The Governor's Drought Task Force, established about a year ago to develop a management plan for drought stressed Arizona, is making progress on its assigned task.

Not likely to be disputed is the premise that a successful water conservation program results in water users consuming less water. What has been disputed - a dispute the Arizona Supreme Court recently resolved - is whether the Arizona Department of Water Resources should regulate water providers or water users to encourage water-saving practices and habits.

Eagerly anticipated and vitally needed, the North American monsoon is also elusive and difficult to predict. When will it arrive? How much precipitation will it deliver? How long will it last? Research is underway to study the workings of the monsoon to find answers to these and other monsoon questions.

Interbasin groundwater transfers are a strategy to obtain additional water supplies in parts of the state with inadequate water resources. It is a strategy, however, fraught with legal obstacles in Arizona due to passage of the 1991 Groundwater Transportation Act and subsequent amendments. Passed in response to rural concerns, the GTA essentially prohibits the transfer of groundwater from one hydrologic basin in the state to another.

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.