Some recent news from the Arizona water community

There were a few news items of note this week that I wanted to post on briefly.

First the good news. Kathy Jacobs of the University of Arizona (and formerly head of the Arizona Water Institute) was recently appointed to a new position in the White House (the one in Washington, D.C.) Office of Science and Technology Policy where she will work on climate change policy. Prof. Jacobs has pretty impressive credentials in that area and should be a real asset to the administration. Congratulations professor!

Second, the bad news. The latest issue of Southwest Hydrology showed up in my mailbox this week with a banner on the front indicating that it would be the last issue. This is a significant loss to the regional water resources community because SW Hydro has been a tremendous resource for disseminating new research and policy ideas in the management of water resources in arid and semi-arid hydrology. And they've been important to me because I have published a couple of short articles in the "On the Ground" section of the magazine. Betsy Woodhouse, who was the publisher has taken a new position at the University of Arizona and her colleague Gary Woodard gives the impression that they would like to bring the magazine back in the future if they can find a new funding source. But, their major source of funding - the National Science Foundation - has dried up for now. If anyone has ideas for keeping the magazine running send them to Gary Woodard (gwoodard@sahra.arizona.edu).

Finally, the final Phase II report on the Water & Wastewater Infrastructure, Supply and Planning Study (aka the Tucson/Pima County Water Study) has been released and can be downloaded from the study website - www.tucsonpimawaterstudy.com - of you're interested. The report will be formally presented to the local elected leaders of both jurisdictions in a special joint meeting next Tues., Jan. 12, at 9:00 am in the Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress, 1st Floor, Board of Supervisors Hearing Room. Hope to see you there. If not, take a look at the report. It's no masterpiece but it provides a pretty good roadmap to a sustainable water future for this piece of dirt.