The City of Tucson has narrowed its options for using its Central Arizona Project water allocation to four: direct treatment and delivery through the existing treatment plant after replacing deteriorating mains; augmenting treatment with a filtration stage to remove salts; blending CAP water with equal amounts of groundwater; and recharging CAP water using spreading basins, streambeds, and/or injection wells.

Who killed the CAP Compact? Like in the parlor game, suspects are many but clues are scarce. Was it Nevada Governor Bob Miller with a phone call to the White House? Was it tribal attorneys pressing water rights claims on Interior Secretary Babbitt? Could California's Congressional delegation, the traditional villain in Arizona water politics, have been involved? Or did Arizona bollix the deal itself by not providing tribes access to excess CAP water or the right to pursue out-of-state leasing, as hinted by Secretary Babbitt?

A U.S. conservation organization that works with communities to resolve natural resource issues is involved in a community-based project in Mexico to improve conditions along the Santa Cruz River.

The University of Arizona is the lead institution in a new $16 million, multi-university center that will develop ways to efficiently manage water resources in semi-arid regions. Professor Soroosh Sorooshian of UA Hydrology and Water Resources will direct the new National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center (STC). Researchers and students from several colleges at UA will be involved, as well as other universities, government agencies and private institutions.

With advantages seemingly outweighing disadvantages, constructed wetlands often are viewed as a win-win situation, promising much and delivering much, from environmental benefits to an inexpensive and effective way to treat wastewater.

Officials ponder the implications of the Arizona Supreme Court's recent ruling that Indians' rights to groundwater trump the state-granted rights of cities, mines and others. Most agree that the Indian water rights cause will undoubtedly be well served, but some speculate that the decision also will provide a strategy to expand enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

Dropping groundwater levels are a major concern in Arizona, with laws and policies adopted to control the decline in various areas of the state. Yet where irrigation occurs, and groundwater pumping has either been reduced or stopped, rising groundwater levels can be a problem, in both agricultural and urban areas. Laden with salts and other chemicals, rising groundwater can threaten the productivity of the land and cause other problems as well.

The need to control groundwater use in Arizona had long been apparent, but the will to act was lacking. In 1980, various interests rose to the occasion and negotiated the Groundwater Management Act. Signed into law on June 12, 1980, 20 years ago this year, the GMA became the law of the land.

Governor Symington signed into law on June 1 a controversial private property rights bill that requires the Attorney General to draft guidelines for state agencies to analyze the impacts of new rules and regulations on private property use. When such impacts constitute a "constitutional taking" of private property, the State must compensate the owners.

Arizona will be participating in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency national survey of drinking water systems, set to begin this fall. The EPA study is to determine the investment needed to be made in the nation's drinking water systems to supply safe water and comply with current and future federal regulations.