1. Missed Deadline: BLM Turns To Governors On Colorado River Drought Plan
KUNC Arizona Daily Star
With another deadline missed Monday, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation is now looking for the governors in the states in the Colorado River basin to tell her what they think she should do to keep water levels from dropping even lower. But there’s just two weeks for them to do that. The two remaining outliers are Arizona, trying to polish off at least 10 more side agreements, and the Imperial Irrigation District in California, pushing for $200 million to rehabilitate the Salton Sea.
With another deadline missed Monday, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation is now looking for the governors in the states in the Colorado River basin to tell her what they think she should do to keep water levels from dropping even lower.
But there’s just two weeks for them to do that.
The move by Brenda Burman is no surprise. In fact she published a notice in the Federal Register on Feb. 1 — after she said Arizona and California had not acted by the Jan. 31 deadline for final approval of all elements of the drought contingency plan — setting up the process for gubernatorial input.
And with a shortage on Lake Mead expected to be declared next year, Burman said it utimately will fall to her to decide how to keep the situation from getting worse if the seven affected states have not all come to an agreement in time to determine the operations of not just Mead but also Lake Powell further upstream to protect the river.
“The department is highly concerned that continued delays regarding adoption of the DCPs inappropriately increases risk for all that rely on the waters of the Colorado River,” the agency said in its earlier public notice. “In the circumstances that the DCPs cannot be promptly completed in early 2019, the department must be prepared to take actions — if needed — to respond to the increasing risks facing the Colorado River basin.”
In a statement Monday, spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said her agency does not want it to come to that.
“It is our hope that the states will complete final work on the DCPs,” she said. “And if they can, we anticipate terminating our requests for further input.”
But the fact remains that federal law gives Burman broad authority over who gets to take what water out of the river to protect the levels of the two lakes.
A spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey sidestepped questions of exactly what his boss intends to propose in his own comments to Burman. Instead, Patrick Ptak would say only that the state “is committed to seeing DCP through.”
“At this time, we are working closely with other basin states and our congressional delegation to pass enabling legislation, allowing us to sign on to the DCP,” Ptak said. “This remains our top priority.”
The problem, however, is not with legislation.
State lawmakers here approved Arizona’s version of the plan by the Jan. 31 deadline. That spells out that Arizona will lose about 18 percent of the 2.8 million acre-feet of water it now gets annually from the Colorado River.
But several of the side agreements among the parties have yet to be signed, with the latest tally showing that only five of the 16 pacts have been signed. And Burman has indicated she will not consider the deal done until that occurs.
The potentially bigger holdup is beyond the state’s border, with the Imperial Irrigation District in California refusing to ink its approval to the plan until it gets $200 million to create wetland projects around the artificially and accidentally created Salton Sea, which is drying up.
2. ADEQ Wants Your Data. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is seeking your data for the 2020 Clean Water Act Assessment (also known as Arizona’s Integrated 305(b) Assessment and 303(d) Listing Report). The report is used to assess whether lake and stream uses are protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA) and can be used for recreation, drinking, agriculture, wildlife and fish consumption.
ADEQ encourages and welcomes data from all sources: private citizens, businesses, public agencies, state and federal governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
Data Period
ADEQ requests all surface water quality data collected for the period from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2019, that has not previously been submitted to ADEQ.
How to Submit Data
Submit data by June 30, 2019, using one of the following ways:
1. The preferred method via the EPA Water Quality Data website | Click to Visit Website >
2. To ADEQ directly by following the submission guidelines | Click for Submittal Guidance static.azdeq.gov/swq/data_submittal_guidance.pdf > Please note that, to be accepted, the submission must strictly adhere to all guidelines.
ADEQ appreciates and values your efforts and data contributions to help us protect and enhance Arizona’s surface waters now and in the future.
3. Eight Hour OSHA Refresher. Do you need your OSHA 8 Hour refresher. Contact Dan (623-930-8197) to register for a late March class. $80 covers the cost of the class, a lite breakfast and a lunch.
4, Want To Give To A Non-Profit But Not Sure Which Are Legitimate to Donate To?
Join others on AZGives Day to donate. On April 2nd anyone can go on line to AZGives.org to donate any non-profit organization. Your donation will be tax deductible on the next tax year (2019).
Look for EnviroInsight and keep your donation local.
5. UA Water Resources Program No. 1 Globally. The Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities also ranked the UA in the top 50 for library sciences, communication, earth sciences, ecology and public administration.
Water management is among the most pressing issues in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. Elected officials and business leaders rely on world-class research to make crucial water-related decisions that will have significant generational impacts. The University of Arizona’s influence in water studies goes well beyond the Southwest, as it has been recognized by the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities as the world’s No. 1 program in water resources.
The Shanghai ARWU subject rankings score more than 1,200 global universities based on the number of papers authored by an institution in an academic subject, the ratio of citation of papers published to the average citations of papers in the same category, the number of papers published in top journals, the amount of international collaboration and the total number of staff members that have won significant awards. To read more about the U of A award, go online to uanews.arizona.edu.
6. Your Comments To ADEQ Welcome. On December 11, 2018, the EPA and Department of the Army proposed a rule revision for the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), with the goal of providing a clear, understandable and implementable definition.
During February 2019, ADEQ held stakeholder meetings in Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson to listen to stakeholder comments regarding the proposed rule revision. These comments will be considered by ADEQ when drafting an official response letter to the EPA. We also will encourage others to submit comments directly to EPA. Please note that comments submitted to ADEQ will not be forwarded on to EPA and do not constitute formal comment on the rule.
It is not too late to send us your comments. Stakeholders may continue to identify benefits and risks to Arizona and issues that were not clear or not addressed in the rule and submit them online by March 15, 2019 at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WOTUS.
After March 15, all comments received will be posted online. In addition, ADEQ will host a webinar to review the Department’s response to EPA prior to the end of the public comment period.
More information on the rule revision, the supporting analyses and fact sheets, is available at: https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule.
We hope to hear from you soon,
Krista Osterberg
Surface Water Quality Improvement Value Stream Manager
7. Payson Says It Has Secured A ‘Forever Water Supply‘ By Mythili Gubbi Updated: Wednesday, February 27, 2019 – 12:11pm
While the rest of the state is dealing with water shortages, one town in Arizona will soon have a water supply that it calls a “forever” source. 20 years and $54 million later, Payson has a reliable water source for its residents. The water comes from the C.C. Cragin Reservoir that was acquired by the Salt River Project. The project will include 26 miles of pipeline from the reservoir, a pump station, two hydroelectric generators, a water treatment plant and multiple storage tanks.
The town previously relied on its groundwater supply, but wanted to find a more reliable `source to sustain all of its future water needs. It implemented control growth policies to conserve water and geared its efforts to finding an alternative supply. Walker added that even though growth slowed down and the project cost a lot, it was for a sustainable future.
“If it’s a forever water supply, we’re finally past the point where we’ve been in forever where we keep spending money looking for water,” said Walker. “It’s not a sure thing … it’s a gamble. So, it’s not that you spent less money looking for water, you flip the equation and say we’re spend money developing the water.”
The town will raise water rate by five to 15 percent annually for a seven year period to pay back the $40 million loaned from the state Water Infrastructure Finance Authority and to pay for updates and improvements in the system. Water from the pipeline is expected to be in homes by July 1.
8. St Patrick’s Day, The History Of. St. Patrick’s Day observes of the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. The holiday has evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing, drinking and a whole lot of green.
St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
Saint Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world ‘s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours
As Irish immigrants spread out over the United States, other cities developed their own traditions. One of these is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River green.
The practice started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river–enough to keep it green for a week. Today, in order to minimize environmental damage, only 40 pounds of dye are used, and the river turns green for only several hours. Copyright 2019 EnviroInsight.com
