Speculation abounded as to whether President Bush would sign the Omnibus Water Bill. He did so on October 30. Now Arizona and other western states are tallying their gains from this new piece of federal legislation.

The U.S-Mexico border is not only where two countries meet, but where different cultures face a common need for effective and sustainable use of the available resources. The management of resources and environmental hazards in this region is challenging. Agencies from both countries are addressing the challenge by participating in bi-national efforts to resolve the issues of water and air contamination, water resource allocation, and solid and hazardous waste disposal in the region.

Urbanization, channelization, ground-water depletion, irrigated agriculture, and a variety of other activities have significantly affected many of Arizona's rivers. This 12-page Arroyo issue looks at many river restoration and enhancement projects in Arizona and the issues, partnerships, benefits and water sources characterizing each effort.

The process of removing salts from water to produce fresh water is known as desalination. Available technology allows seawater or brackish groundwater, which can be found in large quantities, to be converted into clean, usable water. In water scare locations this has the potential to greatly increase the fresh water supply.

Preliminary proposals seeking funding during FY-1979 from the U.S. Office of Water Research and Technology (OWRT) Annual Allotment Grant are being invited by the Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) at the University of Arizona.

Water and energy are fundamental components of our 21st century life, but they can no longer be considered separately. Just as producing energy consumes water, pumping, treating and distributing water requires energy. In other words, water is an energy issue; energy is a water issue. Called the water-energy nexus, this interrelationship is beginning to receive the attention it merits. This Arroyo aims to provide comprehensive and timely information to support the public discussion of this important topic.

The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) has just released its 2013 annual Arroyo – a 12-page newsletter devoted to a single topic of timely interest to Arizona. This year, the topic is “Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Water,” a subject that has raised questions from the public and challenged water managers and regulators across the country. Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) are “substances we use every day for all kinds of purposes, which get flushed, washed or otherwise discarded and end up in water and soil.” They are being detected in trace amounts in the water supply, raising the need to know what risks they represent and what, if anything, should be done about them. The new Arroyo brings together current information and presents definitions, examples and study results, while describing efforts to tackle the issue. The WRRC publishes Arroyo each spring, and initial research is carried out the previous summer by the winner of the Montgomery & Associates Summer Writing Internship. The 2012 intern was Madhumitha Raghav, a Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona.

With the generous cooperation of Peabody Coal Company, the financial support of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the ingenuity of two University of Arizona scientists, surface-mined land on northern Arizona's Black Mesa is being reclaimed using a unique water-harvesting and agriculture technique. Peabody annually mines about 200 acres for coal on Black Mesa to fuel the Mojave and Navajo power generating plants at Bullhead City and Page, Arizona, respectively.

Faced with the significant challenge of groundwater overdraft, Arizona adopted groundwater recharge as a water management priority. This 12-page publication discusses early interest in recharge, describing legislative efforts to encourage and regulate projects and identifying significant issues relating to recharge such as water quality implications and control of subsidence as well as focusing on ongoing recharge projects.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released its first stage (1992-1994) Integrated Environmental Plan for the Mexican-U.S. Border Area (see Publications, March AWR). Motivated by Congressional consideration of the North American Free Trade Act, the plan addresses potential environmental consequences of increased trade along the border.