Existing research on green infrastructure often tends to look forward, describing new strategies to make nature-based stormwater solutions a more attractive option for cities as well as facilitate their adoption.

Treated wastewater-supported rivers are common throughout the world. In arid and semi-arid environments, treated effluent is often the only source of perennial flow in these systems. Effluent discharge can create and maintain aquatic habitat, but there are challenges, including microplastic pollution. Microplastics are ubiquitous worldwide and include primary microplastics, like microbeads, and secondary microplastics, such as fragments, film, and fibers. Although modern wastewater treatment plants remove the vast majority, microplastics are still present in treated effluent.

Two of Arizona’s water policy experts are the conference committee co-chairs for the upcoming AWRA Virtual Summer Conference Connecting Land & Water for Healthy Communities.

On Wednesday, April 21, the Arizona Institutes for Resilience, in partnership with the WRRC and the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, hosted the second episode of the "Water Solutions for Our Warmer World" webinar series. This session, “Water and COVID-19 in Indian Country,” featured a panel of Indigenous leaders and experts to discuss shared issues and concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on Native Nations.

At the end of June 2021, Kerry Schwartz, Associate Specialist and Director of Arizona Project WET will retire from the University of Arizona. Kerry started her position at the Water Resources Research Center nearly 22 years ago, after stating in the interview that this was her dream job.

"We can go the distance" was the theme for Trivium students from Goodyear participating in this year’s Arizona Envirothon. And they did just that, winning the competition! Trivium coach Kelly Briggs noted how incredibly motivated her students were to take part in a competition that promotes the environment, science, and engaged learning in this truly odd year.

On Wednesday, April 14, the WRRC hosted John Kmiec, Tucson Water Interim Director, for a Brown Bag webinar entitled “Tucson Water’s Reclaimed Water System: Providing the Right Water for the Right Use for Nearly 40 Years.”

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. 

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 University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center is offering a paid summer internship for a student who wants to gain experience writing about environmental and water issues. The selected intern will contribute to research and writing for an issue of Arroyo, the annual WRRC publication that focuses on a critical Arizona water issue. Arroyo is recognized as a source of objective, accurate, and understandable information and reaches a wide audience that includes policy makers and water professionals as well as the interested public.