Twenty-four years ago, the WRRC created the Arizona Water Resources newsletter (AWR) to provide timely, engaging, and useful information on initiatives, projects, resources, legislation, research, and related topics regarding the water resources of Arizona and the region. Throughout these years the AWR has reflected the concerns of the community it serves.
AWR’s headlines have highlighted a wide variety of topics over the years. The first issue, February 1992, brought attention to the ample snowfall in Arizona during the Winter. The AWR raised issues associated with vulnerability to floods and infrastructure damage due to frequent high intensity precipitation events. The “Floods of ’93: Déjà Vu All Over Again” article reported Arizona’s experiences with flooding that occurred that year, comparing it with the flood that occurred in 1983. When the 1997 – 1998 El Niño event caught global attention, the AWR published four special El Niño News issues, informing Arizona water professionals and others interested in water affairs of plans, projects, and activities relating to weather affected by El Niño. The early years of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) appeared in several AWR issues when Arizona’s low usage of its Colorado River water allocation preoccupied water administrators. In the 21st Century, the drought affecting the Southwest United Stated shifted AWR’s attention to securing water supplies, conservation, and reuse.
The AWR began as a monthly and for many years appeared on a bimonthly basis. Joe Gelt edited the AWR from its inception and wrote most of its stories, keeping a format that drew on Southwestern Indian themes. This Southwestern look and its two-color format—turquoise and black—came to be identified with the Gelt years. His unique style was appreciated by AWR readers throughout his 19-years as editor.
Examples of Joe Gelt’s imprint on the AWR abound. For the March-April 2008 issue, he commemorated the contribution of Dr. Sol Resnick to the WRRC, 50 years after its founding as the University of Arizona Institute for Water Utilization. The feature article reproduced Dr. Resnick’s recollections of the Institute’s beginnings and contained a photograph of Resnick’s grandson, born in 2007, two years after his death.
A poem by Alison Hawthorne Deming, who was the Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center from 1990 to 2002, led the June-July 1995 issue. It celebrated the perfect synchronization of water and nature. Other feature articles included news about archeological findings of prehistoric irrigation canals constructed by Arizona’s earliest inhabitants approximately three thousand years ago. In a futuristic vein, the AWR described the concept of high-rise greenhouse-like structures for crop production that conserve land and water. Featuring a photograph titled “The Face of Drought”, the face of a young woman caked in cracking mud, he presented a special edition covering the Arizona-Israeli-Palestnian Water Management and Policy Workshop held in Tucson August 31-September 2, 2009.
After Gelt’s retirement, the current quarterly schedule was adopted and Susanna Eden became the new AWR Editor, bringing changes, including a full-color look, which came in 2013 with a updated redesign. Eden also increased the contributions of graduate student writers and others to the content.
Graduate student Stephan Elizander Przybylowicz contributed a feature on Hydrophilanthropy, a practice that embodies humanitarian actions oriented to increase and sustain clean water in areas of need. Other student-written articles included a personal account of the water use of a ranching family by Alanna Riggs; and an analysis of how science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields are redefining and strengthening water education in Arizona written by Jacob Prietto.
The structure of the AWR has evolved throughout the years. The Water Vapors column linked all the members of the water community for many years, with items about conferences and workshops, community views and concerns, and the activities of people working in the water field. In the early 2000s the AWR incorporated Special Supplements by the U.S. Geological Survey and others to display and publicize water-related research and projects. The AWR has offered the opportunity to professionals from outside the WRRC to express their opinions and share their knowledge on a wide range of topics in the Guest View column. In recent years the AWR has shown a spotlight on the contributions of WRRC’s students, publishing brief biographies containing their remarkable accomplishments and aspirations. After her firs appearance in a Guest View, WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal has written a Public Policy Review column, providing her personal and professional insight on policy issues, in each AWR from 2002 to the present.
Keeping an eye toward the future, the AWR will continue to evolve. Look for the Winter 2017 issue in its all-digital format in January.