Daniel Salzler No. 1275 EnviroInsight.org Five Items October 11 2024
—————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 through knowledge.
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
- It’s Fall, Time For Planting: Plant Water Smart. Put your gardening gloves and shovel to work and get your landscaping on par with the rest It’s Fall, Time For Planting: Plant Water Smart. Put your gardening gloves and shovel to work and get your landscaping on par with the rest of Mother Nature. Water – Plant It Wisely is your handy resource to provide landscaping guidance, advice, and ideas on what to plant. Because what you plant affects more than your yard. It helps create a more sustainable future, and by selecting low-water-use plants, you help conserve our precious water supply for generations to come. Bet you didn’t know your little ol’ garden could do all that. Learn more at our special microsite that puts everything in one easy place. Source: Water, Use It Wisely.
2. Colorado River Shortages Drive Major Advances In Recycled Sewage Water Use. After more than two decades of drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage. After more than two decades of drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Long-term drought and dwindling Colorado River supplies have Phoenix urgently pursuing highly treated sewage as a drinking water supply. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
“[Utilities] see that the river is over allocated, and they see that the climate is changing,” said Kathryn Sorensen, former director of Phoenix Water Services Department. “They’re looking at this and understanding that the river supply is highly variable and extremely uncertain in the future.”
The Colorado River that sustains nearly 40 million people and more than 4 million acres of cropland across seven states is shrinking because of climate change and overuse. The river’s flows have declined approximately 20 percent over the past century, and a more than two-decade drought that began at the turn of this century has pushed the system to its limits.
With so much at stake, cities dependent on the river are strengthening water conservation measures and pursuing new sources of water with urgency.
Phoenix is quickly advancing plans to purify its wastewater for household use in the expectation of state regulators’ approval.
The city’s water agency is drafting blueprints, securing funding and crafting communication strategies to assure customers that drinking recycled water is safe and necessary in the face of prolonged droughts and climate change.
At full scale, California’s Metropolitan’s plant would produce 150 million gallons of purified water each day, enough for roughly 400,000 Southern California households.
Finding a new local, reliable water supply is critical for Arizona as more than a third of its water comes from the over-committed Colorado River. The search has become more pressing in recent years as Arizona has sustained cuts to its river supply.
Under a drought deal with other states that rely on the river, Arizona this year took a 21 percent reduction – or about six times the amount of water the city of Tucson uses annually – with another round of cuts looming next year.
The inconsistent river supply is a major concern for Phoenix, the state’s most populous city and its capital. Though Arizona farmers and tribes bore the brunt of the recent Colorado River reductions, there’s a chance future cuts will be spread to cities under the next set of river operating rules that take effect in 2027. The revisions are under negotiation by the federal government, Mexico, tribes and the seven Western states that use the river.
The Phoenix metropolitan area has grown rapidly over the last 23 years despite the drought, augmenting its river supply with groundwater. But the underground stores alone won’t sustain the region. Groundwater is also in great demand. Earlier this year Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs halted new permits for homes planned in areas of the state where groundwater is the only source of potable water.
“I will not bury my head in the sand, cut corners, or put short-term interests over the state’s long-term economic growth,” Hobbs said of her decision last June.
Phoenix, the nation’s fifth-largest city, believes it can replace some of what it draws from the Colorado River and pumps from underground by recycling water that’s flushed down sinks, showers, toilets and washing machines.
Arizona for decades has been cleaning wastewater from households and businesses and using it to water golf courses, cool nuclear power plants and recharge aquifers. But until 2018, state law prohibited utilities from putting recycled wastewater directly into drinking water. Lawmakers, aware that Arizona was facing cuts to its Colorado River supply, lifted the prohibition to allow cities to pursue treated wastewater as a drinking source. The state’s drinking water regulators are drafting rules that will allow cities to adopt the technology.
The allure of direct potable reuse or “advanced water purification,” is its ability to quickly get highly treated wastewater into the drinking water supply. The method treats wastewater through a three-step purification process involving membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light disinfection and adds it to a drinking water source without going through an environmental buffer.
The method also promises to be energy efficient. A 2021 study found that putting recycled water directly into the water supply requires far less power than long-distance water transfers or seawater desalination.
A more widely used water recycling method known as “indirect potable reuse” requires treated wastewater to first go through an environmental barrier such as an aquifer where it is filtered naturally through layers of sand and gravel. The water is then pumped from the ground and treated again before entering the drinking water supply.
Direct potable reuse has been used sparingly in parts of rural Texas, but Phoenix is looking to do it on a mass scale. And the city is wasting little time: The Phoenix City Council recently committed $30 million toward retrofitting a shuttered water recycling operation for advanced purification, even though Arizona regulators have yet to finalize rules for the technology.
Nazario Prieto, assistant director of Phoenix’s wastewater division, said the closed Cave Creek Reclamation Plant in north Phoenix is a perfect candidate for direct potable reuse as it’s near a facility that treats Colorado River water. A short pipeline could connect the two plants, allowing the recycled product to be blended with the Colorado River supply.
“This is going to play a big role in our water resources portfolio, especially with the uncertainty on the Colorado River,” Prieto said. “Water’s precious here in the desert and this is a sustainable resource that keeps coming to us in the form of wastewater.”
Phoenix is also exploring the construction of a larger, regional wastewater plant to serve Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, Mesa and other cities in the metropolitan area. A regional plant would be able to treat up to 80 million gallons of effluent per day and if built to full capacity, the regional and Cave Creek plants combined could supply about 20 percent of Phoenix’s yearly potable water needs.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality expects to issue final direct potable reuse rules by the end of 2024 and begin accepting applications for permits in 2025. Source: Water Education Foundation updated from December 19, 2023 article.
3. How Music Could Boost Plant Growth. Study Suggests Sound Boosts Fungus
The idea of music boosting plant growth has been around for many years, but a new study has found that monotonous noise stimulates a type of fungus that improves the growth of plants.
In a paper in the journal Biology Letters, researchers describe how they examined the effect that sounds had on the soil fungus Trichoderma harzianum, which is used in farming to promote plant growth, protect plants from pathogens, and enhance soil health.
When the researchers played noise to petri dishes growing T. harzianum (This fungus is often used in organic farming for its ability to protect plants from pathogens, improve nutrients in the soil and promote growth.), they found the fungi increased in size and amped up spore production. This in turn may help plants grow. The researchers hope to further investigate this finding to see how it could benefit farmers and the environment.
“Our novel study highlights the potential of acoustic stimulation to alter important fungal attributes, which could, with further development, be harnessed to aid ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture,” they wrote. Source; Newsweek Oct 3, 2024.and https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/can-music-help-plants-grow-study-suggests-sound-boosts-fungus/ar-AA1rykoM?ocid=BingNewsSerp
The petri dishes were played this sound at a level of 80 decibels for half an hour a day.
After five days, the growth and spore production were higher in the fungi that were played the sound, compared to those that sat in silence.
While far from definitive, the researchers suggested some potential reasons this could happen.
The acoustic wave could be converted into a fungi-stimulating electrical charge under what is known as the piezoelectric effect..
4. 2024 Environmental Report Card For AZ Legislature And Governor. Session Characterized by Inaction on Key Priorities-Water, Climate, and Environmental Justice.
“The 2024 legislative session was disappointing as legislators again missed opportunities to act on climate, environmental justice, and water, and, unfortunately, passed water legislation that does more harm than good, failing to address groundwater issues for rural Arizona or protect any rivers or streams”
Nearly everyone seemed to agree that Arizona needed to take action on water, especially as wells in rural Arizona continued to be pumped dry by industrial agriculture and an assured water supply was no longer available in parts of the Active Management Areas. It turns out, however, that developers, big agriculture, land and water speculators, and private water companies were all interested in continuing business as usual with unsustainable sprawl development and pushing through bills that changed the rules to accommodate that. Rural water issues were left unaddressed.
There is a lot to be looked at – see https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/240803b_2024_Sierra_Club_Environmental_Report_Card_Final1.pdf
BUT; here is a summary of the 28 page report card….
2024 Environmental Report Card
| B Govenor Hobbs | |
Senate Grades A+ Hatathlie A Epstein, Gonzales, Marsh B Bravo, Burch, Gabaldon, Mendez Miranda, Sundarshan C Alston, E. Diaz, Fernandez, Anna Hernandez D F Bennett, Block, Borrelli, Caroll, Farnsworth, Gowan, Hoffman, Kavanagh, Kerr, Kern, Mesnard, Petersen, Rogers, Shamp, Shope, Wadsack | House Grades Austin, Cavero, P. Contreras, Ligouri, Lucking, Luna Najera, Preshlakai, Sandoval, Stahl- Hamilton, Travers, Agular, Blattman, L. Contreras, Mathis, Nardozzi,Ortoz, Pawlik,, Schwiebert, Tsosie Alma Hemandez, C. Haermandez, L. Hernandez, M. Hernandez, Quinonez, Seaman, Terech Biaslucci, Bliss, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Cook, L. Doaz, Dunn, Gillette,b Gantham, Gress, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Kolodin, Livingston, Msrshall,, Martinez, McGart, Montenegro, Nguyen, B. Parker, J.Parker, Payne, Pena, Pingerelli, Smith,Toma, Willoughby, Wilmeth |
5. Food For Thought; Cheetos Food Coloring Turns Mice Transparent. The dye alters the optical qualities of skin, allowing light to pass through.
A popular food dye in Cheetos can turn the skin of live mice transparent to reveal the animal’s organs inside.
When scientists massaged a solution of the dye tartrazine onto the bellies of live mice, their skin appeared to vanish, revealing the inner organs and pulsing muscles in the gut. After soaking the mice’s heads in the solution, they saw blood vessels that sluice the brain. Applied to the hind limbs, the dye showed muscles in the legs.
Biological cells are held together by oily membrane made of fats, embedded in a watery matrix. Fat and water transmit light differently, so light scatters as it hits the cells. This is why skin is opaque. But the addition of this food dye evens out the difference between the fat and water, allowing light to pass through, rendering the skin layers transparent, the researchers said. Source: Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2024.
Copyright: 2024 EnviroInsight.org
