October 15, 2008
Business meeting
Luncheon
"Fishbowl" discussion
WCC members gathered at the Montrose Pavilion on Saturday, October 4 to celebrate our 28th Annual Meeting. Highlights of the meeting included an open “fishbowl” discussion, musical entertainment from Gotta Be Girls of Montrose, and a keynote address from author David Sirota.
July 1, 2008
Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County is exploring a potential campaign to help bring local foods to area kids. We’re teaming up with a diverse set of allies to bring a local foods forum to Grand Junction to discuss opportunities to connect Mesa County School District 51 with local food producers. The Forum is tentatively scheduled for July 31st at the GJ City Hall auditorium.
June 19, 2008
Garfield County residents met Tuesday, June 17, in the new Rifle campus of the Colorado Mountain College to hear about the risks of living in the gaspatch.
Even though recent headlines stated, “No Health Crisis in GarCo,” researcher Teresa Coons of the Grand Junction-based Saccomanno Research Institute noted there may be certain trends that warrant additional attention. Other presenters repeatedly pointed to elevated background levels of benzene, a known carcinogen. Benzene and other volatilized organic compounds (VOCs) escape into the atmosphere at all stages of natural gas development, said Dr. Russ Walker, professor of Environmental Sciences at Mesa State College.
According to the speakers, more data was needed to reach definitive conclusions about the health risks of living in Garfield County. “Maybe we didn’t collect enough data,” said Jim Rada, Garfield County Environmental Health Specialist. The researchers suggested more data collection and sample sites, different sampling techniques, and sampling at well pads during all stages of the drilling process.
Members of the audience, which included concerned citizens and energy company representatives, asked Dr. Russ Walker if he would live in a house that had a drilling rig installed nearby. He responded by saying that it depends, but he’d “seriously consider moving” if the operators did not use “green completion” techniques.
Dr. Teresa Coons, researcher for the Saccomanno Institute, and Mayor Pro-Tem of Grand Junction, recently explained her findings during an interview with Colorado Public Radio.
The report didn’t cost tax payers anything. The study was funded by the fees collected from EnCana for their responsibility with the Divide Creek seep.
June 18, 2008
Vote for Western Colorado Congress!
In an unusual case of allowing corporate giving to be guided by community input, the Denver store of outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia is asking area residents to select a local environmental organization to receive a $4,000 grant. Consumers can cast their ballots in the Patagonia store from June 10 through July 19 in a “Voice Your Choice” campaign that marks the newest initiative in Patagonia’s well-known support of environmental causes.
Western Colorado Congress is one of five organizations on the ballot. Our worthy competition includes Colorado Environmental Coalition, Colorado Wild, Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project, and the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership.
Consumers can cast one vote per store per visit. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be announced at a special Grants Reception in the store in early August.
Voice Your Choice is an extension o Patagonia’s corporate Environmental Grants Program, which has generated more than $31 million in grants since 1985 through a policy of giving 1% of annual sales to environmental organizations worldwide.
Patagonia has a long-standing commitment to environmental causes that extends far beyond its grants program. The company uses 100% organic cotton for all Patagonia-branded apparel to avoid causing environmental damage from toxic chemicals used in growing conventional cotton. It also has used fleece made from post-consumer recycled plastic soda bottles since 1993; recycles competitors’ garments as well as its own through a program that accepts worn-out fleece, organic cotton t-shirts and Capilene products for recycling into new fibers; is creating a national park in Chile; and encourages sustainability through a variety of other initiatives.
June 11, 2008
Western Colorado Congress would like to welcome Shannon Robinson as our new intern. Shannon comes to WCC from Mesa State College where she’s studying Business Administration and Marketing. She’s been active on campus as Student Body President, WeCAN member, and a participant in several other student organizations. Shannon brings a wealth of experience and energy to the Grand Junction team. Shannon will focus on WCC’s civic engagement work, event planning and help to revitalize WCC’s student organization, WeCAN.
In her spare time, Shannon enjoys transforming frogs into Princes. She also enjoys spending time with her three kids. Help us welcome Shannon to Western Colorado Congress!
June 3, 2008
Written Tuesday, May 20, 2008, by Monica Wiitanen.
First thing Monday (yesterday!) morning, we went to the Wayburn Wilderness House for our orientation. Tips on lobbying, packets of information to hand out, maps, and a schedule of our meetings during the three days on Capitol Hill were provided to us. With guidance from Steve Smith (The Wilderness Society) and Marcia Argust (Campaign for America’s Wilderness), plans were made to ensure that all the important points would be covered at each meeting.
By Tuesday afternoon, we’d med with staff of 7 Senators and 3 Representatives, Congresswoman DeGette, as well as with staff of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. After introductions, at each of these meetings we talked about the proposed Dominguez Canyon Wilderness within the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. We talked about why Dominguez is such a special place and deserves protection, showed the photographs we’d brought along, and asked if there were any quesitons.
Responses included interest, enthusiasm (certainly for the photos!), and some reservation–no apparent opposition.
We’ve heard that the bill is likely to be introduced by Senator Salazar on Thursday, and that there’s hope of it being added to a bundle of other public lands bills and moving right along in the process, and also that it’s late in the session and probably won’t get very far until the next session.
Optimists, pessimists, realists? Just getting the bill introduced will seem like a big step toward ensuring the enduring protection we have been working toward.
The hotel we’ve been staying in is close to Capitol Hill, so we’ve been able to walk to the Senate and House offices. Some streets radiate out from the Capitol and Union Station and others are laid out in a grid, so there are all manner of angles at intersections which can lead to confusion. Once inside security at a Senate or House office building, there are tunnels to get from one building to another and stairs and elevators, some modern and serviceable, others ornate and/or beautiful, for vertical movement.
Elevators service three categories: freight only, Senators only, and everybody else. You can guess who uses the ornate elevators. In the basements are to be found, among other things, cafeterias and dining rooms, which serve huge numbers of people at every meal, every day. All the food looks good, that which I ate tasted good—it was impressive. I imagined truck after truck pulling up to the loading docks to deliver vast quantities of produce and meats for the cooks and kitchen help to transform into the food that fuels our government.
One of the cafeterias touts that it sources food from within 150 miles (when possible, I’m sure—I doubt the pineapple and melons were grown within that distance).
Tomorrow we have a few more meetings scheduled and then we head to the airport and home.
May 26, 2008
In the past hour, Senator and Congressman Salazar have introduced the Dominguez Escalate National Conservation Area legislation. This bill will protect over 210,000 acres within a National Conservation Area with over 75,000 acres of Wilderness protection for the Dominguez Canyons.
Earlier this week, WCC sent four members to Washington DC to urge lawmakers to introduce strong protections for this area. We’d like to think that we made a difference by representing our members in the halls of congress. Look for updates from Joan, Tony and Monica in the next few days – we can all be proud of them for representing us in our nation’s capitol.
We’ll have more information and a detailed map of the proposal up on this site in the next few days. Congratulations to everyone at WCC for all your hard work to make this legislation a reality!
May 13, 2008
A corporation, Energy Fuels, Inc., is moving full speed ahead with plans to construct a uranium processing mill in the West End of Montrose County. If constructed, this would be the first new uranium mill built in the US in a generation. It’s operation would make west Montrose, San Miguel and Mesa Counties, as well as the entire West Slope’s highway system, host to an industry that presents an intrinsic public health threat. In fact, the nuclear industry is still paying medical claims and survivor benefits at the same time it resists cleaning up the many thousands of sites with uranium and processing wastes. Unfortunately, some decision makers on the West Slope welcome the industry, stating flatly the nuclear industry is safe.
A surprising element in recent efforts to promote the nuclear industry are pitches by a handful of high-profile “environmentalists” who are enthusiastic about the nuclear industry. Perhaps the best known in recent big media reporting is Patrick Moore, identified as a Greenpeace activist. It turns out Moore is a flak for hire, a corporate media consultant skilled at greenwash. I didn’t know his actual background when I heard him on NPR within the past two weeks.
Below is a link to a piece from Public Citizen about Patrick Moore and his efforts in Texas.
May 6, 2008
Biofuels and World Hunger
On the editorial page in the Montrose Daily Press, Tuesday, May 6, is a political cartoon depicting a emaciated, starving man holding an empty bowl. A pair of arms is holding out to him a gasoline can labeled ETHANOL. The meaning of the cartoon is certain– biofuels are responsible for world famine.
I enclose a link to an article posted on www.grain.org about the causes of the present world crisis of food, a crisis not caused by the push to alternatives fuels but by the complete restructuring of the food system over the past decades. Reading “Making a Killing from Hunger” will be well worth your time.
May 6, 2008
Check out this recent segment done by the BBC on the health effects of gas drilling in Garfield County, “a bucolic corner of the Rocky Mountains.”
Rick Roles, who has 19 wells on his property all within 300 yds of his house, points to blood tests as evidence that he’s being poisoned. “I’m positive for benzene, toluene. These aren’t substances that should be in your body. These should be in the gasoline in the tank of your car.”
