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Transitions
Pat Zurick, Director of Santa Cruz
County Public Health Department, has accepted a position as environmental
health director of the Gallatin County Health Department in Bozeman, Montana.
Zurick, who joined the depart ment six years ago, is credited with bringing
threatening environmental problems in Nogales and the surrounding international
border area to the attention of state and federal officials and the general
public. During his tenure, Zurick has addressed such issues as sewage
flowing through Nogales wash, septic system siting standards, and smoke
from a burning landfill in Nogales, Sonora. Zurick also has been a strong
advocate for federal support for expanded wastewater treatment plant facilities.
- In Gallatin County, Montana, Zurick will be dealing with different
environmental issues. Located on the edge of Yellowstone National
Park, and with a population of 54,000, Gallatin County's environmental
concerns involve maintaining the environmenta l integrity instead
of correcting environmental damage.
As stipulated by state law, the newly authorized Pinal
County Water Augmentation Authority recently has been formed.
Members were selected by Governor Symington from
a submitted list.
- The board is made up of the following members: Jimmie B.
Kerr, Pinal County Board of Supervisors; Roger Hooper,
City of Casa Grande; Jim Sweeney, City of Eloy; Paul
Prechel, City of Coolidge; Jerry Allen,
Town of Florence, Rick Aguirre, Central Arizona Irrigation
and Drainage District; Bill Little, manager of private
water districts; Eric Olsen, Arizona Water Company
; and Van Tenney, Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and
Drainage District (but see story below). The Authority currently is
working to develop a mission and plan.
Van Tenney has left his position as general manager
of Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District
to accept a similar position with the Glenn Colusa District
in Willows, California. The District , located north of Sacramento,
contains some 160,000 irrigable acres. Rice is a principal crop.
Maricopa Stanfield's board has elected not to name an interim general
manager, choosing instead to immediately launch a nation-wide search
for a replacement. The District hopes to have a new general manager
on board by late June or early July.
- In an unrelated development, Chairman Bill Scott
recently resigned from Maricopa Stanfield's board. Board member Dennis
Nowlin is the new chairman. The vacancy on the board created
by Scott's resignation has been f illed by Jack Korsten, Jr.,
a farmer from Stansfield.
Thomas C. Turney has been appointed State Engineer
of New Mexico by Governor Gary Johnson. Turney
replaces Don Lopez, who had been serving as Acting
State Engineer since the resignation of Eluid Martinez
last December. Turney, a 45-year-old native of Santa Fe, has a master's
degree in sanitary engineering from New Mexico State University,
and is licensed to practice civil, electrical, and architectural
engineering.
- Turney's experience in water rights transfer and stream modeling
will be put to use as he tackles several pressing issues, including
a five-year study of the water supply situation for the central Rio
Grande basin, the need for statewide water planni ng, and instream
flow disputes. New Mexico is the only state with no appropriation
mechanism for instream flows to support habitat and recreation.
Noted marine geologist Robert Dietz died May
19 at his home in Tempe of a heart attack. He was 80.
- Dietz, who was a professor of geology at Arizona State University
until his retirement in 1985, was involved in many groundbreaking
studies in global geology. In the 1950s, while with the U.S. Navy,
he arranged the purchase of aqua-lungs, precursors of scuba equipment,
from Jacques Cousteau of France. He also participated in the construction
of the bathysphere Trieste and its exploration of the Challenger Deep
in the western Pacific.
- In the 1960s, Dietz elaborated on Harry Hess's theory of continental
drift by describing the phenomenon of sea-floor spreading. During
the 1970s, Dietz and colleague John Holden published maps showing
how modern continents once had been part of a si ngle continent. Dietz
also was associated with Project Mohole, an effort to drill a hole
through ocean depths deep into the earth's crust.
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