Flagstaff Chapter News
Next Meeting:
Area News:
Last Meeting:
Hops, Stops and Rocks
Summer Field Trip 2010: Hydrology, Geology, and Volcanology of the
Mormon Lake area:
Flagstaff Chapter Intern Scholarship:
Other News:
Next Meeting:
The next Flagstaff Chapter meeting will be on
Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 6pm, Location TBA. Local
member, Mike Tomlinson, will give a talk on Hawaii hydrology!Area News:
After the 15,000 acre Shultz Fire, Doney Park
area (northeast of Flagstaff) is experiencing flooding, and the city's water supply line from the Inner Basin was taken out by debris flows.
Here are links to articles from the Arizona Daily Sun:
Thursday July 22 flooding in Timberline
Tuesday July 20 flooding in Timberline
Past Meetings:
At our August 2010 meeting, Brad Hill presented the City of
Flagstaff hydrogeology in relation to the proposed pumping of
recharged reclaimed water to Snowbowl. He also presented
photos of the entire Waterline Road, including debris flows and
damage to the waterline.
The chapter voted at the June meeting to go with the High
Country Conference Center for the 2011 Symposium.
At our May meeting we met at Beaver Street Brewery. Several students attended this meeting, in addition to a new professional member, Mike Tomlinson.
Our main objective was to pick the location for the 2011 symposium. The decision was put off until the June meeting once the committee responds with several questions are answered regarding the venues.
Our April 21 meeting was a good one! We set
planning goals for the 2011 symposium. It was also
announced that the 2010 Flagstaff Chapter Intern is Ms. Mary
Carson, an NAU undergraduate in the Geology Department.
She will work with Peabody Energy, the City of Flagstaff, and
the USGS.
See her bio below.
Our March meeting was well attended and we would like to thank
Charles Ester, with SRP, for coming up to Flagstaff and
delivering a fine presentation on how SRP is forecasting their
water supply and deliveries. Dana Downs-Heimes, CH2M Hill,
provided the following summary from his talk:
The SRP delivers water to nearly 250,000 acres in the Phoenix
area using a combination of groundwater and surface water
supplies. Many of the groundwater wells were originally
constructed for agriculture.However, as urban/residential
development has progressed throughout Phoenix, many of these
wells have become unable to contribute to their overall
supply. Those which could be discharged to nearby canals for
wheeling to areas of demand are of increasing importance.
Charlie presented several plans and studies SRP is utilizing
to forecast and manage water supplies along the Verde and Salt
River systems in light of the recent drought which
significantly impacted reservoir storage. A Reservoir
Operation Plan was developed which contains many components,
including the impacts of weather and drought. Looking at the
historic record, SRP has used information regarding the
drought from 1898-1904 to develop storage operation planning.
The most recent weather data indicate the recent drought was
similar to the 1950s drought. Tree-ring data also suggest at
least 8 other droughts were as severe or more severe, and that
longer droughts have occurred. Two significant droughts were
noted; the mega drought which occurred in 1575-1585 and the
SRP Planning Drought of Record, which occurred 1898-1904.
However, tree ring studies completed by U of A indicate there
have not been individual drought years going back to 1300 AD
that were as severe as the 1996 and 2002. The possibility of a
longer and more severe drought provided incentive for SRP to
model combined storage and groundwater pumping scenarios to
determine a point at which the SRP reservoir system is unable
to meet any demand. SRP is exploring options to augment the
storage supply before storage reaches a critical level, which
allows the supply to be sustained for a longer period of time
to preclude the complete loss of storage. Also, this approach
of developing a more robust operations model will be
applicable should a shift to a warmer, drier Arizona occur, as
global warming/climate change predictions suggest. SRPs
current operations management uses the 1575-1585 tree ring
drought as the new Planning Drought of Record and a
conservative 950,000 acre feet demand. If needed, reservoir
shortages could be addressed through increased groundwater
pumping, reduced allocation to customers, agreements with
Central Arizona Project, lease options with Indian and
non-Indian agriculture, recovery of long term underground
storage credits, conservation, watershed management and
increased water-use efficiency.
Additionally, Charlie presented 2009-2010 El Nino winter precipitation
summaries and statistics. Lakes along the Salt River have reached
capacity, and are releasing water, while lakes along the Verde are
very near capacity (much of the snowmelt from the northwestern portion
of Verde watershed has just begun). Data from SNOTEL sites located in
the SRP watershed indicate snowpack levels are much greater than what
has been received in recent history. The SNOTEL information is being
used to estimate future SRP reservoir inflow. While precipitation from
the 2009-2010 winter will not resolve the long term regional drought,
storage reservoirs have rebounded, and forests/watersheds have
received some much needed moisture and relief.
January speaker: Our last speaker
was Margot Truini, who gave a presentation at our January 2010
meeting. Margot is a Hydrologist from the Flagstaff Water Science
Center, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office. She gave a compelling
presentation of the USGS regional study on the groundwater occurrence
and movement and water level changes in the Detrital, Hualapai, and
Sacramento Valley basins in Mohave County, Arizona at the January
meeting. Dana Downs-Heimes provided a summary of the talk in the
February AHS newsletter.
Flagstaff Chapter Summer 2010 Field Trip
The Summer 2010 Field Trip on Saturday
July 10, 2010 was a great success! Thank you to Dr.
Richard Holm, Dr. Abe Springer, and Brad Hill for leading this
trip!
Flagstaff Chapter Intern Scholarship
2010 Intern Mary Carson:
2009 Intern Christian Meinhardt:
2010 Flagstaff Chapter Intern
 Mary Carson
received her Bachelors of Science in Geology from Northern Arizona University in May and will be moving onto graduate school at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio Fall 2010 to study hydrogeology in the Great lakes region. Her love for water and the natural world began while growing up along the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland OH. After spending a few years living in places like Yellowstone National Park and the Hawaiian Islands, her drive to study geology, hydrology, and environmental change only grew and she decided to study at NAU where she completed an undergraduate research project and thesis looking at variability in lake sediment and fossil indicators as records of climate change in south-central Alaska. At NAU she was also introduced the unique water issues in the Southwest and has since decided to pursue a career in hydrology to help mitigate the adverse effects of water contamination and misuse of our most precious natural resource.
Mary knows that the experience she will gain while participating as the AHS intern scholar will be an invaluable foundation on which to develop as a hydrogeologist and is very grateful to the Flagstaff Chapter of the AHS for extending her this opportunity. In addition to hydrology, Mary is also interested in the other natural sciences, outdoor adventuring, live music, crafting, environmentally-friendly living and being a good role model for her two young children.
2009 Flagstaff Chapter
Intern
 Christian
Meinhardt, an undergraduate working as a Research Assistant with
the Dynamic Environmental Management System at the NAU
Department of Engineering, was awarded the 2009 Flagstaff
Chapter Internship. Christian was born and raised in Berlin,
Germany. During his childhood, he considers himself fortunate
that his family was able to travel within Europe a great deal.
He attended vacation school for three weeks in Kent, Great
Britain in both 1997 and 1998. During the 2001-2002 school year,
Christian undertook the adventure of being an exchange student
at Flagstaff High School. Impressed by the United States and his
stay in Flagstaff, he decided to attend Northern Arizona
University as an International Student in 2005, after finishing
school in Germany completing Civil Service.
Christian has discovered his passion for
science in engineering while studying Environmental Engineering
at NAU. In particular, the field of hydrology caught his
attention, leading him to apply for the Arizona Hydrological
Society internship. He plans to further his education by earning
a master’s degree in hydrology or water resource engineering
after completing his degree at NAU. Christian anticipates that
his AHS internship will provide him with experience and
knowledge that will prepare him for his graduate work and his
career.
Summary from Christian, May 2010: In June 2009 Miss Erin Young informed me that I was chosen as the 2009-10 Arizona Hydrological Society Intern Scholarship recipient. The idea was to work a total of 320 hours with four different entities: United States Geological Survey’s Water Resources Center (99 hours), Coconino County’s Stormwater Department (81 hours), City of Flagstaff’s Cinder Lake Landfill (66 hours), and City of Flagstaff’s Utility Department Water Resources (74 hours). Up-front, I must say, my experiences have been invaluable, life changing, and I believe they have helped prepare me for my future career.
At the USGS I had the pleasure of working under hydrologists Margot Truini, Jamie Macy, and Kurt Schonauer, and hydrologic technician Jessica Gardner. Margot taught me how to read well logs, from which I designed a spreadsheet with information on groundwater wells in western Arizona. Additionally, I was taught how to prepare sampling equipment for water quality measurements. Jessica, Kurt, Jamie, and I went on two trips to take surface water volume, river cross sectional measurements, and water quality measurements on the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona. I was also part of a similar excursion to Diamond Creek and the Colorado River near Peach Springs, Arizona. Here, Kurt taught me how to create a perfect cross section to achieve best estimations of flow measurements. Jessica took me on day trips to take groundwater measurements throughout the Black Mesa area. To teach me how to take water samples for quality analysis according to stringent USGS protocols, Kurt took me on a two-day trip to the Verde River near Cottonwood, Arizona.
As my second internship opportunity, I was honored to work with hydrologist and stormwater program manager Ted Smith of Coconino County. Together with Ted, I developed two analytical models in Microsoft Excel. The first model, essentially a flood frequency analysis tool for instantaneous annual-maximum peak flows, calculated different possible floods for a rain only, rain on snow, and a combination of both events using new (to me) statistical methods. USGS’ PeakFQ served as an example but the challenge was to develop the same functions in excel. The second model for determining run-off based on area was developed using streams throughout northern and eastern Arizona that had similar climate to Flagstaff. In the finishing model one could determine an estimate of the run-off, again for a range of recurrence intervals, simply based of a known area.
Third, I enjoyed working with NAU Master Candidate in the Department of Geology and Project Manager at Cinder Lake Landfill, Ken Robinson. One of the things I learned from Ken is the geology of Cinder Lake Landfill, geologic terminology, and some hydrogeology mechanisms in soil matrices. Some of the research done with and for Ken included finding constituents of landfill leachate, hydraulic conductivity of fracture flow in basalt, typical rock designation, permeability, and porosity in basalt flows, and soil moisture sampling. I also learned a great deal of professionalism and time management.
Last but not least, I was mentored by the City of Flagstaff’s water resource manager Brad Hill, where I did some of the basic data collection for Flagstaff’s water resources sustainability study. One of the first tasks was to update the City of Flagstaff’s well data hydrographs. I then compiled data from ten or more reports the City had done over a period of time. I also compiled a long list of references and learned to use ADWR’s 55 database, where I looked up and created copies of data reports for over 130 wells. Data research and collection dominated this early stage of the water resources sustainability study. For the already existing Lake Mary data, I developed a conversion formula between percent full and volume as this was not apparent in the provided data.
In conclusion, I was able to gain very valuable experiences throughout the AHS internship experience – mostly because of the great people whom I felt privileged to work with. This was a once in a life time experience, and I am very grateful for this tremendous opportunity. I would like to thank every individual I was honored to meet – you made this experience possible and so wonderful! By encouraging words and examples, I feel prepared to make a difference in the water resources management world as I will continue my education in water engineering. Thank you AHS!
Other News
Brad Hill captured this photograph of a nearly
full Upper Lake Mary at the dam on Easter Sunday.
2010 Membership Dues
Your membership may be renewed for
2010 by credit card through the AHS website at
http://www.azhydrosoc.org/ Dues remain
at $45.00 year for regular membership and $15.00 for students. Thank
you all for a great 2009 and for your continuing support in 2010.
For those who attended the
2009 Phoenix Symposium, be reminded that membership dues for 2010 were
included in the registration fee.
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