WERI Water Resources Forum 2022
November 10, 2022 · 9:30AM to 2:30PM · Virtual / In-Person at WERI Conference Room
WERI Water Resource Forum 2022 will be held at WERI’ conference room Location may change depending on size of attendance. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. This forum is a showcase of our new interactive online products – WERI Web MAppFx (bring your laptop), and specials – the State of the Climate (Western Pacific), WERI’s new Geologist (Blaž Miklavič), and more. This event will also be held virtually for those unable to physically attend.
If you have any interest in attending the forum, please contact Jayvee Cacal at cacalj@triton.uog.edu or (671) 735-2685.
In 2020, Guam Waterworks Authority’s (GWA) General Manager Miguel Bordallo and NAVFAC Marianas (NAVFACMAR) Navy Commanding Officer Captain Daniel Turner signed a One-Guam Water memorandum of understanding (MOU) that establishes, “a stronger partnership and collaborative commitment to the improvement of its utility system”
(PNC 2020). The MOU lays out an organizational structure, which includes scientifically informed advisement from the Island’s technical experts on water resources, including the Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific (WERI), University of Guam (UOG). In 2022, GWA, NAVFACMAR, UOG, and USGS signed memorandums of agreement (MOA-GWA, MOA-DOD), bolstering One-Guam Water with OGWRIP, which funds water science research operations to be conducted and managed by WERI and USGS’ (Hawaii) Pacific Islands Water Science Center (PIWSC).
The Guam Hydrologic Survey and Comprehensive Water Monitoring Program (GHS and CWMP), Guam Public Laws 24-247 and 24-161, respectively, were established to develop an inter-agency cooperation for gathering and publicly providing water and environmental information. The ultimate goal is to support our quest of determining sustainable development and management of our island’s most valuable renewable resource, water. The mandate intent is to form a network that will help us improve our understanding of our water resources through data collection, analysis, interpretation, recommendations, reports, and presentation in all efforts to determine its optimum development for sustainable utility. GHS and CWMP contains the island’s collection of water resource and related hydrologic and environmental information by way of an organized online database system. Read more >>
Get the PDF files:
Guam Hydrologic Survey – Guam Public Law 24-247
Comprehensive Water Monitoring Program – Guam Public Law 24-161
Sustainable Development and Management of Guam’s Groundwater: A Recommended Program – Executive Summary
Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific (WERI), University of Guam (UOG), is charged with administering the GHS and CWMP. Annual reports are prepared for the years:
FY1998 Jenson and Jocson (1998) Hydrologic Data Collection on Guam: FY1998 Report, Technical Report No. 83
FY2019 · FY2018 · FY2017 · FY2016 · FY2015 · FY2014 · FY2013 · FY2012 · FY2011 · FY2010 · FY2009 · FY2008 · FY2007 · FY2006 · FY2005
WERI Publications, Conferences, Products, Presentations, and GHS sponsored research products – annual listing, 2020-1998.
WERI is also a member of the local water resource interagency organization called the Technical Experts Group (TEG) and the Groundwater Resource Development Group (GWRDG) establish by the 16 July 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the US Navy and Guam Waterworks Authority (Appendix I). The MOU provides an additional venue for meeting the GHS and CWMP mandates to “establish a direct working relationship with each organization collecting hydrologic data important to Guam, and maintain a permanent flow of new data from each organization to keep the data library up to date.” Local and federal agencies that are party to or affected by the MOU include Guam Waterworks Authority, Guam Environmental Protection Agency, CUC, US Navy (NAVFACMAR), USAF (36 CES), and USGS. Interagency groups also include private consultants: Duenas Camacho and Associates, Allied Pacific Environmental Consultant (APEC), EA Engineering, Brown and Caldwell, and AECOM. Meetings are organized and held quarterly at Guam Waterworks Authority (Gloria B. Nelson Public Service Building), Fadian. Current discussion is the expansion of monitoring (observation) wells, see details in CWMP Research Projects section. The interagency group organization, formed of three groups: executive, working, working group, and the technical team (See the GHS and GWRDG organization chart>>).
The inter-agency group meets quarterly to discuss concerns, pool resources, share ideas, provide update, consult, and gain professional acquaintance and partnerships. Here is a list of agencies in attendance:
Government of Guam:
GWA – Guam Waterworks Authority
GEPA – Guam Environmental Protection Agency
GCUC – Guam Consolidated Commission on Utilities
GBSP – Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans
GDPW – Guam Department of Public Works
GPUC – Guam Public Utilities Commission
NGSWCD – Northern Guam Soil Water Conservation District
UOG – University of Guam
WERI – Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific
US Federal:
USGS PIWSC – US Geologic Survey, Pacific Islands Water Science Center
NAVFAC Marianas – Naval Facilility Command Marianas, US Navy, Guam
36th CE – Environmental Flight, 36 CE SQ, USAF, Andersen AFB, Guam
Private Sector:
AECOM – Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Management: Guam Expansion Project
APDI – Allied Pacific Drilling Inc.
APEC – Allied Pacific Environmental Consulting, Inc.
B & C – Brown and Caldwell: Essential Ingredients®
DCA – Duenas, Camacho and Associates, Inc.
GHD – Gutteridge Haskins & Davey
GWK – Guam Water Kids
IREI – Island Research and Educational Initiative
PCR – PCR Environmental, Inc.
Guam Water Resources Technical Experts Operating Charter (near Final Draft)
The Guam Water Resources Technical Experts plan and cooperate towards the best technical solutions and advice in support of sustainable development and management (See Draft of the GWRTE Operating Charter >>).
The operating charter includes the following agencies:
- Guam Waterworks Authority
- Guam Environmental Protection Agency
- Guam Department of Public Works
- Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific
- Department of Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas
- United States Geological Survey
GWA and WERI
GWA and WERI have a great interagency partnership for more than several decades now. We continue to work together and have formed an agreement to expand the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer (NGLA).
See GWA-WERI Memorandum of Agreement >>
See GWA-WERI Memorandum of Understanding >>
GEPA and WERI
WERI and GEPA also have a long history of cooperative partnership through research projects (e.g. GWUDI determination, septic tank survey…), data contribution, water quality lab, scientific advise and recommendations, and field surveys. A memorandum of understanding has been discussed and a document similar to GWA-WERI MOA is in the works and will be done soon.
Mission Statement
The Guam Hydrologic Survey (GHS) and the Comprehensive Water Monitoring Program (CWMP) were created in 1998 by the 24th Guam Legislature under Public Laws No. 24-247 and 24-161, respectively. The Water and Environmental Research Institute (WERI) was charged with administering the annual legislative appropriations to drive these two programs and facilitate, direct, and implement their objectives. Both programs are now an integral component of water resources research, information dissemination, education and training on Guam.
Goals
The Guam Hydrologic Survey consolidates and archives new and historical hydrological data collected by local and federal government agencies and private consultants, and conducts research on water-related issues of local importance. GHS also funds a variety of water resource educational programs, including guest lectures and seminars at UOG and in the community, informational and training workshops for teachers and other professionals, field trips and talks for schoolchildren, and the publication and distribution of educational posters, maps, and fact sheets.
The CWMP was created to collect data on saltwater intrusion and water lens thickness in Guam’s northern aquifer, and stream flow for surface waters in the south. The program builds on studies previously undertaken by the US Geological Survey (USGS) that had been abandoned in the 1990s because of a discontinuance of matching funds from the Government of Guam. The CWMP annual appropriations from the Guam legislature restored the program in 1998 and since then have facilitated the collaborative reinstatement of these studies with USGS under their 50-50 Federal/State-Territory cost-sharing program for water resource monitoring.
The foresight of the Guam Legislature in creating these two very important programs deserves special mention here. With the continued support of the Legislature, we now maintain several vital water resources databases for Guam and collect essential water resource data in collaboration with the USGS. Our understanding of the complex physical, chemical and biological processes that influence Guam’s water resources has broadened considerably and the increase in graduate student research opportunities has substantially added to the number of highly trained water resources professionals in the island’s technical work force.