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Saturday, September 29, 2007
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The EPA plans to spend $3 million next year improving water treatment at the Summitville Super Fund site, according to The Valley Courier. From the article:
Authorities in charge of the water treatment plant at Summitville are set to spend $3 million next summer to improve the area's water control system. The former gold mine is an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup site. Water flowing away from Summitville is known to contain copper, aluminum and other heavy metal pollutants. According to Austin Buckingham of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment the project is aimed at improving the flow capacity of Summitville's Wightman Fork Diversion channel. The goal, said Buckingham, is to create a channel able to handle 100 and 500-year flood cycles. Wightman Fork Creek used to flow down the bottom of the valley just below the mining operation. That is now the location of the Summitville dam Impoundment; a lake of collected, untreated water to be pumped into the site's water treatment plant. The creek was rerouted into its current diversion channel.
Contractors interested in the project must attend a mandatory pre-qualification tour at Summitville set for Oct. 9. Buckingham said bid packages will be available Nov. 1. However, by that date the cleanup site will likely be covered with early season snowfall, which would make visual inspection difficult, if not impossible. Buckingham said the project would involve four phases. One would be to increase the size of the channel's outlet culverts. Four 60-inch culverts feed the channel, while its outlet is fitted with four 36-inch culverts. A second phase of the project is to enhance the channel's capacity by widening it and stabilizing the channel with the addition of sheet pilings driven into its banks. A pump-back system below the impoundment lake is another phase of next summer's planned construction. Water naturally seeps through the dam. This water contains the most metal pollutants and a new system would pump the seepage back into the impoundment lake, making it available for treatment. A fourth phase is to build a water turnout in the Chandler Groin area at Summitville. The site's turnout system directs water to the treatment plant, if necessary, or diverts it directly into the Wightman Diversion channel. Summitville contains some 14,000 feet of channels and underground pipes to manage the area's water.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
11:16:42 AM 
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Here's a report from the National Summit of Mining Communities up in Leadville on Tuesday, from The Summit Daily News "reg". From the article:
Communities like Summit County which have been hard-hit by environmental degradation from abandoned mines advocated for reform of the Clean Water Act during the National Summit of Mining Communities Tuesday in Leadville. The bedrock federal law makes it tough for volunteers to tackle remediation at many polluted mine sites without taking on crippling liability, said Bill Simon, coordinator for the Animas River Stakeholder Group. Stringent provisions in the Clean Water Act can pin perpetual liability on any group that fiddles with tainted water seeping from old mine workings, Simon explained.
Along with the strict water quality provisions, the Clean Water Act also opens the door for "third party" lawsuits against dischargers, a provision that had the unintended consequence of blocking community-based organizations who would have to assume responsibility for the site the minute they start working. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court reinforced the water quality and permitting provisions of the Clean Water Act in a case involving pollution from an abandoned mine in California. "The result was a cessation of (volunteer) cleanups," Simon said. Since then, various proposals for amending the Clean Water Act have bubbled up in Congress nearly every year, but so far, none have passed. According to Simon, opposition from the environmental community, including national groups like the Sierra Club, has been a major stumbling block. Those groups don't want to tinker with the Clean Water Act at all...
Additionally, the national groups haven't heard from the grassroots people involved in cleanups, Simon said, encouraging community groups to lobby for Clean Water Act reform with elected officials and with environmental groups. From their standpoint, groups like the Sierra Club are concerned that any relaxation of the law will make it even harder to improve water quality and enforce existing standards. The environmental community also does not support mining companies taking part in the clean-up provision, Simon said. Finally, Simon explained that the lack of a Good Samaritan law doesn't preclude cleanups altogether. Solid mine waste issues can be addressed, and even water quality concerns can be partially tackled, perhaps by preventing water from infiltrating old mine workings, he suggested. The key is staying away from the discharge end of the abandoned mines, he said.
The EPA is trying to manage a Good Samaritan program for mine cleanup within it's current rules in absence of new legislation from the U.S. Congress, according to The Summit Daily News. From the article:
In lieu of fundamental reform, the Environmental Protection Agency has tried to open the door at least for partial cleanups with its own Good Samaritan initiative. "We're trying to leverage the authority we already have", said Colleen Gillespie, with the agency's water quality program. The idea is to facilitate cleanups by non-liable volunteer parties, while preserving the "polluter pays" principle, Gillespie said. Even if a community volunteer group can't directly tackle discharge from an abandoned mine, the EPA program can help accelerate partial cleanups, Gillespie said. The process involves working with the agency to develop a clear-cut work plan, including financial bonding for the work.
Once the framework is in place, the EPA issues a "comfort letter" that includes a "permit shield," Gillespie said. That includes exemptions from certain types of required permits, like storm water runoff permits, she added. By pulling the Department of Justice into the process, the EPA can offer some protection from third party lawsuits. And the cleanup agreement can, in some circumstances, include an EPA determination that the attainment of water quality standards may not be practical, Gillespie explained.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
10:33:18 AM
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Here's a look at Colorado voters through the lens of Republican consultant David Hill's recent poll, from The Denver Post. From the article:
Colorado political contenders on both sides of the aisle beware: Voters are cautious and looking for security and stability, not sweeping change and innovative fixes, according to a statewide poll released today by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Cost concerns surrounding health care, as well as economic anxieties, top the list of concerns voiced by state voters. Those pocketbook worries and lack of consumer confidence show voters are hesitant about change. "While they care about clear substantive points like health care," said Republican consultant David Hill, who conducted the poll, "the bigger issue is that people are not in the mood to move into a new direction. "They aren't buying or selling. They're holding."
The poll of 602 active Colorado voters during Aug. 4 to Aug. 7 shows that voters believe that environment and water, pre-K-12 education, affordable education, and government spending are "extremely" important issues. Illegal immigration is also at the top; however, Hill said like others issues, voters' concern about illegal immigration is concentrated on cost ramifications, not the legal and ideological questions.
Environmental groups this afternoon challenged one of the poll's findings -- that respondents solidly back Roan Plateau drilling, especially if tax revenues are used to fund higher education. Sixty-percent approve and 31 percent disapprove. The groups point out that the question posed to respondents -- whether they support drilling on the Roan to reduce dependency on foreign oil imports -- is leading. Roan drilling would be for natural gas, and would would have no impact on oil supplies. "Natural gas is very much a different substance than oil," said Deborah Frazier, communications director for the state Department of Natural Resources. "Oil you can run your car off of, natural gas we tend to equate with home heating and energy needs."[...]
The poll, which has a margin of error of four percentage points, also shows: 44 percent of voters think they are economically worse off than a year ago. Thirty-two percent say they are better off and 22 percent say they are the same; Fifty-eight percent of voters support spending tax dollars to bring new employers and jobs to the state. Thirty-eight oppose it; Voters rejected organized labor's priorities; Seventy-percent of those polled said they would not not change current law so non-union workers must pay dues if benefitting from union negotiations; Acceptable ways of raising revenue are: casino revenue taxes, liquor sales, sales taxes and increased penalties and fines; Gov. Ritter has a 57 percent approval rate and a 19 percent disapproval. Nearly a quarter had no opinion; The state legislature has a 41 percent approval rating and a 36 percent disapproval. Nearly a quarter had no opinion.
"denver 2008"
9:32:08 AM
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From The Durango Herald: "Thousands of American Indians from across the country will converge on Denver this November for the annual meeting of the National Congress of American Indians. Bill Ritter announced the meeting Thursday morning on the steps of the Capitol, along with Southern Ute Chairman Clement Frost and NCAI President Joseph Garcia. The conference will deal with a variety of topics, including law enforcement, education, youth programs, jobs and water rights."
More from the article:
The conference will be a homecoming, because NCAI was founded in Denver in 1944 at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which h as since been torn down.
This year's meeting will be Nov. 11-16 at the Hyatt Regency hotel at the Colorado Convention Center . Organizers are hoping for a record attendance of 4,000 people or more, Garcia said. The Ute Mountain and Southern Ute tribes are the two prime sponsors. The tribes have the only two reservations in the state, although Ritter noted that 45,000 American Indians live in Colorado, spread across all 64 counties. The Denver area has 21,000 native people. Conference organizers plan a heavy focus on public safety, said NCAI Executive Director Jacqueline Johnson. Workshops will share creative responses to the lack of police officers on many reservations. Other workshops will focus on climate change and environmentally responsible business, she said.
Organizers have invited all the presidential candidates to the convention.
"2008 pres"
9:25:03 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:29:55 PM.
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