Research
Funded Research
Civil engineering conducts Water Resources Technician Training for Native Americans
J. Phillip King, associate professor and associate department head in civil engineering, has received $79,087 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to conduct the Water Resources Technician Training Program. The program matches the needs of Native American tribes for qualified, competent water resources technicians with the available labor pool of talented, underemployed tribal members. The 2008 offering of the course ran from June 2 through June 26 at New Mexico State University’s main campus in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The objective of the program is to meet the resource management needs of tribal governments by giving participants a broad foundation in water resources to support their long-term career growth, and develop the specific skills needed to make them productive technicians with their Tribes immediately upon completion of the course.
BIA has worked with New Mexico State University since 1993 to develop an integrated and effective curriculum. This nationally and internationally renowned educational and research institution provides the primary instructors and basic training and context for the course, including:
- Foundations: Mathematics, computers, units of measure, technical writing.
- Hydrology: the occurrence and movement of water through the hydrologic cycle, flow measurement and accounting.
- Hydraulics: water energy, momentum, continuity, physics.
- Water Quality: Chemistry, sanitary engineering, pathogens, pollution sources and control, sampling and analysis.
- Water and Society: Economics, law, cultural aspects, water use sectors, environmental priorities.
One of the primary strengths of the course has been the participation of several water resources management agencies that give the program real-world experience and relevance. The instructors from these agencies constitute a professional network that supports students after graduation. The cooperating agencies recognize the value of the course to both the tribes and water-related professions, and provide instruction at no cost to the Water Resources Technician Training Program:
- Bureau of Reclamation: Groundwater, dams, river management, computer aided drafting (CAD).
- U.S. Geological Survey: Flow measurement, data collection, QA/QC, water quality.
- Fish and Wildlife Service: Fisheries management, endangered species, habitat.
- Environmental Protection Agency: Surface and ground water quality, hazardous waste, drinking water supply, water quality standards, wetlands, water and wastewater treatment.
- Office of Surface Mining: Mining operations and hydrology, impacts of mining on water quality.
- Natural Resources Conservation Service: Soil classification and surveys, irrigation and drainage, soil and water conservation.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation: Water security, enforcement, forensic science.
- Bureau of Land Management: Watershed management, GIS/GPS, surveying.
- Elephant Butte Irrigation District: Irrigation system management, basin scale hydrology, water system information management, applied hydraulics.
- City of Las Cruces: Utility management, wastewater treatment, M&I water supply, urban water conservation.
- City of Fairbanks: Utility management, wastewater treatment, M&I water supply, urban water conservation.
Several tribes have also participated as trainers in the program, including Jicarilla Apache Nation, Tohono O’odham Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis River, White Mountain Apache, and Zuni Pueblo.
One unique aspect of the training program is the strict alcohol and substance free pledge that all students and instructors follow for the duration of the course. This helps to build the personal and professional discipline required for success both in the intensive training program and in the field of water resource management.