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Tucson's Environmental and General Services Department is bringing back their monthly household hazardous waste collection events, providing an opportunity for residents to drop off their hazardous waste, electronic waste and paper documents for shredding at no charge.

The next event will be from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Oct. 9, at Jacobs Park, 3300 N. Fairview Ave.

Here is the rest of the schedule for 2021:

• Nov. 13 –Tucson Rodeo Grounds – 4823 S. 6th Ave (enter on 3rd Ave)
• Dec. 11 – Hi Corbett – 700 S Randolph Way

The City asks you NOT to bring business or commercial waste, commercial gas cylinders, explosives, ammunition, infectious or radioactive waste, dried paint, alkaline batteries, televisions, or medical waste such as syringes or old medications.

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Glen Canyon Institute

Research scientist Seth Arens matches a historic photo in Cataract Canyon in October 2020.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

This story was originally published by ProPublica and the New York Times.

On a 110-degree day several years ago, surrounded by piles of sand and rock in the desert outside of Las Vegas, I stepped into a yellow cage large enough to fit three standing adults and was lowered 600 feet through a black hole into the ground. There, at the bottom, amid pooling water and dripping rock, was an enormous machine driving a cone-shaped drill bit into the earth. The machine was carving a cavernous, 3-mile tunnel beneath the bottom of the nation’s largest freshwater reservoir, Lake Mead.

Lake Mead, a reservoir formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s, is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure on the Colorado River, supplying fresh water to Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico. The reservoir hasn’t been full since 1983. In 2000, it began a steady decline caused by epochal drought. On my visit in 2015, the lake was just about 40% full. A chalky ring on the surrounding cliffs marked where the waterline once reached, like the residue on an empty bathtub. The tunnel far below represented Nevada’s latest salvo in a simmering water war: the construction of a $1.4 billion drainage hole to ensure that if the lake ever ran dry, Las Vegas could get the very last drop.

For years, experts in the American West have predicted that, unless the steady overuse of water was brought under control, the Colorado River would no longer be able to support all of the 40 million people who depend on it. Over the past two decades, Western states took incremental steps to save water, signed agreements to share what was left and then, like Las Vegas, did what they could to protect themselves. But they believed the tipping point was still a long way off.

Like the record-breaking heat waves and the ceaseless mega-fires, the decline of the Colorado River has been faster than expected. This year, even though rainfall and snowpack high up in the Rocky Mountains were at near-normal levels, the parched soils and plants stricken by intense heat absorbed much of the water, and inflows to Lake Powell were around one-fourth of their usual amount. The Colorado’s flow has already declined by nearly 20%, on average, from its flow throughout the 1900s, and if the current rate of warming continues, the loss could well be 50% by the end of this century.

Earlier this month, federal officials declared an emergency water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time. The shortage declaration forces reductions in water deliveries to specific states, beginning with the abrupt cutoff of nearly one-fifth of Arizona’s supply from the river, and modest cuts for Nevada and Mexico, with more negotiations and cuts to follow. But it also sounded an alarm: one of the country’s most important sources of fresh water is in peril, another victim of the accelerating climate crisis.

Americans are about to face all sorts of difficult choices about how and where to live as the climate continues to heat up. States will be forced to choose which coastlines to abandon as sea levels rise, which wildfire-prone suburbs to retreat from and which small towns cannot afford new infrastructure to protect against floods or heat. What to do in the parts of the country that are losing their essential supply of water may turn out to be the first among those choices.

Access to child care became increasingly limited across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Programs closed and building capacities were restricted, straining caregivers and the economy, which relied heavily on child care to get Americans back to work.

It was a crisis before COVID-19 emerged in early 2020. The Center for American Progress reported that in 2018, more than half of Americans lived in a child care desert – a census tract where resources are so scarce that there are more than 50 children younger than 5 with no child care options, or there are so few options that children outnumber licensed slots 3 to 1.

But in March 2020, when public school systems switched to remote learning, parents who required child care paid high sums for daycare centers that relied on workers who were earning minimum wage to carry out an essential service.

A report from the Economic Policy Institute cites a median hourly wage for child care workers of $10.31 an hour.

When COVID-19 cases began to fall this spring and the economy loosened up, those same daycare businesses were struggling to recover after months of closures and high turnover of low-wage workers, as well as ongoing pandemic restrictions.

Brooke Skidmore, director of the Growing Tree Child Care Center in New Glarus, Wisconsin, walked through her center with sorrow as she gazed into the classrooms that once held children laughing, playing and learning, but now store excess furniture, toys and supplies.

“I went from having between 12 and 14 teachers down to four teachers,” Skidmore said. “I think I’m now close to 50 children, but we still have wait lists in all ages. But I have multiple rooms that sit empty, and that is, again, lack of teachers.”

Skidmore said that pay has been the primary reason for the shortage of childcare teachers.

When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against an income tax hike that voters approved last year, it illuminated another K-12 funding issue that could strip $600 million a year out of Arizona schools. 

Funding from the legislature’s 2018 extension of an expiring sales tax is likely to count against an education spending limit that voters imposed on the state more than four decades ago. Recent increases in K-12 spending, along with a COVID-induced reduction in the spending cap, are making an urgent problem all the more dire. 

Proposition 301, which voters approved in 2000, enacted a six-tenths percent sales tax increase to fund education. That tax hike was only good for 20 years, so in the face of a rapidly approaching expiration date, lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey approved an extension in 2018. 

But they didn’t replicate a key element of Prop. 301. While lawmakers two decades ago recognized that the sales tax money would violate the constitutional spending limit and convinced voters in 2002 to exempt the recently approved ballot measure, that exemption doesn’t apply to the 2018 extension — and legislators haven’t asked voters to ensure that schools can spend the money. 

Lawmakers three years ago copied language from the 2000 ballot measure declaring that money from the reauthorized sales tax hike is exempt from the spending limit, but didn’t ask voters to amend the 1980 spending cap to exempt the sales tax extension.

And the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on Proposition 208 makes clear that that won’t cut it, putting the $600 million in annual sales tax revenue in jeopardy.

The Invest in Education Act, which voters approved as Prop. 208, created a 3.5% income tax surcharge on Arizonans who earn more than $250,000 a year in order to inject an estimated $827 million a year into public schools, much of it aimed at increasing pay for teachers. To get around the spending cap, the ballot measure classified the new money as a grant and declared that the funding was “not considered local revenues” subject to the constitutional limit. 

Pima Animal Care Center is looking to pair furry friends with loving humans during a month of “Clear the Shelters” events.

PACC is offering an adoption promotion every week until Sept. 19 to free space at the shelter.

“We are very excited to have this adoption event happening at PACC!” said Monica Dangler, director of Animal Services. “This event couldn’t come at a better time with the shelter being so full.”

Pima’s shelter is filled to the brim with new dogs because of monsoon weather and specific needs for large dogs. The shelter hopes this month of events will incentivize adopters and fosters to help clear space for animals that can’t be adopted right away.

This week, PACC is offering a $0 adoption fee for all animals in the shelter. Additional promotions throughout the month will be announced via social media every Monday.

The shelter is hosting four events in their multi-purpose room this month:

• Foster Fair on Aug. 29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Long Stay Lounge on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Foster Fair Sept. 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The main event will be a “Party at PACC” on Sept. 19. Giveaways, prizes, and food trucks are available to attendees.

Take a look at available pets before heading to the shelter at pima.gov/animalcare. You can also find more information about the “Clear the Shelters” event at cleartheshelters.com.

PACC is located at 4000 N. Silverbell Road, open Monday to Friday, noon to 7 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

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Courtesy University of Arizona

PHOENIX – The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced an official alliance Tuesday – a move that could impact the athletic programs at Arizona State and Arizona as well as the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.

“Despite the shifting landscape, there are some critical constants among many college athletics, and specifically among every one of the 41 institutions in our three conferences,” said new Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff. “These constants include a resolute commitment to our student-athletes, a commitment to both academic and athletic excellence and a commitment to protecting that which makes college sports so special for our student-athletes, alumni and fans.”

The decision could pave the way for matchups appealing to Pac-12 fans, such as Arizona State-Ohio State or Arizona-Clemson. It also has the potential to give the alliance leverage in determining the structure of a 12-team College Football Playoff format, in how playoff games are divvied up among bowl games like the Fiesta and in television contract negotiations.

There is no signed contract or legal document to bind the alliance, as it operates under a gentlemen’s agreement. However, the conferences will join forces on critical issues in college athletics.

“It’s about trust,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. “It’s about, we’ve looked each other in the eye. We’ve made an agreement. We have great confidence and faith.”

Among the prevalent issues within collegiate athletics, the alliance hopes to address are athlete mental and physical health; strong academic experience and support; diversity; gender equity; future structure of the NCAA; and postseason championships and future formats.

In the wake of plans by Texas and Oklahoma to move from the Big 12 to the SEC by 2025, the new alliance between the three Power Five conferences will add much-needed leverage for the 41 institutions involved.