Tag: Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

Arizona Water Awareness Festival Returns This Saturday

On By azwater

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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        April 8, 2026

Arizona Water Awareness Festival Returns This Saturday

The event brings together agencies and partners to showcase water conservation and protection

PHOENIX — Families looking for some fun activities this weekend can head to Steele Indian School Park for the Arizona Water Awareness Month Festival, a free, interactive event where kids and adults can explore water through hands-on activities, games, and immersive experiences.

Hosted by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the festival brings together more than 20 organizations for a day of learning, exploration, and family-friendly fun.

WHAT: Arizona Water Awareness Month (WAM) Festival

WHEN: Saturday, April 11, 2026, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

WHERE: Steele Indian School Park – 300 E Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85012

COST: Free and open to the public

SPEAKERS:

Ben Bryce, ADWR Special Advisor to the Director

Ben Bryce, ADWR Special Advisor to the Director

Randall Matas, ADEQ Water Quality Division Deputy Director

AGENDA: 

  • 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM – Manic Monkeys Performance
  • 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM – Event Speakers
  • 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM – The Frequency Principle Performance
  • 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM – Mean Gene & Kid Keith
  • 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM – City of Phoenix Public Library Children’s Storytime

WHY YOU SHOULD GO:

  • Free outdoor event for all ages
  • Hands-on activities and games for kids
  • Virtual reality tour of a water treatment facility
  • Interactive booths, demonstrations, and giveaways
  • Gourmet  food trucks and eateries 
  • Live acoustic sessions from local artists
  • A fun way to spend time outside and learn about Arizona’s most precious resource

WHAT YOU’LL SEE & DO:

  • Ride an energy-generating bike and see how much power it takes to move water
  • Step inside a virtual reality tour of a water treatment facility
  • Try hands-on water science activities
  • Watch live water quality monitoring demonstrations
  • Explore exhibits on rivers, wildlife, and water conservation
  • Visit dozens of interactive booths from across Arizona

WHY IT MATTERS:

Water plays a role in nearly every part of life in Arizona—from what we drink and eat to how we enjoy the outdoors. This event gives families a chance to learn where their water comes from, how it’s treated, and how it’s protected across the state.

ADWR works to conserve and manage Arizona’s water supply, while ADEQ ensures that water is safe to drink and protects the quality of rivers and lakes.

PARTICIPANTS WILL INCLUDE:

The festival features more than 20 organizations, including Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona Project WET, City of Phoenix, Salt River Project, Central Arizona Project, Maricopa County Flood Control District, EPCOR Water USA, Arizona Water Company, Sierra Club, YMCA, and others. The festival also will feature live entertainment provided by Mean Gene & Kid Keith, Manic Monkeys, and the Frequency Principle.  Local food will be provided by JT’s Curry Wagon, Cones & Shaved Ice, Cool Vybz Jamaican Restaurant and Baked Chemistry.

CONTACTS:
ADWR Public Information Officer
602-771-8079
smevans@azwater.gov

ADEQ Public Information Officer
480-670-0568
pio@azdeq.gov

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Arizona Water Awareness Festival Returns Saturday, April 11

On By azwater

Color Logo Transparent- For Web

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        April 2, 2026

Arizona Water Awareness Festival Returns Saturday, April 11

The event brings together agencies and partners to showcase water conservation and protection

PHOENIX — Families looking for some fun activities this weekend can head to Steele Indian School Park for the Arizona Water Awareness Month Festival, a free, interactive event where kids and adults can explore water through hands-on activities, games, and immersive experiences.

Hosted by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the festival brings together more than 20 organizations for a day of learning, exploration, and family-friendly fun.

WHAT: Arizona Water Awareness Month (WAM) Festival

WHEN: Saturday, April 11, 2026, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

WHERE: Steele Indian School Park – 300 E Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85012

COST: Free and open to the public

WHY YOU SHOULD GO:

  • Free outdoor event for all ages
  • Hands-on activities and games for kids
  • Virtual reality tour of a water treatment facility
  • Interactive booths, demonstrations, and giveaways
  • Gourmet  food trucks and eateries 
  • Live acoustic sessions from local artists
  • A fun way to spend time outside and learn about Arizona’s most precious resource

WHAT YOU’LL SEE & DO:

  • Ride an energy-generating bike and see how much power it takes to move water
  • Step inside a virtual reality tour of a water treatment facility
  • Try hands-on water science activities
  • Watch live water quality monitoring demonstrations
  • Explore exhibits on rivers, wildlife, and water conservation
  • Visit dozens of interactive booths from across Arizona

WHY IT MATTERS:

Water plays a role in nearly every part of life in Arizona—from what we drink and eat to how we enjoy the outdoors. This event gives families a chance to learn where their water comes from, how it’s treated, and how it’s protected across the state.

ADWR works to conserve and manage Arizona’s water supply, while ADEQ ensures that water is safe to drink and protects the quality of rivers and lakes.

PARTICIPANTS WILL INCLUDE:

The festival features more than 20 organizations, including Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona Project WET, City of Phoenix, Salt River Project, Central Arizona Project, Maricopa County Flood Control District, EPCOR Water USA, Arizona Water Company, Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Sierra Club, YMCA, and others. The festival also will feature live entertainment provided by Mean Gene & Kid Keith, Manic Monkeys, and the Frequency Principle.  Local food will be provided by JT’s Curry Wagon, Cones & Shaved Ice, Cool Vybz Jamaican Restaurant and Baked Chemistry.

CONTACTS:
ADWR Public Information Officer
602-771-8079
smevans@azwater.gov

ADEQ Public Information Officer
480-670-0568
pio@azdeq.gov

###

Water-Treatment Plant Owner Plans Public Hearing On Threats To Santa Cruz River

On By azwater

Nogales sewage

For the people of Nogales, Arizona, the sight of an approaching storm has become something to dread.

Water pouring onto the drought-parched desert of southern Arizona is a wonderful thing. All that water flowing into – and overflowing out of — the fast-disintegrating waste-water sewage system the community shares with Nogales, Mexico, is the stuff of nightmares. Rapidly worsening nightmares that may cost tens of millions of dollars to properly fix.

As a part of the long-running effort to resolve the sewage issues, the co-owner of the area’s sewage-treatment facility, has announced plans for a public meeting in the town of Tubac on September 13.

The purpose of the forum, sponsored by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, or USIBWC, will be to promote the exchange of information between the USIBWC and the community regarding Commission projects and related activities in Pima, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties. Specifically, the discussion will air issues regarding source metals that are being found in Nogales wastewater, as well as the health of the Santa Cruz River.

The Nogales sewage problems begin with a woefully over-taxed 8.8-mile sewage-drainage system known as the International Outflow Interceptor, or “IOI.”

At times, especially during storms, millions of gallons of untreated sewage have been spilling out of breaks in the nearly 70-year-old IOI and elsewhere in the system. In July 2017, the IOI ruptured under the strain of storm water surging up from Mexico, which, as reported by the Arizona Daily Star, spilled “raw sewage into a tributary of the Santa Cruz River and [caused] a significant spike in E. coli bacteria levels near the breach.”

And not just human waste, either. Untreated industrial wastes from Nogales, Mexico – which include regulated mater­­­­ials such as cadmium, lead, copper and zinc — have been discovered in “significant levels” in the wastewater. The pollutants are contaminating the Nogales Wash, under which the IOI is buried, as well as water leaching into the Upper Santa Cruz aquifer and the Santa Cruz River itself.

Health officials, including those from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, now believe that the overtaxed wastewater system is becoming a serious environmental threat to the health of the river, to say nothing of the thousands of Arizonans that rely on groundwater wells tapping into the area aquifer.

The Santa Cruz relies heavily on treated effluent from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant, or NIWTP, near Rio Rico. Co-owned by the U.S. Boundary and Water Commission and the City of Nogales, Arizona, the plant is designed to treat nearly 15 million gallons of water daily, which accounts for about 38 percent of the Santa Cruz flow at that point.

Roughly 10 million gallons of that daily capacity are allocated to Nogales, Sonora, a much larger community (pop. 212,500) than Nogales, Arizona (pop. 20,000). On the U.S. side, Nogales and Rio Rico are allocated 4.84 million gallons of capacity. Annually, Nogales, Arizona, uses just 12 percent of the IOI system providing the as-yet untreated sewage to the plant, while the vast majority of the rest flows north across the border from Sonora.

At the September 13 public meeting in Tubac, a hydrologist from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality will talk about metals in wastewater treated at the NIWTP.

The meeting also will include a presentation by representatives of the Sonoran Institute on the health of the Santa Cruz River.

Who: The International Boundary and Water Commission United States Section

What: A southeast Arizona citizens forum

When: Thursday, September 13; 3 – 5 p.m.

Where: Tubac Community Center; 50 Bridge Road; Tubac, Arizona 85646