Boulders and mud close US89A north of Grand Canyon

The Arizona Dept. of Transportation warned drivers that US 89A is closed Monday morning north of the Grand Canyon as crews work to remove mud and boulders from the road following heavy rain on Sunday. [photo credit, AZ Dept of Public Safety]

The closure is in place from five miles west of Marble Canyon (milepost 545) to Jacob Lake (milepost 579). There is no estimated time for when the road will reopen, but the closure is expected to remain in place until at least late Monday morning.    The Arizona [Phoenix] Republic posted this video from Avondal resident Tricia Leonhardt showing the flood waters actually crossing the highway and the aftermath.




Jacob Lake is located at the junction of US 89A and US 67, the route to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

ADOT crews from Page, Fredonia and Gray Mountain are working to reopen US 89A [bottom right, photo credit, ADOT]


For updated information on the closure, please visit the ADOT Travel Information Site, AZ511.gov or follow us on Twitter, @ArizonaDOT.

[excerpted from the ADOT announcement]

Flood warning for Havasu Canyon campgrounds

The National Weather Service is warning that heavy rains are expected to cause flooding on Havasu Creek and flood campsites and foot bridges.

This time of year there can be hundreds of campers in the campgrounds in the scenic canyon on the Havasu Reservation just south of the Grand Canyon.  In 2008 (corrected 8-10-15, from 2006), flash floods forced ~400 campers to flee to high ground in the middle of the night.

Flooding in 2010 again washed out footbridges and destroyed campgrounds. [Right, 2010 flood damage. Photo by Brian Gootee, AZGS]

The NWS forecast says:

AT 141 PM MST...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED 

HEAVY RAIN DUE TO THUNDERSTORMS HAD 

FALLEN IN THE CATARACT CREEK BASIN...

SOUTHEAST OF SUPAI VILLAGE. 

THIS WILL CAUSE SMALL STREAM FLOODING.

* SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE...SUPAI AND
  HAVASUPAI RESERVATION.

A STREAM LEVEL NEAR 17 FEET IS EXPECTED THIS EVENING...BETWEEN 6 PM
AND 9 PM...AT HAVASU CREEK NEAR SUPAI VILLAGE.

AT A STREAM LEVEL OF 17 FEET...MINOR FLOODING WILL OCCUR. FOOT
BRIDGES WILL BE WASHED OUT IN SUPAI CAMPGROUND. SOME CAMPSITES WILL
BE FLOODED. CAMPERS MAY BE STRANDED IN PORTIONS OF THE CAMPGROUND.

New Director at Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality

Henry Darwin, Director of the Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality, is taking the job as Chief of Operations for Gov. Doug Ducey, replacing Ted Vogt, who is returning to the private sector.

ADEQ Deputy Director Misael Cabrera [right, my photo, 2013] will take over as Director at the end of August.

The Governor's Office issued this statement today:

“Mr. Darwin has a strong record of success in operations and driving outcomes,” Governor Ducey said. “His leadership will be vital as we work every day to deliver results to the people of Arizona. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality will be in great hands under the leadership of Mr. Cabrera, who brings both private and public sector experience to this critical role.”
The staffing transitions will take place by the end of August.

About Henry Darwin: Mr. Darwin was appointed ADEQ Director in February 2011 and since then has led the agency’s transformation.  Highlights of the transformation include: reducing permitting timeframes for the most complex environmental permits by over 60%; doubling the number of State-led underground storage tank clean-ups; reducing vehicle emissions inspections fees by 25% (Maricopa County); helping customers return to compliance nearly 50% faster; and implementing over 150 employee-initiated improvement projects.  He has done so with a budget and staffing that are 30% less than pre-recession levels.

Mr. Darwin has served the State of Arizona for 18 years, previously holding a variety of positions including ADEQ's Deputy Director and Administrative Counsel.  A Yuma native, Mr. Darwin has a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Arizona and a Juris Doctorate from Lewis & Clark College's Northwestern School of Law.  He is a licensed attorney in Arizona.

About Misael Cabrera: Mr. Cabrera was selected as ADEQ's Deputy Director in November 2011. A registered professional engineer, Mr. Cabrera has over two decades of experience in the environmental field. His background includes: business (profit and loss) and organizational leadership, regulatory negotiations, contract management, site characterization and remediation, permitting, design and construction management.

Before joining ADEQ, Mr. Cabrera served in a variety of leadership roles in private sector engineering and environmental consulting firms. He served as a senior client leader Haley & Aldrich's Industrial Environmental practice in Phoenix. He led the environmental business unit for AMEC Earth & Environmental and managed the environmental business group for CH2MHILL in Tempe.

Mr. Cabrera has lived in Arizona since 1984 and received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Arizona.

More than a year later, aftershocks continue in the Duncan area

A magnitude 3.2 earthquake was felt across eastern Arizona and western New Mexico at about 9:18 pm local time last night.   The quake occurred in the same general area near the town of Duncan that was hit by a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on June 28, 2015.  This appears to be another aftershock to that larger event.   [Right, orange star marks epicenter of quake. Credit, USGS]

The 2014 quake was the largest in the region in over 35 years.
 

Inaugural newsletter on Military Geosciences

The International Association for Military Geosciences has released its inaugural newsletter.  In the announcement I received, associations Secretary, Drew Craig, says, "The International Association for Military Geosciences is a not-for-profit organization, administered by its members and represented by a Coordinating Committee. Membership in the Association is free and open to researchers and practitioners of military geology and geography and associated fields. Membership is open to all with no distinction of religion, nationality, gender or language."      [Photo credit, IAMG]

He encourages anyone with recommendations or suggestions for the group and this newsletter, to please get in touch at Drew Craig, Secretary@militarygeoscience.org

The 11th International Conference on Military Geosciences was held in June at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. 

The primary theme for this event was: The Future of Military Geosciences: Scientific Capabilities, Global Security, and Sustainability.

Sub-themes included these and other topics:

• International security: borders to natural resources
• Sustainability: from military training areas to deployed settings
• Coastal and marine environments: warfare to environmental impacts
• Climate and conflict: military response to predictive climate change
• 21st Century military hotspots: Future conflict - past warfare 
• Beyond warfare: Pandemics to providing vital resources 

Shh! Arizona oil exploration is covert search for buried alien spacecraft

You know that recent report that a California geophysical services company is shooting seismic lines south of Kingman as part of an exploration program to look for oil and gas potential?   Well, according to some folks in Mohave County, it's all a cover up to hide the real purpose - a search for an alien spaceship that crashed in 1947 and somehow is now buried hundreds of feet below the surface.   Without leaving a surface trace.   [Right, still from the 1950s sci-fi film, "It Came From Outer Space"]   

Clearly the article is a spoof, but read the comments from people who describe not one but two buried spacecraft and an almost rush hour like stream of UFOs zooming around the area.

So, let me offer my theory - the alien spacecraft is actually an intergalactic oil tanker.  But the question is whether it came here to steal our oil and take it home, or to dump their own oil here using Earth as a giant waste site.