Banff takes recycling bins to neighborhoods
BANFF, Alberta -- When Banff residents were asked what would cause them to recycle more, half said greater convenience. To that end, city officials there will begin placing 20 new bins in dispersed locations, so that people don't have to take their goods to a central location.
One side of the bin will be for fibrous items such as newspapers and carbon, explains the Rocky Mountain Outlook, and the other is for bottles, metals and tins.
These new recycling containers will be placed next to the bear-proof trash containers. Banff is compact enough that everybody will have both these recycling bins and bear-proof trash containers within a block of their homes.
Durango continues to fret about air pollution
DURANGO, Colo. -- A call has been made to install equipment in Durango that will monitor the levels of ozone and other atmospheric pollution.
The monitors could confirm suspicions that Durango's air quality verges on violating federal standards. However, the tests could go the other way, giving the air quality a clean bill of health.
Right now, the evidence is circumstantial -- and it does not look good. The Durango Telegraph explains that there are monitoring stations for ozone to the west in Mesa Verde National Park, and to the southeast at the Navajo Reservoir. The Navajo site, in particular, has indicated problems.
Ozone, although crucial to our atmospheric equilibrium when found in the upper atmosphere, can damage lungs when found close to the ground. It is created by mixing volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides in the heat of day. The organic compounds include the fumes released by varnishes and oil-based paints. Nitrogen oxides are created by internal combustion engines and power plants.
In the San Juan Basin of Colorado and New Mexico, the population is relatively small for such a large area. However, there are 3,000 producing natural gas wells, many of which require constant use of diesel motors for compression of the gas. In addition, there are two coal-fired power plants -- and another major one recently authorized by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ironically, that same federal agency sets the limits for ozone. That limit of 75 parts per million for ozone has been breached in neighboring San Juan County, New Mexico. The county, according to a study by a Purdue University professor, has the sixth highest ozone levels in the country, despite having a population of only 100,000. Others counties with high ozone are metropolitan areas with far larger populations.
New company steps up to ore body in Crested Butte
CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. -- Another mining company has stepped up to the plate, this time paying at least $500,000 to take a swing at that gigantic molybdenum deposit within the bowels of Mt. Emmons, the mountain literally in Crested Butte's backyard.
The last hopeful, Vancouver-based Kobex Resources, bowed out in March after apparently deciding that Crested Butte was a more formidable project than it had expected. It spent $5 million in nine months of planning how it might extract the molybdenum, a metal used to harden steel and for dozens of other industrial application.
As it has been for 30 years, the community is largely united in its opposition to the mine. Water quality is the central legalistic argument, but the broader issue is whether a tourism and recreation based economy are compatible with mining.
For a mining company, this adds up to the question whether the "world class" body of ore, even at $32 a pound for refined molybdenum, is worth the years of ankle-biting opposition that are likely.
The newest company, Thompson Creek Metals Co., a Denver-based firm, is described as much larger than Kobex, with assets of $1 billion. Thompson Creek's chairman and chief executive, Kevin Loughrey, said his company has greater financial resources.
The contract with the owner, Wyoming-based U.S. Energy, calls for the payment of $500,000, plus $1 million annually beginning in January during the next 10 years. The contract gives Thompson Creek an escape clause, but also potential to gain a stake in the property.
Local opponents predict that Thompson Creek will beat a hasty retreat.
"Kobex came in, looked at it, and then decided to get out. I think the same thing will happen with Thompson Creek," Crested Butte Mayor Alan Bernholtz told the Gunnison Country Times. "Once Thompson Creek does due diligence they'll realize it's not an ideal location for a mine, because it's in a municipal watershed."
Dan Morse, who oversees public lands issues for the High Country Citizens Alliance, said even much larger companies have walked away from the ore body. Both Amax and Phelps-Dodge were as large or larger than Thompson Creek, and both eventually walked away from the project.
Revelstoke asking if 6 stories are too many?
REVELSTOKE, B.C. -- Once again, Revelstoke will be faced with the issue of how tall is too tall? Developers of a proposed Best Western Hotel said they need six stories to get the 100 units they believe are necessary to make the venture profitable. Revelstoke's current limit is three stories. The developers say they see no choice to make the numbers work. "We don't have a plan B quite frankly," developer Fred Beruschi told the Revelstoke Times Review. "Without the extra height it makes things a lot more difficult."
Dissatisfaction continues with Western Slope group
GUNNISON, Colo. -- Several of the ski-anchored counties of Colorado's Western Slope are threatening to bolt from Club 20, the regional public interest lobbying group. The flashpoint for the dissatisfaction is the increasing domination of the group by the booming oil-and-gas industry.
Telluride's Art Goodtimes, a commissioner from San Juan County, resigned from the organization in April after losing his spot as an elected official within the group to an oil-and-gas industry consultant.
"The club has been taken over by the oil and gas industry, from its recent leadership to its big-gun funders," he said in his resignation letter.
Two other ski-dominated counties, Gunnison and Pitkin counties -- which include Crested Butte and Aspen respectively -- similarly compared grievances at a recent meeting.
Rachael Richards, a former Aspen mayor who is now a Pitkin County commissioner, said she is dismayed with Club 20's stance on oil and gas regulations, which she says pays little attention to the agriculture, tourism, and recreation industries.
Too, there is dissatisfaction with Club 20 being seen as broadly representative of the Western Slope.
The organization was seen as trending away from its conservative roots and being more welcoming of resort-valley environmental interests in recent years.
Club 20 voting is premised upon a one-member, one-vote arrangement. Private companies, as well as local governments, are eligible to join. Of late, the membership has swelled with oil and gas companies, who have advanced an agenda that, as seen from the perspective of Richards and Goodtimes, puts people and the environment in the back seat.
