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Water Shortage Task Force

March 22, 2007 Meeting Summary

The Water Shortage Task Force conducted its meeting from 10:00 am to 12:15 pm (EDT) on March 22, 2007, in Conference Room A of the IGCS in Indianapolis. The following is a brief summary of committee updates, discussion topics, presentations, suggested action items and motions from the meeting:

Motion made for the election of a Vice Chairman for the Water Shortage Task Force; designate will be determined and named at next full task force meeting.

Committee Updates

  1. Jim Butcher, Chairman; Monitoring and Assessment Committee
  2. Carlton Curry, Chairman; Policy and Priority Committee

Discussion/Presentation Items

1) Development of “Glossary of Terms” for Water Shortage Plan.

2) Review of minimum stream flow requirements for various stream uses/needs.

  • 7Q10 currently recognized as recommended low flow.
  • Stream gaging stations necessary for stream flow evaluation.
  • Need for GIS coverage of various streams showing varied uses and designations.

3) Need for Task Force to obtain direction by investigating water supply/drought planning efforts of other states.

  • Evaluation of water supply planning in Washington, Texas and Virginia.
  • US Army Corps of Engineers have investigated water shortage issue; State of Kentucky has interest in participating with Indiana’s efforts.
  • Proposed conference in Indianapolis with regard to water supply and demand.
  • House Bill 1738 will require Indiana to evaluate water resources; need for task force to move ahead with this issue.
  • Motion was made to bring in speakers for May 18th Committee Meetings – Motion Approved
  • Motion was made to appoint representatives (Jack Wittman, Bill Etzler, DNR) of task force to contact and arrange speakers for May 18th meeting – Motion Approved

4) Evaluation of existing conservation ordinances to be used as templates for the Water Shortage Plan.

  • Representation of conservation ordinance as Memorandum of Understanding.
  • Provide template for communities to design their own specific policies and response to a water shortage.
  • Existing conservation ordinance for the City of Carmel will be placed on Water Shortage Plan Website.
  • Both urban and agriculture have specific water management plans.

5) Explanation of Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PDHI)

  • Proposal to have drought indicators presented by State Climatologist (Dev Niyogi) at April 20th committee meetings.

6) Summary of web-based hydrologic data available from DNR and USGS

  • Overview of Division of Water’s Water Resource Update page by Jerry Unterreiner of DNR, Division of Water.
  • Overview of USGS Waterwatch website, USGS Groundwaterwatch website, and USGS Streamstats web site by Scott Morlock of the USGS.
  • Approximately 20% of USGS hydrologic data network funded by outside sources (DNR, Army Corps, IDEM, INDOT, etc.).
  • Line item funding may be addressed in next legislative session.
  • Density of USGS data network typically dictated by needs and location.
  • Siavash Beik of CBB Engineers investigating funding options for hydrologic data network.
  • Climate data available on following websites: weather.gov/water; weather.gov/indy; cpc.noaa.gov.
  • Website link to Indiana River Rally to be added to Water Shortage Plan website.

7) Summary of Annex 2001

8) Evaluation of SWWF data to identify water use trends by category.

9) Summary of reported ground water and surface water conflicts and resolutions; 1986-2006.

Establish Next Meeting Dates

  1. April 20th – Committee Meetings; 10:00 am and 1:00 pm at IGCS.
  2. May 18th – Committee Meetings; 10:00 am and 1:00 pm at IGCS.
  3. June 15th- Full Task Force Meeting; 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at IGCS.