WRRC Working on its Spring Conference

Planning is underway for the Arizona water community’s premier event of the spring season: the Water Resources Research Center’s Annual Statewide Water Conference. Scheduled June 20 and 21, the conference topic is “Providing Water to Arizona’s Growing Population: How Will We Meet the Obligation?” Additional information will be provided on the WRRC web site, http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/ and via email. Contact us at wrrc@cals.arizona.edu to have your name added to the conference email list or if you have questions.

Susanna Eden (Re)Joins WRRC

Susanna Eden has recently joined the WRRC staff as coordinator of applied research. She had previously worked at the center as a research specialist from1988 to 1990, shortly after graduating with an MS from the UA Department of Hydrology and Water Resources. (She later completed a PhD in the same program.) Between then and her present WRRC commitment, Dr. Eden has had broad experience in water resource science and policy issues, including managing the development of the Tucson Active Management Area’s Groundwater Recharge Plan. While later working for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program’s Global Water Cycle Program in Washington, D.C., Dr. Eden was involved in several international initiatives, including the UNESCO HELP (Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy) Program.

See this issue’s Guest View, p. 6, which was written by Dr. Eden, for further introduction to her and her work.

BuRec Sponsors Supplement

This edition of the “AWR” contains a 4-page supplement sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation with information about some of its projects. By sponsoring the supplement the agency is supporting the publication of this newsletter. We appreciate the opportunity to work with BuRec and the agency’s generous support.

What Happened to the Nov. - Dec. Issue of AWR?

That which is not there or did not occur often is newsworthy. Consider:

– Following is the entirety of Chapter XLII, “Concerning Owls,” from The Natural History of Iceland, written by Niels Horrebow in 1758: “There are no owls of any kind in the whole island.”

– The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation annually celebrates Orme Dam Victory Days, Nov. 18-20, to commemorate the fact that the dam was never built. It would have flooded about 15,000 acres of its land.

– A recent Bureau of Reclamation report outlines nearly 1,000 water projects that it studied but never built throughout its 17-state Western domain.

And to the point at hand: there was no Nov. - Dec. issue of the AWR newsletter. Although this current newsletter immediately follows the Sept. - Oct edition, this issue is dated Jan. - Feb., rather than Nov. - Dec. The reason for this is that the AWR has always been distributed during the last week of its bimonthly date: the Sept. - Oct. issue distributed the last week of Oct. This is contrary to the practice of most publications that are distributed prior to the month or months they cover. Thus rather than distribute a Nov. - Dec. newsletter at the end of Dec., we have dated it Jan. - Feb. to be distributed before January. Subsequent AWR newsletters will be dated accordingly.

Harvesting the Falling Rains

The Water Resources Research Center and the Sonoran Institute recently hosted a rainbarrel water harvesting “open house” in Nogales, Arizona. A residence had been fitted with gutters, downspouts and six 55-gallon plastic barrels to capture rain for landscape use. Terry Sprouse, WRRC senior research specialist, and Amy McCoy of SI, were available to answer questions. The rainbarrel water harvesting guide that was distributed is available at the WRRC web site: http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/

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