Chapter Newsletters

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear Western Chapter Members,
As erosion and sediment control professionals, we often provide our technical expertise prior to the wet seasons. In fact, we spend a lot of time engaging other professionals while implementing erosion control measures, hoping to minimize soil loss and sedimentation if and when rain arrives. But for this wet season, limiting erosion and sedimentation has been a tough task given the back-to-back atmospheric river events with massive snow and rainfall amounts.

This wet season has been a very active season for all of our member states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. A quick stroke of the keyboard on the internet provided an eye-opening surprise regarding the impact of these atmospheric events on drought conditions. Arizona began this wet season with 56% of the state in moderate drought and will end the season with approximately 32% being classified as abnormally dry. Arizona’s wet season included severe thunderstorms, flash flooding, destructive winds, and landspout tornadoes. California began its wet season with 99% of the state in severe drought. It will likely end with 73% classified as abnormally dry and only 10% remaining in severe drought conditions. The drought monitor shows Hawaii’s status at 0%. At the start of the wet season, Hawaii was classified as 97% abnormally dry. Finally, Nevada began the season with a classification of 100% moderate drought and will end its wet season in an 83% moderately dry situation.

While the atmospheric river storms have brought much-needed rain, I would like to take a moment to ask our members, “how are you managing runoff conditions from these events?” I encourage all members to consider providing a write-up to include in our Western Chapter newsletter, allowing us all to share your accomplishments.

Take care,

Melanie Sotelo – President