A program dedicated to reducing the amount of groundwater withdrawn in Arizona’s five Active Management Areas (AMAs) has announced that it is accepting applications for its $2 million Groundwater Conservation Grant.

The grant program, which has set a February 14, 2020 deadline for entries, accepts proposals for a wide variety of groundwater conservation projects and programs.

The categories include proposals focusing on water innovation and technology, infrastructure water efficiency, ecological enhancement and public outreach and engagement.

The push to “decommission” Glen Canyon Dam – that is, to open up the enormous dam permanently and drain Lake Powell – has been spiking of late, a function of long-standing anti-dam passions fueled by the on-going Southwestern drought.

It is an argument of drought-era opportunism: Why maintain two big, half-full dams when the one downstream – Hoover Dam, holding back Lake Mead – will serve just fine? 

In a sense, referring to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station as a “nuclear” plant is a misnomer.

It isn’t the nuclear-fission process, after all, that makes the enormous turbines within Palo Verde’s three units turn, generating 1,400 megawatts of power each.

Not directly. It is steam driving the turbines of the nation’s largest power plant by net generation, including all three generating units.