Public Engagement: A Blend of Science, Art and Social Elements

“Extreme weather and climate events pose a serious threat to the health and welfare of American families and businesses.”
                                                Understanding the Link Between Climate Change
                                                and Extreme Weather, U.S. EPA

"It is the quality of the relationships between groups and people, not technological limitation that hinders our ability to solve these water issues in a timely manner."
                                                Stephen J. Baker, Founder, Operation Unite®

 “It requires reflection, intention, and actions.  It requires intellect, but it also requires insight.  And it requires heart and compassion and empathy, including empathy for each other in addition to our beloved Stakeholders and species.”
                   Felicia Marcus, Chair of the California State Water Resources Control  
                  Board, Dec. 8, 2016, MavenNotebook

A new approach is needed now. We must approach Impacted Public and Stakeholder engagement in a new way, an approach rooted in scientific fact, objective reasoning and relationship building, an approach that can mobilize both Impacted Public and Stakeholder engagement and commitment to both process and outcome.

Operation Unite® is specifically designed to address this missing engagement need through the application of a unique approach that combines science, technology and relationship building to build motivation, collaboration at community, regional, state and national levels.

Managing the Domestic Water Supplies

Responsibility in managing water trickles down from the overlying governance to all end users, large and small.
 
As our governance addresses water management across the countryside, let us also recognize that de minimis domestic water users are included in this chain of responsibility.
 
These water users play the most important part in mitigating any shortage or quality issues that they may encounter.  Domestic water well resources are best managed by incorporating the domestic well owners into the management process. Support their information and data needs, teach them how to use it and witness great groundwater management in action.
 
“The greatest way to apply technical solutions in the world is through a public that is engaged and committed to the process and outcome; an honest, we’re all in it together attitude!"
                                                       Stephen J. Baker, Founder of Operation Unite®
 
Start a pilot project in your community and discover how to succeed with this type of management program. Operation Unite® incorporates science, art and social elements to build our communities. Know Your Water® and the Neighborhood Water Alliance programs get the job done.

Wisdom and Observations from the California Water Summit 2017

California leaders shared ideas for building capacity for regional sustainability in California at the recent Water Summit in Sacramento, California.
 
“California water is like a big ball of string with many strings that come out. It’s complicated. We have some ground to cover.”
                                                              Dave Orth, California Water Commission
 

Adequate funding is never available.

There is disconnectedness; key stakeholders are not present in conversations.

California water stakeholders have returned to their silos.

There are overlaps in water resource control.

Regulatory misalignment remains.

 
“It’s important who does the idea messaging. It makes a big difference!”
                                                        Maria Herrera, Self-Help Enterprises
 
“Trust, confidence and credibility is really important. You have to start now. Address the community and culture. Take the time.”
          Tim O’Halloran, Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District
 
“Tying people together to manage water is the next big thing to accomplish a water plan.”
                    Sarge Green, California Water Institute, Fresno State University

An Australian-US Dialogue on Drought

“Water must be treated as a precious resource and needs to be managed into a future of droughts and floods”    
                            G’Day USA, US-Australian Dialogue 2017 Stanford University

• Americans actions tend to be reactionary versus pro-active.
• Decentralized infrastructure/energy approaches that create multiple benefits are being looked at by Americans and Australians for low income, urban regions experiencing water issues.
• Australians found that integrating science, arts and social considerations works.
• Critical people and environmental needs in Australia are dealt with first followed by high priority, general and low security water needs.
• Australia, many times, manages using proportional thresholds. California tends to use absolute thresholds.

De minimis domestic groundwater use isn't de minimis when you have 500,000 wells

De minimis domestic groundwater users aren’t really de minimis when there are 500,000 operating water wells. Interference between wells, impacts to surface water, demands on the counties, boroughs and the state to mitigate groundwater depleted regions and the synergistic negative impacts from increasing septic system usage is the short list of disruptions experienced in our communities.

Operation Unite® recognizes that resourceful and adaptable communities that know how to management themselves while being stewards of the community are the only way to realistically manage groundwater without the negative drama.

Encourage your citizens by educating, demonstrating and planning their responses for creating effective groundwater management. It really doesn’t matter if your groundwater use is for domestic, agricultural, municipal or industrial purposes. Watching the resource beneath your feet and adjusting your groundwater use, in real time, works. The future will be easily navigated because everyone is involved.

Recycled and Reused Water is Renewable

Potable Water Reuse technology is not a limiting constraint. So what is limiting Potable Water Reuse?

• Regulations;
• Funding; and
• A Public Understanding that All Water is Recycled and Reused Including Anthropogenic Treatment Systems.

 “Wastewater is a renewable recoverable source of drinking water, resource and energy”                       Dr. George Tchobanoglous

Exercise Our Integrity by Standing Together

One thing we can be certain about is water demand. People have an expectation that water will be available, on-demand, 24-7 in our small towns, cities and metropolises at all times. On the other hand, farmers want certainty but rarely have sureness that their water will be delivered by Mother Nature or through irrigation systems on time and in the right place. Why is that?

Natural rainfall and snowmelt are acts of God that are not easily predicted when climate changes are superimposed over the chance of getting enough rain based on the last 100 years of probabilistic analysis. Irrigation systems are society created and depend on the physical constraints of storage and conveyance systems and the political tug-of-war that develops between stakeholders and the available seasonal water.

Some say that we not dwell over things that are out of our control and focus on where we can make good change. Managing seasonal water deliveries is one of those things. It begins with everyone having a seat at the table. It starts by listening to the vision and dilemma reflected by each person’s story. It includes patience, fairness, diligence to each other and an integrity that unites everyone. We have this in our communities.

Let’s exercise this process:

• To those farmers in the Central Valley of California that will receive an allocation of 65% on a year that produced near record snow fall and precipitation in the watershed.
• To the Native People that desire inclusion of their principal water values with all society and a safety net that protects them from risky projects that pollute or divert good quality water away from their needs.
• To the disadvantaged communities across the state that are unseen in their dilemma in having clean and safe drinking water and shower water for their homes.
• To groundwater well users that find themselves in harm’s way from industrial well fracking programs that raise risk to domestic and farming populations that rely on potable water to live.
• To the communities that simply desire to retain water for their critical needs.

Financing America's Water Projects

One of our countries greatest water challenges is financing:

• The repair of existing infrastructure,
• Building new conveyance infrastructure,
• Well construction or deepening and operation and maintenance of disadvantaged community water supplies and
• Paying for new groundwater management.

Our current system of economics and governance does not provide a means to fully support these improvements.  

An up and coming water management approach for the United States is a water resource sharing plan that unbundles riparian and appropriated water rights into shares, allocations and water use approvals. Verification of applied beneficial water use of actual waters that are available any given year can be creatively and quickly transferred, especially during times of scarcity.

This method blends well with traditional water doctrines, generates funding for water projects, optimizes actions that produce sustainable water supply conditions and adds certainty to water users.

Go to the Operation Unite Resource page, scroll down to Links for Water Management Strategies and Ideas Professor Michael Young’s ideas for California.

California is in a Conundrum

California is in a conundrum. Water stakeholders need certainty in their water deliveries, the consistency of available drinkable water is missing many of the disadvantaged communities, new water projects are needed, possibly 1,000,000 acres of farmland may be removed from production in central portions of California, a primary California water conveyance utilizes the largest inland estuary on the west coast of North American, alluvial aquifers in 127 water basins are diminishing and funding is insufficient for correcting these issues within the needed time period. During all this drama, daily water and food needs of40 million Californians must be met every day. 

How can water management adjustments produce more successes, more quickly? California uses the Prior Appropriative Doctrine. California manages some groundwater areas by adjudication and is now beginning to develop goals required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. These are good things but more adaptable approaches are needed to facilitate quick water adjustments throughout the year.   It is time to explore new management strategies that will generate the needed funding and complete the projects that address changing annual snow packs, groundwater, conveyance, treatment and storage.

Go to the Operation Unite Resource page, scroll down to Links for Water Management strategies and Ideas Professor Michael Young’s ideas for California. It is working in Australia. It has merit in specific California watersheds. Tell us what you think?

ABC 10 News Report on Operation Unite Groundwater Study

ABC Channel 10 in Sacramento saw firsthand the value in providing public engagement and a data gathering strategy for motivating strongly independent and cautious rural residential/farming populations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to successfully manage their groundwater.  
 

Click Here: ABC Channel 10 in Sacramento with Harry Stockman

This method of monitoring and well user engagement is an effective approach to managing populations using fractured rock aquifers. An example and testimony of success may be viewed at the Operation Unite® Water YouTube Channel video.

Managing Groundwater Through Fairness and Tradition

The American Ground Water Trust shared key guidance for developing and implementing groundwater sustainability plans during its workshop in Bakersfield, California this week.

Developing good groundwater management requires strong, consistent communication, lots of data, a will to integrate all water needs and a clear set of goals:

• Maximize the certainty of everyone’s water supply
• Provide flexibility for adjusting to changing conditions; political and physical
• Address and expedite getting more water into the aquifers
• Respect groundwater rights principles while reducing undue hardship to those having a lower priority

Equity opportunities do exist within a groundwater management area. It’s time to find them!

Pro-active behavior makes a rough road smooth

This past week’s emergency evacuation of communities below California’s Oroville Dam demonstrates the value of pro-active actions.

• Anticipate the downside of a water project and prepare a response BEFORE the event.
• Plan the logistics, materials, manpower, equipment and technical knowledge that provide the “boots on the ground” response BEFORE the event.
• Implement a turn-key program that has the flexibility to adjust to changing conditions BEFORE the event.
• Build a communication network with the local, regional, state and nation response groups and the public BEFORE the event.
• Invest in the future by financing renovation of our oldest, weakened infrastructure, monitor our resources and infrastructure and use the data to prioritize and advance the path of response BEFORE the event.
• Promote an early message of “working together” with stakeholders and the public BEFORE the event.

California has done well. The response continues but thanks are in order. Thank youto numerous County OES departments in northern California and the California Operations of Emergency Services, the California Department of Water Resources, U.S. Corp of Engineers, California Highway Patrol, U.S. Air Force, the National Guard, Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches of all denominations, to name a few. And a special thanks to the many caring volunteers that offered and participated in relieving the difficulties felt by citizens evacuated away from towns and cities down gradient from Oroville Dam.

As repairs continue, let us hope the rains in our near future will be lighter and distributed across drier parts of the state.

The Operation Unite Vision is Built on Many People

Many people contributed to the vision of Operation Unite®:

Pat Mulroy, Former general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority; “Let the Data Drive.”
 
Felicia Marcus, Chair of State Water Resources Control Board; “It requires reflection, intention, and actions.  It requires intellect, but it also requires insight.  And it requires heart and compassion and empathy, including empathy for each other in addition to our beloved Stakeholders and species.”
 
John Laird, Secretary of Natural Resources; “Lead by attracting people to follow.”
 
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, “Choose projects that move the most water the least distance.”
 
Dennis Bowker,  RCD Resource Conservationist, “When we talk about natural resources and social issues, the closer you can get to what is said to what is heard to be the same, the more effectively you will be to  deal with disagreements and differences, and you come to the point where you realize you had the right answer but that doesn’t mean you have the whole answer. Others viewpoints and perspectives can help develop the whole answer.”
 
Phil Isenberg, former Chair California Delta Stewardship Council, “People didn’t intentionally go out and kill fish species. Societies learn lessons slowly.  How you remedy, how extensible you can remedy them and which ways, that’s really what we should be talking about.”
 
Joe L. Del Bosque, Jr., Del Bosque  Farms & California Water Commission; “Lack of water will wipe out our people. I look at this as a family approach, you might say.   If I were to look at a backup plan, I would maintain jobs for our people.” 
 
Andrew Stone, American Groundwater Trust; “Groundwater sustainability must be seen in the context of our future.”
 
Ron Milligan, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Operations Manager Central Valley Operations; “Use all the flexibility that we can to respect contractual rights even though they may be junior to someone else’s water right. I need to get multiple uses out of a single acre-foot of water.”
 
and the list goes on......

Operation Unite® builds public responsibility by listening, questioning, discovering, understanding, sharing and applying.

Climate Change Symposium Highlights

Highlights from the 2017 California Climate Change Symposium
Science to Safeguard California

“We are in a new climate”
-Noal Diffenbaugh, Stanford University
 
“There is no shortage of crisis. Last week alone, we had drought, floods and fires in California. Disasters affect Democrats and Republicans alike. Coalition and collaboration building is critical.”
 -Director Mark Ghilarducci, California Office of Emergency Services
 
“Keep your focus on your objectives.”
-Secretary Matt Rodriquez, California EPA
 
“We are going to be carbon farmers in this state.”
-Secretary Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture
 
“Thinking adaptation to make investments”
-Chair Robert Weisenmiller, California Energy Commissioner
 
“Lead by attracting people to follow.”
-John Laird, California Secretary of Natural Resources

Dissecting our complexities may not be the answer

Water issues are many times referred to as a “wicked” problem because of their social, economic and physical complexities.  As conflicts arise, they take many forms; data conflict, interest conflict, identity conflict, value conflict, structural conflict and relationship conflict.

Solving these wicked water problems simply isn’t easy when the complexities are dissected. Ultimate resolve for our water projects can be simple in scope but the difficulties lie in the application of trust.

Trust is built through respectful demonstration and commitment to each other in the long run. Technical solutions is the easy part because technologies and modern methods are usually adequate and available. Working together is the stumbling block.  It takes patience, kindness, empathetic understanding and a commitment to each other to bind a society that is built on diversification and a common good.

Build relationships and solve problems. Operation Unite®

Commitment to Process and Outcome

“The greatest way to apply technical solutions in the world is through a Public that is engaged and committed to the process and outcome; an honest, we’re all in it together attitude!”

                                   Stephen J. Baker, Founder of Operation Unite®

Yes, we must plan for flood events too!

It is important to get comfortable with the extremes in weather and water supply. Today’s flooding and water excess is the precursor to tomorrow’s extended drought and water shortage. Planning for droughts and floods start now!  Build your resilience through community participation, effective infrastructure, planning and shared focus; a vision of safe and abundant resources.

Together We Plan for Today and Tomorrow

Just because it rains a lot doesn't mean everyone is getting enough water. Building a capacity for abundance means distributing water for all needs while protecting its source and saving for the next dry year.

We will always have water working together and together we plan for today and tomorrow.

Water Underlies Everything We Value

Operation Unite® engaged with many people and issues this year. Here are a few highlights:

• Produced a radio round table discussion on KVMR with the Democrats, Republicans and Tea Parties. Discussed California water issues and the common ground of the Parties.
• Provided “Plan Your Water Future” workshops for citizens in Mountain Counties to learn, choose and apply their chosen water improvements. Groundwater monitoring, rain water harvesting, grey water, irrigation practices and drought resilient vegetation strategies were considered.
• Produced a special “Meet Your Mentor“ radio show with video clips (http://www.operationunite.co/resources/). Explored the underground regions of the 16 to One Gold Mine in Allegany, California with Mentor Robert Campbell, Professor Vasant Wagh of Swami Rammanand Teerth Marathwada University in Nanded, India, a very ambitious UC Davis Geology student and the President of the Mine.
• Met with numerous farmers and water purveyors in the Central Valley, Delta and northern California regions. Discussed the application of the Operation Unite® public relationship building program and community groundwater management program.
• Met with farmers entering the legal medicinal cannabis farming industry. Discussed successful management of their water resources.
• Built water resilience for California citizens through the Operation Unite® Know Your Water® and the Neighborhood Water Alliance programs.

Water underlies everything that we value. May our communities recognize its value and support efforts to build habits, resiliency, sustainability and accessibility to water in both the environment and for the people on our planet. Wishing each of you a very prosperous and happy New Year.

May Our Holiday Cheer Carry Us Through 2017

Operation Unite® believes that good tidings shared during the holiday season are to carry through the entire year. May each of you share continued success in:

• Building and maintaining the respect and trust with others that is the foundation for all decisions made;
• Prosperity that builds personal successes as well as collective benefits;
• Pursuit in discovering and achieving water decisions that balance environmental, social, economic and the practical needs of our societies; and
• A recognition that we really are all in this together.

Wishing each of you continued good health and a wonderful new year!
 
Operation Unite®