ARIZONA

Phoenix ends 31-day streak of highs at or above 110 degrees

PHOENIX – A record string of daily highs over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix ended on July 31 as the dangerous heat wave that suffocated the Southwest throughout July receded slightly with cooling monsoon rains.

The historic heat began blasting the region in June, stretching from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California’s desert. Phoenix and its suburbs sweltered more and longer than most, with several records including the 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit-plus weather. The previous record was 18 straight days, set in 1974.

The streak was finally broken on July 31 when the high topped out at 108 degrees Fahrenheit at 3:10 p.m.

The reprieve was expected to be brief, with the forecast calling for highs again above 110 for several days later in the week. And National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Hirsch said August could be even hotter than July.

Phoenix also sweated through a record 16 consecutive days when overnight lows didn’t dip below 90 degrees, making it hard for people to cool off after the sun went down.

In California, Death Valley, long considered the hottest place on Earth, flirted in July with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, reaching 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit on July 16 at the aptly named Furnace Creek.

And in Nevada, also on July 16, Las Vegas briefly reached 116 degrees to tie the record for that date set in 1998.

Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous and home to Phoenix, reported 25 heat-related deaths this year as of July 21. Another 249 deaths are listed as under investigation, and results from toxicological tests that can take weeks or months after an autopsy could lead to many being confirmed as heat-related.

Maricopa County reported 425 heat-associated deaths in all of 2022, with more than half in July.

NORTH DAKOTA

Pipeline operators to pay $12.5M after crude oil spills

BISMARCK – Two pipeline operators have agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty related to crude oil spills in Montana and North Dakota.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 31 announced the settlement in a 2022 federal court lawsuit. Belle Fourche Pipeline Company and Bridger Pipeline LLC will pay the $12.5 million to resolve the claims made under the Clean Water Act and Pipeline Safety Laws, the EPA said. The affiliated companies own and operate oil pipelines in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

In 2015, Bridger’s Poplar Pipeline broke and spilled more than 50,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana. Bridger has completed cleanup of the site, and in 2021 settled a lawsuit with federal and Montana authorities for $2 million. Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality previously fined Bridger $1 million in the case.

In 2016, Belle Fourche’s Bicentennial Pipeline in Billings County, North Dakota, broke due to a landslide and spilled over 600,000 gallons of oil, impacting an unnamed tributary, Ash Coulee Creek and the Little Missouri River.

The agreement does not resolve all issues with the Ash Coulee spill and reserves the government’s right to bring future legal claims.

The operators also are required to implement specified compliance measures, in addition to the civil penalty.

Belle Fourche and Bridger are owned by Wyoming-based True Companies.

Bridger spokesman Bill Salvin said the operators have made upgrades to their pipeline network to enhance safety, including a new control center at their Casper, Wyoming, headquarters and a new leak detection system powered by artificial intelligence.

MONTANA

Traps removed after no sign of the grizzly that killed woman

BILLINGS – Wildlife workers on July 25 halted their efforts to capture a grizzly bear that killed a woman over the previous weekend near Yellowstone National Park after finding no sign of the animal since the day of the attack.

Amie Adamson, 48, was killed on the morning of July 22 while running or hiking alone on a forest trail about 8 miles west of the park, officials said. The bear was traveling with one or more cubs, and officials believe it struck Adamson during a surprise encounter before fleeing the area.

“The information that we have suggests that this was defensive behavior, and it’s completely normal and natural for grizzly bears,” said Morgan Jacobsen with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We don’t know for sure because we have no witnesses and we haven’t recovered a bear.”

Traps made from metal culverts and baited with meat were placed around the attack site over three nights with no success.

Her mother, Janet Adamson, said her daughter – a former teacher from Kansas who left education to backpack across part of the U.S. and later wrote a book about her experiences – “died doing what she loved.”

Amie Adamson did not have bear spray – a deterrent wildlife experts recommend people carry in areas frequented by grizzly bears. A hiker found her body around 8 a.m. on July 22. The cause of death was excessive blood loss caused by a bear mauling, the coroner’s office said.

More than 1,000 grizzlies roam the Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Roughly the same number live in northwestern Montana around Glacier National Park.

NEW MEXICO

Judge dismisses lawsuit in death of state police officer

ALBUQUERQUE – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on July 26 alleging the Department of Homeland Security was negligent in a drug bust that resulted in the first New Mexico State Police officer killed in the line of duty in over three decades.

U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs ruled that the government had sovereign immunity and its employees were using discretionary function in the Feb. 4, 2021, death of Darian Jarrott, 28, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

There were multiple lawsuits filed at the state and federal level regarding Jarrott’s death.

Jarrott, a father of four, was helping with a homeland security investigation when a suspect shot and killed him, according to the Journal.

The suspect shot Jarrott at a traffic stop during a car chase with authorities. That ended in a gunfight that injured another officer.

Homeland Security officials had made a plan to arrest the suspect for selling fentanyl and methamphetamine to an undercover agent, per the Journal.

An attorney representing Jarrott’s family said they had not yet decided their next steps, the newspaper reported.

State lifts debt-based suspensions of driver’s licenses

SANTA FE – New Mexico’s motor vehicle division has lifted the suspension of driver’s licenses for more than 100,000 residents under new anti-poverty legislation, officials announced on July 26.

Bipartisan legislation signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March called for an end to the widespread practice of suspending driver’s licenses for failure to pay a fine or failure to appear in court.

The state law does not apply to commercial driver’s licenses nor suspensions for other reasons related to dangerous driving or accumulated traffic violations.

License suspensions also have been cleared for more than 160,000 out-of-state drivers with New Mexico citations, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department said in a news release. New Mexico will notify other states.

The changes leave underlying citations and fines on drivers’ records. There is no fee under the new law to reinstate a driver’s license after a suspension is lifted, though payments may be required for licenses that expired while under suspension.

Sponsors of the law, including Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte and Democratic state Rep. Christine Chandler of Los Alamos, say debt-based license suspensions are counterproductive.