Looking for Case studies for areas that have been impacted by climate changes related to the hydrological cycle

Question

Hi,  
 
I, Peter Petersen, am a water chemist working at a local municipal water treatment plant.  I am currently writing an extensive water treatment training manual called "Everything Water Treatment Plant Operators Need to Know about Water: From Drops To Entry Point". This manual is intended for people who are new to the field; taking certification exams; or refreshing their knowledge. This project was born of my frustration with the reference materials available when studying for the water exam.
 
The focus of the manual, to provide a basic knowledge of water treatment, consolidates some of the existing reference materials in an easy-to-understand format. The manual will also be useful both as a study guide for certification exams and a reference book. This manual will be broken down into several sections.
 
 Within this manual, I am covering subjects such as:
 
· How water drops are formed,
· How various water sources are formed,
· How various components of the hydrological cycle work
· How climate change impact the hydrological cycle
· How the properties of carbon dioxide influence the climate change
· How the terms, climate, climate warming, and global warning related or differ
· How various water treatment processes work, including the operation and troubleshooting of equipment and instrumentation,
· How different factors affect water quality as it makes its way through each treatment process.
 
I have included some of the water quality regulatory requirements and I cover complex issues that today’s WTP Operators and the Managers have to address on a day to day basis to protect the consumer, and ensure safe water for years to come. I also include water quality and operational issues frequently and infrequently encountered in the water treatment process and how experienced operators responded to those concerns. Also included is information on the state of the art instrumentation currently being used in the field and in the laboratory.
 
As part of the current series, “Hydrological Cycle and Climate Change”, I am looking for case studies for areas that have been impacted by climate changes, whether they have in the recent years experienced more frequent periods of flooding or drought, or loss or reduction of a water source. I am interested in knowing the water sources for these areas, and the steps which the local community took to response to those events and the steps which they are taking to prepare for future similar events. I will also like to know what technologies they implemented, and what improvements to water quality or quantity were documented.  I am also interested in how the watershed was impacted  by the climate changes to the area before any work was done.   
 
I’m also interested in hearing how local water suppliers and public utilities worked with local communities and county/district/state planners to  develop water budgets to reduce the impact plans to reduce the impact of similar future events.
 
 Thank you for your inputs!

Ajit Seshadri Seshadri · Answer

It is a welcome news to know a Book is handy for use.
Pl make it available in soft copy to Members..
Well wishes.
Ajit Seshadri

Joshua Rosenblatt BSc MPA · Answer

Hello Peter. This is a good approach in bringing more science and policy to the perspective of the water treatment operator and or a water utility director. I am a water resources professional with science and operational background in southern New Mexico. I was the first @Water Conservation Coordinator for the City of Las Cruces, NM at the southern boarder with TX and Mexico. 
I fully agree with the response of @Steven Cooke, to identify supplies vulnerability and the tool box of adaptive response to shortages triggered from  from whatever the cause from the operational perspective rather then the emphasis on Climate Change and even CO2. People pump CO2 into greenhouses to enhance plant growth. Perhaps more utilization with  CO2 emissions as a resource for food security will be part of future @urban  agriculture for @food security. These are policy and inventive opportunities not usually in the hands of the water operator but some knowledge of which may provide solace/frustration. 
I do have case studies that would be very helpful from agencies throughout the arid southwest as well as my own hands on involvement in ops, water conservation, municipal wastewater reclamation and more. I am a board member of the organization @Westcas a stakeholder group of water agencies of the arid southwest. I encourage you to visit their website and can scroll through the library of  presentations that were posted from past conferences as you will find some excellent material for your endeavor of case studies and costs associated with management and technologies  regional and site specific adaptive response initiatives and technologies to sustain deliveries and conserve water supplies to the populations served of the arid southwestern states.
Please feel free to contact me directly as I can't type as fast as I have information to convey. :)
I wish you great success to your project.
Joshua Rosenblatt, BSc, MPA
deltawatertech@gmail.com

Derek Albertson · Answer

Hi Peter.  I work at the Montville (CT) WPCA.  I could offer information relative to the effects on process control within a activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (non-combined influent) due to the increase of large storms.

Steven Cooke · Answer

Dear Peter,
That sounds like a very interesting and useful project! I would be very cautious about attributing too many changes in the hydrological cycle to “climate change”, as both occur continuously. Dealing with them appropriately is important, but be wary of weighting a discussion or relevance to ambiguous or multiply-defined concepts.
Changes in rainfall and water levels occur worldwide at different times, conditions and rates. Some last a season or two, others may endure for years. Rarely has any particular condition remained stable, and even the definition of “stable” can be misconstrued without taking into consideration the direct impact of increased usage of the resource!
I think that it is most important to understand and develop plans that mitigate potential changes in the reliability and quality of water sources. Those include flooding as well as drought, and the distribution and types of usage as well as the recycling of the used water back into the hydrological cycle and water systems.
In my own community (rural) in the Philippines we had a rather severe water table level decline last year, affecting all public and private wells in the Province. Both the individual (in my case) and goverment (in the community) response was to re-work most of the wells to clean them out and deepen them – close to the limit of most of the “shallow well” pumping systems. That now remains in place, but the annual rainfall and water replenishment has not really fallen off considerably, so the water availability situation is now back to a previous normal state. However, exacerbating the water level problem and remaining a threat in the future is the continued development of communities displacing older farms and creating a larger continual demand on the area water aquifers.
As with many communities worldwide (possible worse in “First-World” countries) there is often no distinction between supplies for potable water and general usage. Thus, a high demand for potable water is wasted on uses that do not require that purity, and which can often be sourced from places other than the potable water aquifer. Rain collection, rivers, and reuse of “gray water” are all areas that are under-utilized.
On the other side of climate variations, severe storms (typhoons, here) can not only cause direct damage from flooding, but the flooding usually has the potential to contaminate normal sources of potable water. Mitigating flooding effects is a separate concern for the most part, but it must include considerations of impact to water storage, distribution, and processesing facilities as well as implications for home sanitation requirements.
I hope that this gives you some background on our activities with water source fluctuations, if not specifically a “case study” of a particular intervention.
Best regards,
Steven Cooke, MchE, FAIC
President, Process Systems Consulting.

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