Water Quality in Arizona
Team 6. Bingquan Zhao, Kaiyuan Zhang, Feng Yang,
Hannah Six，Chenyang Wang, Zelin Shao
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Overview
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Water supplies for Arizona
Pollution Hazards
Government Standards
Current Technologies for water pollution control
Advantages and disadvantages to the new and
current technologies
 Suggestion for a better solution
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Arizona Four Major Sources of
Water
 The Colorado River
 Surface Water ( other than Colorado River)
 Groundwater
 Reclaimed Water
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Surface Water Distribution
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Water major use category
8 million acre-feet or 2.3 trillion gallons annually
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Diseases that can be spread by
chemical pollutants
Skin infections
Carcinogenic problems (by Nitrosamine)
Damage to central nervous system (by Phthalates)
Intestinal disorders (by Polychlorinated biphenyls)
Anaemia, bone marrow damage, leukaemia (by Benzene)
Disorders of liver, bone and circulatory system, birth anomalies
(by Vinyl chloride)
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Government Standards
 The Safe Drinking Water Act
 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets
standards for drinking water quality and oversees the
states, localities, and water suppliers who implement
those standards.
 The U.S. EPA has set standards for more than 80
primary contaminants that may occur in drinking
water and pose a risk to human health
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Where does Water come from
• Snow and rain runoff
from the watersheds in
Arizona
• Several dams
• Colorado River
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Government Responsibilities
 Ensuring that Arizona's public water systems deliver safe
drinking water
 Identifying water pollution problems and establishing
standards to address them
 Investigating complaints and violations of Arizona's water
quality laws, rules and permits
 Issuing permits to protect Arizona waters from point sources of
pollution
 Managing the quality of water resources through partnerships
within the natural boundaries of the state's watersheds
 Monitoring and assessing the quality of surface and
groundwater throughout the state
 Regulating the discharge and treatment of wastewater
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Water Quality Division
 water quality permits
 Safeguard Arizona’s waters that are affected by pollutants
that come from an identifiable source.
 For example: The Groundwater Section & Surface Water
Section
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Tradable Water Permits
 Firms are allowed “purchase pollution reduction
credits from other sources that can generate the
same reductions at a lower cost, thus achieving
the same or better overall water quality
improvement” (EPA).
 Currently operating in seven states across the
nation, in the development process in four other
states.
Arizona Water Trading Programs
 No state trading programs in Arizona
 Few independent water quality trade initiatives in
Arizona
 For example, a mining company cleaned up an abandon
mine with the conditional trade of copper loading that
was being released from the companies new mine
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
http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~sdatta/home/teaching/hydro/slides/population_water_arizona.gif
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Conclusion
 Four major water sources in Arizona.
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Colorado river
Surface water
Groundwater
Reclaimed water
 Pollution hazards
 health
 economy
 industrial and agricultural productions.
 Government control water quality.
 SDWA
 Tradable permits
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Suggestions
 Preventing leakage of lubrication oil into rivers or
lakes.
 Promoting clean production and built high-tech
industry to reduce waste and pollution
 Building man-made water flow management system
to enhances the self-purifying ability.
 Setting the inspected program to check water
situation.
 Issuing permits to protect water sources.
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Questions???
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