Archive for “News and Events” Category

Arizona Runs on Water: Scarcity, Challenges, and Community-based Solutions (2019 WRRC Annual Conference)

January 8, 2019

How do Arizona communities ensure that they have sufficient water to meet their future needs? The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center’s February 1, 2019, annual conference, Arizona Runs on Water: Scarcity, Challenges, and Community-based Solutions will examine answers to this question. Communities across Arizona are working to identify and implement solutions to water issues, both current and future. The …

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Why We’re for Water: Take the Pledge Today

January 1, 2019

“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” — Jacques Cousteau Arguably, water is cheap. In the United States, on average, tap water costs less than $3 for 1,000 gallons — or mere fractions of a penny per gallon. Compare that to the cost of bottled water at the store, or filling up at your local …

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Celebrate AZ Water – New Arizona Prize: Mesa (And You) Win the Water Public Art Challenge

December 26, 2018

A piece of sculpture at a public intersection was once considered public art. Things have changed. Public art has become more of an event, such as a community mural designed and painted through a partnership between an artist and neighbors. The City of Mesa has taken this idea to sophisticated levels. It is a city that knows how to pair artists …

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Celebrate AZ Water: Turning the Bend at River Bend — Successful Restoration on the Agua Fria River

November 27, 2018

Welcome to a steamy July morning on the Agua Fria River near Cordes Junction, Arizona. Humid, heavy air hangs above young willows laid flat by recent heavy flows. We slop through thick, mocha colored mud to the mechanical whir of cicadas, and screams of nesting Zone-tailed Hawks. While searching for the threatened Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo (hereafter cuckoo), we encounter the …

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The Edible Gardening Series: Did Thy Garden Runneth Over (With Rain)?

October 26, 2018

All good things must come to an end, and so too must our four-part series on water-wise edible gardening. (Sad face.) To catch up on where we’ve been so far: we’ve gone over the basics, introduced you to some lesser-known desert delicacies, and let you in on the secret awesomeness of saving and sharing seeds. To wrap it all up, …

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The Edible Gardening Series: Save The Seeds!

October 19, 2018

Welcome to the third installment of our early fall series on water-wise edible gardening. So far, we’ve talked about The Basics of Water-Wise Edible Gardening and introduced you to harvesting edibles from the landscape in our blog Putting The Desert In Dessert. Now it’s time to talk about seed saving and sharing. Survival of the fittest is the basic tenet …

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THIS LOCAL ARIZONA FESTIVAL HAS A PASSION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

October 17, 2018

At a time when being eco-conscious is more trendy than it’s ever been, it is still not uncommon to find the only source of water in a public space to be an overpriced container of bottled water. While often a result of convenience, a consumer’s desire for an alternative to other packaged beverages, or just a sales opportunity, it’s difficult …

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The Edible Gardening Series: Putting The Desert In Dessert

October 12, 2018

We’re back with the second part of our four-part series on edible gardening! Did you miss us? We missed you! Last time we introduced you to the basics of water-wise edible gardening, and now that we’ve given you a week to mulch, plant and tend to your bountiful harvest (maybe), it’s time to talk about another favorite topic of ours: …

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CELEBRATE AZ WATER: 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN PROJECT ACT

October 2, 2018

On September 30, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law the Colorado River Basin Project Act. Fifty years is a long time, especially to those who have lived that long, but to understand the impact of the Colorado River Basin Project Act, I actually think you need to look back even further to a story that began almost exactly …

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CELEBRATE AZ WATER AT ROGERS LAKE: WHERE DID IT COME FROM, WHERE DOES IT GO?

August 24, 2018

Ten miles southwest of Flagstaff along Woody Mountain Road, out beyond the Arboretum, lies Rogers Lake. It’s a lake only ephemerally, during springs with heavy snow runoff. At these times, the lake also draws in waterfowl and eagles. More often, and especially this year, Rogers is grassy and wildflowery grazing land for cattle and elk. Coconino County owns more than …

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MANAGING OUR WATER SUPPLY FOR DROUGHT AND PROTECTING WATERSHEDS FROM CATASTROPHIC WILDFIRE

June 8, 2018

This past winter turned out to be one of the driest on record within the Salt and Verde River watersheds. Dry weather with only 3.13” of precipitation (27 percent of normal) going back to October of last year resulted in a new record low streamflow in the Salt and Verde Rivers. Between January and May, only approximately 100,000 acre-feet of …

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CELEBRATE AZ WATER: GOODYEAR BRINE WETLAND PROJECT YIELDS MULTIPLE BENEFITS

June 5, 2018

The City of Goodyear, Arizona owns and operates the largest reverse osmosis (R/O) system dedicated to producing drinking water within Arizona. This system generates 4.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of R/O water. The downside to being able to produce this clean source of drinking water is that it also generates nearly 1.0 MGD of brine that is chemically impacting …

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