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Warm, Dry, La Niña Winter Likely
Ongoing La Niña conditions in the central tropical Pacific will bring warmer and drier conditions to the Southwest from late fall to early spring. This makes the probability of less than normal snowfall at higher elevations likely, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. La Niña conditions developed in May-June 1998 and have persisted since that time
Warm, Dry, La Niña Winter Likely Ongoing La Niña conditions in the central tropical Pacific will bring warmer and drier conditions to the Southwest from late fall to early spring. This makes the probability of less than normal snowfall at higher elevations likely, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. La Niña conditions developed in May-June 1998 and have persisted since that time.
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"Although this year's La Niña is not of the same strength as last year's, we cannot rule out seeing similarly extreme conditions in the Southwest this winter," said Leetmaa. Last year was the third driest and the fifth warmest in 105 years of record keeping.
"We were very concerned about wildfires last winter because of the dryness, but fortunately the wetter than normal spring helped to mitigate some of that danger," he added. Last year's monsoon season started abnormally early and was quite active, with the Southwest region experiencing its 15th wettest July - September on record, and Arizona seeing its seventh wettest monsoon season.
La Niña refers to cooler-than-normal ocean waters across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, whereas El Niño refers to warmer-than-normal ocean waters in these regions. Both La Niña and El Niño affect the weather patterns across the North Pacific and North America by directly changing the character of the wintertime jet stream, which ultimately controls the weather patterns.
Scottsdale Opens Upscale Treatment Plant
Although it does in fact treat sewage, Scottsdale's new facility is called a water campus, not a sewage treatment plant. This is in keeping with its high-tech, low-impact, upscale design — not to mention the fact that alluding to a sewage treatment plant might be unseemly in polite Scottsdale society.
Considered the first of its kind in the nation, the $116 million Water Campus is located on 143 acres in north Scottsdale. After a decade of planning and two years of construction, the facility officially opened on November 20.
Operated entirely by remote control and computers, the facility recycles wastewater for golf courses, filters canal water for drinking and recharges treated sewer water into the ground. The campus will receive about 12 million gallons of wastewater daily, via an underground network of pumping stations and 30-inch pipes running 300 feet uphill from central Scottsdale.
After the wastewater arrives at the water campus, most will be filtered and pumped to 20 golf courses in north Scotts-dale. The remainder will be purified with a reverse osmosis system before being pumped more than 450 feet into the aquifer. The water campus has 11 buildings, 27 tanks and 13 miles of underground piping. It includes a renovated and expanded Central Arizona Project treatment plant for filtering 50 million gallons of canal water for drinking.
Design and aesthetics also were considerations when planning the campus. Constructed of brown bricks, the low-slung buildings are located within a basin, with mountains in the background. One reporter described the buildings and setting as resembling a Scottsdale resort. A public art display graces the main entrance, with laser detection beams triggering motion-activated fountains. Because of a complex odor control system, neighbors need not fear unpleasant wafts of air coming their way.
Nor were pumping stations overlooked by the designers. Each is designed to fit into its surrounding area. For example, the station near Scottsdale Airpark resembles a World War II airplane hangar.
ADEQ Faulted by Auditor General
The Arizona Department of Water Quality was faulted for not adequately protecting the state's water supply. A report by state Auditor General Debra Davenport says the agency will not likely meet legal deadlines for examining and issuing aquifer protection permits. Such permits are needed by companies and facilities with the potential to contaminate the groundwater. Further, the report says ADEQ has not given priority to those facilities "with some of the most serious potential for groundwater pollution."
ADEQ Director Jacqueline Schafer took issue with Davenport's findings, especially her contention that a company lacking an aquifer protection permit poses a risk. She says other ADEQ rules adequately regulate discharge limits and require monitoring and reporting. Further, Schafer said new policies and "innovative staffing" will ensure that the agency will meet the 2004 deadline for issuing most permits.
According to federal and state law any individual or company releasing pollutants must get a permit that sets specific limits for what pollutants can be discharged and in what quantity.
To meet the deadline Davenport says the agency would need to nearly double the annual number of permits it now issues. She does not believe this is likely given the agency's perennial staffing and training problems. She especially criticized the lack of a "formal training process to help ensure that new and existing staff have the knowledge needed to make consistent and timely decisions."
Rule OK's AZ Interstate Water Storage
Recently-issued rules enable Arizona to act as water banker to Nevada and California. These three western states are now partners in an interstate Colorado River water bank Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt chartered. The new interstate water bank is basically Arizona's water banking program expanded to serve interstate water needs. In 1996, the Arizona Legislature created a state water banking program as a way for the state to use more of its share of the Colorado River. Water not immediately needed was recharged into declining aquifers.
The Legislature, however, prohibited interstate water banking negotiations until the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources was satisfied that the state's interests were safeguarded. If the new federal rules provide this reassurance, then Arizona may begin negotiations with Nevada to store its water supplies.
At present, California has little to gain from the banking plan. The state has greatly benefitted from Arizona and Nevada not fully using their Colorado River allocations. What water they did not use, Southern California did. Nevada, however, has much to gain from the bank. Las Vegas continues to rapidly grow, with water demand steadily increasing. Nevada officials strongly backed the new plan.
The bank could enable Arizona and Nevada to capture their full allocations, saving what is not immediately needed for periods of drought or increased demand. For example, if Nevada has a supply of water, whether it is part of its regular Colorado River allocation or a share of annual river surplus, the state can ask Arizona to store this surplus supply. Instead of flowing down river for California to use, the water then would be banked and available to meet Nevada's future needs.
Arizona would pump and transport water Nevada wants to bank through the CAP canal for storage in the aquifers. When Nevada then is ready to use its banked water, Nevada would pump from Lake Mead an amount of water equal to its supply in Arizona. Arizona then will refrain from pumping an equal amount from the Colorado River as part of its own allocation and instead draw water from its storage aquifers.
"Nevada could bank as much as 1.2 million acre-feet of water in Central Arizona aquifers, but the project's eventual cost is unclear," reports the Las Vegas Review Journal. Estimates range from $120 million to $240 million.
This represents an historic step toward water management of the Colorado River in the 21st century," said Babbitt. "It says to the states: To the extent you can find mutually beneficial ways to use the water, we are here to facilitate that."
EPA Targets Gasoline Spills on Arizona Tribal Lands
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a pilot plan to begin cleanup of the underground gasoline plume originating from the Tuba City Thriftway and SunWest (also known as Navajo Trails and Super Fuels) gas stations, in an area occupied by Navajo and Hopi Indians. The cleanup on the Thriftway leasehold is expected to start by late February. EPA has directed the owners of the SunWest and Thriftway facilities to come up with a cleanup plan for a second area near the existing evaporation ponds on the south side of Highway 160.
In 1996, EPA ordered the two gas stations to investigate underground contamination from leaking fuel tanks and pipes. Since that time, over 80 monitoring wells have been installed to identify the boundaries of an underground petroleum plume and determine if there is groundwater contamination beyond the two facilities' leaseholds. While the plume has migrated a short distance off the leaseholds, it does not pose a threat to any drinking water sources in the Tuba City/Moenkopi area. The plume is still far from the Upper and Lower Village's drinking water sources. Cleanup measures are expected to remove the contamination long before it threatens these water supplies. EPA and tribal inspectors also investigated four nearby gas stations in November and found poor leak monitoring practices, inadequate leak detection record keeping, and other violations of the federal underground tank rules.
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