1. There Isn’t Enough Colorado River Water To Go Around, And Arizona Stands To Lose First When Shortages Occur.
Arizona, Nevada and California march ever closer to an agreement to prevent the severe water usage cuts that come with a federal declaration of water shortage triggered by dropping water levels at Lake Mead, a reservoir of the Colorado River supplying water to each state. But we need to carefully consider how any water cuts are distributed.
There’s no doubt our three states are overdrawing our Colorado River water account, and the persistent drought in the Southwest and climate change are only exacerbating the problem. Unfortunately, Arizona is in the most vulnerable position because any shortages in the river will hit our state with major cutbacks before any other state has to address its water usage.
Arizona is the odd state out in agreeing to dramatically curtail water use from the Colorado River, raising tensions in the Southwest as extreme drought conditions return.
At Lake Mead, the west’s biggest reservoir, water levels have dropped more than 150 feet over the past two decades to 1.077 feet. The Nevada reservoir is now three (3) feet shy of falling below a federal threshold that can trigger mandatory cutbacks by U.S. officials.
Nevada, California, and Mexico – have mostly agreed to a regional Drought Contingency Plan that would adopt more reductions in the amount of water drawn from the river. But bureaucratic infighting between two Arizona agencies had delayed adoption of the plan.
The Central Arizona Project, which manages most of the state’s river water, and Arizona Department of Water Resources have been in a year-long dispute over the plan, and in May the two agencies pledged to work together.
“The risk is real, and the time for action is now,” Terry Fulp, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region, said in a reent public meeting on the issue in Tempe, Arizona.
The Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, has been gripped by the driest 19 year period on record, according to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR).
The risk of the reservoir falling below 1,025 feet by the year 2026 – a level once thought unthinkable – has risen to 40% according to new BOR estimates.
Arizona, Nevada and California in 2007 had agreed to undertake a series of cuts from the river, under Interior Department guidelines for when Lake Mead dipped below 1,075 feet. For example, Arizona, which has the lowest water rights on the system, agreed to curtail roughly one third its annual use, or 320,000 acre feet. (An acre-foot is the amount of water used by an average family of five in aa year.)
The state would reduce its usage by 512,000 acre feet under the new drought plan.
Farmers will get hit the hardest with the proposed cuts. Real Estate developers are also concerned because the cutbacks could result in less replenishment of groundwater basins they rely on to ensure water supplies for subdivisions, said Cheryl Lombard, president and chief executive of Valley Partnership, an industry trade group. Source: “Wall Street Journal” July 9, 2018
2. Water Roots – Special Film Screening: Rivers and Tides – Loft Cinema July 31, 2018.
Time/Location: 7:30 p.m./Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85716
Join us for a special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides (2001), hosted by the Loft Cinema. After the film, you are invited to a panel discussion and dynamic community conversation about how we value water and protect natural areas in Arizona.
This documentary offers a vision of the natural world molded by currents, driftwood, ice, mud, leaves, and stones, and modified with human hands. A spectacular visual gallery of Goldsworthy’s relationship with nature, this artist painstakingly makes ephemeral sculptures built out of bits of ice in the trees or loose rock, which may be overgrown by plants or swallowed by high tides. Filmmaker Thomas Reidelsheimer goes to great lengths to demonstrate Goldsworthy’s ideas about the forgotten relationships between light, color, movement, balance, and fluidity of form in nature, creating a surprising and enjoyable journey through art of the natural world.
3. Astroshed: What Is That Up There?
Friday, July 20
The Moon’s eastward motion carries it near magnitude –2.2 Jupiter tonight. Our satellite, which now sports a noticeable gibbous phase, stands 4° above the planet as twilight fades to darkness. If you point a telescope at Jupiter, you’ll see spectacular cloud-top detail on a flattened disk that spans 39″ across the equator. You’ll also see the gas giant’s four biggest and brightest moons.
This mosaic shows the surfaces of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons images, as seen by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.
Saturday, July 21
Perhaps no month better epitomizes summer in the Northern Hemisphere than July. And this month finds the season’s namesake asterism, the Summer Triangle, on prominent display. The trio’s brightest member, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, stands nearly overhead shortly before midnight. The asterism’s second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, then lies more than halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Deneb, the luminary of Cygnus the Swan, marks the Summer Triangle’s third corner. Although it is this asterism’s dimmest star, it’s the brightest point of light in the entire northeastern sky.
Sunday, July 22
Magnificent Saturn reached its peak less than a month ago, when it appeared opposite the Sun in the sky, and our view of the ringed planet remains spectacular. It is on display nearly all night among the background stars of northern Sagittarius, hanging in the south southeast as darkness falls and climbing highest in the south around 11 p.m. local daylight time. Saturn continues to shine brightly, too, at magnitude 0.1. When viewed through binoculars, you’ll find the Trifid Nebula (M20) 3.2° to the west, with the even brighter Lagoon Nebula (M8) 1° south of the Trifid. Open cluster M25 resides 5.0° northeast of the planet and globular cluster M22 is 4.8° east-southeast of the ringed world. But the best views of Saturn come through a telescope, which reveals the planet’s 18″-diameter disk surrounded by a dramatic ring system that spans 41″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight.
4. Mosquitoes And Other Bug Bite “Fix’s”.
The monsoons have arrived are is dropping water here and there across Arizona. It only takes a tablespoon of standing water and four days (to 30 days) for mosquitoes to lay mosquito egg rafts. These rafts are about the size of a small grain of rice. From this raft, 400 mosquitoes can emerge. Repeat every four to 30 days (depending on the mosquito species.
With the onslaught of mosquitoes, it is inevitable that you will be stung by these protein (blood) sucking creatures. If you have been bitten, you, have remedies on hand for when the bugs strike:
Baking soda. Some over-the-counter preparations contain sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, which has been shown to relieve itching in some skin conditions.
Essential oils. Essential oils, such as those made with thyme, peppermint, and tea tree oil, can be used to relieve acute itching, and may have insect repellant effects as well.
At-home relief. Colloidal oatmeal baths can relieve acute itching from a variety of causes. If the itch gets really bad, pick up some Mullein oil from your local health food store, (or in higher elevations, harvest some leaves from a fallow tract of land) and place a drop of two of oil on the bite. In seconds, the itch will cease. You’re done!
In addition, for people who have frequent allergic reactions, regular use of extracts from German chamomile and a flavonoid called quercetin may be helpful. Of course, if you know you have an allergy to any insect or think you might, check with a healthcare practitioner first. Source: Penn Herb Company, Editor
[By the way, if you’re into mosquitoes, head to Komarno, Canada this summer. The city of Komarno, Manitoba, Canada is the self-proclaimed “Mosquito Capital of Canada.” One of the city’s main tourist attractions is its large mosquito statue. Looking like something out of a horror movie, the giant mosquito perches atop a stone platform, which just happens to make a great background for a selfie. Komarno’s claim to fame is based in fact, in that the area is home to some of the largest mosquitoes found in North America. Source: RoadsideAmerica.com]
5. Protecting Chaco Canyon. Chaco Canyon is among the world’s most treasured sacred and archaeological sites. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the greatest concentration of ancient pueblos in the American Southwest – and it’s slowly being surrounded by fracking wells.
Do this now!
Today, more than 91 percent of public lands in Northwest New Mexico have already been leased to oil and gas companies. And regional management plans are dangerously out of date and don’t account for the health and environmental effects of horizontal fracking.
Yet the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is pushing forward with a plan to lease over 40,000 more acres to oil companies, and they’re accepting comments until July 20th. Add your message and tell them to stop this lease sale and protect Greater Chaco.
