Lifetime Achievement Award and Kevin J. Neese Awards
presented at Annual Meeting

The Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA) presented its annual Lifetime Achievement and Kevin J. Neese awards at its 16th Annual Meeting on September 19, 2007 in Sacramento, CA.

The GRA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals for their exemplary contributions to the groundwater industry and for contributions that have been in the spirit of GRA’s mission and organization objectives. Individuals that receive the Lifetime Achievement Award have dedicated their lives to the groundwater industry and have been pioneers in their field of expertise. The 2007 recipient is Dr. Herman Bouwer for his outstanding career in education, pioneering work in soil-aquifer treatment (SAT) and artificial recharge, and dedication to providing clean water to the people of the world. In 1959, he started work at the new U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory of the USDA in Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Bouwer and his team began modeling surface/groundwater interaction, groundwater mounding of artificial recharge basins, and infiltration rates. He developed the double-tube method of measuring vertical hydraulic conductivities, and the “Bouwer and Rice” slug test method for measuring aquifer hydraulic conductivity in wells.

Recharge and reuse was the focus of much of the rest of Dr. Bouwer’s career. He became adjunct professor at Arizona State University in 1970, and published his “Groundwater Hydrology” textbook in 1978. Dr. Bouwer became director of the U.S. Water Conservation Lab in 1972, and he was the founder of Biennial Symposia on Artificial Recharge in Arizona. Dr. Bouwer retired in 2002 after 42 years with the USDA and over 300 publications.

The Kevin J. Neese award recognizes significant accomplishment by a person or entity within the most recent 12-month period that fosters the understanding, development, protection and management of groundwater. The 2007 recipient is the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Groundwater Hydrology Program. The UCCE Groundwater Program was chosen in recognition of its efforts to engage scientists, regulators, farm advisors, dairy industry representatives, and dairy farmers to better understand the effects of dairy operations on water quality. Research carried out by the UCCE Groundwater Program centers on understanding the role of dairy manure management on groundwater pollution with nitrate, salts, pharmaceuticals, hormones, and pathogens, and includes extensive field studies and hydrologic modeling. In giving the award to UCCE, GRA recognizes the group’s persistence in engaging both regulatory agencies and the agricultural community, thus allowing scientific findings to drive water and nutrient management decisions. The UCCE Groundwater Program is at the forefront of building a strong connection between scientific research and improved management of California’s water resources.

GRA is a statewide, not-for-profit, member organization of over 1350 scientists, geologists, engineers, planners, educators, attorneys, hydrogeologists and other professionals that is dedicated to advancing and promoting resource management that protects and improves groundwater in California.