Three New Books Are Worth a Look

The WRRC is pleased to call your attention to three new books written by friends and colleagues about water and related issues. Marie Pearthree, Deputy General Manager at the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, has written a book with the writer Michael McGuire chronicling how Tucson Water lost credibility and public trust, when in 1992 the utility introduced treated Central Arizona Project (CAP) water into its water delivery system; and how it subsequently rebuilt its reputation. Failure to control for the increased corrosivity of CAP water resulted in serious problems for customers, and it took a change in management culture to restore the confidence of the community. The author's scoured historical documents and interviewed participants to produce a definitive study of events and their implications. Tucson Water Turnaround: Crisis to Success will be published by the American Water Works Association in February 2020. William and Rosemarie Alley have written a book, The War on the EPA: America's Endangered Environmental Protections, which will be released by Rowman & Littlefield, also in February. William, who, after a career at the US Geological Survey, serves as Director of Science and Technology for the National Ground Water Association, has published three books with his wife Rosemarie, a writer and editor. The latest book documents how protections intended to safeguard the environment and public health are being undermined and dismantled. Eric Kuhn's and John Fleck's new book, Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River, addresses the over-allocation of the Colorado River. Kuhn, retired General Manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, and Fleck, Director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program, explain how clear evidence that the Colorado River would be unsustainably over-committed was ignored as the Colorado River Compact was being negotiated in the early 1920s. Scrupulously researched, the book raises a caution against suppressing inconvenient science as we plan for the future.