Follow-up
Southern Arizona’s San Pedro River, the
Southwest’s last free-flowing desert
river, dried up for the first time since the U.S.
Geological Survey started tracking flows in 1904 (HCN, 8/30/04: A
Thirst for Growth). Beginning on July 4, river flows fluctuated
between zero and 0.3 cubic feet per second. But when the river
dried on the afternoon of July 9, it did not recover again the next
morning. Robin Silver of the Center for Biological Diversity
attributes the event to extensive groundwater pumping at nearby
Fort Huachuca. But Chris Smith, assistant director for the USGS in
Tucson, believes it’s the result of drought — though,
he adds, "long-term drought does affect groundwater, and you do see
that in streamflow."
Contractors at Oregon’s
Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility are still trying to
figure out how to destroy rockets without actually making them
explode (HCN, 10/11/04: Follow-up). This spring, three explosions
caused fires during the "rocket-chopping
process." The state suspended operations, but less than a
month later, it gave Washington Demilitarization Co. a green light,
satisfied that work could safely resume. In July, the state also
slapped the company with a whopping $7,200 fine for earlier
violations, including incinerating hazardous waste at the wrong
temperature and taking pollution monitoring systems offline.
President Bush has nominated Granta Nakayama, former
chief engineer of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program, as
the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s
enforcement division (HCN, 2/7/05: Bush's second-term shake-ups).
More recently, Nakayama has been a partner at Kirkland & Ellis,
which, according to its Web site, has ranked for 10 years "among
the top five most frequently used (law firms) by Fortune
500 companies." It has helped a tobacco company
disqualify 50 million smokers from medical claims, currently
represents Dow Corning in its breast-implant lawsuits, and helped
W.R. Grace — the company that was knowingly responsible for
asbestos-related deaths, including hundreds in Libby, Mont. —
declare bankruptcy in 2001.
