1. Clean Water Rule Finalized. Today (May 27th), the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the finalized Clean Water Rule, or Waters of the U.S (WOTUS) regulation.
Specifically, the Clean Water Rule:
- Clearly defines and protects tributaries that impact the health of downstream waters. The Clean Water Act protects navigable waterways and their tributaries. The rule says that a tributary must show physical features of flowing water—a bed, bank and ordinary high water mark—to warrant protection. The rule provides protection for headwaters that have these features and science shows can have a significant connection to downstream waters.
- Provides certainty in how far safeguards extend to nearby waters. The rule protects waters that are next to rivers and lakes and their tributaries because science shows that they impact downstream waters. The rule sets boundaries on covering nearby waters for the first time that are physical and measurable.
- Protects the nation’s regional water treasures. Science shows that specific water features can function like a system and impact the health of downstream waters. The rule protects prairie potholes, Carolina and Delmarva bays, pocosins, western vernal pools in California, and Texas potholes, Carolina and Delmarva bays, pocosins, western vernal pools in California, and Texas coastal prairie wetlands when they impact downstream waters.
- Focuses on streams, not ditches. The rule limits protection to ditches that are constructed out of
- Focuses on streams, not ditches. The rule limits protection to ditches that are constructed out of streams or function like streams and can carry pollution downstream. So ditches that are not constructed in streams and that flow only when it rains are not covered.
- Maintains the status of waters within Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems. The rule does not change how those waters are treated and encourages the use of green infrastructure.
- Reduces the use of case-specific analysis of waters. Previously, almost any water could be put through a lengthy case-specific analysis, even if it would not be subject to the Clean Water Act. through a lengthy case-specific analysis, even if it would not be subject to the Clean Water Act. The rule significantly limits the use of case-specific analysis by creating clarity and certainty on The rule significantly limits the use of case-specific analysis by creating clarity and certainty on protected waters and limiting the number of similarly situated water features.
The rule protects clean water necessary for farming, ranching and forestry and provides greater clarity and certainty to farmers about coverage of the Clean Water Act. The rule does not create any new permitting requirements for farmers. Activities like planting, harvesting and moving livestock have long been exempt from Clean Water Act regulation, and the Clean Water Rule preserves those exemptions.
2. Green Drinks In June
Green Drinks – A Great Way To Rub Elbows With The Sustainable Community June 2, 2015 at 5:30 PM Kelly’s at Southbridge – 7117 East 6th Avenue, Scottsdale
Join us for our monthly networking event – Green Drinks!
Our topic this month is Green Materials (Biomaterials).
Mix and mingle, share and learn!
It’s FREE for members and only $10 for guest.
3. Splashes & Sharps: Occupational Exposures in the Health Care And Other Settings. The state of Arizona regulates sharps (syringes) and free flowing blood. OSHA regulates both as well. But here is an area not often thought about.
When it comes to health care occupational risks, slips, trips, and falls are often the fi rst to come to mind. Sharps also make the top of the list, but what is often overlooked is the cousin to sharps: splashes. Also known as mucocutaneous blood exposures, splashes are a notable risk for health care workers. Splashes— from routine activities such as cutting catheter bags, cleaning bedpans, and emptying suction cups—can land on a caregiver, where it can transfer a pathogen through the eyes, nose, or mouth.
Every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 385,000 health care works in hospitals suffer sharps-related injuries. 1 By comparison, a study led by Doebbeling, et al. at the Veterans Administration found that in the previous three months, roughly 38 percent of all RNs had experienced a splash. Making the risk even more serious, they found that more than a quarter of these splashes went unreported.
Splashes, like sharps, can present serious risks to health care employees. This is because they can cause occupational-related infections, ranging from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to hepatitis B virus (HBV) to hepatitis C virus (HCV).3. Occupational exposures such as splashes can lead to lost workdays, financial burden, and physical impairment. They also can take an emotional toll on those exposed.
Read more at http://ohsonline.com/Articles/2015/04/01/Splashes-and-Sharps.aspx
4. Spring Creek is Home for Endangered Fish Species . At only three inches long, the spikedace would seem to be of little importance yet the minnow is the focus of a concerted repopulation effort here in the Verde Valley.
On May 11, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service transferred 221 spikedace from the Aquatic Research Conservation Center in Page Springs to Spring Creek, near Sedona. With this one move, the organization hopes to expand the habitat of the endangered animal.
“Spikedace are officially down to just five natural populations, but it is more likely just three, because in two of the five they have not been detected in over 15 years,” stated Tony Robinson, program manager for the AZGFD Gila River Basin Native Fishes Conservation Program. “So the situation is pretty dire. The main reasons for decline are thought to be the spread of nonnative fishes that prey on or compete with them, the decrease in available habitat because of alteration of stream fl ow [dams, diversions and groundwater wells] and the degradation of habitat from past land use practices [mine spills, overgrazing].”
According to Robinson, the effort began in 2011, with a survey of the creek to understand its potential for spikedace and, it turned out, for the Gila topminnow, another endangered fish species. At the time of the survey, Spring Creek already hosted five native fish species, including a species under Robinson’s supervision as manager of the conservation program: The Gila chub.
To read the entire article, go to the May 27 issue of the Red Rock News.
5. Scottsdale Green Building Lecture Series “Innovative Green Built Projects in Scottsdale”
Date: Thursday, June 4 Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center, 1700 N. Granite Reef Road (northwest corner of McDowell and Granite Reef, behind the convenience store)
Who’s building green in downtown Scottsdale and the southern part of the city? Find out at Scottsdale’s upcoming June green building lecture on innovative green projects. Hear about a mixed-use adaptive reuse and multi-family infill projects in walkable mixed-use neighborhoods. Christina Noble, Contour Architecture and Ed Gorman, Modus Development will discuss the challenges and successes with innovative residential and commercial projects that exemplify principles of resource conservation, energy independence and healthy living.
6. Upper Agua Fria Watershed Partnership Meeting.
June 2, 2015 10:00 am Camp Mingus Springs
Introductions and Announcements: Goal to have 1 hour meeting to allow our host Henry Dahlberg to show us the multi decade results of forest and riparian stewrdship
Review Minutes:
*ADOT: Construction Water Use Effects on Local Aquifers, Committee work report – Possibility of NRCS Grant Application for Hamernick’s due July 8, 2015
* Black Canyon Hwy 69 Trailhead – Potential for water? update – Joe Auza? *Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument: 2015 Wet/Dry Mapping Planning,
Data Storage with National Audubon, possibilities for more sophisticated technology – update *Henry shows us his life’s work! BRING LUNCH TO EAT BY HEADWATERS OF ASH CREEK!
7. As Colorado River Shortage Looms, Arizona Water Managers Look Elsewhere. By 2017, chances are a water shortage will be declared on the Colorado River. If that happens, Arizona will lose a share of its water — more than any of its neighbors.
Farmers will feel the squeeze first and that is forcing some tough decisions about how to keep agriculture viable as the drought deepens.
Brian Betcher is one of the people on the front lines of drought preparation. On a windswept afternoon in late spring, he cruised a labyrinth of waterways, lined with ripening melons and corn.
“This is kind of the southern end of the district. See we’re up close to the foothills. We’re kind of near the edge of where water is below ground,” said Betcher.
Betcher has been spending a lot more time recently concerned about that very issue. He manages the more than 200 miles of canals and pipelines that make up the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District.
At the edge of the canal, Betcher stops at a recently installed pipe spouting water
“The challenge we are looking at as we get to 2017 is that we need to maximize our ability to get this groundwater into our canal system,” said Betcher.
In 2017, Arizona will face a 75-percent chance of its first cutback in Colorado River water, depending on the water level in Lake Mead. Central Arizona farmers will be among the first to take that hit.
In recent years, 50 to 70 percent of the water flowing into this irrigation district has come from the Colorado.
Betcher expects that to drop to only 20 percent after a tier-one shortage on the Colorado. They will use groundwater to make up as much of the difference as possible, which is what farmers relied on before the Central Arizona Project piped in water from the river.
“We’re dealing with old infrastructure we’re trying to bring back on line. We are cautiously optimistic we’ll be successful, but there’s no guarantee because these wells have been sitting here a long time not used,” said Betcher.
This uncertainty — coupled with the loss in overall water — will forc growers to adjust. After all, groundwater is more expensive.
“In central Arizona, CAP water has been the way we irrigate our crops, so that all changes,” said Joe Sigg with the Arizona Farm Bureau.
Sigg said growers are in the midst of some key calculations: Which crops can be grown with less water? Will fields have to be fallowed? What if equipment breaks? Will banks still offer the same loans?
“Historically, margins on agriculture crops are 3 percent or less. Oftentimes, we are dealing with margins of 1 percent or less, so a little change in expense can cause a margin that, let’s say, is marginally profitable to one that might be negligibly profitable,” said Sigg.
Sharon Megdal, director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona, said economics will be the biggest factor for growers, if a cutback in CAP water occurs.
“We are in the middle of, not a welcome experiment, but an experiment that will tell us what kind of decisions the farmers will make over time,” she said.
Shortage or not, agriculture was already set to lose its share of the Colorado River by 2030 — the assumption being urbanization would drive that. This drought may just accelerate the transition. In the short term, though, Megdal believes many farmers will return to groundwater. For how long, it is hard to say
“Now, the good news is that groundwater levels in that region have gone up because people have been using that surface water,” said Megdal. “But over time, if groundwater [use] continues, we will see a decline of water in storage and that will be a concern potentially for future water supplies.”
Back in Maricopa, Brian Betcher shares that concern. In the 1950s and 1960s, reliance on groundwater depleted the aquifers, eventually prompting legislative action in the form of the Groundwater Management Act, which regulates groundwater pumping.
“There’s going to be some tough decisions the landowners will have to make,” said Betcher. “Just because we can pump 200,000 acre feet a year, do we want to do that in the long term because of what that will do your resources below ground?”
That will be a question that many Arizona water managers and farmers will face, if the drought continues. Source: KJZZ
8. 13 Ways To Use Baking Soda.
1. Odor Absorber: One of baking soda’s best-known properties is its ability to neutralize odors. Sprinkle some at the bottom of trashcan liners. For carpet odors, sprinkle baking soda over carpet and let sit for 30 minutes to overnight, then vacuum.
2. Food De-Gunker: Easily remove caked-on food from pots and pans by soaking them in baking soda. Just sprinkle a liberal amount on tough spots, add water, let soak for 30 minutes to an hour, then scrub off. For extra power, add a few drops of white vinegar to the mix.
3. Laundry Booster: Add 1⁄2 cup baking soda to the wash cycle to enhance the effectiveness of detergent, absorb odors and help remove stains from clothing.
4. Silverware Sparkler: To clean silverware en masse, line a large glass baking pan with foil, then add silverware, making sure each piece touches foil. (Combined, heat, baking soda and aluminum create a chemical reaction that reverses the process that leads to silver tarnish.) Evenly distribute 1⁄2 cup baking soda over silverware, then completely immerse in boiling water. Let soak for five minutes, rinse (carefully—the water may still be hot!) and dry. You can also create a polishing paste by combining 1 cup baking soda with 1⁄4 cup water; rub the paste over silverware using a damp cloth, then dry.
5. Natural Dentifrice: Make a tooth-cleaning powder by mixing three parts baking soda with one part salt. For flavor, add cinnamon sticks, cloves, citrus peels, a vanilla bean or dried mint leaves. Store in a lidded glass jar for a day or two to allow the aroma to permeate the mix, then transfer to a shaker for sprinkling on your toothbrush.
6. Dental Appliance Cleaner: Dissolve 2 teaspoons baking soda in warm water, then let dentures, retainers, mouth guards and other oral appliances soak. Or dip a toothbrush in baking soda and scrub.
7. Shampoo Booster: Shampoos, conditioners and other hair products can leave behind buildup. Mixing a teaspoon of baking soda into your shampoo bottle can help reduce buildup and make your hair more manageable. To learn more about shampoo alternatives, read the article Lather, Rinse, Do Not Repeat.
8. Comb Cleaner: Remove natural oil buildup from hairbrushes and combs by soaking them in a solution of 1 teaspoon baking soda combined with water.
9. Sting Soother: Bee sting? Because of its alkaline properties, baking soda can help neutralize formic acid in bee stings. Mix baking soda with a little water to create a paste; apply to the sting.
11. Antacid Alternative: Thanks to its alkaline properties, baking soda can neutralize acid reflux. Treat heartburn and indigestion by mixing 1 teaspoon baking soda into a glass of water. This simple remedy also works well for ulcer pain.
12. Flower Freshener: Keep cut flowers alive longer by adding a teaspoon of baking soda to the vase water.
13. Fire Control: Keep baking soda close to the stove in case of grease fires. Smother the fire with baking soda. Heated baking soda releases carbon dioxide, eating the oxygen fires need for fuel. Source: http://www. motherearthliving.com/healthy-home/natural-cleaning/13-ways-use-baking-soda-zmhz13mjzmel.aspx?PageId=2#ArticleContent
