Engagement Impacts

To commemorate 30 years of collaboration on arid lands issues, the International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC) is hosting a three-day international conference on arid lands. A key goal of the conference is to underscore the value of the IALC mission

Sustainable water management is one of the most challenging issues of our time, especially in the arid western US. Maximizing the benefits of water supplies requires careful measurement of availability and use. However, one important information gap is compounding this challenge: the lack of consistent consumptive water use data for irrigated agriculture, which accounts for the majority of water use in the western US. To date, access to this data has been limited and expensive, keeping it out of the hands of most water users and decision-makers who could benefit from its use.

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has long been utilized to help meet water management objectives. In 1978, the first symposium on artificial recharge was held in Phoenix, Arizona. 

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.

Ashley Hullinger, WRRC Research Analyst and 2020 Flinn-Brown Fellow, was named by BizTucson Magazine as one of Tucson’s Next Generation of Leaders. 

The binational collaboration between Mexico and the US in Minute 323 includes the exploration of joint development of projects, such as seawater desalination opportunities in the Sea of Cortez region. This talk will present the results of a study conducted by a binational workgroup, including federal and state water agencies and NGOs. The study identified opportunities to develop approximately 200,000 acre-feet per year of treated seawater to benefit water users in Mexico and the US in an environmentally responsible manner.