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Contents AHS membership 2012 renewal reminder 2012 AHS Symposium: Confluences – 25 years bringing water, people, and ideas together Tucson Chapter Officer Elections 2012 AHS Grand Canyon Rafting Trip WateReuse Research Foundation RFP due January 4, 2011 Arizona Geological Society Meeting Water Resources Research Center’s Annual Conference AridLID 2012 Conference: Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development in Arid Environments SOLAR PROJECT WOULD USE LESS LAND, WATER Opinion: Help improve and protect Colo. River Snowbowl snowmaking fight: Hopis lose suit Costs soar for water facility on SW side Mining company agrees to acquire Planet Ranch EPA tells nation's dirty power plants to clean up Viewpoint: Sustainability criticism of Phoenix is wrong Tempe Water Department wins honor Rosemont shows investors new sites Court backs landmark California water pact Waterblogged by Shaun McKinnon, Arizona Republic
On Holiday! On Holiday! The AHS Foundation thanks the following individuals and companies who helped support the Foundation in 2011:
Together, these donors gave $15,405 in 2011, of which 99% was used to support students through scholarships, internships, and science fair awards, or to build up our permanent endowment. We are grateful to everyone for their investment in educating our future hydrologists and scientist. The Foundation is an IRS 501(c)(3) charity, so your gift is 100% tax deductible. If you would like to make a yearend donation please click here. Thank you! The new year is upon us and if you haven’t renewed your AHS membership please do! Thank you to all our members who already renewed. Please remember that 2012 Membership was included in both full registration and a one day registration fees. Membership dues can to be renewed online at: http://www.azhydrosoc.org/join_ahs.html
Or by mail to: Arizona Hydrological Society P.O. Box 1882 Higley, AZ 85236
Thank you for your continued support of the Arizona Hydrological Society!
The next Phoenix chapter dinner meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, at Nello’s in Tempe (northeast corner of McClintock & Southern, just north of U.S. Highway 60 (the Superstition Freeway). Please join us for a beverage, to share business cards, and talk water!
RSVP with Kirk Creswick at kcreswick@eecphx.com or 602-248-7702. Hope to see you there! This meeting will feature an open discussion of plans for the Phoenix Chapter in 2012. Here’s your chance to let the leadership know your thoughts & opinions, & make your suggestions for Chapter activities in the coming year. The Chapter officers will be available for group discussions & one-on-one conversations on all Chapter issues. Ted Lehman, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 2012 AHS Annual Symposium, being held in Phoenix in September, will make a brief presentation to the group, & will also be available for conversations during & after the meeting. A large number of volunteers will be required to put on the Symposium, so be thinking of what area(s) you’d like to focus your time & efforts on.
Future Event Calendar (see also calendar on www.azhydrosoc.org) · February 14, 2012 – Frank Corkhill, Preliminary Results and Discussion of the ADWR Water Level Data Information Survey and a Brief Presentation on Recent (circa 1990 to mid/late 2000’s) Groundwater Conditions in Arizona, Sun Up Brewery · March and beyond – maybe you? Please contact Tom Walker, Phoenix Chapter Vice President, if you would like to give us a presentation or if you know anyone else who could use an audience. Come join the Phoenix Chapter in its on-going planning of for the 2012 Annual Symposium. The next planning meeting will be just down the street from the venue. We’ll be meeting Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 at 5 pm at the UofA COOP Extension Offices at 4341 E Broadway Road, Phoenix. New AHS Corporate Board member, Summer Waters, will be our gracious host. So far we have a great group, but we could use your help. We’re looking for bright ideas for workshops, field trips, plenary speakers, and sponsor recruitment. If you have any questions, please contact committee chair, Ted Lehman, at 480-222-5709, or ted@jefuller.com. In the meantime, check out the developing symposium at http://www.azhydrosoc.org/2012symposium.html. Or if you’re interested in sponsorship or exhibitor opportunities, contact Mike Hulst, at mhulst@eecphx.com or 602-248-7702. Hope to see you there! The Tucson Chapter will not be having a January meeting, but please stay tuned for our February meeting announcement! A big THANK YOU to the newest 2012 Tucson Chapter board member, write in candidate, John Villinski! Welcome back John! President: Damien Gosch, Hargis and Associates Vice-President Greg Hess, Clear Creek Associates Treasurer: Dan Guido, Montgomery & Associates Secretary: Shane Clark, Student, Watershed Hydrology and Management Tucson Chapter Board Member (1): John Villinski Tucson Chapter Corporate Board Member (1): Marla Odom, Montgomery & Associates (two-year term) The AHS Flagstaff Chapter is having its first meeting of the year at Salsa Brava in Flagstaff on Wednesday January 11, 2012 at 6PM. For additional information please contact Dana Downs-Heimes or Erin Young.
This 7-day trip through the Grand Canyon is from June 10-16, 2012 with Canyoneers. There is a $500 deposit, with all but $50 refundable. Register today! Visit the Flagstaff Chapter web page for more details or Click here for the flyer!
Technologies for detecting microorganisms in water, assessing viability and infectivity, and evaluating microbial community structure continue to advance at a rapid pace. The purpose of this project is to provide a state-of-the-science assessment of tools for monitoring pathogenic microorganisms or surrogates in reclaimed water systems. The goal is to describe and compare approaches that are commercially available, emerging, and/or under development with an emphasis on real-time or near-real-time microbiological monitoring of water reuse applications. The results of this project should be delivered in an easy-to-use format such as an electronic catalogue, database, or other product chosen by the proposer. Please note that this project is targeted as an assessment of existing information and, as such, proposals should not include research aims designed to generate new data through the conduct of laboratory or field investigations. Proposals Due: January 4, 2012 The WateReuse Research Foundation conducts and promotes applied research on the reclamation, recycling, reuse, and desalination of water. Under the Foundation’s Solicited Research Program and Feasibility Studies Program, research contractors are selected through a competitive process. To view all open RFPs, click here. Sedex deposits, black shales, and anoxic events Poul Emsbo USGS
Sheraton Four Points Hotel Wildcat Room 1900 East Speedway (SE corner of Campbell and Speedway) Tucson
Lecture at 8:00 PM Tuesday, January 3, 2011 Reservations are required for the dinner. Admission to the talk only is free. Please also note that although there is limited surface parking around the hotel, there is ample parking in the garage beneath the hotel. Special Meal Deal for Students! Dinner is FREE for students who make a reservation online at the website below. Please bring a student ID with you. SCHEDULE: CASH BAR @ 6:00 PM, DINNER @ 7.00 PM, TALK @ 8:00 PM. WITH RESERVATION: MEMBER = $24.00, GUEST = $27.00. If you do not have a reservation, an extra $3.00 will be charged. Also, without reservations you may not get dinner. To make dinner reservations please call the AGS answering machine at (520) 663-5295 or reserve online at http://www.arizonageologicalsoc.org/meeting-information/dinner-reservations by 5:00 P.M. on the Friday before the meeting. Leave name, number of attendees, and whether a vegetarian or low-salt meal is required. This number can also be used for field-trip reservations and leaving messages for Society officers. Please cancel your reservation via the answering machine if you find that you will be unable to attend. Abstract Recent work suggests that sedimentary-exhalative (sedex) ore deposits were formed by discharge of metal-rich basinal brines into ancient ocean basins. Empirical and temporal relationships between these ore-forming exhalative events and metalliferous black shales and anoxic events have been previously noted. Despite the common occurrence of these phenomena in age correlative strata, genetic links between sedex deposits, exhalative events, black shales, and oceanic anoxia are poorly understood. In contrast, these temporal relationship were previously ascribed to the development of euxinic conditions necessary to precipitate and preserve ore sulfides on the seafloor.
New data and interpretations are consistent with correlative anoxic conditions and metalliferous black shale formation being a consequence of the discharge of brines into the ocean by sedex systems. Chemical, isotopic, and geologic data from several Paleozoic sedex districts suggest that brine discharges also supplied enormous quantities of radiogenic Sr and biolimiting nutrients to the oceans. Strong temporal correlations combined with mass balance evidence and oceanographic modeling suggests that the flux of radiogenic Sr-rich sedex brines may have been sufficient to cause prominent short-duration positive excursions (“spikes”) in the global marine Sr-isotope record. If indeed these sedex hydrothermal events are recorded in the secular record, they define the enormous scale of these hydrothermal systems and indicate that the 87Sr/86Sr-curve may prove to be a unique indicator of ore-forming processes useful in assessing the mineral resource potential of sedimentary basins of different ages.
Moreover the enigmatic 87Sr/86Sr maxima correlate with global δ13C and δ18O spikes, periods of global anoxia, deposition of metal-rich black shales, climate change, and significant mass extinctions. While the relationships among these phenomenon remain poorly understood and diverse models for these events have been proposed, most invoke an increased flux of biolimiting nutrients resulting in ocean eutrophication. Evidence that the flux of key biolimiting nutrients and metals contained in sedex brines may have been equivalent to or surpass that of the total modern riverine flux to the ocean suggests these massive brine exhalations as a plausible trigger for global chemical events.
Poul Emsbo is a Research Geologist with the Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center in Denver. His primary expertise is in the geologic and geochemical analysis of ore deposit genesis. Poul has a PhD from the Colorado School of Mines. Much of his research has been directed towards an improved understanding of the genesis of Carlin-type gold and sedex Zn-Pb deposits. Of late, Poul has been studying the impact of sedex systems on marine chemistry and its potential application to mineral assessment.
Dr. Emsbo can be reached at pemsbo@usgs.gov.
REGISTRATION IS OPEN – Early registration has been extended to January 10, 2012! Parking is free - you must check the box on the registration form if you require parking - information about parking arrangements will be sent to you in early January. For WRRC conference information and early bird rates go to http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/programs/conf2012
Our opening keynote speaker Robert Lang, Director of Brookings Mountain West and author of Megapolitan America—released this fall, will set the stage for discussions with an exposition on growth and adaptation of megapolitan areas. Historian Jack August, author of Vision in the Desert and Dividing Western Waters, will speak at lunch on the history of water in Arizona’s first 100 years. Grady Gammage will discuss the Morrison Institute’s report, Watering the Sun Corridor, Managing Choices in Arizona’s Megapolitan Area. David Brown and Karen Smith will each present and answer questions about other recently released reports – the Water Resources Development Commission Final Report and the Grand Canyon Institute’s Arizona at the Crossroads: Water Scarcity or Water Sustainability? Knowledgeable speakers, panelists and discussants will offer a variety of perspectives throughout the program. An interactive session at the end of the day, moderated by Grady Gammage, can be expected to generate a lively discussion. An optional pre-conference workshop, sponsored by the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, on Monday, January 23, 2012 will offer a chance for in-depth discussion on the policy options related to Watering the Sun Corridor. We look forward to your participation in this timely forum, to share in shaping Arizona’s water future. If you have any questions, please contact Jane Cripps at jcripps@cals.arizona.edu or call 520-621-9591.
Tucson, Arizona Registration: Early registration is now open! To register and for all information, go to: http://www.aridlid.org/?page_id=277 Abstracts: We are accepting abstracts for speakers and "poster-plus" presentations through October 31! Go to: http://www.aridlid.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/AridLID_call_for_abstracts.pdf Sponsorship opportunities are available. Download the Call for Sponsors at: http://www.aridlid.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/AridLID_call_for_sponsors.pdf Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Benjamin Grumbles, President, Clean Water America Alliance Andy Lipkis, Founder and President, TreePeople Conference Highlight: Developing a Southwestern Research Agenda for GI and LID On the second day of the conference, we’ll engage in a series of presentations and facilitated break-outs to develop an agenda of research needs and opportunities specific to the arid southwestern U.S. We’ll identify areas for collaboration, and seek to answer this question: what are unique questions about Southwestern GI/LID that cannot be answered by research from other regions? This session, co-sponsored by the University of Arizona's Water, Environmental and Energy Solutions (WEES) Initiative, will include staff of the US EPA's Office of Research and Development Green Infrastructure program. About the conference: For the past two years, the AridLID Workshops held in Albuquerque, New Mexico have built a growing discussion and exposition of Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID) practices that are appropriate to the unique climates of the southwestern U.S. In 2012, we are holding the conference in Tucson, Arizona, with the twin goals of sharing best practices and building professional networks across a wider swath of the region, and of developing a clearer Southwestern vision and voice in the growing national discussion on GI/LID. For more information, visit AridLID.org. The federal government has approved a proposal to build a solar-energy project near Buckeye, a decision wilderness advocates cheered for safeguards to land use and water. The project, to be built in the Rainbow Valley near Arizona 85, will produce 300 megawatts of electricity at full power, enough to supply about 90,000 homes, and is part of a broader effort to expand solar-energy resources on public lands, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. As approved, the project will require 2,013 acres of land, about 1,600 acres fewer than the original proposal. The power array also will use just 33 acre-feet of water a year, far less than the 3,000 acre-feet a year first envisioned. The water savings will occur because the plant will use photovoltaic technology instead of the more water-intensive concentrated solar process. The approved plan also includes measures to ease negative effects on wildlife, including the relocation of burrowing owls and a location that preserves migration routes. The project, the first to be approved on public lands in Arizona, "has become a model for how solar projects are assessed and sited on public lands," said Matt Skroch, executive director of the Arizona Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/12/25/20111225solar-project-land-use.html#ixzz1hi25wi1X The programmer in Phoenix, the skier in Colorado, the doctor in Las Vegas, the student in San Diego and the rancher in Wyoming may not know it, but they are bound together by the Colorado River, its tributaries and the intricate systems of dams and reservoirs that manage its water supply. Often called the lifeblood of the West, the Colorado River grows our crops, bathes our kids, electrifies our grid, quenches our thirst and quite literally floats our boats in seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The river defines our landscape and communities. It also provides food and shelter for the 80 percent of the region's fish and wildlife that have no choice but to call it home. For all of us, managing the river well is not optional. It is essential to our well-being and that of future generations who will call this river basin home. That was the focus of the conference of the Colorado River Water Users Association that concluded Dec. 16. FLAGSTAFF — The Hopi Tribe has lost a round in court in its bid to stop Flagstaff from selling treated sewage water to Arizona Snowbowl. The Arizona Daily Sun reports Coconino County Superior Court Judge Joe Lodge ruled in favor of the city Friday. It’s not clear if the Hopis will appeal the decision. “We’re going to seriously take a look at what we have,” said Hopi Chairman Le Roy Shingoitewa. The judge said the substantial components of the case had already been decided in federal court, and the tribe was legally required to raise its objections earlier. Carcinogen 1,4-dioxane found to be moving faster than thought by Rhonda Bodfield, Posted: Friday, December 23, 2011 12:00 am
Tucson Water officials originally thought it would take a $10 million treatment plant to capture 1,4-dioxane, with an annual operating cost of about $230,000. But since tests show the plume has migrated to the north well field around the planned treatment plant more quickly than expected, the utility must now clean up more water than initially projected. The new facility will be next to the existing Tucson Airport Remediation Process, or TARP, plant that removes TCE from the groundwater, near Irvington Road and Interstate 19. It's now projected to cost about $15 million, with annual operating costs of $1.2 million. The money will come from unallocated bond funding. Tucson Water has been treating ground water in a 10-square-mile area on the south side since 1994, to remove TCE left over from when military contractors dumped solvents and metals in the ground near the airport for 30 years starting in the 1940s. Scottsdale gets $10.15 million, water rights worth $18 million It was intended to augment Scottsdale's future water needs but came up dry. Some called the $11.7 million Planet Ranch "water farm" a pipe dream or Scottsdale's folly when the city bought the land in western Arizona in 1984. Now, after 27 years, Scottsdale has sold the 8,389-acre alfalfa farm to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. The Phoenix-based international mining company will pay Scottsdale $10.15 million in cash, and the city will receive 50,000 acre-feet of water from the Salt River Project valued at up to $18 million, said Marshall Brown, Scottsdale water resources executive director. The deal closed Dec. 14. "We did end up acquiring water that will be valuable to Scottsdale," Brown said. "It kind of depends on how you look at it, but it did not pan out as originally intended."
Clean up or shut down. That's the decision facing hundreds of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants under an Environmental Protection Agency rule announced Wednesday that will force plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first time. The long overdue national standards rein in the largest remaining source of uncontrolled toxic pollution in the U.S. _ the emissions from the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants, which have been allowed to run for decades without addressing their full environmental and public health costs. The impact of the ruling will be greatest in the Midwest and in the coal belt _ Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia _ where dozens of units likely will be mothballed, according to an Associated Press survey. The majority of facilities will continue to run, and find ways to reduce pollution. About half of the 1,200 coal- and oil-fired units nationwide still lack modern pollution controls, despite the EPA in 1990 getting the authority from Congress to control toxic air pollution from power plant smokestacks. A decade later, in 2000, the agency concluded it was necessary to clamp down on the emissions to protect public health. Viewpoint: Sustainability criticism of Phoenix is wrongA city named after a bird that periodically immolates itself in search of rebirth. The implication is one of impermanence and fragility; of an unstable thing always in transition. This sense is not inaccurate. The Hohokams built a huge civilization here and then left. Phoenix was built atop their ruins. Maybe partly because of the name and heritage, Phoenix is frequently cited as being a poster child for "unsustainability." In early October, Andrew Ross issued the latest indictment, "Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City." The book represents the latest, longest and most articulate examination of Phoenix as a kind of colossal demographic mistake. But it is hardly the first. In a 2006 radio interview on NPR, author Simon Winchester said Phoenix "should never have been built" because "there's no water there." In 2008, Sustainlane.com rated Phoenix among the least-sustainable cities in the country because water comes from far away. In 2010, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that Maricopa County was among the "most challenged" places in the U.S. for climate change. Their analysis calculated the delta between water use and rainfall within each county in the U.S. And, in 2011, the Stockholm Environment Institute looked at Arizona water use, including agriculture, and found current patterns "unsustainable." On top of those analyses, there are other negative views like Justin Hollander's new book "Sunburnt Cities," Ken Silverstein's piece on the "Tea Party in the Desert" in Harper's in July of 2010, and Richard Florida in the Atlantic way back in 2009, examining the future of American cities after the recession. Tempe has won a national award for its Water Department. The city is one of nine nationwide to receive a 2011 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. The award, presented last month at the association's annual meeting in Newport, R.I., recognizes outstanding achievement in implementing attributes of effective management. Cities were evaluated on product quality, customer satisfaction, employee and leadership development, operational optimization, financial viability, infrastructure stability, operational resiliency, community sustainability, water resource adequacy and stakeholder understanding and support. A map shown to potential investors by Rosemont Mine's parent company shows three copper "targets" in areas lying west of the currently proposed open-pit mine site. If those additional areas were eventually mined, they would be visible to Green Valley, a stronghold of Rosemont opposition. The map appears on Augusta Resource Corp.'s website as an investor presentation.
Augusta-owned Rosemont Copper is, however, looking at the potential for future copper mining east of that ridgeline, Clausen said. It is conducting electric-based, underground geophysical exploration to see if those lands could have significant copper deposits. Arizona, 5 other states, Mexico monitor events SAN DIEGO - A state appeals court on Wednesday upheld a landmark agreement on how Southern California gets its water, overruling a judge who called the method unconstitutional. The decision by California's 3rd Appellate District Court is a major victory for backers of the accord that created the nation's largest farm-to-city water transfer and set new rules for how the state divides its share of the Colorado River. The case is being closely watched in six other Western states, including Arizona, and in Mexico, that share water from the 1,450-mile river that runs from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez. A three-judge panel in Sacramento disagreed with a lower-court
judge who found the state violated its Constitution by essentially writing a
blank check to save the Salton Sea in rural Imperial Valley. California's
largest lake is rapidly shrinking, and the transfer of water from Imperial
Valley to San Diego threatens to accelerate its decline. The appeals court
sent the case back to Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland Candee to
consider whether environmental reviews of the pact were done right. Still,
supporters of the agreement were jubilant. For associated links and other timely water and environmental blogs on Shaun McKinnon’s Arizona Republic site – Waterblogged visit http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/ShaunMcKinnon. For more information about the Arizona Hydrological Society, or to view current job listings and announcements, please visit our regularly updated web site at: Membership may be renewed by credit card through the AHS website or by mailing a check to the Arizona Hydrological Society, P.O. Box 1882, Higley, AZ 85236. Dues remain at $45.00 year for regular membership and $15.00 for students. Please remember that your 2011 membership was included in the 2010 Symposium registration fee! |
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