Transitions

Placido dos Santos is the new Border Environmental Manager for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. He comes to the position from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, where he served as the first area director of the Santa Cruz AMA. Alejandro Barcenas was appointed the new AMA director. He formerly was Nogales city engineer.

Also in the Santa Cruz AMA, Steve Abernathy was named to a Water Resource Specialist (II) position. He takes over a position previously held by Keith Nelson, who now is with the Department of Water Resources' Hydrology unit in Phoenix.

Bill Campbell has taken a newly created groundwater technician job with the Arizona Small Utility Association in Tucson. Previously, Campbell was a Water Resource Specialist with the Pinal AMA of the Department of Water Resources, where he worked with the grants program and water rights compliance and enforcement.

Tim Henley was named manager of the Arizona Water Bank in July 1996. Jimmy Jayne was appointed technical administrator of the Water Bank. Henley formerly headed the Colorado River Management Section of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. That position was taken over by Tom Carr, who was in Program Management for the Department.

Trish McCraw has transferred within the Arizona Department of Water Resources from head of the Arizona Water Protection Fund to a position in the Colorado River Management Section of the Surface Water Management Division. No replacement has yet been named to head up the Water Protection Fund.

Peter Wierenga is the Acting Director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona. Wierenga, a soil physicist, also heads the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science in the UA's College of Agriculture. He recently was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Former Water Center Director Hanna Cortner began a one-year sabbatical in January. Former Senior Research Specialist Mary Wallace is completing her PhD and teaching in the School of Renewable Natural Resources.

Vic Baker became the new head of the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona in August of 1996. He succeeds Soroosh Sorooshian, who remains as a professor in the department. Vic Baker was formerly a professor of Geosciences with a joint appointment at the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the UofA. He has retained both of these appointments.

Two key figures from the early years of the UA's Hydrology department recently passed away. Eugene Simpson, longtime professor and former department head, died in December at the age of 78. Simpson was a pioneer in the field of hydrogeology, and was among the first to recognize the need to protect groundwater from radioactive materials and other contaminants. His career at the University of Arizona stretched from 1965 through 1985, and included considerable research for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and abroad on the subject of pollutant movement through fractured rock of low permeability. Daniel Evans, professor emeritus, died in late November at the age of 76. Evans began his 26-year career at the University of Arizona as a professor of agricultural chemistry and soils in 1963. The following year, he joined the hydrology program, eventually serving twice as department head. His research program included extensive work for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Karen Heidel is the acting head of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's Water Quality Division. She stepped in after Kim MacEachern left ADEQ earlier this year.

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