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March 23, 2018 / Volume 6, Issue 12
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Onsite Registration Available at
March 28 WRRC Conference
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The day of the 2018 WRRC Conference, "The Business of Water," is fast-approaching! If you missed the online registration deadline, you can still register on-site at the University of Arizona Student Union on the day of the conference. We will explore the many facets of our topic, including how we will meet our water infrastructure needs, the role of the private sector, and how water exchanges, transfers, and market-based transactions will figure into our water future. Come join us on March 28th as we consider and discuss these vital issues.
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Time/Location:
4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. / ENR2, S107 (1064 E. Lowell St., Tucson)
Note special time and location
Speaker:
Felicia Marcus, Chair, California State Water Resources Control Board
Felicia Marcus was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the State Water Resources Control Board for the State of California in 2012 and designated by the Governor as Chair in April of 2013. The Board implements both federal and state laws regarding drinking water and water quality, and it implements the state's water rights laws. The Board sets statewide water quality, drinking water, and water rights policy; hears appeals of local regional board water quality decisions; decides water rights disputes; and provides financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.
Video will be posted shortly after the presentation.
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Time/Location:
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. / WRRC Sol Resnick Conference Room (350 N. Campbell Ave.)
Speaker: Chris Castro
, Associate Professor, Hydrology / Atmospheric Sciences
Chris Castro joined the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona as a faculty member in August 2006. His doctoral and postdoctoral work at the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University applied a regional atmospheric model to the investigation of North American summer climate. Current research within his group at the University of Arizona focuses principally on physical understanding and prediction of climate in North America through regional atmospheric modeling and analysis of observations.
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Upcoming Brown Bag Seminars
- Apr. 25 - Melanie Stansbury, Sr. Advisor and Consultant, Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico
- Apr. 26 - Cindy Wallace, Research Geographer, USGS Western Geographic Science Center
Missed a Brown Bag seminar? Find it posted on our website
here.
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A drought-induced water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, has Arizonans wondering if a similar situation could happen here. All of Cape Town's 4 million residents are feeling the effects of a severe water shortage. Residents are asked to use 13.2 gallons of water per day, much less than the average American use of between 80-100 gallons per day. On Day Zero, the day when Cape Town would turn off its municipal taps for lack of water, residents will be required to stand in line for a daily allotment of 6.6 gallons each. In an interview with UA News, Sharon B. Megdal, Director of the UA Water Resources Research Center, addresses the question by looking at the past, present, and future of Arizona's water situation. Megdal says that a diversified water portfolio, that makes use of multiple water sources, offers protections against droughts that single source supplies do not. Tucson, and Arizona as a whole, have benefited from forward-thinking water managers and work such as that being done at the University of Arizona..
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 WRRC Brown Bag - Water CASA Accomplishments and Lessons Learned
At this week's WRRC Brown Bag Seminar, Val Little, Director of Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona (Water CASA), provided her perspectives on Water CASA's accomplishments and lessons learned from its efforts. Water CASA is a collaborative voice on water conservation issues and includes five member utilities in the Tucson metropolitan area. Little described how water conservation has changed over the past twenty years with early efforts being focused on appliance replacement that was geared to decrease indoor water use. She added that numerous tools for encouraging water conservation need to be used including public information, research, public policy, technology, and rates, among others. She discussed the important role of water recycling/reuse, incentives, and leak fixing in utility-based conservation; however, she expressed concern about overdependence on rebates, particularly for rainwater harvesting. Little's candid look at water management in Tucson and throughout the state included her concerns about 100 year water supply rules that recognize water credits when wet water supplies are needed. She concluded that water management would undoubtedly get more complicated and costly in the future, and collaboration and community engagement would continue to be very important when addressing conservation needs.
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Project WET's Money Down the Drain lesson has students experimenting and using math to quantify leaks over time. What better way to celebrate the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSense Program's Fix a Leak Week? Upper elementary to middle school age students collect data and then use that data to make claims about the significance of leaky fixtures for our water supply.
When students engage, explore and experiment first, they develop their own "need to know" and the explanation phase of learning becomes more interesting, more meaningful, and it sticks. Lessons from the Project WET Curriculum & Activity Guide follow this recipe. Through observation, measurement and simple calculations, students learn that a dripping faucet wastes a lot of water as well as a significant amount of money!
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Karletta Chief featured in Scientific American
Dr. Karletta Chief, Assistant Professor and Assistant Specialist in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences, was featured in an article published on March 12 in Scientific American. The article discusses Chief's research and efforts to protect the Navajo Nation's sacred waters. Chief's family and fellow members of the Navajo, or Diné, Nation have been impacted by the more than 1,000 mines in the area, including the Gold King Mine, which in 2015 spilled toxic waste into a tributary of the San Juan River, an important water source for Diné people. Chief's research is featured in a film entitled Breakthrough: Bitter Water, which will be shown in select theaters across the country this month.
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SIA and WRRC Launch "Water Roots"
In honor of the UN World Water Day (March 22, 2018), Sky Island Alliance and the WRRC launched "Water Roots: A series to celebrate springs, streams, culture, and citizen science in the Sky Islands." This series of presentations, discussions, and citizen science events in Tucson is open to the public. Attend to hear and share stories about water and nature in the Sky Islands.
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