Filed under: Garfield County, Piceance Basin, Silt, county commissioner, drill rigs, drilling, gas well industry, gas wells, gravel pit, impacts, pollution, town board, town government
** 8/22 UPDATE **
A group of parents complained to me this morning that there’s no police patrol at school in the morning or in the afternoon, so it’s just chaos. They said they sit in traffic for 10 minutes even though they’re a half block from school cuz traffic is not moving. Add to that the lack of sidewalks and the bicycle traffic and we’ve got a recipe for disaster. So, they asked, why don’t we have police patrol at school in the morning or afternoon??
I don’t know!
8/21 – This week was back to school for Silt kiddos. And if you remember, last spring I asked the SiltBOTs to please do something about the unpaved streets at Orchard and 3rd Street.
Photo by Ema Kwiatkowski
Look, we all GET that this is SILT, the heart and soul of gas well drilling country. We’re all more than happy to let the energy industries suck all our natural resources out of the ground and leave a big damn mess cuz they pay PROPERTY TAXES, which we know our Garfield County Commissioners have safely tucked away under a mattress up on a mountain somewhere cuz they know what’s best for us. We don’t EXPECT paved streets and sidewalks.
The thing is, the energy companies keep telling us that gas well drilling is GOOD for Silt’s economy. Gas workers fill up our hotels, apartments, and man camps. The trucks roll over and tear up our streets and roads, which would otherwise be unused and, well, smooth. In a few years our water and air will be as polluted as China’s. Our brand new school is already overcrowded. And who wants an empty and lonely school? We have a teacher shortage cuz it’s too expensive to live here. But it’s a boom economy. Right? Like the meth trade. And prostitution. Rent is $1400/mo, gas and milk at over $4/gal. Everybody’s making money. Right? It’s Alaska all over again. It’s all GOOD.
I mean, even if the GCC DID give us some of that tax money – that we certainly DON’T DESERVE – to fix our streets so it’s safe for kids to walk and bike to school, then we might go gettin all elitist like McCain and not remember how many houses we own. Or we might get all uppity like Obama and take vacations in a foreign country like Hawaii. After all, dirt streets are a Silt tradition. They make us humble. We keep our heads down – cuz we have to look out for the ruts.
We know who we ARE NOT.
So I never dared to even IMAGINE paved streets and sidewalks. It’s just that former Town Administrator Rick Aluise told me that he, knowing the new school was coming way back in 2007, had budgeted for and set aside town funds to build sidewalks to school and fix the surrounding streets. But then he resigned and a new Town Administrator took over and now there’s no money for sidewalks or streets. Like I said, gravel’s cheap and plentiful so we just thought maybe some gravel would be nice. We would have even brought our wheelbarrows and shovels and helped spread the lovely little rocks we dreamed about.
Instead NOTHING HAPPENED. No gravel at Orchard and 3rd. No sidewalks on Grand Avenue or Orchard.
Photo by Ema Kwiatkowski
Oh that’s OK. Hell when I was a kid I walked FIVE MILES on DIRT ROADS – barefoot – through the woods – in SNOW. Our kids don’t have it so bad.
Except my granddaughter’s spoiled and I’m getting old. A little gravel still sounds kinda nice. A girl can always dream …
Photo by Ema Kwiatkowski
Ugh. For now it’s Town of Silt to our kids: EAT DIRT!
Filed under: COGCC, Colorado, Encana, Garfield County, Silt, chemicals, colorado river, cover up, divide creek, drill rigs, drilling, environment, fracking, gas well industry, gas wells, health, impacts, journey of the forsaken, lisa bracken, pollution, seep, smog, watershed, west divide creek
As I’ve mentioned before, if you’re a western Garfield County resident – especially if you live west of Divide Creek, which is from Silt west – you need to read Lisa Bracken’s blog, Journey of the Forsaken.
The Site Map is the best place to start.
In June, Lisa discovered a new seep in Divide Creek and has been documenting the progression of the seep and her efforts to get the creek water tested. Yup that’s right, the COGCC has so far refused to acknowledge the seep or perform any water tests (see Day 45).
Meanwhile, Lisa has been meticulously documenting the seep and the dying vegetation through a series of photographs and videos. This week brought in interesting development concerning the orange seep.
According to the COGCC, the orange gunk is an iron-reducing bacteria, which they say makes it just naturally occurring. However they didn’t test the Ph in the water to determine WHY the orange iron-reducing bacteria suddenly appeared in the creek at that particular location. Lisa consulted a hydrologist and reported this:
CO2 (carbon dioxide) – a common fracing gas – and a gas present in production gas can move through geology and, in an aquatic environment, elevate the Ph of water creating favorable conditions within which these iron-reducing colonies can flourish.
This makes the profuse, sudden and isolated appearance of iron-reducing bacteria a profound clue in determining the cause and source of a natural gas seep.
Also, potentially making the water more acidic may be the presence of acid used to frac.
In other words, the presence of the orange iron-reducing bacteria is actually Mother Nature telling us, “There’s something wrong with this water you idiots!”
I mean, this may be naturally occurring bacteria, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal. Cancer cells occur “naturally” in the human body. When they grow and spread that means the body is in trouble.
Just look at this shit!
Photo by Lisa Bracken
It reeks of alarm.
So what we’re really looking at here is strong evidence that fracing chemicals are leaking into Divide Creek, which flows into the Colorado River – upstream from the Silt water & sewer plant, and Rifle, Parachute, Grand Junction – all the way to the Gulf of California.
What’s so bad about that?
Check this out:
Gas industry secrets and a nurse’s story
by Eric FrankowskiThis July, an emergency room nurse named Cathy Behr wanted to tell Colorado’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission the story of how she nearly died after being exposed to a mystery chemical from a gas-patch accident.
Regulators said she wasn’t scheduled to testify and they didn’t want to hear it. But anyone concerned about natural gas development should listen.
Behr, who works in southern Colorado, at Durango’s Mercy Regional Medical Center, fell ill last April after being exposed for 10 minutes to a gas-field worker who had come into the ER, his clothes damp and reeking. He’d come into contact with one of the “secret formulas” drillers use to hydraulically fracture oil- and gas-bearing formations.
Imagine that! Seems the COGCC doesn’t want to hear from Lisa Bracken or Cathy Behr.
So what do we do? Hell if I know. I’m as freaked out and frustrated as Lisa. I know from following her efforts these past 7 weeks, they won’t listen to her so they sure as hell won’t listen to me.
Lisa and I have come to the conclusion that documenting the evidence and spreading the word about what’s happening here is the most important thing that we can do right now. It’s always too late and it’s never enough – but it’s all we have. If nothing else, future generations will know this is what happened here. This is how they poisoned the water. This is how they polluted the air. Looking down from the Flattops, Snowmass, Sopris, or any other place above 9,000 feet, you can see the massive pollution cloud hanging in the river valley. I’ve been up there. I’ve seen it. I’ve shed tears over it. Please don’t tell me how bad it is in China. We’re living it right here in the heart of the Rockies – all yalls back yard, whether you want to admit it not. Everything flows from here. We are America’s watershed and her weather.
I’m no scientist but I’m not blind or stupid either. So let me lay it all out for you:
Without a doubt, greasy grimy goo is seeping into Divide Creek, in an area where dozens of gas wells use a chemical fracing process.
Encana’s fracking chemical soup recipe is a big effing secret and it is totally toxic.
The presence of iron-reducing bacteria is evidence of fracing chemicals in the water.
The COGCC refuses to test the water, therefore they must already KNOW what that goo is.
Encana and the COGCC don’t want us to know because that could cost them billion$ of $$.
Fracing chemicals in Divide Creek means fracing chemicals in the Colorado River.
Fracing chemicals in the Colorado River means fracing chemicals in Silt’s drinking water and every other community west of here that pumps water from the river.
Diluting toxic chemicals in river water doesn’t make them less toxic, it just disperses them so it takes longer for the toxins to kill people and animals. People don’t usually drop dead from chemical exposure. They gradually get sicker and sicker – then die.
Water treatment plant operators can’t filter out the chemicals because they don’t know what they are because that’s a big effing secret. I’m not even sure they could filter them out even if they knew, which is probably another reason why they don’t want us to know.
What we do know is our drinking water is polluted with the same toxic chemicals that nearly killed Cathy Behr.
Cartoon by Lisa Bracken
Somebody built you this gorgeous building! Why aren’t you moving in already?
Alpine Bank has 37 locations in western Colorado. They have a branch in Ouray – population about 1,000. But no branch in Silt – population about 3,000 – not even a measly ATM machine. So what does Alpine Bank have against Silt? Is it the color of our money – er what?
I mean what about that whole “if you build it they will come” thing? Isn’t that why they built the building? It’s about damn time we get a bank in this town. So here it is. Now would SOMEBODY – ANYBODY – PLEASE put a bank in there?
Let’s try this. Stare at the photo of the beautiful new empty building. Now visualize an Alpine Bank sign in the window.
We’re waiting …
Affordable housing discussion
There was an interesting affordable housing discussion this week in The Paper’s Letter to the Editor.
So this is affordable housing?
[scroll down to 2nd letter]
Qualifying incomes for affordable housing too low
[scroll down to 3rd letter]
Huh. Guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t think $200,000 is affordable housing.
Silt Roundabout Update
On Monday, August 11, traffic control crews will be changing the traffic flows on Main Street. In this change, Main Street will be narrowed to only two lanes of traffic. Please be aware of the change and slow down. Construction crews will be constructing roadway platform on the SE and SW Corners of the Project. Please be aware of the truck traffic and traffic control by flaggers.
For more information:
Town of Silt Roundabout Information webpage
Project Information Hotline: 625-3401
Filed under: DNA, H5N1, avian flu, bioweapon, natural solutions foundation, pandemic, vaccine
H5N1 – bird flu – avian flu –whatever you want to call it, just so happens to be popping up all over the map – already.
First, I read this article:
India’s Bird Flu Outbreak Results in Quarantine of Five People
Sunday, August 03, 2008 by: David Gutierrez(NaturalNews) Five people have been quarantined with symptoms of bird flu in India, in what could turn out to be the country’s first human cases of the disease.
The eastern state of West Bengal is currently undergoing its third outbreak of bird flu since 2006, and more than 100,000 birds have already died from the disease. In an attempt to contain the outbreak, the government has ordered two million ducks and chickens killed …
… “Bird flu is now everywhere,” said M.M. Khan of the Bangladesh Poultry Association. “Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms. Things are now very, very serious and public health is under danger. The government is trying to suppress the whole scenario.”
If that wasn’t creepy enough, I googled avian flu and ended up at an even creepier Avian Flu Info website. I found out that in mid-July 2 biomedical corporations almost simultaneously announced new DNA vaccine breakthroughs:
Inovio Biomedical’s First Proprietary DNA Vaccine Achieves 100% Protection Against Avian Flu In Pre-Clinical Testing
Found on 19 Jul 2008 09:59 GMT
Inovio Biomedical Corporation (AMEX:INO), a leader in enabling the development of DNA vaccines using a proprietary electroporation-based DNA delivery platform, announced recently pre-clinical results from two proprietary plasmid DNA-based universal influenza vaccine candidates using the company’s proprietary electroporation delivery technology and, specifically, a new intradermal device.Vical Announces Breakthrough For Pandemic Influenza DNA Vaccines With Preliminary Human Data
Found on 18 Jul 2008 10:59 GMT
Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) announced a breakthrough with preliminary clinical trial data demonstrating that DNA vaccines can safely achieve significant immune responses against H5N1 pandemic influenza in humans.
Remember what Dr. Laibow said [emphasis added]: “A basic virological fact that the public has not been told is that it is impossible to make a vaccine against a virus that does not yet exist. Public relations efforts to the contrary, IF a vaccine is being made against the Avian Flu virus in its pandemic form, that means that the pandemic virus must already exist, period, end of discussion. So the fact that the Avian Flu vaccine is already being manufactured in China by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French arm of the cartel is not only peculiar, but at the very least sinister.”
I love the wording of this next headline, Possible Future. It has that whole why-wait-for-the-pandemic-when-you-can-get-pre-vaccinated-right-now? ring to it. Yes, let’s get all the sheeple pre-vaccinated, devastate their immune systems, so H5N1 will spread even quicker. Quite the hard sell.
Possible Future Avian Influenza Pandemic May Be Eased By Booster Vaccination
Found on 17 Jul 2008 12:59 GMT
New evidence suggests that a booster vaccination against H5N1 avian influenza given years after initial vaccination with a different strain may prove useful in controlling a potential future pandemic. The study is published in the August 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. H5N1 continues to pose a major health risk to birds and humans.
Hang with me on my timeline here. All that vaccine hype came out in mid-July. Then suddenly last week bird flu showed up in Vietnam, Nigeria, and South Korea:
Bird flu explodes in southern province (Vietnam Net)
Found on 01 Aug 2008 09:38 GMT
VietNamNet BridgeBird flu was discovered in a flock of 1,000 chickens in the southern province of Dong Thap on July 31, reported the Veterinary Agency.Bird flu breaks out in Nigeria (Daily Dispatch)
Found on 30 Jul 2008 07:11 GMT
NIGERIAN authorities have reported a fresh outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the northern states of Katsina and Kano. The virus was confirmed through tests on affected birds on a poultry farm in Kano State and it has killed 4249 birds, the official NAN news agency said yesterday.SKorea cat had bird flu: officials (TODAYonline)
Found on 29 Jul 2008 06:33 GMT
A Seoul quarantine official. A cat found dead in a South Korean city was infected with a virulent strain of bird flu, the first mammal in the country known to have had the H5N1 virus, health officials said.
WTF is going on here?
Uh-oh. Maybe they’re planning to use the Olympics to spread it:
Dead birds found at equestrian site tested for bird flu (TSN)
Found on 01 Aug 2008 03:38 GMT
HONG KONG – Two dead birds were discovered at the Olympic equestrian venue in Hong Kong, and authorities were testing whether the animals were infected with the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus.
What to do – what to do? I don’t believe ANY vaccines are safe or effective. I believe they compromise the immune system. The thought of forced mass vaccinations is more chilling to me than the bird flu. Even if you think vaccinations in general are safe and effective, the H5N1/avian flu vaccine is an experimental, lab-produced DNA vaccination, which we – or even science – know very little about. I’m not interested in being a guinea pig.
Remember I contracted Lyme disease 23 years ago and I’m still alive and healthy. So I know a little something about fighting a bioweapon. I boost my immune system with organic foods, vitamins, herbal supplements, and essential oils. I don’t take any prescription drugs.
What I learned from battling Lyme disease is that the human body has the capacity to fight any disease. The first organ you use to fight disease is your brain. Learn how to build up your immune system, then practice doing it. It’s mind over matter. I control Lyme disease in my body. It DOES NOT control me. I have no fear of bird flu because even if I get it, I know how to fight it.
Those of us who are spreading the word about this possible pandemic hope against hope that by doing so we can somehow stop it from happening, by shining a light on it. It’s also possible that simply the FEAR of POSSIBLE avian flu pandemic will be used to coerce people en masse into getting vaccinated. After all, the underlying motivation behind this bird flu flap appears to center around the VACCINE – which will mean huge profits for biomedical and pharmaceutical corporations if bazillions of people are vaccinated. It doesn’t matter whether that occurs because of the fear of a pandemic, or an actual pandemic. Either way they still profit.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence the whole anthrax thing has exploded in the news again – just to remind us to be afraid – be very afraid. Remember how afraid you were back in 2001 when powdered anthrax was floating around? Don’t fall for it this time.
Should an all out avian flu pandemic occur, the Natural Solutions Foundation offers some advice from a retired NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) government employee:
Professional Advise Regarding Protecting Yourself in a Pandemic
Don’t waste your time feeling fearful. Get strong and get prepared.
