More than a week in an area that is paradise for a hydrologist! I just returned from the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland, Oregon. Lush and green with fall colors thrown in. Large rivers, mountains and waterfalls. So it was foggy, it drizzled, it rained. Still, it was water. A hydrologist has got to love it.

Why was I there? The American Water Resources Association (AWRA), my employer, which, incidentally is headquartered in Middleburg, held its 2013 Annual Water Resources Conference in Portland, November 4-7.

The conference was held at a hotel located on an island in the Columbia River, almost equidistant from the states of Oregon and Washington, but part of Oregon. The windows of the conference venue overlooked the river and the Washington shoreline about a quarter mile away. A spectacular site for a water conference.

The Columbia is a mighty river, with the fourth greatest average flow of all the rivers in the United States, 265,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). So what is that in numbers we can understand? How about gallons per minute? The average flow of the Columbia is nearly 19 billion, that's right, 19,000,000,000 gallons per minute. That's a lot of water!

Portland is literally bisected by the Willamette River which, unusual for many rivers in the United States, flows north. It joins the Columbia just downstream from the conference hotel. The Willamette is a large river but whose average flow of 34,000 cfs is small compared to the Columbia.

The conference featured about 350 oral and 50 poster presentations on virtually every aspect of water including water quality, groundwater, surface water flow, water economics, water law, water policy, water education, best management practices, invasive species, storm water management, droughts, watershed planning, you name it. Hovering over nearly every presentation was the specter of climate change. How will the potential for near-term global warming, even if it is only a degree or two, impact water resources both in the United States and the rest of the world?

Many of the best minds in the water resources field representing academia, government, and consultants shared their thoughts and insights with the attendees. But best of all, approximately one-fourth of the attendees represent our hopes and aspirations for the future of water resources. These were the student attendees, graduate students, and undergraduates. I even talked with one absolutely brilliant high school student. Nearly every student either presented a poster or gave an oral presentation and they were universally excellent.

These kids are good, they care about water, and they care about the environment. I came away from the conference with a renewed sense of hope. The field that, for better or worse, I've toiled in for nearly 50 years will be in good hands with this group of young people who will soon inherit it from us old timers.

So on to 2014. AWRA will celebrate its 50th year of existence and the Annual Conference will take place in the National Capitol area at Tysons Corner. My hopes will be high as I look forward to the influx of a new group of dedicated students and professionals with their fresh ideas and optimistic outlooks.