Please join us on Friday, February 10 from 3:30 to 5:00 PM for the WRRC’s Annual Chocolate Fest. This year, we are thrilled to be hosting this fun event in-person at the WRRC’s offices! The agenda this year is simple: gather with friends and colleagues, enjoy chocolaty treats, and see the winning photographs from our 2022 Annual Photo Contest. In keeping with tradition, this year’s celebration will be a chocolate potluck! Start thinking about what you would like to bake, concoct, purchase, or brew, then bring your favorite divine chocolate delectation to share.
WRRC Brown Bag Webinar: The 21st Century Water Quality Challenges for Managed Aquifer Recharge
Yan Zheng, PhD, Chair Professor, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, and Co-Chair for the International Association of Hydrogeologists’ Managing Aquifer Recharge Commission
01/18/2023 - 12:00pm to 1:15pm Arizona Time
The sustainability of groundwater is threatened by overexploitation and by pollution, exacerbated by perturbations of hydrological cycle stemming from climate change exerting poorly understood water quantity and quality risks with uncertain outcomes. A recent UNESCO publication on managed aquifer recharge (MAR) has provided unequivocal evidence that MAR is a sustainable nature-based engineering approach for enhancing climate resilience and other social, economic, and environmental benefits of groundwater. However, continued MAR implementation is challenged by over 80,000 synthetic chemicals in use by today’s society, and emerging biohazards including viruses. This WRRC Brown Bag presentation discusses how MAR professionals may tackle the 21st century water quality challenges. New findings on incomplete biodegradation of antibiotics, a type of trace organic pollutants, will be described. Given the threat of a large number of novel chemical and biological entities, it is suggested that groundwater monitoring programs pay more attention to them when justified, especially when MAR is used to bank large quantities of groundwater. Policy recommendations will be presented.
Dr. Yan Zheng became a Chair Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), in Shenzhen, China in 2016. Her multi-disciplinary research contributed to the reduction of exposure to arsenic among private well households in Bangladesh, China, and USA. Dr. Zheng has published extensively in geochemistry, hydrogeology, environmental health, and policy. She obtained her PhD from Columbia University in 1999. Between 1998 and 2016, she held tenured faculty and administrative appointments at the City University of New York and research appointments at Columbia University. Dr. Zheng was a water and sanitation specialist with UNICEF Bangladesh between 2009 and 2011. Currently, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Environmental Earth Sciences, and as a Co-Chair for the International Association of Hydrogeologists – Managing Aquifer Recharge Commission. Dr. Zheng was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2010, and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2021.
Upcoming Events
Feb 15 12:00PM
Brown Bag
WRRC Brown Bag Webinar: A Living River – The Santa Cruz River from Mexico to Marana
The Santa Cruz River has long been the backbone of the region’s natural and cultural heritage. Although the river has changed since humans first arrived in the region 12,000 years ago, the river still exists and is a “living” entity that continues to support wildlife and communities along its course. Throughout Arizona, the release of effluent maintains flows of many river reaches. The Santa Cruz River is fortunate to have three stretches with effluent flows—one near Nogales in Santa Cruz County and two near Tucson in Pima County.