IN THIS ISSUE:
ISMAR11, Brown Bag Recap, Willcox Basin, APW, Earth Day, Women's Plaza of Honor
WRRC Participates in ISMAR11 Conference
This week, WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal and Post-doctoral Researcher Mary-Belle Cruz Ayala participated in the 11th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge conference (ISMAR11) in Long Beach, CA. The full-week conference, which included workshops, technical sessions, an awards luncheon, field trips, and networking opportunities, was chaired by University of Arizona alumnus Adam Hutchinson, recharge planning manager for the Orange County Water District.

Image: Bruce Babbitt and Sharon B. Megdal

EVENTS
WRRC Brown Bag Webinar: Civil Society in the Binational Agreements of the Colorado River: Advocacy Meets Shuttle Diplomacy

Date: April 19, 2022
Time: 12:00 pm-1:15 pm Arizona Time
Location: Webinar Only

Speaker: Carlos A. de la Parra, Chair of the Board, Restauremos el Colorado, AC

Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs is the name that was given to civil society in several of the Minutes from the 1944 Treaty on International Waters between the United States and Mexico. The NGOs appear as parties to a three-way contribution of water for the environment in Minutes 316, 319, and 323. But the contribution of the NGOs to the accomplishments of these Minutes in the Colorado River extends beyond the traditional place of environmental advocates, contributing as shuttle diplomats to facilitate cross-border understanding. The role of civil society groups continues to grow, spilling over into the realm of brokers of water conservation agreements. In this presentation, we examine the history and the anatomy of an outstanding partnership between federal and state governments and civil society in both countries, and how the water shortage crisis has influenced the management of the Colorado River.

WRRC Special Event: Counter Mapping Articulates What is Between

Date: May 2, 2022
Time: 3:00 pm-4:30 pm Arizona Time
Location: Webinar Only

Speaker: Jim Enote, CEO, Colorado Plateau Foundation

As a lifelong farmer, land and water practitioner, natural resources manager, and museum director, Jim Enote has thought hard about maps and mapping by challenging how we think about, use, and view maps. Coming to us virtually from his home in Zuni, New Mexico, Jim will talk about his experiences with maps and new approaches to map-making. But first, we would like to share a short film featuring Jim to introduce the idea of counter-mapping. Counter maps appear from neglected spaces, forgotten peoples, intervals of crisis and rapture, and in the pattern languages of our lives.

Image: Rucha Chitnis

NEWS
Webinar Explores Indigenous Rights and the Los Angeles Aqueduct
 
Last week’s Brown Bag Webinar featured Dr. Sophia Borgias, assistant professor at Boise State University’s School of Public Service, presenting her research on Indigenous water rights in the Mono and Owens basins in California. Borgias’ research focused on the region's history within the context of Los Angeles’ resource use, the role of the federal government, and the relationships between the stakeholders in the Mono and Owens basins. In addition to sharing some of the history of the Owens Valley and its Indigenous peoples, the Paiute and Shoshone, Borgias gave an in-depth review of the processes that led to the dispossession of Tribal land and water and the creation of the controversial Los Angeles Aqueduct. Borgias discussed how “dispossession became naturalized and disassociated from present-day responsibility;” the role of the Tribes in the region’s water conflicts is viewed as historical and written out of the ongoing debate. Borgias expressed hope that future water management officials will keep Indigenous people, their history, and their practices in mind when making decisions. Following the presentation, the audience was engaged in an active Q&A session.

Image: Unlined section of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, just south of Manzanar, near US Highway 395, Wikimedia Commons

Willcox Basin Residents Petition to Create
New AMA
 
In March, residents in the Willcox Basin in southeastern Arizona submitted enough signatures to put the creation of a new Active Management Area (AMA) to a vote in Cochise County. The five existing AMAs, including the Tucson and Phoenix AMAs, which were established through the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, are regulated under the groundwater code. Groundwater use outside of the state’s five AMAs (and two Irrigation Non-Expansion Areas) is almost entirely unlimited by regulations. A 2018 Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) study of groundwater resources in the Willcox Basin found that pumping exceeded natural recharge by 400 percent, and over the next century, the groundwater levels in the basin could drop by up to 917 feet. New AMAs can be designated by the Director of ADWR or created through a local initiative approved by residents of the proposed groundwater basin. Until now, the residents in no other groundwater basins have taken advantage of this provision, nor has ADWR established any new areas subject to groundwater regulation. Once the 909 signatures submitted to Cochise County are validated, the question of whether or not to establish a Willcox Basin AMA will be put to local voters. Quoted in a recent article in the Gila Herald, Kathleen Ferris, senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute’s Kyl Center for Water Policy and former director of ADWR, called this grassroots effort to create a new AMA “groundbreaking” and added that it “will allow voters in the Willcox Basin to decide whether to protect their common groundwater supplies.”

Image: Willcox Groundwater Basin Map, ADWR
 
City Nature Challenge

On April 9, Arizona Project WET hosted several teachers for a workshop to introduce community-based science tools and methods in anticipation of the upcoming City Nature Challenge (CNC). Starting in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the CNC has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and share wildlife in their cities. The CNC is an annual four-day bioblitz to document biodiversity. This year the CNC runs from April 29 to May 2. The workshop prepared teachers to utilize the online community science tool iNaturalist with their students to conduct a bioblitz on their school campus, local park, or other green space.

Earth Day is April 22!
 
Get ready for Earth Day next Friday, April 22! Since 1970, Earth Day has been a day for environmental consciousness and public efforts to keep our environment clean. In the decades since its inception, it has become an internationally observed day of action. There are events planned throughout Arizona for the public to participate in organized environmental cleanup projects or learn about conservation and sustainability. For example, here in Tucson, there is a cleanup of Arcadia Wash on April 22 from 8-10 am. Activities will include trash pickup, painting over graffiti, and invasive buffelgrass removal. If you do not see your community listed below, there may still be water-related events planned. Check your local news outlets to see what’s going on!
 
Four University of Arizona Professors Now Women’s Plaza Honorees

On Monday, four University of Arizona professors were honored with personalized benches in the Women’s Plaza of Honor to celebrate their leadership and scholarship. The honorees were Dr. Karletta Chief, associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science; Diana Liverman, regents professor in the School of Geography, Development & Environment; Sallie Marston, regents professor emerita in the School of Geography, Development & Environment; and Toni Massaro, regents professor and executive director of the Agnese Nelms Haury Program. The WRRC would like to extend congratulations to these esteemed women. The Women’s Plaza of Honor publicly and permanently celebrates women who have had an impact on Arizona history and its residents. Sponsored by the Women’s Studies Advisory Council in the UArizona Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, the Women’s Plaza of Honor serves as a monument to the women who have shaped Arizona in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
 
UPDATES
Possible Mid-Year Colorado River Water Allocation Cutbacks

In the March 25 issue of the Weekly Wave, we included a story on the record low water levels in Lake Powell. Now, the US Department of the Interior is considering unprecedented mid-year cutbacks to the water supplies of Arizona, California, and Nevada by holding nearly a half-million acre-feet of water in Lake Powell, rather than releasing it as planned. The proposed cuts follow the prediction that water levels may fall so low in Lake Powell this year that the turbines at Glen Canyon Dam would no longer be able to produce electricity. The cuts would aim to sustain hydropower output and prevent damage to the dam, but reduced water delivery may pose problems for the lower-basin states of Arizona, Nevada, and California. Assistant Interior Secretary Tanya Trujillo wrote a letter last week to leading water officials in all seven Colorado River basin states, asking them to commit to the potential water cut.

Recharge & Recovery Workgroup Meetings: Postponed Until Further Notice
WATER JOBS
UArizona Director, Cooperative Extension Job Listing
The University of Arizona seeks a strategic and innovative leader to be the next Director of the UArizona Cooperative Extension System (CES).


Please visit WRRC's website for a complete listing of water jobs & opportunities.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Do you have a story idea, water job announcement, or event to share?