Daniel Salzler No. 1308 EnviroInsight.org Six Items May 30, 2025
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1. 1889 Acres Of A Historic Ranch Protected In Arizona’s Big Chino Area. A conservation easement facilitated by The Nature Conservancy and partners will keep the land and agriculture use while safeguard grassland habitat from development. The deal also helps secure a water supply for surrounding communities by protecting flows into the Verde River.
Source: the Nature Conservancy 2025 Issue Three
2. Lake Mead, Powell Water Levels To Hit Near-Record Lows Amid Ongoing Drought. Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell are projected to fall to near-record lows this summer, according to the National Weather Service.
The ongoing drought, which has persisted for about 25 years, continues to impact the Colorado River system that supplies water to 40 million people across seven states.
Colby Pellegrino of the Southern Nevada Water Authority expressed concern over the worsening conditions. “I think the new normal is hotter and drier. I think what’s scary is the new normal might be even drier than what we’re experiencing today,” she said.
Lake Powell, located on the Utah-Arizona state line, and Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the United States, are both fed by snowmelt from the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. However, after decades of drought, Lake Powell is at 31 percent capacity, while Lake Mead is at 32 percent, down about 140 feet from 25 years ago.
The Colorado River, which connects the two lakes, provides drinking water for major cities including Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix, as well as 90 percent of Las Vegas’s drinking water. Due to a federally declared water shortage four years ago, Arizona and Nevada have been forced to reduce their water intake from the lakes. California has also voluntarily cut back on water consumption.
“I think the reality is, everyone needs to use less water. Right now, we’re using more water than mother nature is providing us,” Pellegrino said.
The National Weather Service recently predicted that runoff into the Colorado River will be about 55 percent of an average year, much lower than previous estimates, indicating that water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead will likely decrease further this summer. Source: news3lv.com
3. This ‘Rainy Day Fund’ For The Colorado River Incentivizes Saving More Water. Negotiations continue between the seven Colorado River basin states over new rules dealing with use of the over allocated river, and the clock is ticking. But one area of those talks that’s not getting a lot of attention is the idea of setting some water aside, and the details of how that might happen.
Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, has been thinking and writing about this and joined the show to discuss.
It is, the idea of sort of setting aside pools of water and holding them in Lakes Powell or Mead is not new. It’s actually something we’ve been doing since 2007, and it’s, it’s an attempt to sort of separate certain amounts of water from the prior appropriation system, which is the system through which we generally allocate water here in the arid West.
A lot of people are familiar with the prior appropriation system. It’s basically the first in time, first in right system. It’s the reason why tribes and then farmers tend to have the highest priority water rights. They were here first.
But there are some real drawbacks to the prior appropriation system. The main one is that it really doesn’t incentivize saving water, because whatever the highest priority water user doesn’t use, it just goes to the next highest priority water user, right? So, no one really has an incentive to save water on the system.
These sorts of pools, special pools of water in Lake Power and Lake Mead, are meant to sort of subvert that priority system and save some water that wouldn’t otherwise be saved.
One of the fundamental problems with the Colorado River system, is that it’s over allocated even in the best of times. So even if hydrology were kind of being a friend to us right now and it’s not, but even if it were, there’s not enough water to go around.
The problem with trying to come to an agreement is a very complicated system, serving 40 million people, thousands of acres of agriculture, most of the nation’s winter vegetables, 30 tribes, it, it’s a very complicated system. So coming to an agreement is, is just a fundamentally difficult thing to do. To read the entire article, go to https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-05-19/this-rainy-day-fund-for-the-colorado-river-incentivizes-saving-more-water
4. Arizona At Risk In Stalemate Over Colorado River Cuts, Officials Warn. The state’s top water official is warning that unless a deal is reached with other states, cuts in Colorado River water deliveries could force Arizonans to change their lifestyles.
Tom Buschatzke said Tuesday there is a stalemate between Arizona and the river’s other Lower Basin states on one side, and the four Upper Basin states, over who must absorb anticipated cuts in water deliveries as there simply is not enough water in the river.
Talks continue but so far, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming say they shouldn’t have to share in future cuts in river allocation, said Buschatzke, who is director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
But he said that, absent some “give’’ by those Upper Basin states, the loss of so much Colorado River water will be felt — especially if the federal government imposes a deal that forces most of the cuts on the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.
For example, Buschatzke said that could start with restrictions on residential landscaping.
There would also be a greater need to pursue alternate water sources, including the processing of wastewater to the point it can be put back into the drinking water supply. That, too, has a price — and not just financially.
He said much of that treated sewage is now being used to maintain wildlife habitats and riparian restoration. Arizonans will need to make some “policy choices’’ on exactly how important those areas are, Buschatzke said.
But the big unknown, he said, will be the effect on the Arizona economy of having less water, “which is going to impact everybody.’’
The problem is that the water expected to be available, when a deal to divide Colorado River water rights was first cut in 1922, just isn’t there in today’s drought and changing climate.
Buschatzke said Arizona, California and Nevada officials believe the Upper Basin states are required to allow more than 8.3 million acre-feet a year to be delivered downstream. An acre-foot is the amount of water that could serve three or four households for a year.
He said Arizona officials believe that obligation exists regardless of the flow. And that calls for forced reductions in what those Upper Basin states can use, he said.
But the Upper Basin states, citing the overall reduced flow, contend they shouldn’t have to cut their usage. They also have a different view of what the existing agreements require.
Any failure to reach an agreement will throw the issue to the federal government. And Buschatzke said that having Trump in the White House could be helpful.
He said the Biden administration put together its own “alternative report’’ about how the shortage should be handled, one that did not consider proposals submitted by the affected states. A request to rescind that report “has not happened,” he said.
“But I think the current administration is more willing to tweak alternatives and to talk with us, collectively, the seven states, about something different that may be a collaboratively created alternative,’’ Buschatzke said. “This administration is taking more of the tack that we asked for,’’ he said, meaning that both the Upper and Lower Basin states should share some “risk’’ in having to take cuts.
However, “if there’s no collaborative outcome, I believe the federal government will move forward with whatever alternative they want to analyze,’’ Buschatzke said. “And you probably won’t like what they analyze.’’
If everything else falls apart, the state does have a contingency plan.
Buschatzke has asked state lawmakers to give him $1 million that he can set aside to hire lawyers to file suit if that becomes necessary. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs already gave her blessing to the proposal, though the Republican-controlled Legislature has yet to approve it.
Hobbs does insist, as does her water chief, that it’s only fair that the Upper Basin states agree to accept some cuts to ensure Arizona is not damaged.
“Our growing economy is not just important to Arizona,’’ she said. “It is important to the nation’s economy, to national security, to moving manufacturing back to America.’’
But the governor, speaking to reporters Tuesday along with Buschatzke, sidestepped a question about whether, given the limited water supply, Resolution Copper company’s proposed new mine at Oak Flat in Pinal County makes sense.
The transfer of federal land for the controversial project has been held up because of litigation by Native American tribes over the destruction of the land they consider culturally and spiritually important. One estimate says the mine would consume 250 billion gallons of water over its lifetime, equal to the annual water needs of a city of 140,000 for 40 years.
“All of these projects, again, go back to that conversation about the economic growth and the dependence that a clean energy future has on critical mineral mining, on copper mining,’’ Hobbs said.
“It is imperative that we work to find the right balance so that we can continue to build a sector, to contribute to our national security and our continued path forward,’’ she said. “And mining is a part of that.’
That would allow for greater public discussion about whether such development should be a priority. But the state does not keep track of how much each uses. Source: tucson.com
5. Science In The Shower. It’s a question that’s long been the cause of debate: is it better to shower in the morning or at night?
Morning shower enthusiasts will say this is the obvious winner, as it helps you wake up and start the day fresh. Night shower loyalists, on the other hand, will argue it’s better to “wash the day away” and relax before bed.
But what does the research actually say? As a microbiologist, I can tell you there actually is a clear answer to this question.
First off, it’s important to stress that showering is an integral part of any good hygiene routine — regardless of when you prefer to have one.|
Showering helps us remove dirt and oil from our skin, which can help prevent skin rashes and infections.
Showering also removes sweat, which can quell body odor.
Although many of us think that body odor is caused by sweat, it’s actually produced by bacteria that live on the surface of our skin. Fresh sweat is, in fact, odorless. But skin-dwelling bacteria – specifically staphylococci – use sweat as a direct nutrient source. When they break down the sweat, it releases a sulphur-containing compound called thioalcohols which is behind that pungent BO stench many of us are familiar with.
Day or night?
During the day, your body and hair inevitably collect pollutants and allergens (such as dust and pollen) alongside their usual accumulation of sweat and sebaceous oil. While some of these particles will be retained by your clothes, others will inevitably be transferred to your sheets and pillow cases.
The sweat and oil from your skin will also support the growth of the bacteria that comprise your skin microbiome. These bacteria may then also be transferred from your body onto your sheets.
Showering at night may remove some of the allergens, sweat and oil picked up during the day so less ends up on your bedsheets.
However, even if you’ve freshly showered before bed, you will still sweat during the night – whatever the temperature is. Your skin microbes will then eat the nutrients in that sweat. This means that by the morning, you’ll have both deposited microbes onto your bed sheets and you’ll probably also wake up with some BO.
What particularly negates the cleaning benefits of a night shower is if your bedding is not regularly laundered. The odor causing microbes present in your bed sheets may be transferred while you sleep onto your clean body.
What particularly negates the cleaning benefits of a night shower is if your bedding is not regularly laundered (Getty Images)
Showering at night also does not stop your skin cells being shed. This means they can potentially become the food source of house dust mites, whose waste can be allergenic. If you don’t regularly wash your sheets, this could lead to a build-up of dead skin cell deposits which will feed more dust mites. The droppings from these dust mites can trigger allergies and exacerbate asthma.
Morning showers, on the other hand, can help remove dead skin cells as well as any sweat or bacteria you’ve picked up from your bed sheets during the night. This is especially important to do if your sheets weren’t freshly washed when you went to bed.
A morning shower suggests your body will be cleaner of night-acquired skin microbes when putting on fresh clothes. You’ll also start the day with less sweat for odor-producing over allocated bacteria to feed on – which will probably help you smell fresher for longer during the day compared to someone who showered at night. As a microbiologist, I am a day shower advocate.
Of course, everyone has their own shower preference. Whatever time you choose, remember that the effectiveness of your shower is influenced by many aspects of your personal hygiene regime – such as how frequently you wash your bed sheets.
So regardless of whether you prefer a morning or evening shower, it’s important to clean your bed linen regularly. You should launder your sheets and pillow cases at least weekly to remove all the sweat, bacteria, dead skin cells and sebaceous oils that have built up on your sheets.
Washing will also remove any fungal spores that might be growing on the bed linen – alongside the nutrient sources these odor producing microbes use to grow.
Primrose Freestone is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Leicester.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. ( https://theconversation.com/is-it-better-to-shower-in-the-morning-or-at-night-heres-what-a-microbiologist-says-2562420)
6. The Nature Conservancy And The Yavapai Prescott Indian Tribe Leads Granite Creek Restoration Effort. You have a tribe and The Nature Conservancy helped improve water quality in storage in and around Granite Creek in Prescott Arizona.
Granite Creek flows north before connecting to the Verde River, which provides water from Prescott to the Phoenix metropolitan area.
The project began with the removal of concrete waste from previous concrete production and gravel mining activities. Later cruise place, natural materials, sticks and stones at intervals are along the waterway. The structure is helps slow the water as the spread across the land so it is available when needed most removing non-native plants and distributing Cottonwood and Willow cuttings around it out the riparian restoration work.
By improving the stream side habitat trees, plants and flowers will flourish to support birds and wildlife that called this place home.
This collaborative effort for benefits the tribe as well as the larger community by improving water, quality and promoting a healthy habitat near Watson Lake, a recreational hotspot for locals and visitors. Source: the Nature Conservancy 2025 Issue Three.
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