Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder say that extended drought, coupled with mining pollution, could make for rocky winters at Colorado ski resorts. A recently released study published in the American Geophysical Union’s EOS Journal examines the Snake River Watershed in Summit County, Colo., where hotter weather threatens snow conditions at popular ski resorts […]
Pollution
Posted inOctober 13, 2003: The Big Story Written Small
Clearing the air
For more than 30 years, farmers in California have been exempt from the Clean Air Act. That’s about to change.
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Reweaving the river
Farmers and ranchers — not ‘yuppie environmentalists’ — work on a Colorado restoration
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
Toxic waste looms over village
While a toxic waste heap inches toward a northern New Mexico village, a mining company and the state crawl toward a reclamation plan. In the 1960s, the mining company Molycorp dumped wasterock from an open-pit molybdenum mine, leaving a 1.6 million-cubic-yard toxic pile above the small town of Questa (HCN, 8/28/00: The mine that turned […]
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Cold War toxin seeps into Western water
Rocket-fuel ingredient could pose widespread health threats
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
EPA puts cleanup in local hands
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – It’s hard to imagine that an issue as sprawling and contentious as the effort to clean up a century of mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin could fit into a glass of water (HCN, 3/4/02: EPA wants to supersize Idaho Superfund site). But that’s the image that came walking […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Spilling salt into rivers
COLORADO The Southern Ute tribe has turned a spotlight on a plan to dump water from coalbed-methane wells into a southern Colorado river. Tribal leaders recently scolded state officials for failing to consult with them before issuing a permit that will allow two coalbed-methane wells to spill water into the Florida River. Usually, the poor […]
Posted inApril 29, 2002: The Great Salt Lake Mystery
Lake stops sprawl in its tracks … for now
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. As Salt Lake City and its suburbs have sprawled across the Wasatch Front, little sleep has been lost over Great Salt Lake. So it was hardly a surprise to anyone last August when bulldozers started rolling through lakeside marshes, laying the foundation for what […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
EPA wants to supersize Idaho Superfund site
State and federal officials squabble over how to clean up the Silver Valley
Posted inJuly 2, 2001: Can Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?
Missing: One truckload of fuel
COLORADO After a six-month search, more than 7,000 gallons of diesel fuel are still missing from a Summit County ski resort. In January, when the fuel was delivered to Copper Mountain, the driver reportedly pumped it into a water-quality monitoring well instead of an underground storage tank. Although officials were able to recover 150 gallons […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
High court weeds out pesticides
OREGON For years, irrigation districts and golf course operators have used pesticides in irrigation canals to battle pesky weeds that choke the flow of water. But a few years ago, an aquatic herbicide in southern Oregon didn’t kill just plants. More than 90,000 young steelhead trout died in 1996 when the chemical acrolein leaked from […]
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
EPA reins in ranchers
OREGON For years, a bureaucratic gap in Oregon law has allowed some ranchers to violate the Clean Water Act by allowing their cows’ manure to seep into rivers. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down. So far, the EPA has fined 10 Oregon ranchers – some as much as $50,000 – while also requiring […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Something is polluting the water
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe says it has always farmed oysters on western Washington’s Dungeness Bay. But not any more. The state health department banned the harvest of shellfish in certain areas of the bay last May, because water-quality tests showed excess levels of fecal coliform bacteria. While fecal coliform isn’t a health hazard by itself, […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Who’ll clean up a mining mess?
Idaho wrangles with the feds over a Superfund site COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – For years, a handful of locals in Northern Idaho have grumbled that federal cleanup efforts were botched and that Bunker Hill, the largest Superfund site in the country, was still unsafe after 20 years. Now, the cleanup is supposed to wind down […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
A leaky mine must get in line
IDAHO When the Grouse Creek Mine opened in 1995, it was hailed as an example of mining done in harmony with the environment. But the central Idaho gold mine closed in 1997 because it wasn’t making enough money, and its 500 million-gallon tailings pond leaks and has been contaminating streams with cyanide. Now federal and […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Who knew what, and when?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. W.R. Grace maintains it has always been frank about the dangers of asbestos. Former workers and union leaders disagree. They say Grace didn’t come clean with its workers until 1979, 16 years after it bought the mine. Earl Lovick, who managed the Libby mine […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘It’s like sacking feather’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Former Grace worker Lester Skramstad is slowly dying from asbestos-related diseases. His wife and two children, now in their 40s, have also contracted asbestosis. The following is taken from his testimony in court. Lester Skramstad: “We built a screen, jig sort of a situation, […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘Grace is going to have to own up’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Don Judge is executive secretary of the Montana State AFL-CIO in Helena. Don Judge: “For many years, neither the union nor the workers knew that the dust had asbestos in it, but we asked the company to clean it up. In 1964, the union […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A barbed tragedy is lodged in Libby
Note: This essay is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story,”Libby’s dark secret.” You remember asbestos: It used to be the hottest little insulator around. For years we crammed it into buildings and warships, wrapped it around water pipes and brake pads, wove it into fireproof clothing and flame-resistant drapes. Then we found out how […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Libby’s dark secret
For decades, mine dust has been killing people in Libby, Montana. Why didn’t anyone do anything about it?