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Friday, October 12, 2007
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So far only one presidential candidate is talking about water. Here's an article about Bill Richardson raising the hackles of environmentalists around the Great Lakes by talking about sharing, from Mlive.com. From the article:
Michigan environmental activists Thursday accused New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson of suggesting that northern states -- including the Great Lakes region -- share water with the Sun Belt. "Richardson's assault is the latest in a lengthy list of schemes to siphon Great Lakes water to other areas of the nation and the world," said a statement issued by five groups, including the Michigan Environmental Council and the state chapter of the Sierra Club. A spokesman for Richardson, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said if elected he would "embrace a national water policy that will specifically help protect the authority of states and the rights of local communities throughout the country."
In an Oct. 4 story, the Las Vegas Sun quoted Richardson as saying as president he would encourage northern states with plenty of water to help those with shortages in the Southwest. "I want a national water policy," he said. "We need a dialogue between states to deal with issues like water conservation, water reuse technology, water delivery and water production. States like Wisconsin are awash in water." He did not refer specifically to the Great Lakes. But his remark about Wisconsin -- one of the eight Great Lakes states -- touched a nerve in neighboring Michigan. Water levels have fallen across the upper Great Lakes since the late 1990s. Lake Superior's level in September was the lowest on record for that month...
"Gov. Richardson apparently understands neither the dynamics of a Great Lakes ecosystem that renews its water at a rate of only 1 percent each year, nor the globally significant resource that the Great Lakes represent," said David Holtz, spokesman for Clean Water Action. Environmentalists said Richardson's comments underscored the need for the Great Lakes states to ratify a pending compact that would outlaw most diversions of water from the region.
"2008 pres"
7:26:40 AM 
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From Scenta, "Each year, in the south eastern part of Greenland alone, the glaciers produce a mass of icebergs which is equivalent to a gigantic ice cube measuring 6.5 km on all sides. But the reduction of the inland ice is accelerating. At the moment, four times as much inland ice is disappearing compared to the beginning of the decade. 'If this development continues, the melt water from the inland ice will make the world's seas rise by more than 60 cm this century,' said senior researcher Abbas Khan of the Danish National Research Centre, who was responsible for the research project. The results were obtained in co-operation with the University of Colorado and have just been published in the international research magazine Geophysical Research Letters."
"2008 pres"
7:06:03 AM
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H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining Act of 2007, has been introduced in Congress as a set of reforms hoping to prevent some of the environmental damage from the General Mining Act of 1872. Proponents also hope to restructure the royalty system and compel mining operations to clean up after their operations are over. Here's a opinion piece about the bill from The Fort Collins Coloradoan. They write:
Mining technology has changed; the United States has evolved. Yet, today, the act that governs mining on federal lands such as Rocky Mountain National Park sits relatively unaltered. But a modern-day boom in hard-rock mining claims - particularly for uranium - should provide inspiration for passage of the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, which was introduced in Congress this spring and is facing committee review...
Fueling modern-day concerns over this gap is that so many of the hard-rock mining companies operating in the United States today are foreign-owned, meaning they are extracting resources from public lands without any compensation to the U.S. Treasury.
A reform effort makes sense because it recognizes both the important economic contribution of mining as well as the responsibility to ensure fiscal and environmental accountability. The legislation:
> Requires the payment of royalties to the federal government based on gross extraction.
> Shifts the burden of cleanup costs from taxpayers to the mining industry. Some royalties will be used for reclamation of thousands of abandoned mines.
> Injects a citizen-review process to reassess, every three years, a mining project's bond and permit.
So far, key sticking points between the mining industry and bill proponents appear to be charging royalties on gross extraction rather than net income and additional environmental oversight.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
7:00:19 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:33:43 PM.
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