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February 11, 2022 / Volume 10, Issue 6
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IN THIS ISSUE:
NIWR, Brown Bag Recap, ADWR, Watershed Videos, Drought Preparedness
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WRRC Represents Arizona at
Virtual NIWR Meeting
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For three days this week, WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal and Program Manager Michael Seronde participated in the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Meeting, held virtually. The WRRC is one of 54 Water Resources Research Institutes and Centers in the US, with one located in each state, the District of Colombia, and three US Territories. At the annual meeting, Institute and Center directors and staff came together to share successes and ideas for collaboration, discuss challenges, and coordinate activities related to their federally authorized status. In addition to interacting with key staff at the US Geological Survey, the NIWR annual meeting provides participants with the opportunity to meet regionally. As a part of the region that includes the Colorado River Basin states, it was good to see and hear from our counterparts. In conjunction with the NIWR meeting, informational meetings with Arizona’s congressional delegation staff are scheduled with the assistance of the UArizona federal relations team. These meetings provide an opportunity to share information about WRRC activities. Last year was particularly noteworthy in that the relevant authorizing legislation, the Water Resources Research Act, was reauthorized as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
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Brown Bag Webinar: All In: Confronting Southern Nevada’s New Water Reality
Date: February 15, 2022
Time: 12:00-1:15 pm Arizona Time
Speaker: Colby Pellegrino, Deputy General Manager, Resources, Southern Nevada Water Authority
Due to prolonged drought, overall snowfall and runoff into the Colorado River Basin are at all-time lows, resulting in the combined water storage in the river's two primary reservoirs—Lakes Powell and Mead—dropping to just 32 percent of capacity. The Secretary of the Interior recently announced the first-ever shortage declaration, reducing the availability of Colorado River supplies to Nevada in 2022. Projections indicate that Lake Mead water levels will continue to decline, and the likelihood of shortage remains high in future years.
Given current hydrologic conditions, water conservation remains a critical component of Southern Nevada's water resource portfolio. While the community has significantly reduced per capita water demands, additional work is required to reduce consumptive use to meet current and future water demands in Southern Nevada.
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WRRC Chocolate Fest 2022
Date: February 16, 2022
Time: 4:00-5:00 pm Arizona Time
Please join us from 4:00-5:00 pm MST on Wednesday, February 16 for the WRRC's Annual Chocolate Fest! This two-part virtual program of celebration will include the announcement of our 2021 Annual Photo Contest winners! Following a slide show of the winning images, we will make a chocolaty toast to our Director, Sharon B. Megdal, who on Valentine’s Day (Arizona Statehood Day!) celebrates 20 years at the WRRC. Raise high a divine chocolate delectation as we acknowledge her time at the Water Center and, of course, hear a few comments on chocolate (not water!). So, bake, concoct, purchase, or brew your favorite treat and spend an hour with new and old friends at this annual WRRC event. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
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Upcoming Events
Dr. Cherie DeVore, Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University
Mar 15: Brown Bag Webinar: Rio Reimagined: Reconnecting the Salt River With the Valley's Metropolitan Communities
April 7: Brown Bag Webinar: Public Interest, Indigenous Rights, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct; Sophia Borgias, Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Programs, Boise State University
Apr 19: Brown Bag Webinar: Carlos de la Parra, Research Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
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WRRC Postdoc Shares
Recent Research
Last week’s Brown Bag webinar featured Mary-Belle Cruz Ayala, a post-doctoral researcher at the WRRC, who presented her recent research on Mexican policies for Managed Aquifer Recharge. Like many places, groundwater is a major source of water for both drinking and agriculture in Mexico. But as Cruz Ayala described, the resource is “invisible” and often overexploited. According to data presented by Cruz Ayala, continuing drought conditions and lack of groundwater availability in many regions throughout Mexico pose significant challenges to water managers. Cruz Ayala presented Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) as an important management tool to address these challenges. MAR enables water managers to store water from other sources in the ground for future use and restore aquifer health. Discussing her research into MAR projects in Mexico, Cruz Ayala outlined how the legal framework regulating MAR projects and access to federal funding are barriers to MAR. Cruz Ayala explained how these problems can be addressed, and how farmers, nonprofit organizations, municipalities, and the federal government must work together to move forward. The presentation concluded with an engaging Q&A session.
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ADWR Taking Comments on Draft Fifth Management Plans
The Arizona Department of Water Resources is asking for stakeholder reviews and informal comments on their draft Fifth Management Plans (5MPs). The initial drafts of the five plans, one for each Active Management Area (AMA), are available for download from the ADWR Management Plans webpage. Backup data and documentation can also be viewed online. A series of interactive data dashboards, including one dashboard each for agricultural, municipal, and industrial uses, as well as overdraft and recharge data, are available on the AMA Data page. People who want to review and comment on the draft plans can find the results on the 5MP Safe-Yield Technical Subgroup discussions in the report: Overdraft, Safe-Yield, and the Management Goals in Arizona’s Active Management Areas. The report includes a description of how ADWR analyzes the several aspects of safe-yield and the status of each AMA with regards to its management goal, whether or not that goal is safe-yield. Upcoming Groundwater Users Advisory Council meetings are open to the public and will focus on the draft plans and next steps. A formal comment period and a hearing for each AMA are part of the legal adoption process, which continues throughout 2022. The informal review and comment period ends February 28th. Comments on the draft plans can be sent to managementplans@azwater.gov
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SRP Watershed Video Series
The Salt River Project (SRP) has informative educational materials about watersheds available online. A six-part video series focuses on the Salt and Verde Rivers and describes the components of a watershed. These components, from mountain forests to the creeks, work in concert to store and filter water that ultimately is used by households. The videos explain where the water comes from, how and why water is stored, what makes up a watershed, how our water infrastructure works, the role and history of water in Arizona, and the challenges we may face in the future. SRP also provides other education materials like discussion questions for students that can be paired with the videos. The watershed video collection is available on PBS and Vimeo.
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National Listening Sessions on Drought
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) will host a series of webinar listening sessions throughout 2022. The goal of the series is to receive input from the public about predicting water availability changes at national and regional scales. The USGS and NIDIS hope to gain insight into local and regional priorities and needs as drought conditions continue. They invite decision-makers, resource managers, and the interested public to join the listening sessions. Sessions will include presentations from USGS and NIDIS researchers, along with an introduction to relevant prediction products followed by a guided discussion to help determine research priorities. Information gathered from these listening sessions will be used to inform future policy and planning. The next session will focus on streamflow drought prediction and will be held on Thursday, March 3, 1:00-3:30 pm ET. Additional sessions will focus on groundwater, water use, water availability for ecosystems, and lessons learned.
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WRRC Invites Research Proposals
Faculty and research personnel at any of Arizona's three public universities are invited to submit research proposals to the WRRC for grants of up to $10,000. Proposals should feature student work and explore new ideas to address water problems in AZ and the Southwest and expand understanding of water and related phenomena. Proposals are due by 5:00 pm MST on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
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Please visit WRRC's website for a complete listing of water jobs & opportunities.
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Do you have a story idea, water job announcement, or event to share?
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