Hurricanes, Hydrology, and Bad Hair Days Christina Chan In summer 1995 I worked for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, an agency responsible for protecting and maintaining surface and ground water for public use. The District controls local drilling and water pumping from aquifers that span most of Florida. It also has programmes for protecting and enhancing water quality in aquifers, lakes, bays, rivers, and swamps. The District also plays an important role the rehabilitation of ecosystems that are vital for a healthy network of watersheds; and the District still retains its original mandate of organizing flood protection programmes. The four areas of responsibility that the District has identified for future programmes and priorities in its District Water Management Plan are: Water Supply, Water Quality, Natural Systems, and Flood Protection. The success of this plan will depend on accountability to the taxpayer and effectiveness of the programmes in terms of their goals for the environment, not just in the traditional terms of money put into them. I participated in the Effectiveness Measures Project, the aim of which is to help departments in the District to develop a system of measuring the effectiveness of their operations, especially as they relate to the four areas of responsibility. Working within the Strategic Planning Section, I was responsible for organizing a series of internal staff workshops for 3 pilot projects. Results from the pilots will help the District to formulate a "tried and true" blueprint for implementation of effectiveness measures throughout the entire organization. The pilots will be completed by the end of November and a report will be presented by February. During my internship, I witnessed how water management issues start out as scientific/engineering questions and end up as arenas for politicians to score points with taxpayers. The District does its job well when it balances the conflicting perspectives of the public, politicians, and scientists. I found out about this contract through an American non-profit organization called Environmental Careers Organization (ECO). The contracts can be as short as 3 months or as long as 2 years, all of them in the U.S. I met several other ECO associates working at the District, as well as others who were working with the U.S. Geological Survey and the City of Tampa. Job assignments are quite varied. For example, one of the ECO associates at the District worked on a computer project to facilitate distributed data input from the field. Another associate helped with a staff training programme on new regulatory guidelines; and another associate worked almost exclusively in the field, monitoring seagrasses, water quality, fish counts, and developing a wetland restoration plan. If interested ensure US work permits, visas, etc. are obtained well in advance. ECO hires people on very short notice. For more information contact: Environmental Careers Organization 286 Congress Street, Third Floor Boston, MA 02210-1009

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