Secretary Bruce Babbitt Reminds California About Wicked Water Problems

The Voluntary Settlement Agreement process is a mechanism that we need to see more of in California and other western states. Our continued effort in solving complex water issues based on individual needs and wants will usually result in dysfunction. That is not the end point that we seek. Inspired views are in great demand and those views many times come with lifetime experiences of our semi-retired and retired professionals.

In front of a near full house at the recent Anne J. Schneider Lecture at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Secretary Bruce Babbitt shared his most intimate advice. The Secretary stated, “Talking, listening and understanding each other is what we want to keep doing. The process is important so don’t yield and never give up.”

Operation Unite® understands the needs to keep the conversation going and build public and stakeholder responsibility for our water resource projects. Public responsibility is built by respecting everyone, showcasing water related responsibilities that occur in our communities and listen and share, continuously.    In the end, trust is built with previously oppositional groups and projects are completed. The best news is; it doesn’t end there. Responsibility, respect and trust are foundational in solving other community related issues like the homeless problems, housing, healthcare and energy. Turn your water projects into water success stories. Operation Unite® will brighten your day.

A Year Well Remembered

Water challenges mount as changes in weather visit more extreme conditions, more frequently. We see this and recognize the importance in working with the public’s response to our resource issues and intermittent severe weather patterns. Operation Unite® has built technical and social tools that support bringing people together to solve our water problems. Here are some Operation Unite® activities that were achieved this year (2017).

• The Operation Unite® Know Your Water® program now provides more interpretive analyses for domestic well owners to understand and adapt their water use habits.
• Operation Unite® Founder Stephen Baker received the News Department Award at KVMR 89.5 FM for his weekly water commentaries.
• “Water is a Many Splendor-ed Thing” is now up to 254 individual radio shows.
• Operation Unite® is moving into supporting responsible groundwater management in the cannabis industry.
• Operation Unite’s “Meet Your Mentor” internet radio program series is now available on the internet (www.operationunite.co/blogs).
• Operation Unite® continues to increase its media contacts.
• Operation Unite® mentoring activities contributed the successful establishment of the first international American Institute of Professional Geologist student section chapter at Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University in Nanded, India.

Operation Unite® is poised and ready to build your water project successes through our customized public and stakeholder relationship building programs. Some call it “Soft Power”. We call it success with all the trimmings; bargaining in good faith, earned trust and responsible actions.

Operation Unite® wishes each of you and your organizations the greatest successes for 2018. Happy New Year! We will be visiting you next year with our new weekly emails.

Hurricane Recovery is a Long-term Committment

Our most recent weeks have been inundated with life changes on communities in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, the islands of the Florida coast and Mexico. Hurricanes are beginning to break records in both size and might.

Triaging damage resulting from Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Hurricane Irma in Haiti, the Bahamas and Florida is a reality check that long-term disruption in our communities can occur, multiple times, on any given year; flooding recovery, disruption of urban waste water, loss of drinking water supplies, no operating energy grid and lack of the basic operation in our communities. A planner,  Dr. Laurie Johnson,  once said that until the “Golden Triangle” is reestablished (house, job and schools), people can’t go home.   Rebuilding takes time. Society needs a commitment to the long-term recovery of a damaged community. The time to solve this type of problem takes months and years.

Think about what commitment to each other looks like in your area when help is needed at more distant communities. Commitment to each other through long-term hardships is a picture that speaks a thousand words.