This year's monsoon season may have been a late bloomer but was typical in most other respects. According to the National Weather Service Office in Tucson, the July 1 8 starting date was one of the latest on record, second only to a July 25 date in 1987. This year's tardy monsoon was due to a ridge of high pressure centered over northwestern Mexico that prevented moisture moving into Arizona and New Mexico. Although the monsoon started late, it gained loss ground with a heavy August rainfall.

Skiing requires snow; snowfall depends upon atmospheric conditions. Simple and obvious as these statements are they raise a complex question: what effect will climate variability and change have on Arizona's ski industry? Two University of Arizona researchers, PhD candidate Rosalind Bark-Hodgins and Professor Bonnie Colby, are examining this question.

Depending upon the perspective, whether hydrological or legal, the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming or the Colorado River Compact might be considered the source of Colorado River water. Its physical flow originates in the mountains; the 1922 compact, however, is the legal source officials consult to determine basin's and states' allocation to Colorado River water.

Water and time, a suitable note to sound for this end-of-the-year edition of the Arizona Water Resource newsletter, are separate and distinct, yet at some level water and time strike a common chord. For example, rivers often represent the passing of time, with both water and time flowing relentlessly onward. In at least one particular instance, however, the association of water and time is more direct: water clocks.

Biological monitoring, or biomonitoring as it is more commonly known, and water quality testing set out to accomplish similar objectives, although they have different focuses. The objective of both activities is to identify and measure substances or contaminants, with water quality testing focusing on water and biomonitoring looking within the human body.

Over the years the Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP) has produced much more conflict than desalinated water. An effort has recently been made to change this situation, with representatives of both sides of the ongoing controversy working together in the YDP/ Cienega Workgroup to identify a set of management alternatives agreeable to all.

A good environmental deed was done when the full flow of Fossil Creek was recently restored after nearly 100 years of restricted flows. It was the familiar river-and-dam tale told in reverse, this time with power plants decommissioned to restore the flow of a river.

Arizona is growing and developing in leaps and bounds, with major building projects considered for outside Prescott city limits, the Chino Valley area, Cottonwood and unincorporated areas close to Sedona and a boom expected down south in Cochise County. The area poised to take the biggest leap and the greatest bound is Mohave County where as many as 200,000 homes could be built over several decades to serve the housing needs of Las Vegas.

Geothermal energy is expected to be a topic of growing importance in Arizona. Not only an energy issue, geothermal is also a water issue. In a hydrothermal system, water heated in the earth's interior is brought to the surface to be used as a source of energy. Geothermal heated water is also called geothermal fluid.

The urban heat island might be viewed as an unintended consequence of urban growth and development: UHI resulted when cityscapes were built-up and built-over. Unintended consequences then spawn their own set of consequences. A consequence of the UHI that is getting increased attention is its effect on the water resources of an area.