January 2022 Technical Noon Webinar

By Zoom Videoconferencing Technology (Registration is Required - See Details Below)
Wednesday, January 19, 2021 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years:
Impacts on Surface Water and Groundwater Supplies and Water Use

J. Philip King, Ph.D., P.E. 
Principal Engineer, King Engineering & Associates Inc.

ABSTRACT: 

The NM Interstate Stream Commission’s Leap Ahead Analysis Assessment painted a bleak picture of New Mexico’s increasingly arid climate and the deleterious effects of climate change on the hydrologic processes that drive the state’s water supply. The impact on our water use, particularly Domestic, Commercial, Industrial, and Municipal (DCIM) and irrigated agriculture will transform the way we live, with heavier reliance on groundwater, migration of water use from irrigated agriculture to DCMI, and increasingly expensive water. While the focus of the Leap Ahead effort was a 50-year planning horizon, climate change is well underway already, and positive feedback effects will drive water crises in a much shorter time frame. Water policy makers and managers will be faced with very difficult and politically unpopular choices in the near term.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. King is Principal Engineer for King Engineering & Associates, Inc., and has held that role since 1995. He retired as a Professor and Associate Department Head in the Civil Engineering Department at New Mexico State University in June 2021, where he had been since 1990. He specializes in water resources engineering, and his research has included irrigation, hydrology, and water quality studies of the Rio Grande. In 2009, Dr. King was awarded a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science posted at the National Science Foundation. He chaired the boards of both the Leasburg Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association and the Doña Ana Soil and Water Conservation District. Governor Richardson appointed him to the New Mexico Soil and Water Conservation Commission. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, Africa. Dr. King has Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Engineering from Colorado State University, a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from New Mexico State University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New Mexico.

REGISTRATION:

Membership in AWWA or WEF is not required. All attendees must pre-register for this webinar by Tuesday evening, 1/18/22 at 5:00 p.m. This is required to maintain a record of those attending to satisfy training requirements for PE licensure or Water/Wastewater Operator Certification. Operators will be asked for NM Operator Certification number on the online registration form. Continuing Education is only available in New Mexico.

NEXT WEBINAR:

Our next webinar will be on February 16, 2022 with a presentation by Heather Himmelberger, Director of the Southwest Environmental Finance Center at UNM. Her talk will be on infrastructure funding for small communities.