1. Being A Part Of The Solution Instead Of Being A Part Of The Problem. We’ve all read or heard about the plastics pollution along highways, in rivers, streams and the ocean.
Now you can do a small part to reduce the pollution. Fry’s grocery stores are now selling paper drinking Straws. Fry’s provides two choices, white, and Green and white striped.
Unlike plastic straws that take thousands of years to break down in a landfill, these paper straws will easily last to the bottom of your cup, but not a great deal longer.
Everyone needs to do their part as more communities are bringing Their recycling programs to an end
2. Automobile Safety Summer Check List. Before leaving for a driving vacation across the state or across the country, check out your car or truck’s
- Cooling system: check coolant and oil
- Belts and hoses: look for cracks, splits or swollen hoses
- Check starter battery for distilled water
- Tires for proper inflation
3. It’s Hot! It’s Summer. Will You Cool Off With A Dip In A Pool? Beware! If you or members of your family swim in a public pool, be sure to shower off (with soap and water) in a cool shower every time you exit the pool, before lying/sitting in the sun.
For all of the people who have entered the water wearing off-the-shelf SPF sun screen containing oxybenzone.
When the skin coated is oxybenzone sun screen enters the water, it washes off and floats on top of the water. Therefore, 97% of people who enter the water absorbs oxybenzone when they exit the water.
Ultra violet B rays are blocked by the sunscreen, but Ultra Violet A rays are the rays that get past the sun block and to the skin. Ultra Violet A rays are the ones that cause breast, ovarian and prostate cancer and also disrupts fertility hormones.
There are alternatives that do not contain oxybenzone. Hundreds are listed on the Environmental Working Group website at ewg.org. under categories such as “Best Beach & Sport Sunscreens” and “Best Scoring Kid’s Sunscreens” with many brands listed
| 4. Four U.S. Cities With The Most Extreme Weather. | Hottest Cities in The A.Z. (Recent) |
| 4. Waterloo, IA | 1. Death Valley, CA |
| 3. Sioux Falls, South Dakota | 2. Lake Havasu City |
| 2. St Cloud, Minnesota | 3. Buckeye. AZ |
| 1. Fargo, North Dakota | 4. Laveen, Litchfield Park |
5. Pollution Prevention and Solid and Hazardous Waste Workshop
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) Waste Programs Division invites interested community members and business and government personnel to learn about latest requirements and best practices at this free workshop. Professional development hours are available.
Wednesday, Aug. 21
Phoenix, AZ
Learn more and register >
To view all upcoming solid and hazardous waste and pollution prevention events, visit azdeq.gov/sw-events
6. Sierra Vista Recycling
Sierra Vista residents are encouraged to drop off corrugated cardboard, steel and aluminum cans, plastics #1 and #2, and glass bottles and jars at the City of Sierra Vista’s Recycling Center. The staffed drop-off is located at 7201 E. Hwy 90 at mile marker 325, and is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Effective July 1, 2019, the City of Sierra Vista ended the blue bin curbside pickup program. Residents are welcome to keep their blue bins and find new uses for them, but if you no longer want the blue bin, please complete this online request form and we’ll come and pick it up. Please allow for up to 30 days for pickup, depending on how many customers request to turn in their blue bins. Recyclables should be cleaned, with all lids and labels removed. They do not need to be presorted, but doing so will make the process smoother and faster for our staff. For more information, see the items below and check out our Drop-Off Recycling Program FAQ.
This area of the website includes information on:
Residential recycling
What materials are accepted at the recycling drop-off center??
Where can other materials be recycled?
Green waste pickup program
Recycling household fats, oils, and grease
Commercial recycling
Source: Sierra Vista Herald
7. Flagstaff’s Bulk Waste Program Returning. The city’s bulk waste operations will be back on a normal schedule by Monday (July 22), collecting in Section 4. Residents should continue following their normal bulk waste pickup schedule and should not bring in waste that has not been picked up, city staff wrote in a press release.
The bulk waste program experienced a 35%
increase in seasonal bulk waste this spring, according to the release. The city utilized additional resources and modified their bulk waste operation in order to adapt to the increase.
Course: Flagstaff Daily Sun
8. Wetlands Decline In Acreage. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, more than 60,000 acres of wetlands are lost on average each year. As these wetlands are diminished, birds and other wildlife move closer to humans.
Recently, a local Phoenix featured a story about people being dive bombed by birds as they walked along pathways. The birds usually go for the head (hair) and face as they attempt to protect their nests. Most of these birds are of the male gender. Source: Wall Street Journal
9. Lead Paint Suppliers Settle California Lawsuit for $305M. For several decades adults and especially children by the thousands have suffered and died from lead-based paint poisoning.
In 1977, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a final ban on lead-containing paint and on toys and furniture coated with such paint. This action was taken to reduce the risk of lead poisoning in children who may ingest paint chips or peelings.”
FACT: Lead exposure can harm young children and babies even before they are born.
FACT: Even children who seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies.
FACT: You can get lead in your body by breathing or swallowing lead dust, or by eating soil or paint chips containing lead.
FACT: You have many options for reducing lead hazards. In most cases, lead-based paint that is in good condition is not a hazard.
FACT: Removing lead-based paint improperly can increase the danger to your family.
The nation’s major suppliers of lead paint have agreed to pay California’s largest cities and counties $305 million to settle a nearly 20-year-old lawsuit, attorneys said Wednesday.
The settlement comes after years of legal and legislative battling in California and other states. Lead paint suppliers tried to change California law last year with a ballot initiative that they later withdrew.
A judge initially required Sherwin-Williams Co., ConAgra Grocery Products Co. and NL Industries Inc. to pay $1.15 billion to clean up lead paint. An appeals court in 2017 affirmed that lead paint is a public nuisance but ruled that the companies only would have to pay for cleaning up homes built before 1951, leading to the settlement.
We’re very pleased that we have hundreds of millions of dollars to dedicate to cleaning up this hazard in our communities,” Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said. “The real beneficiaries of this case will be the current and future children of California who will now have far less chance of being poisoned by lead.” Source: Eastern Arizona Courier
10. Arizona Reservoir Levels
| Current % Full | Current Elevation (ft) | Remaining Storage (af) | |
| Roosevelt Lake (Roosevelt Dam) | 74 | 2,129.18 | 1,208,461 |
| Apache Lake (Horse Mesa Dam) | 94 | 1,907.90 | 229,213 |
| Canyon Lake (Mormon Flat Dam) | 95 | 1,657.59 | 55,111 |
| Saguaro Lake (Stewart Mountain Dam) | 92 | 1,524.74 | 64,507 |
| Total Salt system | 78 | 1,557,292 | |
| Horseshoe Lake (Horseshoe Dam) | 0 | 1,948.73 | 0 |
| Bartlett Lake (Bartlett Dam) | 92 | 1,792.55 | 163,292 |
| Total Verde system | 57 | 163,292 | |
| Total Reservoir System | 75 | 1,720,584 | |
| Total system year ago | 51 |
The water leaves the reservoirs, it is released back into the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam and the Verde River below Bartlett Dam.
As the water makes its way toward the Valley, these rivers provide a habitat for wildlife, as well as water sport, fishing and camping opportunities.
The Salt and Verde rivers converge behind the Granite Reef Diversion Dam. From here SRP can divert this water into its network of canals, where gravity will carry throughout the Phoenix metro area.
Central Arizona Project also intersects SRP at the Granite Reef Diversion Dam, where water can be diverted into the SRP system, providing another way for Colorado River water to reach Valley cities.
11. Low-Carbon Diets Are Good for the Planet, and Your Health. A new analysis shows eating lower on the food chain benefits habitat and health. For most of human history, sticking to a diet was pretty simple—you ate whatever you could get your hands on. A paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that low-carbon diets that are good for the climate are, as a general rule, much better for human health as well.
Any discussion of climate change needs to address the world’s food system, found that the better a diet was for the planet, the better it was for human health.. Source: Sierra Club
