| |
|
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
|
|
Colorado Confidential: "Increasingly, the discussion over immigration centers on immigrants' use of public services likes education, health care and welfare. But according to Aldama, who has compiled research on the subject, the average immigrant pays 22 times more money to the U.S. government through sales, property and income taxes than the total monetary value of the public benefits he or she receives."
"2008 pres"
6:30:01 PM 
|
|
Captain's Quarters: "The first fruit of the Annapolis Conference has arrived, and it's a road map. The White House just announced its commitment to hold both sides accountable to the road-map agreement, and the acquiescence of the Israelis and the Palestinians to meet its obligations on the way to a peace treaty by the end of 2008."
"2008 pres"
6:21:36 PM
|
|
Josh Marshall: "Okay, I've been thinking about Huckabee mainly for how he could upset the apple cart for the major candidates. But we're closing in on the point where he's no longer a surging second-tier player. Pulling into second behind Rudy in Florida? That's a ten point jump in a month. That's for real."
"2008 pres"
5:54:55 PM
|
|
Drought exacerbates releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere according to a recent report cited by The Rocky Mountain News. From the article:
The 2002 North American drought left an extra 360 million tons of heat-trapping carbon in the air, equivalent to the pollution caused that year by 200 million U.S. cars, according to Boulder scientists. The prolonged drought cut by half the continent's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, said the study released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
NOAA used its powerful new modeling system CarbonTracker to analyze data. CarbonTracker found that in North America, humans released 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year - through burning fossil fuels. Typically, forests, grasslands, crops and soil would be expected to absorb about one-third of those emissions in North America. But that natural ratio slumped in 2002 when the continent had one of its largest droughts in a century...
"Scientists often look at the role of greenhouse gases in producing climate extremes," said Wouter Peters, who led the study at NOAA's Earth Systems Research Lab in Boulder. "Here, we show the reverse is also true. Climate extremes can have a major impact on the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere," he said. Peters is presenting the study at the 50th anniversary of the Global Carbon Dioxide Record Symposium and Celebration this week in Kona, Hawaii. Drought and other variations in climate disturb the natural absorption of carbon dioxide by changing temperatures, rainfall, soil moisture and the length of the growing season, scientists say.
In other climate change news Governor Ritter honored the recent Colorado recipients of the Nobel Prize (along with Al Gore), according to The Rocky Mountain News.
"2008 pres"
7:19:53 AM
|
|
Here's an update on cleanup efforts for the Pennsylvania mine in the Peru Creek Basin from The Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article:
For nearly 15 years, the federal law meant to clean sources of water pollution such as the Pennsylvania Mine has actually prevented work to improve the water. A 1993 court ruling said that, under the Clean Water Act, anyone who tries to remediate water at an abandoned mine becomes legally liable for discharges there forever. The ruling halted efforts by the state to clean drainage from the Pennsylvania Mine and ensured that little water cleanup was done at any of Colorado's other 23,000 abandoned mines.
A decade of efforts to pass a socalled "good Samaritan" law, legal protection for groups and government agencies who want to clean up mines, has failed, mainly because of resistance from environmental groups. Both of Colorado's U.S. senators backed such a measure last year. "The Clean Water Act was written and designed to clean up problems like this, and it's the only thing stopping us from doing it, and it's so unfortunate," said Elizabeth Russell, mine restoration coordinator for Trout Unlimited, which wants to be a good Samaritan at the Pennsylvania Mine...
There are a host of nonprofit organizations, local governments and state agencies that would like to get involved in cleanup efforts, particularly in areas such as Summit County where dead, brown waterways like Peru Creek at the Pennsylvania Mine could be bad for tourism. But assuming the legal liability for all future discharges -- in today's litigious society -- is a risk none will take.
While it may seem a good Samaritan law may be a nobrainer, like most issues of environmental law, it is not. When Colorado's U.S. senators, Republican Wayne Allard and Democrat Ken Salazar, backed a bill in 2006 to remove parts of the law that discourage cleanup, it drew opposition from environmental groups. The groups worried changes could allow mining companies to come back into the mines and renew operations and not be responsible for discharges. The opposition was enough to kill the legislation, and it looks unlikely any will advance in 2007. It's an issue dividing environmentalists...
At the Pennsylvania Mine, the lack of legislation has forced cleanup advocates to get creative. Plans are in the works to create a nonprofit organization, the Snake River Water Foundation, that will take over ownership of a water treatment facility outside the mine. The foundation will have little cash or assets, so it is hoped no one would bother to sue it under the Clean Water Act. "Nobody's going to sue them because they don't have anything to be sued for. There's no money," Russell said. Numerous groups, government agencies and ski resorts are involved in the effort, though not Denver Water, because there are no human health issues for Lake Dillon reservoir downstream of the mine, which serves the water supplier. It's not the ideal way of doing cleanups -- it's taken 15 years to reach this point, and plans for the treatment facility still haven't been drawn up. It will cost from $500,000 to $1.5 million, Russell said.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"colorado water"
6:58:08 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:46:47 PM.
|
|
|
