“If you build it, we will burn
it!” read a fax claiming responsibility for a fire at a
West Jordan, Utah, lumberyard in mid-June. The fire, set by the
Earth Liberation Front, which now tops the FBI’s list of
domestic terrorists, caused $1.5 million in damage to Stock
Building Supply (HCN, 9/15/03: Burning one for the road). According
to the fax — sent from an “unsecured” dental office at the
University of Utah — the lumberyard was targeted because its
owners have ignored warnings to repair polluting forklifts.
Should New Mexico have a say in deciding whether
a private company can build a uranium-enrichment plant in the
state? If it’s up to Louisiana Energy Services and
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which issues permits for
nuclear facilities, that answer may be “no.” Although he initially
supported plans for the facility, Gov. Bill Richardson has come to
doubt the wisdom of allowing LES to generate a radioactive
by-product that no waste facility in the country can legally accept
(HCN, 2/16/04: No place for pesky nuclear waste). But it may be too
late: LES has asked the commission to block information from the
state concerning disposal, and the NRC has agreed it will not
consider this “new evidence” when issuing a permit.
Young fall chinook salmon are dying in the Klamath
River, and biologists are predicting an adult fish kill
later this summer that could rival the 2003 die-off (HCN, 6/23/03:
Sound science goes sour). Two naturally occurring diseases are
spreading more rapidly than normal; as river temperatures rise,
fish crowd into the coolest spots they can find. Disease spreads
easily under those conditions, and has infected perhaps 80 percent
of the chinook salmon heading for the ocean. But the Bureau of
Reclamation has no more water to send downstream, and all
biologists can do is “document the extent of the event,” says Gary
Stacey, fisheries program manager with the California Department of
Fish and Game’s North Coast Region. “Pointing
fingers isn’t going to help,” he adds.
“Collaboration is the key to focus on for long-term
solutions.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Follow-up.
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