Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a modern aqueduct system that stretches 336 miles across the state. CAP delivers water from the mighty Colorado River to where it’s needed in Arizona.

KIDS & FAMILIES—

Welcome to Bear Essential’s water conservation column. Water means life to all of us desert dwellers. In fact, water is Arizona’s most precious natural resource, and using it wisely is everybody’s responsibility!

Be an Arizona Water Manager!

Throughout history, people living in the desert have understood the importance of water. We’ve invented ways to store water for use in dry times and to move water from places that have it to places that need it.

Today, Arizona water managers play an important role in our water supply. They measure snowpack in the mountains and rainfall each year to predict the amount of water available. They monitor the amount of water held in reservoirs and aquifers and try to balance the needs of all water users. They even look at how climate change could affect our water supply. With a limited water supply and a growing population, Arizona water managers encourage everyone to conserve water.

Where Does Your Water Come From?

The Central Arizona Project brings water from the Colorado River to farms, American Indian communities, Casa Grande, Phoenix and Tucson.
The Salt River Project manages dams and reservoirs that supply the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Many places—like Payson, Flagstaff and Williams—pump groundwater from aquifers.

Play the Water Manager Challenge!

Each year, water managers figure out how much water can be stored in reservoirs and how much to release downstream. Their decisions depend on how much rain and snow falls that year to fill the reservoirs.

• Each player starts with a full reservoir— 10 million acre-feet (maf) of water.
• During each round of the game, you’ll flip four coins to find out how much water will enter your reservoir that year (inflow):


0 heads = 0 maf of inflow (drought)

1 head = 2 maf of inflow (below-average precipitation)

2 heads = 5 maf of inflow (average precipitation)

3 heads = 7 maf of inflow (above-average precipitation)

4 heads = 9 maf of inflow (flooding)


• Based on your toss (inflow), decide how much water you will release from your reservoir that year (any amount between 3–7 maf). Your goal is to keep between 2 maf and 10 maf in your reservoir at all times. Downstream users require at least 3 maf per year to meet their basic needs.
• Play for at least 8 rounds (8 years). Each round, record the amount of inflow, the amount of water you choose to release, and the amount remaining in your reservoir for the next year. Start each year with the amount left from the year before.
• If you manage to keep your reservoir from flooding or drying up for 8 years, you deserve thanks from wildlife, families, farmers, towns and many other water users!

(An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons—about the amount of water used by two families in a year.)

Info and artwork from “Discover the Waters of Arizona” booklet. This column is a collaborative effort among CAP, Arizona Project WET, the UofA Cochise County Cooperative Extension Program and the Bureau of Reclamation.

H204U Online Game!

Middle & high school students could win a $1,000 scholarship! You must complete the game to be entered in the drawing. Contest ends Feb. 15, 2010. Go to www.caph2o4u.com/contest/ for details!

For more information, visit
www.CentralArizonaProject.com
or call toll free: (888) 891-5795

The Arizona Conserve Water Educators’ Guide provides lessons that can be used to bring your curriculum alive with local relevancy! Sign up today for Arizona Project WET’s exciting new professional development opportunity. Register for locations across the state at http://cals.arizona.edu/arizonawet/workshops/ current_workshops.html

http://ag.arizona.edu/arizonawet/

Is Shaq Sinking Suns?

There's a new big man in town; the Phoenix Suns are betting he's the spark they need to win the playoffs.

One of the biggest stars in the NBA universe, Shaquille O'Neal, is now wearing purple and orange. And both Shaq and the Suns have a lot to prove. Shaq, who just turned 36 and has endured knee and hip injuries, wants to show he's still a big force in the NBA. His critics say that the Diesel is too old and too slow for a high-octane, blazingly fast team like the Suns.

During the regular season, the Suns are one of the toughest teams in the West. And while fans love the Suns' exciting and high-scoring brand of basketball, led by two-time League MVP point guard Steve Nash, the team has never won the NBA Finals.

The Suns believe that Shaq is the piece that's been missing. At 7 feet 1 inch tall and 325 pounds, Shaq gives the Suns a true center who grabs rebounds, plays tough defense and passes the ball well. Up till now, Amare Stoudamire has been stuck playing center for the Suns, even though he's really one of the best power forwards in the game. With Shaq in at center, Stoudamire is freed up to do what he does best!

"Psychologically it really helps us out. Guys are much more willing to go to the boards and fight around the basket with Shaq in there," explains Head Coach Mike D'Antoni.

Fans love Shaq's superstar qualities. The big guy has won four NBA Finals and was MVP for three of them! But the Suns have lost their winning ways since Shaq started playing on Feb. 20. In the trade for Shaq, the Suns gave up All-Star forward Shawn Marion, who said he wanted to be traded at the beginning of the season. For years, Marion had been a clutch scorer. As of press time, the Suns have won just two of their last six games and have fallen to fifth place in the Western Conference. Fans wonder whether it's growing pains with the big guy or could it be a bad fit?

'Doomsday Vault' Opens for Business!

SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO, Norway-Imagine a bank that's so far north that polar bears outnumber the people living there! The bank is located on Norway's Svalbard archipelago just 620 miles from the North Pole. As you may have guessed, it's cold there. During winter's around-the-clock darkness, temperatures can fall to -22° Fahrenheit.

The bank was blasted into the side of an arctic mountain and has reinforced concrete walls to help protect its valuable deposits from natural disasters, global warming and even a nuclear explosion. Welcome to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault-also called the "Doomsday Vault" by the press!

You can find seedbanks all over the world. Native Seeds/SEARCH is a seedbank here in Arizona. Its mission is to protect the diversity of local seed used in farming and their wild relatives. "We have nearly 2,000 varieties in our seedbank, mainly corn, beans and squash," explains Carolyn Owens, who works on grants for the seedbank. "Just like the seedbank in Norway, the seeds need to be kept cold, so they're stored in a freezer," she says. Seeds for the bank come from southwestern states and northern Mexico.

Seedbanks help protect our food supply from the "what ifs" in life-like what if there's drought; what if a disease attacks a certain kind of wheat, or what if global warming changes what can grow around here?

Modern farming has led to fewer and fewer varieties of crops. This has brought about many varieties of food crops being lost forever, and Owens says it's alarming. "It's just more cost effective to grow a single variety...but you don't know what disease is going to come along down the road," she says. A disease could wipe out an entire variety of a crop, leading to food shortages. But if there are enough other seed varieties, like wheat for instance, one of those types of wheat may turn out to be resistant to the disease.

Owens points out that a lot of seedbanks are in politically unstable areas like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and have been looted or destroyed. In the Phillipines, a flood wiped out the country's seedbank.

That's why the Svalbard Global Seedbank was created-to protect the diversity of seeds no matter what happens in the world. Countries can "deposit" different varieties of seeds. If a disaster jeopardizes crops, the country can make a "withdrawal" of seeds.

The vault was built by Norway at a cost of about $3 million. Because seeds are so small, the "Doomsday Vault" can hold up to 2 billion seeds!