APW is so excited to be getting back into the field, with many of its 2023 Water Festivals taking place in February and March. This means there are many opportunities for the public to get involved and contribute to their communities at these fun-filled educational field days. Arizona Water Festivals help 4th graders across the state gain a deeper understanding of water in the Earth System and Arizona's water resources.
December 09, 2022
Rep. Jim Kolbe Remembered for His Service to Southeastern Arizona
On Saturday, December 3, former congressional representative for Southern Arizona, Jim Kolbe, died at age 80. He had served in Congress for 22 years, from 1984 to 2006, for 20 years as a member of the influential House Appropriations Committee. Kolbe grew up in Patagonia, Arizona. After high school, he attended the US Capitol Page School in Washington, DC, and spent three years as a page for US Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater. Following college at Northwestern, graduate school at Stanford, and service in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, he ran for the Arizona State Senate and was elected in 1977.
Both in state and federal legislatures, he was a strong advocate for his district, which included parts of Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz Counties. Although he embraced the old-school conservative economic values of free market capitalism, he also had a passion for the natural world and worked to protect important places. Among other environmental resources, the Upper San Pedro River benefitted from his consistent support. Over his tenure, the Upper San Pedro River Partnership, a citizens’ organization, was able to invest federal funding he championed in research, planning, and actions to preserve river flow through the San Pedro River Conservation Area.
Kolbe’s district also contained an area of Southeastern Arizona bordering Mexico, including the transboundary San Pedro River aquifer. About his commitment to water in the border region, WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal remembered, “Jim had a significant role in congressional authorization of the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program [TAAP],” a unique binational partnership in which the WRRC has been involved since its inception. In 2006, his last year in Congress, Kolbe invited Megdal to provide congressional subcommittee testimony on the needs and goals for the program. In the lame duck session of that same year, TAAP was established by Public Law 109-448 and signed by President Bush. That the TAAP has since significantly improved scientific cooperation between Mexico and the US on important shared groundwater resources is part of Jim Kolbe’s legacy. His vision and voice will be missed by many.
AZ Daily Star Article
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December 09, 2022
Rep. Jim Kolbe Remembered for His Service to Southeastern Arizona
On Saturday, December 3, former congressional representative for Southern Arizona, Jim Kolbe, died at age 80. He had served in Congress for 22 years, from 1984 to 2006, for 20 years as a member of the influential House Appropriations Committee.
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