News

On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Jim Butler, a senior scientist with the Geohydrology Section of the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), a research and service unit of the University of Kansas, was the featured speaker for a WRRC Water Webinar, Charting Paths Forward for the High Plains Aquifer in Kansas, in which he discussed the water-level declines that the region has faced.

On Friday, April 11, 2025, the WRRC hosted a Water Webinar titled Advanced Water Purification in Arizona that featured a panel of leaders from Arizona’s three largest water providers. Each spoke about their city’s development of advanced water purification (AWP) systems to address ongoing water challenges in the state. AWP is an innovative approach to ensuring clean, safe, and sustainable water for Arizona communities by turning used water from homes into purified, potable water.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to each of our generous 2025 conference sponsors. Such events offer valuable opportunities to bring water experts and enthusiasts together, and hosting our annual conference is only possible with the support of our wonderful sponsors.

The WRRC 2025 Conference agenda offers a strong lineup of informative panels. With a program full of knowledgeable keynote speakers and panelists, the WRRC conference, Shared Borders, Shared Waters: Working Together in Times of Scarcity, promises to be a rich mine of information about the sharing of scarce waters across borders. 

The "Green Desert," an hour-long documentary featuring Southern California’s Imperial Valley, a highly productive agricultural area that depends on the Colorado River, discusses drought and other water issues affecting Imperial Valley agriculture and will air on multiple PBS affiliate stations on April 23, 2025, at 11:00 pm MST.

An article titled “Assessing the Relationship Between Groundwater Availability, Access, and Contamination Risk in Arizona's Drinking Water Sources,” authored by Simone Williams and co-authored by WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal, Adriana A. Zuniga-Teran, David M. Quanrud, and Gary Christopherson, appears as a Feature Paper in the April 2025 issue of the journal "Water."

On April 22, in celebration of Earth Day 2025, the WRRC and the ASU Water Institute are teaming up to co-host a livestreamed panel, Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America, the title of a newly released book by environmental journalists Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin.

On May 20, 2025, the WRRC will host a pre-conference workshop titled "Better Listening to Help Transform Water Conflicts." The 2.5-hour workshop will be led by Dr. Aaron Wolf, who will discuss the conflict and cooperation surrounding shared water resources internationally and throughout the western US and introduce participants to the processes of conflict transformation. Space is limited and only open to conference registrants.

Water Awareness Month (WAM) is celebrated annually in April in Arizona, and this year, there will be many events and opportunities throughout the state for the public to learn about different ways to conserve water. Celebrate with the WRRC by attending our April 11 and 15 Water Webinars!

On March 28, 2025, the WRRC hosted a water webinar featuring Universidad de Sonora Professor Elia Tapia, who detailed a prioritization process for evaluating the conditions of US-Mexico transboundary aquifers, a tool for optimizing resource allocation for regional groundwater research and policy.