ARIZONA

Drought, water overuse prompt construction limits in parts of Phoenix

PHOENIX – Arizona will not approve new housing construction on the fast-growing edges of metro Phoenix that rely on groundwater thanks to years of overuse and a multi-decade drought that is sapping its water supply.

In a news conference on June 1, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the restrictions that could affect some of the fastest-growing suburbs of the nation’s fifth-largest city.

Officials said developers could still build in the affected areas but would need to find alternative water sources to do so – such as surface or recycled water.

Driving the state’s decision was a projection that showed that over the next 100 years, demand in metro Phoenix for almost 4.9 million acre-feet of groundwater would be unmet without further action, Hobbs said. An acre-foot of water is roughly enough for two to three U.S. households per year.

Despite the move, the governor said the state isn’t running out of water. “Nobody who has water is going to lose their water,” Hobbs said.

Officials said the move would not affect existing homeowners who already have assured water supplies.

Hobbs added that there are 80,000 unbuilt homes that will be able to move forward because they already have assured water supply certificates within the Phoenix Active Management Area, a designation used for regulating groundwater.

Phoenix relies on imported Colorado River water and also uses water from the in-state Salt and Verde rivers. A small amount of the city’s water supply comes from groundwater and recycled wastewater.

The drought has made groundwater – held in underground aquifers that can take many years to be replenished – even more vital.

Under a 1980 state law aimed at protecting the state’s aquifers, Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities have restrictions on how much groundwater they can pump. But in rural areas, there are few limitations on its use.

NEW MEXICO

Biden orders 20-year ban on oil, gas drilling to protect tribal sites near Chaco

SANTA FE – Hundreds of square miles in New Mexico will be withdrawn from further oil and gas production for the next 20 years on the outskirts of Chaco Culture National Historical Park that tribal communities consider sacred, the Biden administration ordered on June 2.

The new order from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland applies to public lands and associated mineral rights within a 10-mile radius of the park. It does not apply to entities that are privately, state- or tribal-owned. Existing leases won’t be impacted either.

A World Heritage site, Chaco Culture National Historical Park is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization, with many tribes from the Southwest tracing their roots to the high desert outpost.

A recent assessment published by the Interior Department shows that the withdrawal will result in a few dozen wells not being drilled.

The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association has argued that the plan would leave additional leases on Navajo land or allotments owned by individual Navajos landlocked by taking federal mineral holdings off the board.

Navajo Nation officials have made similar arguments, saying millions of dollars in annual oil and gas revenues benefit the tribe and individual tribal members. The Navajo Nation completed its own study last year and advocated for a smaller area to be set aside given the economic impacts a withdrawal would have on the tribe.

The Bureau of Land Management said the 10-mile radius would help protect more than 4,700 known archaeological sites outside the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, while a 5-mile radius would encompass about 2,800 of the sites.

Officials confirm state’s 1st case of fungal disease of hibernating bats

SANTA FE – White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease of hibernating bats, has been confirmed in New Mexico for the first time, authorities said on June 5.

The state Department of Game and Fish said samples from two live bats and two deceased bats were collected in late April from caves managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management in Lincoln and De Baca counties.

Those two counties are far from Curry County, which is home to Carlsbad Caverns.

Game and Fish officials said the two dead bats were confirmed with white-nose syndrome – a fringed myotis in Lincoln County and a cave myotis in De Baca County.

They said white-nose syndrome is caused by an invasive fungal pathogen that was previously detected in New Mexico in 2021, but evidence of the bat disease wasn’t confirmed in New Mexico until now.

Authorities said the disease has killed millions of bats in North America since 2006.

A powdery, white fungus grows on the skin of hibernating bats, often on the face, leading to irritation and dehydration.

That causes bats to stop hibernating early and exhaust fat stores they need to survive the winter, often leading to death.

Neither the fungus nor the disease affects humans.

IDAHO

Families sue to block law barring gender-affirming care for minors

BOISE – The families of two transgender teenagers filed a lawsuit on June 1 to block enforcement of Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.

The ban, which was signed into law in April and scheduled to take effect in January 2024, violates the federal constitutional guarantee of equal protection for the teens and due process for their parents, the families said in the filing in U.S. District Court.

The plaintiffs, whose legal representation includes lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, note that the law makes it a felony for doctors to provide puberty blockers, hormone treatment and surgery for minors only in cases in which it is to help align their bodies with their gender identities. The same treatments are allowed for other purposes.

The lawsuit was expected even before the ban was signed, and follows a pattern in Republican-controlled states. At least 20 have enacted laws or policies barring gender-affirming care in recent years; several are so new they haven’t taken effect yet. Most of the bans have been challenged in court.

Defendants in the lawsuit include Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, a county prosecutor and members of the Idaho Code Commission. Labrador’s office, which would likely defend the law in court, said in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation.

KANSAS

After years of controversy, national bio-defense lab opens

MANHATTAN – After more than a decade of controversy and delays, the nation’s most secure biosecurity laboratory for research on potentially deadly animal and plant diseases has opened in Manhattan, Kansas.

Although a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on May 24, researchers at the $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility are not expected to begin working on biohazards for more than a year, officials said.

For now, staff will conduct compliance and regulatory work, prepare protocols and operating procedures and train before working with any pathogens, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Initially estimated to cost $451 million, the price tag more than doubled after the National Research Council published a report in 2010 that questioned putting the facility in the heart of cattle country with a history of large, destructive tornadoes.

Department of Homeland Security officials said the increased cost came in part because the lab’s design was changed to reduce the possibility of releasing deadly pathogens.

The laboratory replaces an aging facility in Plum Island, New York.

The northeastern Kansas facility will be the nation’s only large-animal biosafety Level 4 lab, which means it will be able to handle pathogens that do not currently have treatments or countermeasures.