University of Nebraska Water Lectures Begin Jan. 15, Run Through April

Dec. 20, 2013

LINCOLN, Neb. — Eight public lectures on a varied slate of state and regional water issues will form the University of Nebraska's spring semester water seminar that begins Jan. 15.

The free public lectures continue on a roughly every-other-week basis through April 23, each on Wednesday afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the first floor auditorium of Hardin Hall, northeast corner of N. 33rd and Holdrege Sts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus, Lincoln.

Lecture dates are Jan. 15 and 22, Feb. 12 and 26, March 12, and April 2, 9 and 23.

Lecture topics include groundwater quality in Nebraska, owner responsibilities for private water wells, source water protection planning, variable rate irrigation as a means of improving agricultural water use efficiency, potential concerns over nitrates and uranium in drinking water and managing water resources for multiple benefits.

"The lectures collectively form a very broad overview of water and water-related topics that are important to and of interest to all Nebraskans," said Chittaranjan Ray, director of NU's Nebraska Water Center, which has helped sponsor and organize the annual spring semester lecture series on water topics for more than 40 years.

"One of the great traditions of this lecture series is the level and variety of speakers it has attracted over the years," Ray said.

This year, outstate speakers hail from the University of Illinois, Purdue University, George Mason University and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, while instate speakers are from UNL, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Hastings Utilities and Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.

Cosponsoring the lectures with the Nebraska Water Center, part of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, is UNL's School of Natural Resources, which also offers the lecture series as a course for student credit.

The complete January through April schedule appears below and is posted online at watercenter.unl.edu. Individual lecture videos and speaker PowerPoint presentations will also be posted at that web address within a few days after the lecture.

Jan. 15, Groundwater Quality in Nebraska, Marty Link, associate director, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality

Jan. 22, Williams Memorial Lecture: Rural Private Wells: Concerns and Well Owner Responsibilities, Steve Wilson, groundwater hydrologist, Center for Groundwater Science, Illinois State Water Survey at The Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jan. 29, no seminar

Feb. 5, no seminar

Feb. 12, Social Capacity: Getting Producers to the Conservation Table, Linda Prokopy, associate professor of natural resources planning, Purdue University

Feb. 19, no seminar

Feb. 26, A Vision for an Ultra-High Resolution Integrated Water Cycle Observation and Prediction System, Paul Houser, professor of global hydrology, George Mason University

March 5, no seminar

March 12, Kremer Memorial Lecture, A New Approach to Source Water Protection Planning: Groundwater Site Investigations, Becky Ohrtman, SWP program director, and Dan Cook, project manager, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

March 19, no seminar

March 26, no seminar (UNL Spring Break)

April 2, The Potential to Increase Agricultural Water Use Efficiency through Variable Rate Irrigation, Tim Shaver, nutrient management specialist, UNL West Central Research and Extension Center

April 9, Nitrate and Uranium in Drinking Water, Marty Stange, environmental supervisor, Hastings Utilities, and Karrie Weber, assistant professor, UNL School of Biological Sciences

April 16, no seminar

April 23, Managing Water Resources for Multiple Benefits, Don Kraus, general manager, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District