Ed Quillen

Nothing like a crisis to unite a community, right? Well, not if that community is Leadville, Colo., seat of Lake County and the highest incorporated city in the United States at 10,152 feet above sea level. The old mining town has been in the news lately on account of a clogged mine drainage tunnel.

There’s a water treatment plant at the mouth of the 12,000-foot-long tunnel. But somewhere behind it there’s a blockage that may date back to 1995, and contaminated water has accumulated underground. If the growing water pressure pushed through or around the blockage, it might wash out the treatment plant and a nearby mobile-home park, and send a toxic plume down the Arkansas River.

Lake County Commissioners despaired that the tunnel’s owner, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, would ever get around to fixing the problem. So a month ago, they declared a state of emergency. This worked like the proverbial two-by-four applied to a mule: It got the beast’s attention. Even the New York Times has covered the story.

As someone who lives 60 miles downstream from Leadville in Salida, it was fine by me. We are dependent on river-related tourism here, and the last thing we need is another (there was one in 1983) big release of orange mine-murk discharge that kills most aquatic life in the river.
(Read on …)

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

Rico, Colorado residents are likely breathing a huge sigh of relief with the announcement today that Bolero Resources no longer intends to purchase the Silver Creek property east of the tiny mountain town. The Canadian mining company signed a $10 million letter of intent with Rico land developers in October to purchase the property, which Bolero CEO Bruce Duncan said contains “the richest grade molybdenum deposit in North America.” (See HCN story, A Rico Renaissance.)

Explaining that “due diligence investigations could not be satisfactorily addressed to permit the entering into of a definitive agreement,” Bolero terminated its letter of intent with Rico Renaissance and also cancelled its agreement with the financing agent, Aura met Trading, LLC.

Duncan had earlier said that as many as 1,000 miners could be employed at the mine. The town of Rico has a population of about 200 in the winter, perhaps double that in the summer, and officials in Rico and nearby Telluride were concerned about the effects of such an influx on the infrastructure and housing in the area.

Townspeople and town officials were also concerned about the impact on Rico’s drinking water source on Silver Creek, mining waste, noise and dust.

Bolero now “intends to focus on the development of its two core molybdenum properties located in Montana, Bald Butte and Cannivan Gulch.”

Evelyn Schlatter

Perhaps my suppositions about the apocalypse are wrong. Misguided, even. No zombies or mass hysteria. No complete and utter collapse of the world’s infrastructures and attendant riots and looting (gotta get that big-screen plasma TV for the bunker). No Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or wars over gasoline like in Road Warrior. No extraterrestrial invasion (though they’d probably be more interested in those hi-def TVs). And certainly none of this nutso climate change stuff.

No. None of that. Instead, we’ll all descend into some kind of horticultural zen zone, able to re-create every current known food crop on the planet. And we’ll be able to do this, thank God, because of the following:

According to the BBC, some of the world’s leading dignitaries attended the official opening of a so-called “doomsday seed vault.”

(Read on …)

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

Dear Ralph…

Many of us admire you for your courageous service as a consumer advocate. Among many stellar accomplishments, you’re credited with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the Freedom of Information Act in 1974. One of your latest efforts is a report on coal mine safety, in which you rightly chastise the Bush Administration, saying

conflicts of interest have beset top mine safety regulations; the Bush administration has slashed the inspection and enforcement staffing for coal mines; top Bush officials have subverted proposed coal dust standards (and suggested rolling-back standards already in place); and Bush Administration officials dropped a serious regulatory approach and instead opted for a “cooperative” relationship with coal mining companies.

Of course, a lot of people still hate you for the 2000 election. That was the year 97,000 people voted for you in Florida, and George Bush was selected as President.

That was the year I voted for you in Colorado, where supposedly it wouldn’t make any difference in ensuring Gore’s win. In all, you received less than 3 percent of the vote nationwide – about 5 percent in Colorado, 8 percent in the Western states overall.

I saw you speak (at length) in Boulder and was thrilled that you had a sense of humor, if not a sense of time. Your commitment and tirelessness were impressive, as was your grasp of facts.

Then came 2004, and I couldn’t vote for you again. That year you received .038 percent of the vote, less than one percent – but as you point out, only 34 states put you on the ballot. Libertarian Michael Badnarik did almost as well as you did, with .032 percent. You ended up spending more per vote than either of the major candidates, $9.85 versus $5.92 for Bush and $5.52 for Kerry.

(Read on …)

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or independent or Ralph Naderite, this brief New York Times web video is worth watching.

In the accompanying column, the Times’ Nicholas Kristof describes his visit to the village of Kogelo, Kenya, including:

A barefoot old woman in a ripped dress is sitting on a log in front of her tin-roof bungalow in this remote village in western Kenya, jovially greeting visitors.

Mama Sarah, as she is known around here, lives without electricity or running water. She is illiterate and doesn’t know when she was born. Yet she may have a seat of honor at the next presidential inauguration in Washington — depending on what happens to her stepgrandson, Barack Obama. …

The stepgrandson of an illiterate, barefoot woman in this village of mud huts in Africa may be the next president of the United States. Such mobility — powered by education, immigration and hard work — is cause not for disparagement but for celebration.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Every year, the League of Conservation Voters rates Congressfolk on how they act on environmental legislation.

David Roberts, on Grist.org, has a good summation of the new LCV ratings:

The LCV scorecard has its critics, but it’s nonetheless become something of a gold standard when measuring how “green” a lawmaker is.

A couple of big stories emerge from this year’s scorecard.

The first speaks for itself:

* Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.): 67%

* Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY): 73%

* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): 0%

No, that’s not a typo. McCain scored a big fat zilch, mainly because missed every single vote LCV scored, including the big votes around the energy bill. … McCain was the only Senator to miss every LCV vote — he was outvoted by legislators who were out sick most of the year, even some who died this year.

If you’re dead silent, is it still straight talk?

Also, nine new Congressfolk — backed by enviros on the campaign trails — all have high LCV ratings now. They’re already delivering on the green issues.

The LCV press release features three new Western Congressfolk:

* Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, of California, scored 90 percent in 2007 (replacing Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, whose lifetime score was only 7 percent).

* Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, of Montana, scored 80 percent (replacing Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose lifetime score was only 5 percent).

* Democratic Rep. Harry Mitchell, of Arizona, scored 100 percent (replacing Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth, whose lifetime score was 7 percent).

It’s good evidence of how enviros can have an impact in politics — even if they can’t get their issues into the presidential candidates’ debates. Blame that on the shallow national TV journalists who frame the presidential race.

Ed Quillen

While listening to National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” today, it struck me that I knew more about Kosovo’s claim of separation from Serbia than I did about another independence declaration, one that was issued late last year in the American heartland.

The American announcement came from “The Lakota Freedom Delegation,” which claimed that because the United States had broken its treaties with the Lakota people, they were withdrawing from the treaties. This would remove their territory from American jurisdiction and they could henceforth issue their own currency and passports.

The boundaries of the new country would be roughly those of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851: the north half of Nebraska, western South Dakota, southwestern North Dakota, southeastern Montana, and northeastern Wyoming.

Of the Cowboy State portion of this territory, I can speak with some personal connection. In 1919 my maternal grandfather homesteaded therein, between Douglas and Gillette. He got a section, as did his brother. The brother sold out to him and went back to Nebraska. My grandfather stayed, narrowly avoiding starvation on his 1,280 acres that supported maybe 30 cow-calf units in one of those rare wet years. Most years, they got by on what my grandmother made teaching at one-room eight-grade country schoolhouses.

Anyway, last December in Washington, D.C., Native American activist Russell Means visited the U.S. State Department and a few foreign embassies to spread the word about this new country. The news flitted by one day, and that was the last I heard of it.

Was this yet another cover-up by the corporate media?

(Read on …)

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

… in the many stories about taking Idaho-Montana-Wyoming wolves off the endangered species list.

It’s worth a click to The New York Times for this intimate glance at wildness. (I’m providing two links trying to help you around the Times sign-on screen, but if it nabs you, sign-on is free.)

The wolf photo shows how the Times has more to offer than the lame — or at least incomplete — smear job it did yesterday on Sen. John McCain.

The Times is catching a lot of flak from the rightwing professional loudmouths and media critics. At least one respected newspaper in the Times chain refused to publish the smear. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer managing editor explains why he also refused to run it. The noise has obscured the Washington Post’s better — straighter — analysis of McCain’s ties to lobbyists.

When I look at the photo of the wolves circling the big, slow bison, I imagine the Times thought it was a wolf, but now it’s the bison.

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

When the U.S. Army established the 235,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver site in the 1980s, it used eminent domain to take property. Now the Army wants 400,000 acres more, and a group called Not 1 More Acre — made up of ranchers in southeastern Colorado –  is afraid they’ll use eminent domain to take it.

The group has filed an open records claim to get an accounting of plans for the site, which the Army wants to expand in order to “accurately simulate anticipated, actual, combat conditions” in the Middle East.

A 2008 federal budget law signed by President Bush in January contains a one-year moratorium on the Army spending any money on the Pinon Canyon expansion. The amendment was sponsored by Colorado Representatives Marilyn Musgrave (R) and John Salazar (D).

But another law passed by Congress, the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, contains an amendment which requires Army officials to deliver a report on why it wants a larger Pinon Canyon, the effects of an expansion on the community and other training options. That clause was proposed by Colorado Senators Wayne Allard (R) and Ken Salazar (D).

Rancher Mack Louden said the Army should observe the one-year moratorium. “They are ignoring all the voices of democracy opposed to the Pentagon’s plan, from the community and county level, through the state Legislature and right up to the U.S. Congress,” he said, according to a report in the Pueblo Chieftain.

See High Country News’ October 2007 story, Eminent domain’s poster children, for more.

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

Pity Texas billionaire Red McCombs and his developer sidekick, Bob Honts. For five years now, they’ve been fighting the Forest Service, environmental groups, locals, and the owners of a southern Colorado ski area so that they can build their dream resort.
(Read on …)

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

This is so journalistic:

The Albuquerque Tribune today reports its own death, beginning with:

The Albuquerque Tribune will publish its final edition Saturday, ending a buoyant and sometimes bare-knuckled presence as the city’s afternoon newspaper.

… The Trib’s daily circulation in January was about 9,600 … In 1988, the newspaper sold about 42,000 copies a day.

… The Tribune … won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 (and) was a finalist for journalism’s highest award in 1996 and consistently won state and national awards …

Same old story: Many dailies, including those in the West, suffer declining revenues and staff.

Same time the Trib takes its last breaths, for instance, a couple of states away, in the San Francisco Bay area, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune and several more papers have announced new cuts.

But meanwhile, we also see a countertrend — nonprofit journalism shops (like this website and magazine) carry on the mission of public service.

One of the notable new nonprofits is ProPublica. ProPublica (forgive the wonky name) promises to field:

… the largest news staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting, with roughly 25 fulltime reporters and editors. ProPublica will be supported entirely by philanthropy and will provide the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own web site and to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article.

ProPublica takes more shape today by hiring three veteran journalists — from The New York Times, the Washington Post and The Nation. Stay tuned for more good nonprofit news, we hope.

Evelyn Schlatter

I’ve been following the I-70 mountain corridor. Not in any literal sense. I quit driving that thing around 2002 because it scared the living bejesus out of me. Yeah, I’ve used it to access Colorado’s fabulous public lands. And back in the day, to go hang out in groovy places like Idaho Springs for a nice quick getaway. But if you try to, say, leave Denver on a Friday after work…well, those of you who have braved that know whereof I speak. Brings to mind the lyrics from that Police song: “packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes.” So I pretty much quit driving the corridor and instead, found other routes to the back country, varying my days. I do still follow the corridor, but in a more metaphysical, detached way. I’ve become an armchair observer of the discussion, debates, frustration, and freak-outs over what to do, how to do it, where to do it, and how much it’s all going to cost to decrease traffic jams on the corridor, increase safety, and make sure that everybody’s historic and environmental preservation needs are met.

(Read on …)

Francisco Tharp

If you’ll be spending any time in the San Francisco Bay area summer and fall, you may want to hold your breath–while you’re there, that is.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California’s agriculture department plans to cover San Francisco, Marin County and the East Bay with Checkmate, a hormone that impedes the reproductive efforts of the light brown moth. Beginning in August, the dustings will occur at night.

State officials see the spraying as a preemptive strike against WMD (Widespread Moth Destruction), which could devastate California’s agriculture industry.

But those rascally health aficionados in the area (yes, the same area that outlawed plastic bags in 2007) are outraged. Hundreds of folks who were sprinkled with Checkmate in Santa Cruz and Monterrey Counties from September to December reported coughing, wheezing, and headaches, among other symptoms.

The article says,

The USDA’s Hawkins said the EPA has generally not been concerned over the toxicity of Checkmate. For example, he said, the agency never set a maximum limit for the pesticide in food or required farm workers to stay out of fields that had just been sprayed.

Somehow this doesn’t make me feel any safer. After all, the USDA doesn’t see anything wrong with genetically modified crops (see HCN’s “Brave New Hay”), and the Environmental Protection Agency extinguished California’s attempt to cut CO2 emissions.

Click here to see why one organization is ready to “run” and “escape” from “a toxic cloud of government corruption.”

Or, click here to see why we have nothing to fear…that’s right, nothing to fear at all.