Daniel Salzler No. 1323 EnviroInsight.org Three Items September 12, 2025
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- CLIMAS: Southwest Climate Outlook – August 2025.
Precipitation and Temperature
Precipitation in July was below normal or much below normal across Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Areas of the Colorado Plateau had the driest July on record.
Drought
All of Arizona is in drought, along with the western half of New Mexico and much of southern New Mexico. Drought in extreme southwestern New Mexico is considered Exceptional (D4)—conditions which have historically occurred only once in 50 to 100 years. Extreme (D3) drought affects much of southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and parts of northern New Mexico. D3 drought refers to conditions which historically occur once in 20 to 50 years.
U.S. West Drought Monitor
August 19, 2025
6.4 Million Arizona resident in areas of drought, according to the Drought Monitor
14th Driest July on record (since 1895)
7th driest January to July on record (since 1895).
Water Supply
Reservoir storage is varied across the Southwest—in Arizona, Salt-Verde system reservoirs are near long-term average levels, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down compared to last year and much below long-term average levels. San Carlos reservoir, downstream of the extreme-to-exceptional drought in the upper Gila basin, is near empty.
2. Why You Should Never Drink From That Plastic Water Bottle Left in Your Car
Key Points
- Studies show that leaving plastic water bottles in hot environments, like a car, causes them to release billions of microplastic particles and harmful chemicals into the water.
- Heat and UV exposure accelerate the breakdown of plastics, while bottles stored in cool, dark places shed little to no microplastics.
- To reduce exposure, experts recommend avoiding long-term storage of bottled water in hot conditions and opting for reusable glass or metal bottles instead.
Worried about your exposure to microplastics? Then you’d better think twice before drinking that water that’s been sitting in your car for days.
Microplastic research has gone into overdrive in recent years as more people recognize how much they ingest and its potential health risks. Studies show it could cause everything from liver damage to inflammation and oxidative stress. And none of that is good. The problem is that avoiding microplastics feels like a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as we find and eliminate one source from our routine, another pops up. However, there’s a new source that seems fairly easy to avoid: that old, hot plastic water bottle sitting in your cup holder for who knows how long.
In 2023, researchers examined how different temperatures and UV exposure affect four common plastics, the same types used in packaging and bottles that could easily be left in a hot car. They discovered that although each type of plastic degraded slightly differently, all of them released tiny microplastic fragments, and not just a few. During testing, the plastics released billions of microscopic particles into the water. In contrast, the bottles kept in a refrigerated environment as the control group released almost none.
And this was far from a one-off conclusion. In 2014, researchers from the University of Florida reached similar results with their study, which examined how chemicals were released from 16 brands of bottled water stored at 158°F for four weeks. They described their findings as a “worst-case scenario” for human consumption.
“If you store the water long enough, there may be a concern,” soil and water science professor Lena Ma, and lead researcher on the study, noted at the time. The team noted that they would advise people against leaving bottled water in a “hot garage for weeks on end or in your car all day during the summer.”
Generally, heat and plastics don’t mix well. As Food & Wine previously reported, a 2025 study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment examined the varying levels of microplastics found in 31 popular drinks in the United Kingdom. The study found that hot beverages are the primary source of microplastic exposure, with hot tea containing about 60 microplastic particles per liter and hot coffee around 43. However, iced versions of these drinks had significantly fewer microplastics, with iced tea carrying 31 particles per liter and iced coffee 37.
This doesn’t mean you need to go thirsty if that day-old water bottle is your only option. As Jaime Ross, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island, shared with the Washington Post, it’s more about avoiding repeated exposure, because not only could you be ingesting microplastics, but heat “could contribute to the growth of pathogens.”
As for what can be done, the researchers of the 2022 study noted that “Product labels, incl. bottled waters, should contain information regarding the composition of its packaging and inform about the possibility of releasing bisphenol A into water.” However, if you don’t want to wait for companies to act, you can do so yourself by storing your water in cool, dark places or switching to reusable glass and metal bottles whenever possible. Then, follow this advice to reduce your exposure to microplastics at home, so you can stop playing microplastic wack-a-mole, too. Source: Food and Wine Stacey Leasca Tue, September 2, 2025 at 5:01 AM MST
3. Arizona Restricts Kingman Area’s Farm Expansions In Bid To Protect GroundwaterThe state’s department of water recently formed an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area in Mohave County, a move that restricts the irrigation of new acres of land.
Farmers in a western Arizona community are now banned from expanding their farms to new acres in a bid to protect the area’s groundwater.The Arizona Department of Water Resources announced the restriction on Monday. “New agricultural use occurring on land that was not irrigated in the five years preceding the designation of the [Irrigation Non-expansion Area] INA is prohibited, with a few exceptions for substitution or transfer of acres under specified circumstances,” the department said in a press release Monday.
“Irrigation” in the department’s INA context is defined as watering two or more acres of land to produce plants or for use as feed for livestock.Department data found the majority of the area’s groundwater wells have seen dwindling water levels over the past 10 years. Around 67% of the measured wells were in decline, while 24% of wells saw minimal change and 8% of wells were rising.
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