Dr. William M. Alley, chief of U.S. Geological Survey’s Office of Ground Water, has been awarded The Groundwater Foundation’s 2007 E. Benjamin Nelson Government Service Award. The foundation presented Alley with the award at the opening ceremony of the its annual meeting in Lakewood, Colo., on Nov. 28. The foundation established the Government Service Award in 1998 to recognize government officials who have significantly advanced environmental and ground-water stewardship. It named the national award after Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s two-term governor and U.S senator, in honor of his service to groundwater. 

Alley has served as chief of the USGS Office of Ground Water since 1993. He oversees the USGS Ground Water Resources and Water Use Programs, as well as USGS’ support of the Yucca Mountain project. Alley is active in many Earth science organizations and has served on national and international committees for the American Geophysical Union, National Ground Water Association, UNESCO and the National Research Council. He received the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award in 2006. In addition, Alley recognized the benefits of public involvement in management of the nation’s water resources. His background as a research scientist and his experience as a program coordinator for several USGS programs led to an in-depth understanding of how to communicate technical information. As a result, he defined a set of concepts of critical importance to the public’s understanding of ground-water resources. He also made it a top priority to explain these concepts for nontechnical audiences by authoring and co-authoring a series of USGS circulars. Other federal agencies, congressional representatives, national and international scientific organizations, universities, industry and the public have widely distributed and used these circulars.  One of the most influential circulars Alley co-authored is “Ground Water and Surface Water — A Single Resource,” of which about 45,000 copies have been distributed worldwide.

Alley also has been associated with and directed several USGS programs that have provided a wealth of information to the nation on groundwater resources. From 1986 to 1990, he served as the ground-water coordinator for the pilot National Water-Quality Assessment Program. And from 1990 to 1993 he coordinated the Regional Aquifer System Analysis Program, bringing to completion some of the nation’s most important investigations of regional aquifer systems and the 13-volume National Ground Water Atlas. He also authored five chapters and edited a text published in 1993, “Regional Ground-Water Quality,” which is recognized as a benchmark publication on regional ground-water studies.

“Dr. Alley’s leadership and vision of providing complex scientific information in an understandable format is exemplary,” award nominator and USGS Associate Director of Water Robert Hirsch said. “His contributions as an exceptional leader and communicator of science has advanced the understanding of ground water as a valuable natural resource and inspired the involvement of public officials and citizens in making decisions for its preservation and use.”

For further information on the E. Benjamin Nelson Government Service Award or The Groundwater Foundation, please visit their Web site at www.groundwater.org.