Photo By Senior Airman Mateo Parra | Dr. Ladona Clayton, Executive Director of Ogallala Land and Water Conservatory, writes...... read more read more
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CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- A first for the Department of Defense, the Steadfast Line hosted a pilot two-day Water Resilience Analysis, here, Dec. 10-11, 2024, to pathfind best practices for the DoD in both infrastructure resiliency and community partnerships.
The two-day workshop was comprised of a tabletop exercise and a solutions workshop sponsored by Office of Secretary Defense’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP). ESTCP’s goal is to demonstrate and validate promising, innovative technologies that target the most urgent environmental needs of the DoD.
A systematic approach for water resiliency, the workshop that was led by Massachusetts Institution of Technology Lincoln Laboratory and facilitated by Converge Strategies L.L.C. took a hard look at the comprehensive future of water sustainability at Cannon AFB and in the local community. The two-day analysis was also observed by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety, and Infrastructure (SAF/IEE) personnel.
“In line with the Department of the Air Force’s Installation Infrastructure Action Plan (I2AP), we are looking at ways, across the installation’s infrastructure, to adapt to the challenges of Great Power Competition,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Johnston, commander of the 27th Special Operations Wing. “This two-day water resilience analysis will take an intentional look at the challenges of water resiliency here at Cannon AFB and offer potential solutions to increase our infrastructure resiliency.”
The assessment began in September 2024 with data collection, analyzing state-wide data, and stakeholder interviews to conduct a water infrastructure analysis. This helped identify critical missions and the associated risks of assessing the missions’ vulnerabilities to and expected impacts from water and wastewater system disruptions, including treatment plants and on-site wells.
The tabletop exercise that kicked off the two-day assessment enabled identification of water resilience gaps that fueled a second day of conversations with community partners on how to mitigate options to improve water resilience at Cannon AFB. Cannon is one of four bases across the Department of the Air Force to participate in a tabletop exercise encompassing the Water Resilience Readiness Exercise (WRRE) in 2024.
As Cannon AFB leadership focuses on partnerships outside the base and continues to work closely with local counties and municipalities, Dr. Ladona Clayton, Executive Director of Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy, was invited to attend the solutions workshop to discuss the water accessibility and the Ogallala Aquifer.
“I am here to learn, listen, and get some more solutions,” said Clayton. “The Ogallala Aquifer is a finite source of water. When it is gone, it’s gone. My work focuses on conserving our water -- we have retired 58 irrigation wells to conserve our groundwater as part of the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program.”
With the two-day water assessment complete, stakeholders identified new lessons learned to be shared with DoD installations across the services as Cannon continues to pathfind for the DAF.
“I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing here at Cannon AFB said Johnston. “We are continuing to pathfind for the Air Force and the DoD – and we have proven that creative problem solving is part of our legacy at the Steadfast Line. I am also grateful for the efforts of all stakeholders, from our Civil Engineering Squadron and our community partners, alongside MIT and other organizations, who made this two-day workshop possible.”
Cannon AFB expects a final report with water resilience recommendations to be published in January 2025.
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.13.2024 11:45 |
| Story ID: | 487418 |
| Location: | CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Web Views: | 125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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