Includes supplement: Arizona NEMO: Watershed Projects and Programs / With desalination looming big on the water resource horizon, many water officials are looking at their options. One option Arizona officials are considering is building a desalination plant in Puerto Penasco that would be a joint Mexican-Arizona project, with both the resort community and the state benefiting from the desalinated water supplies. With desalination an emerging technology, other kinds of options will be available in the future. One such option is seawater desalination vessels, ships capable of onboard desalination for onshore use.

Includes supplement: Colorado River or Tributary Water - U.S. Geological Survey Update of the Accounting Surface Along the Lower Colorado River, by Stephen M. Wiele, Stanley A. Leake, Sandra J. Owen-Joyce, and Emmet H. McGuire. / It is no doubt a sign of the drought-struck times that efforts to strictly account for lower Colorado River water use are now focusing on individual landowners and homeowners who have drilled wells and pump water along the lower Colorado River. Up to now, efforts to regulate Colorado River water use have mainly been directed at the big water users: states, Indian nations and irrigation districts. Collectively these small-scale water users, most of whom are householders taking care of domestic water needs, consume a significant amount of Colorado River water, an amount estimated at between 9,000 and 15,000 acre feet.

A community program that included keynote addresses rounded out the day's events on Sept. 1. University of Arizona's President Robert Shelton greeted about 225 people attending the community event. Ben Grumbles, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, further extended the welcome. The keynote speakers were Uri Shani, director general of the Israeli Water Authority, and Shaddad Attili, chairman of the Palestinian Water Authority. Attili, who was unable to attend the event in person, provided his message via DVD. Ayman Jarrar, director general for the regulatory and water control directorates of the Palestinian Water Authority, joined Shani at the podium to answer questions. Shani described Israel's predicament confronting the dire consequences of ongoing drought affecting the Middle East. “The trend is very clear, and we need to understand it. If we don't work on the future development of water, we don't solve anything. Demand is increasing, and the supply is decreasing, and we are left with no solution,” he said. With brackish water threatening groundwater reserves, Shani said the importance of desalination as a water source has increased. Conservation measures, a national priority, have decreased Israeli water consumption. Agricultural allocations are half what they were nine years ago. Contributing to the conservation savings is the relatively minimal water lost to evaporation and leakage, about 10 percent in Israel compared to much higher rates in other areas of the developed world. The use of reclaimed water has also increased dramatically. Attili discussed the precarious state of Palestinian water supplies. He said that water is a daily problem in the Palestinian Territories, with many communities lacking basic infrastructure for delivery of clean water and for water treatment. “We are trying to create a vibrant Palestinian state; our state will not be vibrant if there is not enough water.” He stressed the need for Israel to increase water allocations. Going beyond an acknowledgment of the political work to be done, Attili spoke of water supplies as a humanitarian cause. He said, “In the end of the day, it is a basic human need.” Jarrar sounded a pessimistic note with regard to an immediate solution to Palestinian water problems. He said what is needed is “political will from both sides, which is unfortunately not available at this time.” He said, “We are suffering, and the time should come to end our suffering with regard to the water supply.” He expressed confidence in Uri Shani's willingness to work with the Palestinian Water Authority, but also made clear that final decisions on critical water issues were often politicized and made at a higher level of government than the water authorities. The keynote session ended on a hopeful and conciliatory note. Despite the obstacles, Jarrar expressed optimism that trust can be built between the two sides, leading to adequate water supplies for both Israelis and Palestinians and contributing to peace in the region. Shaddad Attili also expressed confidence that he and the Palestinian Water Authority can work with Uri Shani and the Israeli Water Authority to resolve conflict in the area of water. Shani found significance in the fact that part of the conflict is about water. He said, "The general method to extinguish fire is to use water. I believe water can lead to peace, and this is my hope. Nobody promised us to have easy solutions, but it can be done.” The AzIP workshop was organized to help both Israelis and Palestinians achieve the goal of resolving conflict over water and working together to find shared solutions.

Includes insert: USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3076, National Water-Quality Assessment Program: Dissolved Solids in Basin-Fill Aquifers and Streams in the Southwestern United States - Executive Summary. / Agriculture faces a conundrum: populations needing food are increasing and the necessary land and water resources to produce crops are not. What to do? The perplexing situation was addressed recently in an article in the November Scientific American, titled, “Growing Skyscrapers: The Rise of Vertical Farms.” Author Dickson Despommier says an insufficient supply of arable land is available to feed a projected 9.5 million population by 2050. Agricultural practices causing environmental harm contribute to the problem. His solution is to grow food indoors in glass high-rises; he figures that a 30-story structure located on one square block could be as agriculturally productive as 2,400 outdoor acres, with less spoilage. Crops could be grown year-round on these vertical farms under rigorously controlled conditions. He is proposing an agricultural revolution with an urban twist: high-rise vertical farms would be located in urban areas on now vacant lots and multi-story greenhouses constructed on rooftops. Food would be grown using non-mechanized farming techniques and relying on recycled urban wastewater in areas with the greatest demand, thus reducing transportation costs. This means less fossil fuels consumed and less emissions. Urban life would become more sustainable. Techniques for growing crops in-doors — drip irrigation, aeroponics and hydroponics— have been successfully applied throughout the world. Despommier singles out for special notice the 318-acre Eurofresh Farms located in Arizona that produces bountiful and varied crops 12 months a year. He mentions the Southwest with its abundant sunshine as being especially hospitable to vertical farming. He would modify his structures in the region to two or three stories, 50 to 100 yards wide and miles long to maximize natural sunlight for growing and photovoltaics for power. Despommier also describes the paths best not to take. He says that intensive, highly mechanized industrial farming capable of producing a greater yield of genetically-modified crops fertilized by agrochemicals is not the answer. Nor is the further deforestation of land to produce farmland. Both have severe environmental consequences. Despommier summarizes: “Vertical farming could revolutionize how we feed ourselves and the rising population to come.” For another, more here-and-now perspective of Arizona agriculture and its future water needs see above sidebar. It notes a recent CAST issue paper (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology) titled “Water, People, and the Future: Water Availability for Agriculture in the United States.”

The field of hydrophilanthropy has been around for decades, although the term is fairly new. Hydrophilanthropy means different things to different people, depending on which end of the deal they are on. David Kreamer (who coined the term) promotes "a flexible, open minded approach to the description of hydrophilanthropy and its attributes, a definition that includes many diverse activities and practitioners who advance the sustainability of clean water in the world."

Includes insert: Arizona Environmental Water Needs Assessment Report and Methodology Guidebook. / “It’s a promise to be a good citizen of the world, protecting the Earth’s natural resources through innovation and more efficient use of land, energy, water and packaging in our operations.” – PepsiCo, on their environmental sustainability promise Environmentalists and corporations have not always seen eye-to-eye on matters of how our natural resources should best be used. In fact, many people see corporate industry as inherently anti-environmental. However, without industry, we would not be able to enjoy many of the comforts of modern day living. Corporations have many responsibilities including: to gain profit for their investors, to keep costs low for their consumers, to use natural resources efficiently, and to maintain decent pay and working conditions for their employees. So, how should corporations balance these differing needs with protection of the natural environment? Many corporations now have developed multiple ways of creating this balance. These include water stewardship plans, partnerships between corporations and environmental groups that help both parties agree on a water management strategy, implementation of environmental best practices, and new ideas for the future of water accountability and transparency.

Global Water Brigades (GWB) is a program under Global Brigades, the largest student-led, non-profit, sustainable development organization in the world. Global Brigades works on a holistic model with disciplines in water, public health, medical, dental, architecture, environmental, law, business, and micro-finance. Students across the U.S., and around the world, start chapters at their universities to mobilize students in projects that empower rural areas in Honduras, Panama, and Ghana to improve their conditions. Water Brigades specifically develops clean water solutions for rural Honduras and Ghana. Throughout the school year, GWB discuss and assess the community. Then, over spring break, the group goes to actually build the water system. GWB work alongside community members and make a one day educational presentation to the local school about the importance of clean water. The UA chapter began in September 2010. Last year, UA only had water and medical disciplines as Global Brigades chapters on campus. Now there are two medical groups, dental, public health and business; and a law brigade is starting.

The opportunity to hear expert presentations and discussion on the issue of water security attracted approximately 300 people to the WRRC’s annual conference, “Water Security from the Ground Up”. The audience represented more than 40 communities across Arizona.

Includes supplement: USGS Fact Sheet 2013-3001, January 2013, Understanding and Managing the Effects of Groundwater Pumping on Streamflow / In November 2012, five people were elected for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District. The CAWCD and its board members may not be well known to the general public, but they play an important role in Arizona water policy. The CAWCD manages, operates, and directs policy for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), the supplier of approximately 1.5 million acre-feet of water for Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties. This water is critical for the people of Central Arizona

Conserve, reuse and augment summarize Arizona's strategy to meet new water needs and reduce its reliance on dwindling groundwater reserves. Of the strategic trio, water conservation is an approach utilized by the entire hierarchy of water users, from industrial and agricultural users to individual households using water to cook, grow trees and shrubs, and wash the dog.