The house where Dixie Ellis lives with her mother is perched on a mesa above town. It is a steep hike up the hill from Lake Powell, the second-largest man-made reservoir on the continent, and an easier walk up Arizona 98 from the Navajo Generating Station, one of the country’s largest coal-fired power plants.
“Tourists ask me about it,” Ellis said, nodding at the three 774-foot smokestacks that rise into the northern sky from the power plant less than 3 miles down the hill. “I tell them we don’t even have running water or electricity. They can’t believe it.”
Ellis’ mother, 96-year-old Sally Young, signed over part of her grazing lease to allow construction of the plant more than 40 years ago, one of hundreds of families that gave up land for a promise of jobs and a stronger economy. Her family said she was also promised water and power, promises that apparently never made it on paper.
“Other people are benefiting from it, but we’re not getting anything,” said Pearl Begay, Ellis’ daughter. “No lights, no running water, just the smokestacks.”
The power plant has emerged as an issue in a proposed water agreement between the federal government and the Navajo and Hopi tribes. The government has offered the Navajos an extra allotment of water if they will ensure that leases are renewed for the plant site and for a mine near Kayenta that supplies coal to generate electricity.
by Pete Zrioka, Arizona State University Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development
The American West has a drinking problem. On farms and in cities, we are guzzling water at an alarming rate.
Scientists say that to live sustainably, we should use no more than 40 percent of the water from the Colorado River Basin. As it is now, we use 76 percent, nearly double the sustainable benchmark.
There are some safeguards in place against water scarcity. The reservoir Lakes Mead and Powell can provide approximately five years of average annual stream flow at full capacity for insurance against low rainfall years.
But John Sabo, an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences, believes that 50 years in the future – rather than five – should be the planning mark for water usage.
David White, co-director of ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), says that Arizona water policy has done a good job of providing adequate supplies for the growth of the region up to this point. But environmental and demographic factors will likely require changes in that system. The DCDC uses research to inform environmental policy in times of uncertainty.
On April 25, 2012, Decision Center for a Desert City hosted their annual poster symposium. A highlight of the spring semester, graduate students enrolled in the Community of Graduate Scholars and undergraduate students participating in the Internship for Science-Practice Integration program presented the results of their DCDC research projects.
Community of Graduate Scholars (CGS)
The Community of Graduate Scholars is a year-long, one-credit course that gives graduate students the opportunity to become leaders in transdisciplinary approaches to research, policy, and community engagement.
(L to R) Becca Neel, Gretchen Hawkins, Geetali Dudhbhate, Chrissie Bausch Students work on Decision Center for a Desert City projects, as well as related efforts at ASU. Students are involved in multiple projects, examining the relationships among them, and thus learn to articulate and promote integrated perspectives.
DCDC faculty members are involved in interdisciplinary collaborations that offer rich opportunities to graduate students. Each CGS student works on a research team that includes one or more faculty members and both graduate and undergraduate students; this work provides them with the intellectual depth necessary to contribute to DCDC’s research.
CGS provides graduate students with a supportive environment where they can:
develop a broad understanding of the research process and how it is practiced across sciences
develop a professional and unique intellectual identity and voice
improve scientific communication and presentation skills
engage with researchers and community partners
make contributions to DCDC as a boundary organization
Posters
Envisioning Water Futures in the Greater Phoenix Area: What Do We Want The Future To Look Like? – Lauren Withycombe Keeler (CGS), Arnim Wiek, Dave White, Kelli Larson, and Kendon Jung
Psychological Barriers to Water Conservation: The Case of Desert Landscaping – Rebecca Neel (CGS), Edward Sadalla, Susan Ledlow, Anna Berlin, Samantha Neufeld, Yexin Li, and Claire Yee
Half Full? Buffering Central Arizona Farmers from Signals of Environmental Change – Julia C. Bausch (CGS), John P. Conners, and Hallie Eakin
Distributed Hydrologic Modeling of Semiarid Basins in Arizona: A Platform for Climate Change Assessments – Gretchen A. Hawkins (CGS) and Enrique R. Vivoni
A Decision Making Game to Guide Water Sustainability Related to Policy Outcomes – Geetali Dudhbhate (CGS), Erik Johnston, Ajay Vinze, Rashmi Krishnamurthy, Dweepika Desai, and Qian Hu
Interactive Computer Simulations for Public Administration Education – Rashmi Krishnamurthy, Qian Hu, and Erik Johnston
Internship for Science-Practice Integration
The Decision Center for a Desert City undergraduate internship program bridges the world of academia to the world of water management by placing students with agencies to carry out use-inspired research projects.(L to R) Katja Brundiers, Michael Babcock, Michael Nicastro, Colin Russell, McKenzie Ragan, Kena Fedorschak, Ariel Pepper, Dr. Peggy Nelson Through the program, students learn about the concepts and practical aspects of boundary research. The one-semester internship program is available to undergraduate students in their senior year.
The DCDC internship program integrates science and practice by expecting the students:
to work 10 hours per week on a project that is relevant to their internship mentor and agency, learning about professional practice
to develop an original research project within the internship , linking science and practice
to team-up with a faculty mentor, receiving academic advice and ensuring the academic rigor of their research project
to participate in a weekly 3-credit hour class to discuss the research-based internship, building skills in the areas of communication, meeting facilitation, and presentation delivery
Posters
State-level ADWR (general governance approaches)
How Do We Catalyze Adaptive and Innovative Practices in Public Regulatory Agencies?
McKenzie Ragan, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
Michael J. Lacey, Internship Provider, Arizona Department of Water Resources
Dave D. White, Faculty Mentor, Decision Center for a Desert City
Inter-city comparison: Planning approach 1: scenario construction as adaptive planning approach
How Scenario Planning Will Benefit Scottsdale Water Resources’ Master Planning Process
Ariel Pepper, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
Beth Miller, Internship Provider, City of Scottsdale
Ray Quay, Faculty Mentor, Decision Center for a Desert City
Inter-City level: Planning approach 2: collaborative management: problem perception and potential solution-options
Prevalent Perceptions of Water Use in Arizona
Colin Russell, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
Mark Holmes, Internship Provider, City of Mesa
Erik Johnston, Faculty Mentor, School of Public Affairs
What Factors Motivated the Creation of the Colorado and Kansas Water Congresses?
Kena Fedorschak, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
Mark Holmes, Internship Provider, City of Mesa
Erik Johnston, Faculty Mentor, School of Public Affairs
Engaging businesses as multiplier of solutions
The Relationship between Restaurants and Sustainability: Marketing the Tempe FOG Program
Michael Nicastro, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
David McNeil, Internship Provider, City of Tempe
George Basile, Faculty Mentor, School of Sustainability
Smartscape: Using Education as a Tool for Reducing Water in Desert Landscapes
Michael Alan Babcock, Internship Fellow, School of Sustainability
Summer Waters and Haley Paul, Internship Provider, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension
Kelli Larson, Faculty Mentor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Sustainability
