MEETINGS: Summary of November Joint Meeting of the Instrumentation Committee and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Subcommittee Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 14:50:16 -0500 To: "Catherine L Hill, ACH/Operations, Reston, VA" , "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "S - Special Distribution for Research", "FO - State, District, Subdistrict and other Field Offices", "PO - Project Offices", "CD - All Data Chiefs", "G. Louis Ducret Jr., Associate Chief, YMPB, Denver, CO" , "John R Gray, Hydrologist, Reston, VA" , "Michael L Plunkett, Supervisory Hydrologist(Eng), Pearl, MS" , "Steven M Hindall, District Chief, OH, Columbus, OH" , "William F Horak Jr., District Chief, ND, Bismarck, ND" , "William G Shope Jr., Chief, Br. of Oper. Support, Reston, VA" , "Ernest F Hubbard, Assistant Chief, OSW, Reston, VA" , "Jilann O Brunett, Data Coordinator, Reston, VA" , "Carl R Goodwin, District Chief, WA, Tacoma, WA" , "Eugene C Hayes, Chief, HIF, Stennis Space Center, MS" , "Dorothy E Greenwood, Secretary (Steno), Stennis Space Center, MS" , "John F Harsh, Tampa Subdistrict Chief, Tampa, FL" , "Kathleen K Fitzgerald, Hydrologist, Reston, VA" , "Michael L Plunkett, Supervisory Hydrologist(Eng), Pearl, MS" , "James E Putnam, Hydrologist, Lawrence, KS" , "Edward L Ford, Engineering Technician, Stennis Space Center, MS" , "Wayne Rodman, Quality Assurance Specialist, Denver, CO" , "Lee R Watson, Hyd (Geol), Indianapolis, IN" , "Edward P Simonds Jr., Hyd Tech, Altamonte Sprg, FL" , "Mark A Hardy, Hydrologist (Limnology), Boise, ID" , "Ralph W Teller, Supervisory Hydrologic Tech, Rapid City, SD" , "Peter E Hughes, Chief Supervisory Hydrologist, Madison, WI" , "William D Wiggins, Supervisory Hydrologist, Tacoma, WA" , "Larry R Shelton, Hydro Tech, Sacramento, CA" From: "Betty J Dodds, Secretary, Reston, VA" (Betty J. Dodds) X-Sender: bjdodds@130.11.51.82 Subject: Re: ICOM Summary Cc: "Betty J Dodds, Secretary, Reston, VA" In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 405 MEMORANDUM December 6, 1996 To: Catherine L. Hill Assistant Chief Hydrologist for Operations From: William F. Horak Acting Chairman, Instrumentation Committee Subject: MEETINGS: Summary of November Joint Meeting of the Instrumentation Committee and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Subcommittee This memorandum summarizes the November 19-21, 1996, meetings of the Water Resources Division (WRD) Instrumentation Committee (ICOM) and Instrumentation Technical Subcommittee (ITAS). The meetings were attended by Pat McCurry from Atmospheric and Environmental Services (AES), Canada. The Canadians have hydrologic instrument needs and development goals that are very similar to ours, but their funding constraints are very severe. We are hopeful that future joint efforts between AES and WRD may prove beneficial. A brief summary of the Committee's actions is listed below. More detailed information will appear in the meeting minutes to be made available at a later date. Region and district management are invited to contact their ICOM and ITAS representatives for questions or comments. The Committees - o devised a process to make it easier for instrument users to create and submit an instrument needs statement, o approved a home page for the instrument committees to facilitate information transfer to the Division, o endorsed the use of a procedure developed by the Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF) for accelerated aging tests for pressure transducers, o recommended the development of contract specifications for WRD procurement of a field device for Electronic Processing of Discharge Measurements (EPDM) to meet WRD requirements, o approved instrumentation project proposals for development of: - micro pulsed radar stage sensors - discharge measurment equipment compatible with new EPDMs - pigmy meter magnetic head - evaluation of hollow plastic bucket wheels - low cost doppler - one-stop shopping for field equipment/supplies - next generation Acoustical Doppler Current Meter (ADCP) - surface velocity sensor o invited continued participation of AES Canada in future meetings of ICOM/ITAS, o reviewed progress of 32 priority instrument projects and approved the completion of the Sand Point Cable Car Brake and its availability from the HIF warehouse, o started an evaluation of a HIF proposed Lease-to-Purchase program, o continued work on the Instrumentation Marketing, Efficiency and Quality Study report to be presented to the Senior Staff in January 1997, o requested from the Office of Surface Water (OSW), a statement describing the probable impacts on WRD Surface Water activities resulting from substantial funding cuts to the OSW Hydraulics Lab, o approved a new priority list of WRD instrument projects, o allocated ICOM's total budget of $200k for selected priority instrument projects, o requested assistance from the OSW ADCP Committee for developing requirements for the next generation doppler profiler, o approved an ITAS recommendation that the "instrument test" plan be converted to a project, renamed "testing of commercially available instruments", and added to the WRD Priority Project list, o endorsed an ITAS recommendation to provide guidance and support to the field for replacing lead sounding weights for wells, and o recommended that the Assistant Chief Hydrologist for Technical Support form a committee to develop requirements for computerizing field notes. Copy to: Distribution A, B, S, FO, PO, CD ICOM/ITAS Members cc: WRD General File, MS 402 Chron File, MS 405 Operations, MS 405 Chief BOS, MS 405 USGS:WRD:WGShope:bjd:11/25/96:x5364