New Mexico’s environmental and health departments are offering free emergency water testing to private well owners in flood-hit San Juan County, while two famed rock formations in the state’s north-west have collapsed amid weeks of storms and heavy rain.
The New Mexico Environment Department said in a 6 November post that it and the state Department of Health were providing the testing after what it described as historic flooding. The agencies said the service was intended to help protect drinking water and public health. The announcement did not specify how many wells may have been affected or give further details about testing arrangements.
The Alien Throne and the nearby King of Wings, formations in north-western New Mexico, have both fallen, ABC News reported, drawing on reporting by The Associated Press. Tour guide Kialo Winters told the outlet he found the Alien Throne in pieces on 30 October, after poor road conditions had kept him away for several weeks. The King of Wings’ collapse had begun circulating on social media in early October, the report said.
The regional storms brought heavy rain to already saturated ground, with flooding reported across parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. ABC News reported that rivers overflowed and floodwaters ran through normally dry washes, damaging homes and eroding the landscape. The report said officials estimated damage across the affected region could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
A post by the account TeahCartel said the formations collapsed because of severe storms and flooding. ABC’s reporting confirms the collapses and describes the broader storm and flood conditions, but the material available does not establish that floodwaters alone caused either formation to fall. The formations had also shown signs of weathering, including cracks and holes, according to a visitor quoted in the report.
The rock formations were culturally significant to some Native Americans in the region, ABC News reported, citing Winters, who said they had served as waypoints and were connected to local stories. The report did not specify when the King of Wings fell or establish a direct cause for each collapse.
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