska looked at new ways to approach an old challenge at a Jan. 21 nitrate strategy meeting facilitated by Crystal Powers of Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, the Nebraska Water Center (NWC) and Nebraska Extension, and Katie Pekarek of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) School of Natural Resources and Nebraska Extension.

Participants, including the Groundwater Foundation's Jane Griffin, worked to develop short-term priorities to improve nitrate-water quality issues. These include:

• Build trust and promote pride in Nebraska’s water resources
• Education (K-12, producer, policy makers, urban)
• Policy (incentives, education, regulation)
• Develop alternative markets for low-N cropping systems

Participants identified nine working groups to achieve the above objectives and committed to the 5-year goal of improving nitrate water quality issues in Nebraska. Participants broadly committed staff time, money, and other resources to working groups which will be convened in the coming months.

More than 40 participants included representatives from DWFI, NWC, 12 Natural Resources Districts, the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts, Nebraska Game & Parks, U.S. Geological Society, National Resources Conservation Service, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Administration, Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, University of Nebraska Foundation, Shell Creek Watershed Group, GC Resolve, Nature Conservancy of Nebraska, Nebraska Sierra Club, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Groundwater Foundation, and growers.

For more information, visit https://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/.

BLOG: Finding Ways That Work: Groundwater Management in the Western U.S.

by Kate Gibson, Program Coordinator, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute

Whether it is used as a primary water source or as a buffer for variable surface water supplies, groundwater provides water security to support economic development worldwide. However, groundwater is a difficult resource to manage and presents challenges that are distinct from those related to surface water management. The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund have partnered in an attempt to address the challenge of understanding and translating best practices for groundwater management. Their collaborative report, The Future of Groundwater in California – Lessons in Sustainable Management from Across the West, seeks to provide guidance to groundwater managers in California and beyond by drawing on the diverse experience of water management programs from across the western U.S. 

Going beyond the typical technical guidance, the report attempts to get at the “story behind the story” by drawing upon varied experiences of groundwater management to try to understand what works and what doesn’t. The report uses nine case studies from six states to present key lessons learned. Case studies are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, and Texas, and represent a wide range of hydrology, climates, legal structures, and water uses. 

The report begins by breaking down the issues that drive groundwater policies: surface water and groundwater interactions, long-term aquifer depletion, and water quality and other concerns. Interactions between surface water and groundwater are significant drivers of groundwater policy across the western U.S. while, in general, long-term aquifer depletion and water quality concerns have been less likely to produce binding groundwater policy changes. 

Many types of water management tools are available to water managers, ranging from strict regulations to voluntary efforts. Water managers can seek to change behavior of water users by using tools that are not intended to provide financial incentives, also sometimes referred to as “command and control” approaches. Alternatively, incentive-based tools seek to change behavior through providing direct financial incentives. Managing agencies can also take action to manage water resources on behalf of water users in the district. These actions can be categorized as agency supply augmentation and protection tools. Lastly, many water managers rely heavily on voluntary tools such as education and outreach efforts. All of these tools are present in varying degrees across the nine case studies featured in the report. 

The report distills the key elements of effective groundwater management into five themes: the importance of building trust, the need for data, using a portfolio of approaches, assuring performance, and access to adequate funding. 

Building Trust
Perhaps the most important element of groundwater management is building trust. It is vital that the people who are impacted by groundwater management policies understand and trust management goals for a program to be effective. In many of the case studies, trust building began by having broad community involvement from an early stage. Data can also be a powerful tool to visualize current groundwater conditions and show potential future impacts to groundwater resources. A community member who is skeptical of new groundwater use policies may be convinced otherwise if shown that their presently unaffected groundwater well could be impacted by groundwater quality degradation or lowering groundwater levels in the future. Use of data can give credibility to water managers and give the community a sense of ownership in the management program. Other approaches to build trust with the community include involving key stakeholder groups in the planning process and providing beneficial resources to the community, such as recreation services or agricultural cost-share programs.

The Need for Data
Data are critical for groundwater management decision making, whether that’s having an accurate record of groundwater levels or having flow meter data to track water use. However, data collection is time consuming, costly, and often controversial. It is therefore important for water managers to carefully consider how much data is “enough” data to avoid unnecessary costs and jeopardizing community trust. 

Using a Portfolio of Approaches
Across the case studies, water managers relied on a multitude of management tools and strategies. While there can be a tendency to want to choose one tool as a panacea (water metering for example), groundwater management as highlighted in the case studies typically begins with a permitting framework, a tracking system, educational component, and funding source. Once this initial framework is established, it becomes easier to add additional tools that are appropriate for local conditions. 

Assuring Performance
Effective groundwater management requires a system of monitoring and enforcement to ensure that water users are complying with management policies. Without monitoring to detect noncompliance and subsequent enforcement of the policy, there will always be an incentive for water users to ignore management requirements. However, monitoring and enforcement is often unpopular, incurring significant social, financial, and political costs. 

Funding
All of the case studies illustrated the need for adequate funding to meet groundwater management goals. Regardless of what approaches are used, groundwater management requires long-term financial resources to support education and outreach, infrastructure improvements, data collection and modeling, and monitoring and enforcement programs. Water managers rely on a wide range of funding mechanisms to support their programs including taxes, bonds, state and federal grants, and user fees.

While new groundwater managers have their work cut out for them, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel! Experience from groundwater management programs across the western U.S. provides valuable insight into aspects of groundwater management than can make or break a program. Building community trust, knowing what data are most important, using multiple approaches, assuring performance through monitoring and enforcement, and having adequate funding are critical - but not often obvious - components of groundwater management. For a more in-depth look at the case studies and lessons learned, read the entire report. To learn more about the work that we do, visit us at waterforfood.nebraska.edu.

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Kate Gibson is a program coordinator at the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska. She manages policy-focused programs related to groundwater management and water security. Kate holds a Master's degree in agronomy and Bachelor's degrees in water sciences and environmental restoration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reach her at kgibson@nebraska.edu.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the view of The Groundwater Foundation, its board of directors, or individual members.

BLOG: Communities and Collaboration: Upcoming Groundwater Foundation Events

by Sara Brock, The Groundwater Foundation

June is an exciting month for The Groundwater Foundation as we bring many of our collaborative projects to fruition.

Working with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) and educators in Western Nebraska, we bring the Recharging Groundwater Education program to a teacher’s workshop in Ogallala. Among the other useful tools teachers can use to enhance student science learning, we’re providing classrooms with Awesome Aquifer Kits and supplementing the traditional curriculum with new and updated activities, worksheets, andtechnologies.

Mid-June is marked by an exciting collaboration with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute with the WELS2 program. It will bring Nebraska’s science educators the HydrogeologyChallenge program with an emphasis on model-based learning. Participating teachers will use the week to prepare and develop a groundwater curriculum that they will use during the 2017 – 2018 academic year. Understanding the concept of models and the Hydrogeology Challenge through Nebraska’s new College and Career Ready Standards for Science will empower teachers to incorporate groundwater education into their science classes, as well as provide students with a modern environment to learn and boost their problem-solving skills.

Finally, the Nebraska Wellhead Protection Network, another partnership with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, will have its quarterly meeting on June 21^st in Hastings, Nebraska.  Beyond sharing updates and ideas for education and outreach programs, attendees will also have the chance to learn about and tour Hastings’ brand new Aquifer Storage and Restoration facility. Begun in July 2016, the nearly-complete project aims to increase drinking water storage and quality and simultaneously reduce the economic burden of clean water on taxpayers. Interested in attending? Register here.

BLOG: Developing Science Literacy Through Environmental Education

by the WELS² Project Team (Tina Vo, Cory Forbes, Nick Brozovic, and Jane Griffin)

Around the globe, humans face an array of contemporary challenges associated with food, energy, and water systems. To prepare future generations of problem-solvers equipped to address these challenges, education must go beyond merely disseminating information. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, has identified important components of environmental education that include an emphasis on awareness, knowledge and understanding, attitudes, skills, and participation in environmental challenges. When focused on these challenging issues of today, science literacy can involve:

• Explaining, describing, predicting natural phenomena  
• Considering multiple viewpoints and different stakeholders invested in the system
• Identifying issues, biases, or limitations within research
• Accounting for various mechanisms and their effects within a system 
• Evaluating the validity of data collection methods
• Creating and evaluating arguments around environmental topics
• And a myriad of other science-oriented tasks and practices 

This knowledge and the associated skills define scientific literacy about interactions between humans and the environment. Supporting audiences to become more scientifically literate requires cultivating a culture and perspective that values critical thinking, problem-solving, and informed decision-making.

For example, decisions about water resources are complicated and involve human and environmental concerns.  A scientifically-literate person is one who’s prepared to ask questions such as: Who/what benefits from resource allocation? Who/what might be hurt by these decisions? What evidence do we have to support these claims and how did we obtain that evidence? How will this impact the water availability for others? Have we considered the natural and economic factors will be influenced? And these are only a few aspects to consider. While issues like this are complicated, frameworks like the ones developed at the University of Nebraska help untangle them by providing guidance such as where to start, who to ask for help, and how to educate ourselves.

Another way these key components of environmental education are highlighted and science literacy is supported is through the adaptation of state and national standards that acknowledge the role of ‘science practice’ as a way of doing and knowing science and requesting these practices be taught in the classroom. Teachers can support students through meaningful and directed educational experiences by providing opportunities to develop knowledge about food, energy, and water issues (e.g. water resource management) and scientific practices (e.g. scientific modeling). 

One aspect of environmental education that can prove challenging for learners of all ages centers on the complexity of hydrological phenomena. Complicated environmental issues develop around balancing humans’ use of groundwater against depletion and recharge rates. Supporting and fostering critical thinkers who can find solutions for these multifaceted issues will take dedicated educators who are well versed in science practices and environmental education. 

A program targeted to support these dedicated teachers to provide quality classroom instruction is the WELS² project. Based at UNL, this project is a collaboration between the UNL Science Literacy Program, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, and The Groundwater Foundation. 

The WELS² project (Water Education Leaders for Secondary Science) is committed to providing high school and middle school teachers in Nebraska with the training, supplemental educational materials, and experiences around hydrological phenomena, to support their food, energy, and water education efforts in the classroom. Through this professional development program, teachers can earn up to 9 hours of graduate course credit through the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as a stipend, to support their ongoing professional learning. WELS² introduces teachers to various resources including computer-based water modeling tools, pedagogical strategies for encouraging students' model-based reasoning about water, and strategies for grounding these experiences in real-world, issues-based contexts. Teachers will learn to use these resources to develop their professional skill sets, as well as how to use them in their classrooms to enhance their students’ learning about water systems. Participating teachers use part of this experience to collaborate with educational specialists and scientists and tailor resources suited to their students’ needs. This collaboration is an important facet of the project which highlights the expertise of the participating teachers to assess and develop materials specifically for their use. If you are interested in joining this program or would like to learn more, please inquire here.

Environmental education is an important part of supporting and developing science literacy in audiences of all ages. Educators who wish to help students develop these tools for critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving need to be supported and provided opportunities to do so. By partnering with institutions and organizations like the UNL Science Literacy Program, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, and The Groundwater Foundation, educators can leverage additional tools and resources delving deeper into environmental challenges and supporting their students in building critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. 

The WELS² Project Team includes Cory Forbes, Associate Professor of Science Education, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources Science Literacy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, cory.forbes@unl.edu; Tina Vo, PhD Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, ms.tinavo@gmail.com; Nick Brozovic, Director of Policy, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, nbrozovic2@unl.edu; and Jane Griffin, President, The Groundwater Foundation, jgriffin@groundwater.org.

Collaboration is Key

By: Jessica Wheeler, The Groundwater Foundation

I recently attended the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute's 2016 global conference, "Catalytic Collaborations: Building Public-Private Partnerships for Water and Food Security." This three-day conference brought various stakeholders together to discuss innovative ways to address water issues around the world, including groundwater availability, increasing agricultural production with sustainable water use, the effects of climate change on water and food security, implications for public health and much more. These issues cross political boundaries, affect farmers and apartment-dwellers alike, and require all of us to work together to implement meaningful solutions. Hank M. Bounds, President of the University of Nebraska put it best in his opening statement, "Complex challenges demand collaborative approaches."

The conference included excellent speakers from around the world offering their expertise and valuable discussion between conference participants. Check out videos from the conference.

 

Photography Contest from The Water for Food Institute's
2016 Global Conference

The theme of this year's Water for Food conference, collaboration, is also one of the most important tenets of The Groundwater Foundation's efforts to ensure sustainable, clean groundwater for future generations. Successful conservation and protection begin with solid partnerships. Like the Water for Food Institute's conference, the Groundwater Guardian program showcases the significance of multiple sectors coming together to create positive, lasting change - from scientists, policymakers, and non-governmental organizations to individual citizens. We all play a role in environmental stewardship. 

Find a way to get involved and build collaborative partnerships in your community with programming from The Groundwater Foundation!