Daniel Salzler No. 1226
EnviroInsight.org Four Items November 3, 2023
—————Feel Free To Pass This Along To Others——————
If your watershed is doing something you would like others to know about, or you know
of something others can benefit from, let me know and I will place it in this Information .
If you want to be removed from the distribution list, please let me know.
Please note that all meetings listed are open.
Enhance your viewing by downloading the pdf file to view photos, etc.
The attached is all about improving life in the watershed.
If you want to be removed from the distribution list,
please let me know. Please note that all meetings listed are open.
Check our website at EnviroInsight.org
- Goat Weeds?
Weeds are no joke, especially when they have invaded a recharge basin. The overgrown vegetation creates operational difficulties, slowing the water percolation speed to a mere trickle.
Bryant Dickens, water resources field engineer, said that weeds have always been a challenge in recharge basins, but the decrease in the amount of water we are recharging has exacerbated the problem.
“When we are recharging a lot of water, it drowns out the weed growth,” said Dickens. “Now that we aren’t recharging as much water, the vegetation has gone crazy.”
At Superstition Mountains Recharge Project there are two basins, each about 20 acres, that are full of unwanted vegetation. Using herbicides near a recharge project isn’t wise and mechanical removal costs have skyrocketed to more than $100,000 for the project.
So, how do you eliminate the weeds? Goats!
“Goats are an effective reducer of vegetative material over uneven or rough terrain, they can get into places machines cannot and are more efficient than manual removal,” said Dickens.
As you can imagine, goat herders are not exactly a dime a dozen. After considerable research that spread throughout the west, Dickens said he found a goat herder that was local that uses Kiko goats. It’s an Australian breed that is larger than others and thrives in our desert climate – and they eat nearly every type of vegetation. Not to mention that the cost is less than 1/3 the cost of mechanical removal.
So, in early October, the hungry crew arrived at Superstition Mountains Recharge Project to do their thing. They quickly spread out over the basin and started munching away. The setup is simple – an electric fence netting to keep their wandering contained and predators away, and metal trough for fresh water.
The curious herbivores will continue their work through Dec. 17, enjoying an 11-week all-you-can-eat situation. In the end, their work will expose the underlying soil, increasing absorption rates and allowing for faster drainage. At that point, Dickens said he will be evaluating their use on other projects, saying that the goats may stay pretty busy among the five recharge projects CAP owns and operates. Source: https://knowyourwaternews.com/goat-weeds/
2. Biden-Harris Administration Announces Next Steps to Protect Stability and Sustainability of Colorado River Basin Funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and voluntary water conservation commitments will save 3-million-acre feet of water through 2026.
WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration today announced next steps in the Administration’s efforts to protect the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River System and strengthen water security in the West. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation released a revised draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) as part of the ongoing, collaborative effort to update the current interim operating guidelines for the near-term operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams to address the ongoing drought and impacts from the climate crisis.
In order to protect Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam operations, system integrity, and public health and safety through 2026 – at which point the current interim guidelines expire – an initial draft SEIS was released in April 2023. Following a historic consensus-based proposal secured by the Biden-Harris administration in partnership with states – which committed to measures to conserve at least 3 million-acre-feet (maf) of system water through the end of 2026 enabled by funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda – Reclamation temporarily withdrew the draft SEIS to allow for consideration of the new proposal.
Today’s revised draft SEIS includes two key updates: the Lower Basin states’ proposal as an action alternative, as well as improved hydrology and more recent hydrologic data. The release of the revised draft SEIS initiates a 45-day public comment period.
“Throughout the past year, our partners in the seven Basin states have demonstrated leadership and unity of purpose in helping achieve the substantial water conservation necessary to sustain the Colorado River System through 2026,” said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau, who led negotiations on behalf of the Administration. “Thanks to their efforts and historic funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we have staved off the immediate possibility of the System’s reservoirs from falling to critically low elevations that would threaten water deliveries and power production.”
“The Colorado River Basin’s reservoirs, including its two largest storage reservoirs Lake Powell and Lake Mead, remain at historically low levels. Today’s advancement protects the system in the near-term while we continue to develop long-term, sustainable plans to combat the climate-driven realities facing the Basin,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “As we move forward in this process, supported by historic investments from the President’s Investing in America agenda, we are also working to ensure we have long-term tools and strategies in place to help guide the next era of the Colorado River Basin.”
“Earlier this year, President Biden helped secure a historic agreement among seven Colorado River Basin states to protect the stability of the Colorado River System in the face of historic drought conditions, made worse by the climate crisis,” said White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking another key action to bolster water resilience in the Basin States, leveraging historic investments from the President’s Investing in America agenda to build a more sustainable and equitable future for communities across the West.”
Key Components of Revised Draft SEIS
Reclamation conducted updated modeling analyses using June 2023 hydrology for the No Action Alternative, Action Alternatives 1 and 2 from the initial draft SEIS, and the Lower Division proposal. The results of that modeling indicate that the risk of reaching critical elevations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead has been reduced substantially. As a result of the commitment to record volumes of conservation in the Basin and recent hydrology, the chance of falling below critical elevations was reduced to eight percent at Lake Powell and four percent at Lake Mead through 2026. However, elevations in these reservoirs remain historically low, and conservation measures like those outlined by the Lower Division proposal will still be necessary to ensure continued water delivery to communities and to protect the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River System.
Based on these modeling results, Reclamation will continue the SEIS process with detailed consideration of the No Action Alternative and the Lower Division Proposal. The revised SEIS designates the Lower Division Proposal as the Proposed Action. Alternatives 1 and 2 from the initial SEIS were considered but eliminated from detailed analysis.
Historic Funding from Investing in America Agenda
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is integral to the efforts to increase near-term water conservation, build long term system efficiency, and prevent the Colorado River System’s reservoirs from falling to critically low elevations that would threaten water deliveries and power production. Because of this funding, conservation efforts have already benefited the system this year.
This includes eight new System Conservation Implementation Agreements in Arizona that will commit water entities in the Tucson and Phoenix metro areas to conserve up to 140,000-acre feet of water in Lake Mead in 2023, and up to 393,000-acre feet through 2025. Reclamation is working with its partners to finalize additional agreements. These agreements are part of the 3 maf of system conservation commitments made by the Lower Basin states, 2.3 maf of which will be compensated through funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, which invests a total of $4.6 billion to address the historic drought across the West.
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is also investing another $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, desalination and dam safety.
To date, the Interior Department has announced the following investments for Colorado River Basin states, which will yield hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water savings each year once these projects are complete:
- $281 million for 21 water recycling projects that are expected to increase annual water capacity by 127,000 acre-feet annually;
- Up to $233 million in water conservation funding for the Gila River Indian Community, including $83 million for a water pipeline project and an additional $50 million from the Inflation Reduction Act through the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program, which will also provide similar investments in 2024 and 2025;
- Over $73 million for infrastructure repairs on water delivery systems; $19.3 million in fiscal year 2022and another $54 million announced in April 2023;
- $71 million for 32 drought resiliency projectsto expand access to water through groundwater storage, rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge and water treatment;
- $50 million over the next five years to improve key water infrastructure and enhance drought-related data collection across the Upper Colorado River Basin; and
- $20 million in new small surface and groundwater storage
The process announced today is separate from the recently announced efforts to protect the Colorado River Basin starting in 2027. The revised draft SEIS released today would inform Reclamation’s ongoing efforts to set interim guidelines through the end of 2026; the post-2026 planning process advanced last week will develop guidelines for when the current interim guidelines expire. Source: 10/25/23 U.S Department of Interior.
3. Pottery Becomes Water Treatment Device for Navajo Nation. The team has developed a new water filtration solution for members of the Navajo Nation, lining clay pots with pine tree resin collected from the Navajo Nation and incorporating tiny, silver-based particles that can be used to purify water to make it drinkable.
“Making water filtration technology cheap doesn’t solve all the problems, and making it effective doesn’t solve everything either,” said Navid Saleh, a professor in the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and one of the leaders on the project. “You have to think about the people you are making it for.”
And that’s what the researchers did. They worked closely with a third-generation potter from Arizona — Deanna Tso, who is also a co-author on the paper — to create a device that is simple for the users. All they have to do is pour water through the clay pots, and the coated pottery removes bacteria from water and generates clean, drinkable water.
The Navajo Nation has a history of mistrust of outsiders, the researchers say, and that makes it less likely that people there would adopt a new technology made entirely by others. Using pottery, working with the community, and relying on local materials were important to the effectiveness of this project.
The research appears in a new paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
“Navajo pottery is at the heart of this innovation because we hoped it would bridge a trust gap,” said Lewis Stetson Rowles III, now a faculty member at Georgia Southern University’s Department of Civil Engineering and Construction after earning a Ph.D. from UT in 2021. “Pottery is sacred there, and using their materials and their techniques could help them get more comfortable with embracing new solutions.”
Tiny, silver-based particles mix at high volume with chemicals commonly seen in untreated water, creating a “poison layer” that can reduce the disinfection efficacy.
Using silver particles for water filtration is not the main innovation. Others have used this technology in the past. The key is controlling the release of nanoparticles, which can reduce the usable life of the filters. And the silver particles mix at high volume with some of the chemicals, such as chloride and sulfide, in the untreated water, leading to a “poison layer” that can reduce the disinfection efficacy of the silver particles on the clay lining.
The researchers used materials abundant in the environment of the community, including pine tree resin, to mitigate the uncontrolled release of silver particles during the water purifying process. The materials and construction process for the pots cost less than $10, making for a potentially low-cost solution.
“This is just the beginning of trying to solve a local problem for a specific group of people,” Saleh said. “But the technical breakthrough we’ve made can be used all over the world to help other communities.”
The next step for the researchers is to grow the technology and find other materials and techniques to help communities use the materials abundant in their regions to help create fresh, drinkable water. The researchers are not seeking to commercialize the research, but they are eager to share it with potential partners.
Other team members on the project include Desmond Lawler, a professor emeritus, who was Rowles’ co-adviser; civil, architectural and environmental engineering professor Mary Jo Kirisits; and Andrei Dolocan, a senior research scientist at the Texas Materials Institute. Source:Cockrell School of Engineering, Health, Science, Technology University of Texas at Austin
4. Tucson City Council Approves Plan To Sustain, Diversify Future Drinking Water Sources
The Tucson City Council has approved a plan laid out by municipal authorities to secure drinking water for residents in the coming years.]
In a 6-1 vote last Tuesday, the council green-lit what’s called the One Water 2100 Plan — it’s part of a sustainability package put together by Tucson officials and it spells out where drinking water for Tucson will come from in the coming years.
Natalie DeRoock, senior public information officer for Tucson Water, says recycled water — wastewater that has been treated to drinking water standards — is just one of several potential sources included in the plan.
“The plan that places equal value on all water as an integrated and viable source for the community,” she said. “[Recycled water] is not something that we’re going to implement right away, and No. 2, we would definitely consider the thought of the community, the input of the community, in doing so … what’s really important to understand that it’s one of many options for managing our water resources.”
DeRoock says that doesn’t mean the use of recycled water is imminent, and if it’s determined to be a good option, implementing it will take time.
One Water 2100 outlines four distinct drinking water sources — stormwater, groundwater, surface water and recycled water. DeRoock says the city is looking at ways to manage water resources depending on various factors — like Colorado River allocation, drought management and shifting community needs in Tucson.
As first reported by the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson is joining cities in southern California already working on capturing stormwater as part of drinking water portfolios, and other cities that plan to use recycled and treated wastewater.
DeRoock says with the approval from Tucson mayor and council, the plan will move forward into its implementation phase over the next year. Source: Fronteras, By Alisa Reznick. Tuesday, October 24, 2023 – 8:10am
Copyright: EnviroInsight 2023
