Maricopa County Master Watershed Steward Program Wins Valley Forward President’s Award
On Saturday evening, September 29th, the Valley Forward Association awarded the Maricopa County Master Watershed Steward Program top honor—the President’s Award—during its 32nd Annual Environmental Awards Gala at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale. Awards were made in many categories, recognizing achievements in buildings and programs that express the values of sustainable development. The Maricopa County MWS program also earned the first-place Crescordia Award in the Environmental Stewardship category.
The MWS course educates participants about their local watersheds using classroom instruction and field training. The 10- week course uses the Arizona Watershed Stewardship Guide, which provides information on watersheds and related issues. Graduates receive Master Watershed Steward certification after completing the course and performing 40 hours of volunteer activities relating to what they have learned. Volunteers in Maricopa County contributed more than 1800 hours of service on projects including education, restoration, and monitoring.
Summer Waters, is the Water Resources Extension Agent who runs the Phoenix MWS program. “It was a great honor to receive this level of recognition for the MWS program here in Maricopa County. This has been one of my favorite programs to work with over the years. The stewards themselves have greatly contributed to the awareness of water resources and the environment in the Phoenix area, so I think this award is very appropriate.”
University of Arizona Green Fund Seeks Proposals
The University of Arizona’s campus sustainability initiatives include one component, the Green Fund, which provides support for projects that contribute “to making the university an environmentally sustainable institution”. The two year old fund was created by a fee included among the tuition and fees paid by students each year. The Green Fund Committee, consisting of ten students, holds a series of meeting each year to review UA student and employee proposals. Their task is to allocate the approximately $400,000 in the fund to campus sustainability projects.
The UA Green Fund Committee is seeking proposals for projects of all sizes from University of Arizona students and employees. For this annual cycle, a brief but succinct pre-proposal should be submitted by November 26, 2012, and final proposals are due January 28, 2013. Mini-grant proposals of up to $1,500 can be submitted at any time. The Committee considers mini-grant proposals through April 2013.
Joe Abraham, Director of the UA Office of Sustainability, commented “In just a couple of years the UA Green Fund has been surprisingly successful at engaging students and employees across the university in making the UA a more environmentally sustainable place to study, work, and play.”
Funded projects include sustainability initiatives of many kinds and sizes, from individual buildings to campus wide efforts, and include research efforts at the University’s facilities such as Biosphere 2 in Oracle. Aware that the University is located in an arid environment, the Green Fund Committee has allocated funds to several water-related projects, such as initiatives in water harvesting, green infrastructure, and reduction in campus water consumption.
Water Related Research Takes Top Prizes at the 2012 “Grad Blitz”
Each year, the Institute of the Environment holds an environmentrelated research event on campus offering opportunities for collaboration across departments, and for students to present their research findings to other students, faculty, and university administrators. This year the list of students who presented research on a wide range of topics included over fifteen students engaged in water-related research. Participants presented their research in one of two ways: a poster presentation or a five-minute talk, including no more than three slides. The event took place on November 8th at the Tucson Marriott University Park. Students who presented water-related research were well represented in both the poster session and rapid-fire talks.
Stefan Walston won first prize and Best Science and Society Linkage prize for his talk titled, “Does Increasing Solids Retention Time in the Wastewater Treatment Process Affect the Persistence of Antibiotic Resistant Genes?”. Zulia Mayari Sanchez Mejia won first prize for her poster presenting research on the role of soil moisture and vegetation in semi-arid ecosystems. Other prizes taken by water-related work included the Audience Choice Poster and the Best Interdisciplinary Talk. Natalie Brassill’s winning poster presented her research on the assessment of Escherichia coli as an indicator of microbial quality of irrigation waters used for produce. Her methods included the installation of twelve underwater cameras, equipped with infrared light to record both day and night activity. America Lutz Ley’s interdisciplinary talk on the social distribution of water in the Sonora River Basin detailed her investigation of water users in arid northwest Mexico. The highly unequal distribution found has important implications for water policy in the region, as well as for environmental and social justice issues due to severe water shortages.
EPA Launches How’s My Waterway App
EPA recently launched a new app and website to help people find information on the condition of thousands of lakes, rivers and streams across the United States from their smart phone, tablet or desktop computer. Available at http://www.epa.gov/mywaterway, the How’s My Waterway app and website uses mobile device location or a user-entered zip code or city name to provide information about the quality of local water bodies. This app was released on the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, which Congress enacted on October 18, 1972, giving citizens a special role in caring for the nation’s water resources. Forty years later, EPA is providing citizens with a technology-based tool to expand that stewardship.