Pacific Institute Offers Water and Energy Saving Tools
The Pacific Institute, a non-partisan institute that works to advance environmental protection, economic development, and social equity, has recently developed two new products for water conservation technology. WeTap is a smartphone application created in partnership with Google. This application will eventually map all of the drinking water fountains around the world so that users can quickly find a fountain instead of buying a plastic disposable water bottle. The app is now in beta-testing in San Francisco and the Institute is looking for more test participants. As the test, users upload the locations and conditions of water fountains in the Bay Area onto their phones. If you are in the Bay Area and would like to participate, you can send an email to wetap@pacinst.org. If you would like to see which fountains have already been mapped, you can visit the googlemap website at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0msid=210194966373106851467.0004a0919....
The second product the Institute has prepared is called WESim, the Water-Energy Simulator, which is a user-friendly analytical tool. Water and energy managers, municipalities, and decisionmakers can use WESim to evaluate the energy and greenhouse gas implications associated with changes such as population growth, climate change, alternative water and energy sources, and new water treatments to meet stricter guidelines. More information about WESim can be found at http://water-energy.lbl.gov/drupal.files/wett/9%20Heather%20Cooley.pdf.
EPA Announces Sustainability Website
The EPA has recently revamped their sustainable water infrastructure web pages. The EPA is committed to promoting sustainable practices that will help ensure that citizens continue to enjoy the benefits of clean and safe water. Guided by the Agency’s “Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy,” they are working with a broad group of stakeholders to help bring about more sustainable practices on three levels: sustainable water infrastructure, sustainable water sector systems, and sustainable communities. To support local officials as they meet these challenges, the updated web pages also have a new section specifically for local officials. The pages provide information, resources, and materials designed to meet the needs of local officials committed to leaving a legacy of sustainable water infrastructure. It provides information that every local official should know about their community’s water infrastructure and offers concrete, achievable steps that local officials can take to put their community on a more sustainable path or enhance existing efforts to address their water infrastructure needs. To review EPA’s revamped sustainable infrastructure web pages, please visit:http:// water.epa.gov/infrastructure/sustain/index.cfm. To view the local officials section please see: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/sustain/localofficals.cfm.
Paper on Transboundary Aquifers Looks at Institutional Asymmetry
The article, “The Importance of Institutional Asymmetries to the Development of Binational Aquifer Assessment Programs: The Arizona-Sonora Experience,” by Chris Scott and Sharon Megdal is now available for free download from the international journal Water. The authors illustrate the principle that water policy depends fundamentally on the location of the supply and demand for water and the legal/institutional framework for water management. Within and across nations, laws and structures for water management decision making vary, often significantly. Recognizing these differences can aid in overcoming challenges inherent to the assessment and management of transboundary waters. This paper examines current binational efforts to develop the scientific information to support water management decision making along the United States-Mexico border. The full text is available at http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/3/3/949/.
New USGS Report on Arizona’s Alluvial Basins
The United States Geological Survey has recently released “Water Availability and Use Pilot: Methods Development for a Regional Assessment of Groundwater Availability, Southwest Alluvial Basins, Arizona” by Fred D Tillman, Jeffrey T. Cordova, Stanley A. Leake, Blakemore E. Thomas, and James B. Callegary.
To provide updated information to stakeholders addressing issues surrounding limited groundwater supplies and projected increases in groundwater use, the USGS Groundwater Resources Program instituted the Southwest Alluvial Basins Groundwater Availability and Use Pilot Program to evaluate the availability of groundwater resources in the alluvial basins of Arizona. The principal products of this evaluation of groundwater resources are updated groundwater budget information for the study area and a proof-of-concept groundwater-flow model incorporating several interconnected groundwater basins. This effort builds on previous research on the assessment and mapping of groundwater conditions in the alluvial basins of Arizona, also supported by the USGS Groundwater Resources Program.
“Arizona is one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and groundwater supplies will undergo increased demand as water needs for growing population are balanced with Arizona’s agricultural sector,” said USGS hydrologist Fred Tillman, who led this water availability and use pilot study. “This USGS report is intended to aid state and local agencies by providing them information about groundwater to help better plan for the future.” The full text of the report can be found at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5071/.