Daniel Salzler No. 1292
EnviroInsight.org Five Items February 7, 2025
—————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
- Gov. Hobbs Announces $60.3 Million To Strengthen Arizona’s Water Security. Governor Katie Hobbs is moving forward on her State of State promise to protect Arizona’s water security, announcing $60.3 million in investments for conservation, infrastructure upgrades and resiliency efforts statewide.
“Arizona’s water future depends on taking action today,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “Not only is my administration driving key policy reforms, I’m committed to making investments that protect water for every Arizonan and ensure our communities have the resources they need to continue growing for generations to come.”
The investments include:
$14.6 million for the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) Water Conservation Grant Fund to support statewide conservation projects including in rural areas and long-term sustainable supplies.
$12.3 million to support small and disadvantaged public water systems through the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for technical support and infrastructure improvements.
$5 million to combat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which doubles ADEQ’s funding to address “forever chemicals” in statewide communities’ water supplies.
$12 million for renewable water infrastructure in Buckeye, allowing the city to use effluent, to achieve a 100-year Alternative Designation of Assured Water Supply (ADAWS).
$7 million for groundwater monitoring wells in rural areas to help track declining aquifer levels and inform water management strategies.
$5.5 million for hydrogeologic studies in groundwater basins facing water level declines that will inform the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) build models and tools for solutions.
$3.49 million for advanced water monitoring technology and data collection at the ADWR to utilize satellite monitoring, gravity surveys and GPS technology to improve aquifer management and data collection.
$500,000 for wastewater contamination cleanup which ADEQ will utilize to track and replace wastewater disposal systems in rural areas.
These American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) dollars are not affected by the Trump Administration’s federal funding freeze.
An overview of the water investments is available on the governor’s website.
2. Phoenix’s Far Edge, A Housing Boom Grasps For Water. More than 1 million people could pour into western Maricopa County in the coming decades – if housing developers can secure the water.
BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Beneath the exhausting Sonoran sun, an hour’s drive west of Phoenix, heavy machines are methodically scraping the desert bare.
Where mesquite and saguaro once stood, the former Douglas Ranch is being graded and platted in the first phase of a national real estate developer’s gargantuan plan that foresees, in the next few decades, as many as100,000 new homes to shelter 300,000 people. In late October 2024, dozens of trees, salvaged from the land and potted as if theyvhad just arrived from the nursery, watched over the quiet construction zone.
It is part of a constellation of roughly two dozen master planned communities in the area – with names like Tartesso, Festival Ranch, Sun City Festival, and Sun Valley – that could propel upstart Buckeye in the coming decades to one of the largest cities in the Southwest. Buckeye planning documents anticipate a city population later this century between 1 million to 1.5 million if all the master planned communities are fully built out.
The Phoenix metro area is expanding ever outward, riding the decades-long wave of a nationwide redistribution of people toward warmer, sunnier states. That population growth – the state added nearly 1.2 million people in the last 15 years – has driven up home prices and pushed single-family home buyers into lands farther removed from the center. Buckeye is about as far removed as it currently gets.
All the while, the state’s water supply has declined. The Colorado River, shrinking due to a warming climate, has been in shortage condition since 2022, a situation that has cut Arizona’s allocation from the river by at least 18% annually. Groundwater, which has nurtured Buckeye to this point, is no longer sufficient for new growth in the area, the state says. Arizona Department of Water Resources decisions in 2023 about groundwater availability in the region sent shockwaves through the housing industry, halting new subdivisions in Buckeye and certain other locations around Phoenix that would have used local groundwater. The decisions affected only proposed developments that had not yet received permits to pump groundwater.
The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, an influential trade group, reckons that 200,000 homes in the greater Phoenix area for which builders thought they had sufficient water are now in limbo. On January 22, 2025, the association announced a lawsuit against the state over its restrictions on groundwater use that have held up home construction.
Howard Hughes Holdings, the national real estate company that is developing the 37,000-acre Teravalis site, has secured water for only the first 8,500 homes, some of which are scheduled to be ready by next year. Where will the rest of the water come from? Deals could be made with nearby tribal nations to lease their senior rights. Ag land could be bulldozed and the water given over to housing. Wastewater can be cleaned up and reused. Groundwater could be pumped from designated “transport” basins from which water can be moved outside its natural watershed. Many options are on the table – even a farfetched pipeline carrying desalinated water from Mexico – but they require delicate political negotiation, wads of money, or both.
The Buckeye Planning Area, designated by the city, encompasses 639 square miles. Phoenix, by comparison, spreads across 519 square miles. Not all of the Planning Area is within the current Buckeye city limits, but city officials do anticipate that those lands, prior to development, will be incorporated in order for them to access city services. At present, just 15% of the Planning Area is developed and the city boundaries are a patchwork of annexations.
Orsborn, an enthusiastic municipal booster who owns a construction business, knows the importance of the homebuilders. “You’re the fuel that helps us grow,” Orsborn told a representative from the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona at a Buckeye City Council meeting on October 15, 2024.
One option, which has already been approved by the Gov. Katie Hobbs, provides places like Buckeye a way to become designated providers while still pumping groundwater in the interim. Buckeye leaders and representatives for the master planned communities objected to stipulations in the program that they felt required them to give up too much water for too little benefit. Buckeye has not taken an official position on the final rules.
The second consideration is a voluntary program to incentivize the conversion of farmland to housing. These discussions were initiated after Gov. Hobbs vetoed a bill on the topic last year because she felt the ideas needed more vetting. The intent is two-fold, said Tom Buschatzke of the Department of Water Resources: allow more housing to be built but also secure a long-term reduction in groundwater use by facilitating what has already been taking place in the state in the last century. The ag-to-urban concept would not help places like Teravalis, which is being built on desert land north of I-10, not former farmland. And there are still big unanswered questions about how much water could be given over to housing, how much would need to be replenished underground, which lands would qualify, and where the water could be used.
This story was produced by Circle of Blue, in partnership with The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.
3. Arizona House Takes StepTo Defend Colorado River Water. The committee also voted in support of two bills that would allow groundwater pumping regulations in protected areas to be lifted in groundwater basins recovered to previous levels.
PHOENIX (CN) — An Arizona House committee advanced a bill Tuesday to allocate $1 million to defending the Grand Canyon State’s Colorado River water rights and approved allowing for the removal of an active groundwater management area.
As the once-mighty Colorado River continues to dwindle through the driest period in its recorded history, state Representative Gail Griffin wants to ensure Arizona has a place at the bargaining table for future water reallocations.
“It just shows we are ready to take action,” the Republican from Tucson said in a House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Water meeting Tuesday afternoon.
For years now, the Bureau of Reclamation has been considering a range of differing cuts to be imposed on the seven states served by the Colorado River basin in 2026 and beyond while those states negotiate their own cuts to avoid harsher federal crackdowns. House Bill 2103, if passed, would reallocate $1 million from the state’s general fund to the Arizona Department of Water Resources to fund litigation if negotiations break down.
“Sometimes preparation for litigation is what migrates people back to negotiation,” Barry Aarons, a consultant for the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, told the committee as he spoke in favor of the bill.
The committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill, and Democrats said they plan to amend the bill to allocate $3 million rather than $1 million to correspond to the governor’s budget proposal.
Griffin also sponsored two bills that would allow groundwater conservation regulations to be lifted in subsequent active management areas if the director of the Department of Water Resources finds that conditions in the area have returned to normal.
The Groundwater Management Act of 1980 established five initial active management areas in Arizona — the cities of Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson, as well as Santa Cruz and Pinal counties — in which groundwater pumping is recorded and regulated, as opposed to pumping being entirely unregulated in other parts of the state.
In the last two years, the Department of Water Resources established two subsequent active management areas in southeastern Arizona in response to dramatic land subsidence and fissures caused by over pumping in and around the towns of Douglas and Wilcox.
Griffin’s House Bill 2088 would allow the department director to reevaluate those areas and rescind the designation if the groundwater basins return to pre-subsidence levels.
“If the rains show up and things change, then the designation can be changed,” Griffin said.
Democrats on the committee don’t think it’s likely that conditions will recover.
“That seems to be an unlikely scenario,” state Representative Christopher Mathis of Tucson told Griffin. “That is wishful thinking.”
Ben Alteneder, the legislative liaison to the water resources department, reminded the committee that in the 45 years the state established the initial active management areas, none of them have returned to normal conditions. He added that even if a groundwater basin recovers, removing conservation guidelines would only deplete the basin again, sending it back to square one.
Griffin sponsored a similar action — House Bill 2089 — that would allow citizens living within the boundaries of an active management area to hold a special election on its removal if at least 10% of the voters sign a petition within 180 days of a general election. Many ranchers and wine growers opposed pumping regulations in the Wilcox basin because it stifles economic growth.
However, the water department director would reserve the right to cancel the vote if he determines that the active management area is still necessary. Critics again warned that removing pumping regulations, even in a recovered area, would only recreate the problems that warranted the regulations in the first place.
Both active management area bills advanced to the House floor with all Republican support and Democratic opposition. Source: JOE DUHOWNIK / January 28, 2025 Courthouse News Service.
4. Trump Administration Withdraws Proposed PFAS Effluent Limits.The proposal was pulled from White House review
On January 21, 2025, one day after taking office, the Trump administration seemingly withdrew a pending Biden administration proposal that would limit PFAS in effluent.
The proposal would have set limits on PFAS in effluent with discharge limits.
The proposal was removed from White House review where, if approved, it would have been released to the public for a comment period.
The withdrawal came after President Trump signed an executive order which placed a freeze on any proposed rules that have been sent to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR).
The executive order aims to “immediately withdraw any rules that have been sent to the OFR but not published in the Federal Register.” The executive order states that the withdrawal is so a department or agency head appointed by the President can review and approve the rule.
According to a news article, the proposal for PFAS effluent limits was sent to the White House last year.
“This move not only delays establishing critical federal standards but also sends a dangerous message giving polluters a green light to continue poisoning our water and communities without fear or consequence,” said Vice President for Government Affairs, Environmental Working Group, Melanie Benesh in a statement.
Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink released a memo that included exceptions to the executive order. Exceptions include anything that affects “critical health, safety, environmental, financial or national security functions of the department, or for some other reason.”
“State regulators have waited for the federal government to lead on this issue so they can incorporate effective monitoring and treatment requirements into their discharge permits,” Benesh said in a statement. “Without federal limits, those efforts remain stalled.” Source: https://mail.aol.com/d/folders/1/messages/AJFPw60_ZGvrZ6FDkwN-iGc4qi4
5. Hidden ‘Forever Chemicals’ In popular High-End Smartwatch And Fitness Tracker Bands. By David Andrews, Ph.D. (EWG) Monica Amarelo (EWG) December 18,2024
New University of Notre Dame research reveals a hidden concern: The wristbands on these popular products might expose wearers to the harmful “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
Many high-end smartwatch bands are made with fluoroelastomer, a material prized for its strength, flexibility and resistance to sweat – perfect for everyday wear. But products made with this material contain toxic PFAS, known to harm health.
While forever chemicals are prized for their durability and water resistance, their widespread presence in consumer products is causing growing unease. PFAS persist in the environment, and some accumulate over time in the body, posing long-term health risks.
The new study adds to the growing body of research revealing that PFAS are much more commonly found in a broad range of products than previously realized. And that increases the risk of greater exposure.
Researchers found the forever chemical perfluorohexanoic acid, or PFHxA, at the highest levels in the 22 fitness bands and smartwatches tested. The Environmental Protection Agency says this substance likely causes(link is external) developmental, blood cell, liver and hormone harms.
Separate recent research suggests that PFAS may be absorbed by the skin. A 2024 study(link is external) published in Environment International confirmed PFAS can pass through the skin and enter the bloodstream. People often wear smartwatches and fitness daily for many hours, so the question arises whether their risk goes up as a result.
PFAS contamination is a public health crisis. The chemicals are toxic at extremely low levels. Low doses are also linked to suppression of the immune system(link is external). Studies show exposure to PFAS can also increase the risk of cancer, harm fetal development and reduce vaccine effectiveness.
Copyright:2025 enviroInsight.org
