Law prof's book outlines threats to the nation's ground water

In the United States, and possibly only in this country, can a common thread be found between a trout stream in Wisconsin, an army base in Arizona and french fries in Minnesota, says Robert Glennon.

The unlikely connection, Glennon says, is ground water. More specifically, it is about how pumping water out of underground aquifers is reshaping both the physical and the economic landscape of the United States.

"Water Follies," a book by Glennon, the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law at the UA, is the first book to detail how policy and demand affect the nation's supply of underground water. Glennon outlines the labyrinth of United States water laws and offers a dozen vignettes of the consequences ÷ intended and unintended ÷ of draining away our underground water supplies.

Pumping ground water is a practice thousands of years old, but is only well-understood by a handful of scientists and engineers. While it may not be understood by consumers and policy makers, ground water is an important link in the hydrological cycle "because it sustains our rivers, lakes and wetlands," Glennon says. "Ground water pumping disrupts this cycle, causing rivers and lakes to dry up, the ground beneath us to collapse, and fish, birds, wildlife, trees and shrubs to die."

KUAT-TV'S Channel 6 signal to be off the air in mid-October

Viewers who watch KUAT-TV over the air on Channel 6 might miss their favorite programs for a few days as the station prepares for its transition to digital television. An upgrade to the Channel 6 tower is scheduled to begin today, making the Channel 6 signal unavailable for approximately three days.

The majority of KUAT's viewers will not be affected by the outage. The station will continue to be available to most cable subscribers, including all Comcast and Cox Cable subscribers in the Tucson metropolitan area, as well as viewers who watch KUAT on Channel 27.

The upgrade is part of KUAT's conversion from an analog to a digital signal, as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission. The interruption is a necessary step in preparing the station's Channel 6 tower site for the conversion.

KUAT-TV, an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is part of the KUAT Communications Group, an educational broadcast and production resource of the UA.

Researcher wins 3-year grant to study AIDS in South Tucson

Andrea Romero, an assistant Mexican-American studies professor, has received a three-year grant worth nearly $1 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund a substance abuse and HIV prevention research project.

The project aims to increase awareness of HIV and substance abuse among youths and families in South Tucson, and is a collaboration between the UA, the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation and the city of South Tucson. The partnership will be called the South Tucson Prevention Collaborative, and presents a unique opportunity for these organizations to bring together their expertise and provide effective substance use and HIV prevention programs.

The UA component will be led by Romero, who is on the faculty of the Mexican American Studies & Research Center, along with Sally Stevens, who is on the faculty of the UA Southwest Institute for Research on Women. The total amount of the grant over three years is projected to be $958,983.