Hydrology Now - Lesson 1 (A River Runs Through It)

In the spring of this year I was offered a new job as a Hydrologic Technician with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  This was not just any job.  It was the job, the job that reignited my passion for water resources and extinguished the doubt I had cast on my chosen career path.  It is been this experience that has given me the desire to write this blog, to share with others the joy I find in a rewarding career in the hydrology field.

Hydrology Lesson 1

Like many midwestern homes today I have spent my morning shoveling my driveway and although I embrace the snow, my snowsuit reminds me of the field work I will be required to partake in come Monday morning.  Hydrologists work under all weather conditions; rain, snow or shine we are outside with mother nature competing with her to finish our work load.  Many friends, family members or random acquiantences over the years have expressed their jealousy that I have chosen a job that requires me to work outside.  Coinsitently all this inquiries occur during the summer months.  Let us not forget that in the midwest working outside means dealing with all four seasons!
At this point you may be wondering why a Hydrologist would be required to complete field work in the winter.  After all, isn't everything frozen in the midwest during those cold winter months?  My answer - exactly!
Rivers and streams fluctuate with time, weather and human influences.  Most people are familiar with this if they have ever experienced loss due to flooding or worried about their water supply due to drought.  However have you ever thought about the source of water that causes these systems to fluctuate and how that influences our experiences with them?
Baseflow is a common hydrologic term referring to the amount of water contributed to a stream via groundwater.  Visualize a stream in the middle of a dessert completely surrounded by a plastic bubble  at the surface, with human influences miles upon miles away.  With this scenario our virtual stream has no outside influences such as snowmelt, rainfall, or runoff contributing to the stream's water supply.  If this was the case the only water in that stream would be from underground sources - groundwater. Now take the stream out of its plastic bubble and put it back in the midwest, then tell Mother Nature not to influence its water supply so we analyze its baseflow conditions. HA! To combat the battle of life without control over Mother Nature we use the winter months as our plastic bubble.
Now you maybe asking, why is it important to know our baseflow conditions? The answer is surface and groundwater interactions.  These interactions are very important in understanding the quality and quantity of our water supply.  For example lets say a random city in the midwest was just informed that over the next decade they will be experiencing several periods of extensive drought.  This city relies heavily on a river that runs through it to supply drinking water to its citizens.  Now the city wants to know how much water that river will hold during these drought conditions, therefore determing how much water the city will have to supply to its citizens during trying times.  The city's next step would be to turn to a hydrologist and ask them for guidance on addressing their concern.  The hydrologist would pour over data collected on that river to give the city an estimate of the river's potential lowest water quantity, in other words its baseflow conditions.
One of the projects I have worked on where knowledge of baseflow conditions was required involved a river system highly influenced by irrigation.  To become part of the cornbelt of the nation you need a strong water supply for your crops.  However how is the groundwater pumping used to irrigate those crops influencing the water supply in the local river systems?  To address this question winter streamflow measurements are required to determine baseflow.  Because in the winter months the irrigation pumps are turned off and Mother Nature is kept at bay. 

                                                  A picture of a winter streamflow measurement
Drilling 30 holes across a stream in the middle of a cold midwest winter day is challenging, especially when you are as tall as the ice auger.  However with the proper equipment, winter attire and a wonderful comrade the work can be rewarding.  When the beauty of a winter wonderland can take your breathe away you are inspired to continue your hydrologic aspirations to protect those river systems that bring joy to so many people.

Environmental Science is a major? Really?

Recently I attended a conference where local water resources nerds, like myself, gather to learn, debate and awkwardly socialize. Of all the presentations I heard over the course of two days one has stuck with me. It was by an environmental educator who made several strong points emphasizing the lack of not only environmental science in our schools, but a missing general science curriculum. SCIENCE! And engineering?? It's not even heard of in most schools. This conclusion hit me like a red brick, yes, now I understand why I had such a hard time choosing my career path while growing up in the rural Midwest. Back to the beginning...
My mom says I was a strange child. "Garbage," she tells me, "Everywhere we went you had to pick up all the garbage." Passionate and ambitious is how I would define myself as a young child. A few years ago I found a paper I had written in fifth grade, where the goal was to describe myself including things I would change. I wrote that I didn't want to be so lazy on the weekends, watching TV on the weekends was a waste of time and we should be spending our time outside. Ha, even in fifth grade I was pining to get my parents out the door to enjoy life. We lived on the lake and I wanted to spend my summers enjoying it. Boating, swimming and relaxing by the lake were my favorite activities.
In high school I took an agriculture class, the closest thing to an environmental education I could get. The teacher told me the first day, "This isn't your normal science class." I learned later what he was trying to tell me as it was one of the most pointless class I ever took, my glimpse at the environmental field was slipping through my fingers as I was grasping onto anything interesting he could bring into the classroom. After this class I thought, "that's it, environmental science is not for me." Continuing to struggle through future career options I went to a small college to study archaeology. After my first archaeology class I was lost again, finding that archaeology did not contain enough science for me. A teacher was my next career choice, after all if I can't find an interesting science career, maybe I can help someone else choose the right career path. After one agonizing first year of college I transferred hoping a more liberal school would bring me a new perspective. Ahhh...welcome to the University of Minnesota! Environmental Science, finally a major that might interest me. I didn't even know such a major existed, literally. I choose this major after looking at a long list of majors offerred at the University. To myself I thought, "Environmental Science is a major? Really? Awesome!" I couldn't wait to get started.
During my time at the University of Minnesota I took several soils classes, worked in a water quality lab and gained a better understanding of what career options were available to me.  As graduation loomed near I realized that my experiences gained through the program would not satisfy the requirements of most jobs I was interested in pursuing.  Hence began my search of graduate programs with an emphasis in water resources.  A PhD graduate student introduced me to the a few job opportunities out west.  Shortly before graduation I was offered a job to work under the lead Hydrologist at a federal agency in Arizona.  Thus initiated my first experiences to the vast expanses of the hydrology field.

What is a Hydrologist?

My answer to the age old question of "what do you do?" (which is a part of everyday dialect among Americans in the getting-to-know-you stage of a relationship) has always baffled those who ask it. To say the word Hydrologist seems to bring a rather vast array of responses, from puzzled looks to an elementary understanding of the profession. My boring, timeless answer has always been "I study the flow of water." Sometimes the puzzled expression on their face turns to a look of acceptance as they find a better understanding of my profession within themselves with a rather generic response of "oh, so you study water quality?" My annoyance after this response tends to bring the conversation to a quick close as I vaguely continue to define my career with, "No I study water quantity, rivers, flooding, etc" The brave who wish to continue this conversation, and I now salute them for being inquisitive, ask one final question, which is "why?"
One of the reasons I have started this blog is to close the gap between the average American and the profession of Hydrology. In reality a Hydrologist wears many hats, but to begin I will start with my experiences growing into a career as a Hydrologist. Let me start at the beginning....