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Donovan: Today’s Arizona students are tomorrow’s environmental stewards

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Arizona’s current drought is coming up on 15 years in length and has surpassed the worst drought in more than 110 years of official record keeping.

Arizona’s water reservoirs are severely depleted, and according to the United States Drought Monitor, nearly 99% of Arizona is in some sort of drought.

So, what does this mean for Arizonans and what can be done to prevent this? The EPA and other federal agencies, state agencies and industries continue to diligently research future resolutions.

Still, part of the solution must be providing education focused on environmentalism and conservationism and opening up career opportunities for students who are passionate about improving and protecting Arizona’s water supply.

Western Maricopa Education Center, a career technical education public school district for high school and adult students, currently offers a hands-on Environmental Sustainability Program that prepares students with laboratory and technical knowledge for entry-level water services positions with some of the largest companies in the state.

West-MEC students are learning how to solve complex problems pertaining to the water cycle, water and wastewater treatment and could be the key to protecting and preserving Arizona’s future water supply.

Rickie Timmons, an instructor for the program and industry professional with more than 40 years’ experience in the nuclear power space, says students study local and statewide environmental issues to understand the core problems that the drought is currently presenting to the Southwestern U.S.

The long-term drought was slightly alleviated thanks to an above-average monsoon season for many portions of the state, but the fact is it took thousands of years to fill the aquifers in the Southwest, there is simply not enough rain in this region to make up for the rate that locals are using water.

Timmons notes that it will take a diverse pool of innovative people like our West-MEC students to find workable solutions to these types of problems, adding, “looking at one potential problem, such as climate change, is a very small view of a variety of issues facing the environment today — consider plastic trash, overpopulation, loss of good soil to grow an adequate food supply.

The world changes, as do the people in it, so our prevention measures and solutions should too.”

Take last summer when, for the first time in history, a water shortage was declared on the Colorado River, which is a major source of water for Arizona. The New York Times reported that the shortage will reduce Arizona’s supply of water, delivered by a system of canals and pumping stations called the Central Arizona Project, by about 512,000 acre-feet.

Adaptation to future water stresses in Arizona will be difficult and costly and will affect numerous industries, including tourism, high-tech manufacturing, agriculture and ranching. The hands-on education West-MEC students receive is imperative. It improves decision-making, increases adaptation and mitigation capacities, and empowers them to explore future sustainable practices.

As West-MEC’s Environmental Sustainability Program students continue their education, we can all do our part by encouraging our youth to use natural resources like water more wisely, volunteer for environmentally focused community events and think about what future generations may experience because of continued climate changes.

Editor’s note: Greg Donovan is the superintendent at Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC), which has campuses throughout the West Valley. Learn more at west-mec.edu.