WILD
Aquatic is a K-12 curriculum resource for teaching about aquatic organisms and
ecology.

Two talks on new efforts to reduce pollution. Environmental Working Group staff scientist Rebecca Sutton demonstrates EWG’s cool new database and tool telling you which cleaning products are safe for the environment — and for you!

Longtime creek activist Josh Bradt, now with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, shows slides and describes plans for beautiful “rain gardens” helping to reduce runoff pollution along San Pablo Avenue — and how cities around the Bay will install hundreds of imaginative new devices to capture trash this fall. The test is an important step to meet requirements to keep trash out of creeks and Bay. Sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks.

For more information, visit their website.

The City of LA was fast outgrowing it’s water supply in the late 1800s.  The Owen’s Valley looked like the most likely source for the precious resource.  Tension grew between ranchers, farmers and developers.  Lies and subterfuge were at hand. William Mulholland’s aqueduct was the spark that ignited the CA Water Wars in 1913.  What happened?  Where are we today in terms of CA water?  Have things improved?  Is the war over?

For more information, email Susan@susansearway.com, call 415-332-3871 or visit their website at http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/bmvc/.

This is largest Western U.S. coastal wetlands restoration project, encompassing 15,100 acres of former salt ponds around the edge of South San Francisco Bay. The project will restore and enhance South Bay wetlands for endangered species and migratory birds while providing flood management and wildlife oriented public access and recreation. USGS multidisciplinary science is guiding the restoration effort, providing an integral part of the adaptive management process being used to restore this area over the next 50 years. Scientists are conducting studies in avian and invertebrate biology, water quality, hydrology, geomorphology, and chemistry to better understand the wetland ecosystem

Speaker: Laura Valoppi

For information call 650-329-5000

http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/

The seminar will feature Alexandre Bayen presenting the results of the Floating Sensor Network project, including the results of the experiment in Walnut Grove. On May 9, 2012, the Floating Sensor Network team will conduct a major experiment in Walnut Grove, CA. We will launch the complete 100-unit floating sensor fleet and introduce the fleet and its real-time sensing capabilities to the public.

There will be public events in both Walnut Grove and on the UC Berkeley campus. In the morning, there will be a press briefing in Walnut Grove followed by the inaugural launch of the Floating Sensor Network fleet. After the launch, the fleet will be cycled through the Sacramento River/Georgiana Slough environment for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, there will be a round-table discussion and a public seminar at UC Berkeley. During the round-table discussion, water researchers will explore the implications of this emerging sensing technology on the future of California’s water management challenges.

RSVP required – email Lorie Mariano at lorie@citris-uc.org.

Http://citris-uc.org/

In many areas of the United States, excessive pumping and groundwater overdraft are causing rivers and wetlands to go dry. In western states, where most surface water has long been fully appropriated, growing populations have turned increasingly to groundwater, leading to decreases in streamflows, conflicts with surface water rights, and harm to fish and wildlife. States have begun the process of reforming outdated laws and policies, some more ambitiously than others, and with mixed results. In this talk, we will look at the experience of Oregon, New Mexico, and Texas, and explore steps that states have taken to limit groundwater pumping while avoiding undue harm to regional economies. We will also examine the role of discuss the role of the endangered species protections, environmental organizations and water trusts in precipitating these changes. Further, we will explore how states used tools such as basin closures; groundwater rights, mitigation, and water markets to promote sustainable water use. We will conclude by looking at what else states should be doing to manage groundwater and surface water conjunctively, as a single resource, to promote a healthy environment and healthy economies. Speaker: Matt Heberger, Pacific Institute, Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Colloquium.

http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium.

The SF Estuary is a complicated and sometimes dangerous waterway to navigate whether you are boating, rowing, or swimming. Dye brings the hydrology to life. See the gyres, conflicting currents, and circulation for a better understanding of how this amazing collection of waterways operates. Join Ranger Linda as she brings the Bay Model to life.  For more information, http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/bmvc/bmjourney/calendar/bi_monthly/front.html.

Throughout the world, wastewater treatment and storm water management systems are being re-thought. No longer considered a waste product, storm water and other “waste” waters are now being managed, and sometimes reclaimed, in innovative ways that increases their resource value.  There are clear connections between sewer system protection, storm water management, and potable water offsets. Onsite wastewater treatment reduces demand on San Francisco’s water and wastewater systems through non-potable reuse and discharge avoidance, mitigates peak wastewater conditions through dispersed storage capacity, and defers costs and expenses of expanding infra-structure to meet growing demand. Due to increasing populations, potential precipitation changes because of climate change, more stringent environmental regulations, and the high cost of updating infrastructure, there is consensus among water professionals that municipal agencies can no longer afford to consider wastewater simply as a public health hazard that must be disposed of safely and quickly. Rather, wastewater and storm water should be viewed as valuable resources that can be effectively used to reduce the environmental impacts and costs associated with a region’s water and wastewater system.  This presentation examines the work of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Urban Watershed Management Program (UWMP). The UWMP aims to encourage and require projects to incorporate onsite storm water and wastewater management and other water sensitive strategies to adapt San Francisco to climate change and a growing population.

Speaker: John Scarpulla, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium

In much of the world, water has become a source of increasing conflict. Current policies are failing to meet the economy’s demands for water supply reliability, water quality, and flood protection; meanwhile, freshwater aquatic ecosystems are in sharp decline despite several decades of well-intentioned, but insufficient and poorly coordinated policies designed to protect them.  Climate warming is expected to increase these challenges in the coming decades.  California – a growing economy with a highly variable climate and a large agricultural sector – is at the forefront of many of these conflicts.  Drawing on a new book by an interdisciplinary team of experts, co-author Ellen Hanak will explore new approaches to managing water in an era of increasing scarcity and competing demands.

Speaker: Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of CA

For more information visit the Events Calendar at the Berkeley Institute of the Environment at http://bie.berkeley.edu/.