Brown Bag Seminar/Webinar Series

Contamination of our environment from microplastics (1 mm to 5 mm in size) is gaining significant public interest due largely to their emergence as an environmental and potential human health threat. 

On Thursday, October 7, the WRRC hosted Henry Day, water policy and strategy consultant at the Arizona Public Service Company (APS), for a Brown Bag Webinar. In his presentation titled “APS Sustainable Water Strategies and Practices,” Day outlined how the utility is conserving water while transitioning to meet the goal of providing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. The presentation began with an overview of APS as Arizona’s largest electric utility and described the importance of sustainable water practices at APS and in Arizona.

Current climate scenario predictions identify the US-Mexico border as a "hot spot" of climate change, both in relation to increased rainfall intensity and increased temperatures. Twin city areas in the transboundary setting have long histories of management that rely on mutual dependency. 

For nearly forty years, Tucson Water has been reusing its effluent to help offset traditional potable uses. Today, the Tucson Water reclaimed water system not only provides high-quality reuse water directly to a wide variety of non-potable customers, but the utility is now utilizing their excess water for aquifer banking and riparian restoration projects. John Kmiec will walk us through the history of the Tucson Water reclaimed water system, up to the most recent projects for the utility. Then, he will discuss what may lie beyond the horizon in the next forty years.