Watershed Info No 966

1.

OCWC General Meeting
October 12th, 2018

Please join us for our next bimonthly meeting for Oak Creek Watershed Council from 9:30am to 11:30am October 12, 2018. We will meet in the Hummingbird Room at the Red Rock State Park Visitor Center, 4050 Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona, AZ. Let the gatekeeper know that you are there for the OCWC meeting and receive free admission to the park.

Our October meeting will cover:
-Learn what OCWC has been up to and what our upcoming events for the remainder of 2018 entail
-A participatory exercise where you can voice your ideas for improvements in the watershed and what events you’d like to see from OCWC

NOTICE OF MEETING
October 12th, 2018
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
RED ROCK STATE PARK, Hummingbird Room

Meeting Agenda:
9:30 Welcome and Introductions
9:40 Round table status reports
10:05 Call for volunteers and upcoming events…Kalai Kollus
10:20 Short Break
10:25 Participatory Exercise: Brainstorming Session- Fundraising and Activities
11:25 Old Business
11:25 New Business – Next Meeting is on December 14th, 2018 from 9:30 – 11:30am, at Red Rock State Park, Hummingbird
11:30 – Adjourn

  • OCWC Board Meeting at noon to 2 pm
    Please visit our online calendar at www.oakcreekwatershed.org to view upcoming events and opportunities to volunteer

The Council has developed a membership program whereby individuals, families, businesses, and organizations can support the vital work that OCWC does on a continual basis in Oak Creek watershed. We hope you will recognize the importance of this work and help OCWC attain its goal of protecting Oak Creek and keeping the waters clean by joining our membership.
http://oakcreekwatershed.org/get-involved/become-a-member
Visit our Oak Creek Watershed website at http://oakcreekwatershed.org
OCWC is also on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube

 

2. New Study Shows Roundup Herbacide Is Killing Bees. The most widely sprayed herbicide in the world kills honeybees, according to a new report.

Glyphosate, an herbicide and active ingredient in Monsanto’s (now Bayer’s) Roundup weed killer, targets enzymes long assumed to be found only in plants. The product is advertised as being innocuous to wildlife. But some bacteria also use this enzyme, including a microbiome found in the intestines of most bees. When pollinators come in contact with glyphosate, the chemical reduces this gut bacteria, leaving bees vulnerable to pathogens and premature death.

“The bee itself has no molecular targets from glyphosate,” Nancy Moran, a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin and a coauthor of the study, told Environmental Health News. “But its gut bacteria do have targets.”

Moran and other scientists liken glyphosate exposure to taking too many antibiotics—and upsetting the balance of good bacteria that supports immunity and digestion.

“We all know that glyphosate is an antibiotic. It’s very toxic to bacteria. It’s even patented as an antibiotic,” says Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “But very few researchers have actually dived into this issue. The good thing is, that’s starting to change.”

To show glyphosate’s effects on gut microbiome, Moran and her team exposed honeybees to various levels of the herbicide, which measurably decreased total gut bacteria. Treated bees were then exposed to a common pathogen, and those with reduced bacteria were more likely to die prematurely. They repeated the experiment on other hives with similar results and published their findings early last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Glyphosate is the most commonly used weed killer worldwide. A 2016 study found that 3.5 billion pounds of the herbicide have been used in the U.S. since 1974, when Monsanto first put it on the shelves in Roundup. Two-thirds of that volume has been sprayed in the last decade.

“Glyphosate is everywhere,” Donley says. “We’ve contaminated just about every open space that exists in the States.”

Only recently have scientists started to unlock how this widespread use of glyphosate affects not only pollinators and wildlife, but also human health. Researchers have shown that glyphosate also impacts gut microbiome in rats, while a study published last year in the Journal of American Medical Association revealed a 1,000 percent spike of glyphosate levels in the human bloodstream over the last two decades, with untold consequences.

 

3.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has finalized the 2018 Clean Water Act Assessment and submitted to the EPA. The final 2018 Clean Water Act Assessment canNOT be viewed at the link below, so contact Matt Bolt, below.

On September 14, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency took action on ADEQ’s 2018 impaired waters list. The EPA is proposing to add five impairments for Scott Reservoir, Canyon Lake, Becker Lake, Willow Springs Lake, and Black Canyon Lake. All interested persons wishing to comment on the EPA’s action to add waters to Arizona’s 2018 303(d) list of waters requiring a Total Maximum Daily Load may submit written comments to Matt Bolt at the email address or postal address below. To ensure that
comments are considered, they must be submitted in writing or postmarked on or before October 22,The EPA will prepare a document summarizing how public comments were considered in the final EPA decision. The summary of comments and responses will be available at the EPA’s website when the 2018 303(d) list for Arizona is finalized.

Contact:

Matt Bolt
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
75 Hawthorne St, WTR-2-1
San Francisco, CA 94105
bolt.matthew@epa.gov

 

4. The Country’s Cheapest Water Is In The West’s Driest Cities.

By charging more for nonessential gallons, cities could keep water affordable for everyone.

If water were priced according to demand, many Westerners would be smelly and thirsty. But water is a necessity, and demand-based pricing would be unethical. Instead, many cities rely on block pricing for residential use, charging different amounts for essential water and for additional water. Done right, block pricing should encourage conservation while still letting everyone meet their needs: The cost of essential water, used for basics such as clothes washing, staying hydrated, bathing or cooking, is low, while additional water — say, for growing a lush lawn in the desert — costs more. But according to new research, that’s not the reality across the West.

Economists and a public policy expert at the University of Minnesota who looked into block pricing for water in the nation’s largest urban areas, including 11 Western cities, discovered a pattern they conclude is neither sustainable nor just: Many of the driest cities have the cheapest water prices. What’s more, for households across the West, the average price of water goes down as use goes up.

The researchers used the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 2010 Water Sustainability Index rankings — which combine factors such as climate change projections, drought vulnerability and future demand — to predict water scarcity for the biggest cities in the nation’s 35 most populous metropolitan areas. They used approximately 6,000 gallons as a “generous” estimate of how much water a family of four in one home needs each month for basics. (Across the nation, Americans in this category actually use, on average, almost 9,000 gallons each mon

 

Phoenix, a region facing extreme risk for water scarcity, charges $27 for the first 6,000 gallons per month, the lowest price for essential residential water. Meanwhile, the most expensive water prices are in some of the West’s wettest cities, including Seattle, which charges about $150 for the same amount.

As alarming as it may be for water to cost so little in a desert city with an average rainfall of just eight inches a year, Phoenix’s water management policy is arguably more just, because necessary water is cheap, while additional water is more expensive. Phoenix charges 55 percent more for additional water use, more than any other Western city, and per capita water use has fallen in recent decades even as the city has grown. Still, the West overall has catching up to do: The greatest charge for additional water use nationally is in Miami, where nonessential water costs 73 percent more than essential water. Read more at the High Country News

 

5. November 6th 2018 Elections. If you have not mailed your early ballot (October 9th), it is hoped that you will make your way to the facility on November 6, 2018 to cast your ballot. When you arrive to vote at the polls on Election Day you will announce your name and place of residence to the election official and present two forms of identification:

  • Valid Arizona driver license
  • Valid Arizona non-operating identification card
  • Tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification
  • Valid United States federal, state, or local government issued identification OR

 

Sufficient ID Without A Photograph That Bear The Name And Address (Two Required)

  • Utility bill of the elector that is dated within 90 days of the date of the election. A utility bill may be for electric, gas, water, solid waste, sewer, telephone, cellular phone, or cable television
  • Bank or credit union statement that is dated within 90 days of the date of the election
  • Valid Arizona Vehicle Registration
  • Indian census card
  • Property tax statement of the elector’s residence
  • Tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification Arizona vehicle insurance card
  • Recorder’s Certificate
  • Valid United States federal, state, or local government issued identification, including a voter registration card issued by the County Recorder
  • Any mailing to the elector marked “Official Election Material”

 

Understand Your Vote:

Proposition 125

PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA; AMENDING ARTICLE XXIX, SECTION 1, CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA; RELATING TO PUBLIC RETIREMENT SYSTEMS.


The Constitutional Amendment and accompanying legislation would permit the state to adjust certain benefits in the corrections officers’ and elected officials’ retirement systems to alleviate pension underfunding.

A “YES” vote will allow the State to adjust certain benefits for corrections officer retirees and elected official retirees in order to provide greater financial stability in the pension system; plan changes for newly-hired corrections officers include the replacement of the current permanent benefit increase with a cost of living adjustment tied to inflation and transition to a defined contribution system; plan changes for elected official retirees include a guaranteed cost of living adjustment tied to inflation.

A “NO” vote will have the effect of maintaining the current benefit and contribution rules in the Corrections Officer Personnel Retirement System and Elected Officials Personnel Retirement System.

 

Proposition 126
AMENDING ARTICLE IX OF THE ARIZONA CONSTITUTION BY AMENDING
SECTION 6 AND ADDING SECTION 25, AND AMENDING ARTICLE XIII, SECTION 2, OF THE ARIZONA CONSTITUTION; PROHIBITING THE TAXATION OF ANY SERVICE THAT WAS NOT TAXED AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2017.

The Constitutional Amendment would prohibit the state and each county, city, town, district, or other political subdivision in Arizona from imposing a new or increased tax on services that was not already in effect on December 31, 2017.

A “YES” vote will prohibit the State and local governments from enacting any new or increased tax on services that was not already in effect on December 31, 2017.

A “NO” vote will preserve the State and local governments’ existing authority to impose a tax on services in the future.

 

Proposition 127
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT WOULD REPLACE ARIZONA’S CURRENT PLAN FOR INCREASING RENEWABLE ENERGY USE BY IMPOSING A NEW MANDATE REQUIRING NONGOVERNMENTAL ELECTRIC UTILITIES TO INCREASE THE PORTION OF THEIR RETAIL ENERGY SALES GENERATED FROM CERTAIN TYPES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES TO 50% BY 2030.


The Constitutional Amendment would replace Arizona’s current plan for increasing renewable energy use by imposing a new mandate requiring nongovernmental electric utilities to increase the portion of their retail energy sales generated from certain types of renewable energy resources to 50% by 2030.

A “YES” vote will replace Arizona’s current plan for transitioning nongovernmental electric utilities to renewable energy with a constitutional mandate that, irrespective of cost to consumers, 50% of the retail energy sales of these utilities come from certain types of renewable energy by 2030 (neither pre-1997 hydropower nor any nuclear generation counts for this percentage); the current plan increases use of the same types of renewable energy from 8% this year to 15% in 2025. A “YES” vote also will mandate that these utilities increase their use of distributed renewable energy (energy locally generated and distributed from customers’ premises) to 10% by 2030; will require the new mandates be met by obtaining renewable energy credits, which may be created through renewable energy production or purchased from others who own existing renewable energy credits; and will require the Arizona Corporation Commission to enact implementing regulations.

A “NO” vote will preserve the existing rules that govern the required annual percentage of retail sales of renewable energy by nongovernmental electric utilities.

 

Proposition 305
AMENDING SECTIONS 15-2401, 15-2402, 15-2403 AND 42-2003, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES; AMENDING LAWS 2013, CHAPTER 250, SECTION 3; RELATING TO EMPOWERMENT SCHOLARSHIP ACCOUNTS.


The Law would expand eligibility for education empowerment scholarship accounts to increase the number of eligible students enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade, with greater funding provided for low-income students.

A “YES” vote would allow Senate Bill 1431 (2017) to go into effect, which would gradually increase for four years the percentage of students in kindergarten through twelfth grade eligible to receive an empowerment scholarship account to spend on tuition, textbooks, educational therapies, tutoring, or other qualified forms of instructional assistance at a private or home-based school in an amount equal to 90% of the allotted funding that otherwise would have been allocated to the student’s public school district or charter school (for low-income students, the amount would be equal to 100% of the allotted funding); make changes to the existing empowerment scholarship program by requiring a policy handbook to be published for program applicants and participants, clarifying parental rights to appeal Department of Education eligibility decisions, and placing scholarship spending information on the Department’s website; and control the growth of the scholarship program by limiting new scholarship accounts each year through 2022 and eventually capping the number of new scholarship accounts at 2021-2022 fiscal year levels.

A “NO” vote will preserve the existing law regarding empowerment scholarship accounts.

 

Proposition 306
AMENDING SECTIONS 16-948 AND 16-956, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES;
RELATING TO THE CITIZENS CLEAN ELECTIONS ACT


The Law would prohibit candidates who finance their political campaigns with public funding from the citizens clean elections commission from transferring any campaign funds to a political party or private tax-exempt organization that attempts to influence elections and subjects the commission’s rulemaking procedures to regulatory oversight.

A “YES” vote will prohibit statewide and legislative candidates who receive public funding to finance their political campaigns from transferring campaign funds to a political party or a private tax-exempt organization that attempts to influence elections, and will subject the Citizens Clean Elections Commission’s rulemaking procedures to the regulatory oversight that applies to other state agencies by repealing the Commission’s exemption from the Administrative Procedures Act.

A “NO” vote will allow the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to determine whether publicly-funded candidates are permitted to transfer their campaign funds to political parties or private tax-exempt organizations that influence candidate elections, and will leave current law unchanged regarding administrative oversight of the Commission’s rulemaking.





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