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Saturday, January 12, 2008
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Captain's Quarters: "South Carolina will not go to the precincts alone on January 19th, but it seems that the media has mostly forgotten it. Nevada moved its contest to the same date with the blessings of both parties, but it has received little of the coverage of the other early primary and caucus states. Pollsters and candidates have also mostly skipped the home state of Sin City."
"2008 pres"
8:29:22 PM 
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Juan Cole: "The USG Open Source Center translates a Kurdish television report that confirms that Turkey again shelled northern Iraq. Both Turkey and the Kurds are close US allies, so their feuding puts Washington in a difficult situation."
"2008 pres"
8:24:49 PM
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From The Glenwood Springs Post Independent "reg", "An environmental organization says state data about oil and gas company wastewater ponds in western Colorado shows the ponds are 'posing greater risks to human health than previously thought'...The data was gathered after violations of clean air laws were reported at several evaporation ponds, according to the group. Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, citing the state's data, said Williams Production RMT reported that as much as 268 tons of hydrocarbons per year were released at its Grand Valley Facility in Garfield County - or nearly 10 times the amount previously thought. The group also said that Williams' Rulison facility released 88 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants."
More coverage from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. They write:
Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action announced Monday it studied state data on seven evaporation ponds owned by Black Mountain Disposal, Williams Production and EnCana and concluded that the ponds are major polluters that emit more benzene, toluene, methanol and other contaminants than had been reported previously. Black Mountain, the group claims, releases as many as 27.22 tons of methanol into the air annually, while Williams releases as many as 268 tons of hydrocarbons from its Grand Valley evaporation ponds in Garfield County. Another 88 tons, the group claims, are emitted from Williams' Rulison ponds...
But that's not necessarily true, said Christopher Dann of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Air Pollution Control Division, whose data Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action analyzed. The state asked EnCana, Williams and Black Mountain to provide pond water sampling data for the last six months of 2007 in order to find out what kinds of pollutants the ponds would emit if they were completely drained and dried. That situation would allow all the pollutants to become airborne, "which we know is not happening," Dann said. In other words, he said, the pollution is entirely hypothetical and does not present a threat to public health. "Are (the pollutants) being emitted to the air? The answer is no," Williams Air Quality Practice Manager Rick Matar said. "These are not air emissions." Once the state obtained the data from the energy companies, Dann said, it immediately turned it over to environmentalists to comply with their open-records request. "We have not had adequate time to go through that data yet ourselves," Dann said, adding he cannot verify any of the environmentalists' claims, and it's too early for the state to draw any conclusions about how harmful the ponds are. Matar called Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action's statistics inflammatory and said they represent a generalized worst-case scenario.
"2008 pres"
10:35:08 AM
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From The Rocky Mountain News, "Arctic ice could start melting faster and faster, lifting sea levels and speeding the way to a warmer future, a new study suggests. The old, thick ice that lasts year after year in the Arctic Ocean is giving way to younger, thinner ice that doesn't last the summer season, says James Maslanik, a researcher at the University of Colorado. 'This thinner, younger ice makes the Arctic much more susceptible to rapid melt,' said Maslanik, of CU's Colorado Center for Astrodynamic Research. Each year the phenomenon makes it much more difficult to reestablish the sea ice conditions of the 1970s or 1980s. Maslanik's study shows there has been a nearly complete loss of the oldest, thickest snow. Of the remaining perennial ice, 58 percent is only two or three years old. Twenty-two years ago, only about a third of the ice was that young and thin."
"2008 pres"
9:37:21 AM
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From The Fort Collins Coloradoan, "The Fort Collins Regional Library District will facilitate a presentation and discussion on the proposed uranium mining project in Weld County from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday in the community room of Harmony Library, 4616 S. Shields St. Representatives from Powertech (USA), which has proposed a mining operation east of Wellington, and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction, or CARD, and the Colorado Environmental Coalition are expected to present information on the issue. Paul Alexander, director of the Institute on the Common Good at Regis University, Denver, will moderate the discussion. Public comment will be limited to written questions on note cards and time limits may prevent all questions from being submitted to the panelists."
"2008 pres"
9:34:20 AM
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Happy 100th birthday to Grand Canyon National Park. We're glad that Reclamation was constrained from building more dams in your canyons. The national park is a treasure for all who experience it. Here's an article about its centennial year from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. They write:
From the rim of the Grand Canyon, the immensity and splendor of the West is nearly palpable as America's greatest gorge inspires an extreme awe in all who witness it. President Theodore Roosevelt understood that when he protected the Grand Canyon as a national monument a century ago -- Jan. 11, 1908 -- under the Antiquities Act...
The Grand Canyon, inextricably linked to Grand Junction by the Colorado River, became a national park in 1919, but the National Park Service on Friday celebrated the park's centennial as a federal reserve protected from uncontrolled development. The Grand Canyon, once nearly dammed by the Bureau of Reclamation, serves as the conduit for transferring water between the Upper Colorado River Basin and the Lower Colorado River Basin. And the river's management through the canyon, preserving water flows and endangered species, affects many who live upstream, Glenwood Springs water lawyer Jim Lochhead said. Dam development in Grand Canyon is prevented because of its protected status, he said. Meanwhile, Glen Canyon Dam's power generation operations upstream are governed partly by conservation values in the Grand Canyon, he said. "It's appropriate that it remains (undammed) as it is now," Lochhead said, adding the entire Colorado River system and its great canyons have been thrown into a different balance since people began developing it for water use...
"The fact that people 100 years ago recognized the importance of protecting such a place really began the broader acknowledgement of smaller places and more diverse places that also need protection," said Wilderness Society Assistant Regional Director Steve Smith of Glenwood Springs. "It really has led us to the conservation movement and commitment that's so important to this part of the country."
"colorado water"
8:46:38 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:59:44 PM.
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