NEWS ROUNDUP

Groundwater dispute heats up The Utah-Nevada dispute is heating up over groundwater in the Snake Valley, which Nevada wants to pump to Las Vegas. Next week, Utah legislators will travel to the western Utah region of Callao, Juab County, to meet with ranchers and environmentalists worried about what they see as a possible water grab by Nevada. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, residents of the region say they filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court challenging a rule that keeps some from asserting official protests against the project. The Nevada state rule says interested parties needed to file a protest at the time of the application for the groundwater, which was in 1989, to have standing now to make an official protest. Plaintiffs, which include the Great Basin and Utah chapters of Trout Unlimited and Defenders of Wildlife, say that violates their constitutional rights and isn't fair as many weren't aware of what was going on in 1989 and others who have water rights today did not own them 17 years ago. At issue is the "Clark, Lincoln and White Pine Counties Groundwater Development Project," which could pump up to about 176,000 acre-feet of underground water and pipe it to the Las Vegas area. Five aquifer basins are involved in the project. Two of interest to Utahns are the Snake Valley Project and the Spring Valley Project....
January salt water spill still being cleaned up Cleanup of a salt water spill estimated at nearly 1 million gallons continues more than six months after it was discovered in a creek in northwestern North Dakota. "We are probably about half completed with the surface work," said Keith Hill, an operations manager for Zenergy, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla. "Weather permitting, we should be able to finish surface-type work within two or three weeks," Hill said by phone Wednesday from Tulsa. "We've got most of the monitor wells in place, and monitoring will go on for several years." The spill from a pipeline break, discovered Jan. 4, sent salt water into Charbonneau Creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone River, killing fish and forcing ranchers to move their cattle. The clean up cost is estimated at around $2 million. Salt water is an oil production waste product that can kill plants and hurt animals. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it. State Health Department officials say the January spill is the largest salt water spill they can remember in North Dakota....
U.S. has huge oil reserves - but there's a catch We have an energy problem. There’s no argument about it. Of course, the argument lies in how to fix it, whether it’s fixable at all, and when it can be fixed. On Colorado’s western slope, under the big sky, near a town called Meeker, quietly and often secretly, for decades scientists have been probing hundreds of feet into the Earth. They’re trying to extract what is believed to be the largest oil reserve in the world. More oil than in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. But, there’s just one problem: It’s trapped in rock called shale. With a barrel of crude selling at more than $70 dollars these days, Shell executives believe they can now produce oil form shale at a profit. The oil from shale is like any other oil. At Shell’s labs in Houston, scientists studying core samples say this could eventually turn into a conventional oil field – it just would take 100 million years. The oil is extracted by cooking it out of the ground. The unit used is an electric heater, and works like an old fashioned coffee percolator. At 650 to 700 degrees, the oil vaporizes and seeps through the rock. It flows to a well and then rises to the surface where it cools and liquefies. Too good to be true?....
Natural Gas Boom Impacts Rural Wyoming Town BETTY ANN BOWSER, NewsHour Correspondent: Every summer, the 1,600 residents of Pinedale, Wyoming, stage a three-day event called the Rendezvous. One of the highlights is a rodeo that celebrates the rich Western cow town heritage that residents, like Chopper and Lyn Grassell, say is changing too fast. LYN GRASSELL, Pinedale Resident: When we moved here, it was ranching. It was small. You knew everybody on the street. And now it's oil and gas. It's a lot of oil and gas. We were talking earlier. I think that there's a big push from the agricultural side to keep that, keep the kids knowing how to ride horses, and come to the rodeo, and experience all that. But then you have oil and gas that's coming in. It's just a whole new group of people. BETTY ANN BOWSER: The Green River Valley of Wyoming is in the middle of a natural gas boom. Pinedale, in rural Sublette County, is ground zero. It's where companies, like EnCana USA, have rushed to take advantage of the current energy crisis and have started a massive drilling operation in the Jonah Field, considered the richest natural gas deposit in the country. Paul Ulrich is EnCana's spokesman. PAUL ULRICH, EnCana Oil and Gas: We think we've got about 13.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas here in the Jonah Field. That's enough to heat America for about two-thirds of a year, you know, give or take a little bit, a lot of natural gas....
US to lease 8 million acres in Alaska for oil and gas drilling Despite strong opposition from environmental groups, the Bush administration yesterday said it would offer energy companies next month the opportunity to search for crude oil and natural gas on 8 million acres in Alaska's western Arctic region. The acres to be leased will be on 696 tracts in the northeast and northwest areas of the National Petroleum Reserve. Environmentalists are especially concerned because 373,000 acres north of the reserve's wetland-rich Teshekpuk Lake will be offered for lease for the first time. About 183,200 acres relinquished since a 2002 lease sale will also be offered again to energy companies. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which will conduct the lease sale Sept. 27, said the reserve's energy supplies are needed and steps will be taken to limit the impact of drilling at biologically sensitive areas near Teshekpuk Lake. The reserve is estimated to hold between 5.9 billion and 13.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 39 trillion to 83 trillion cubic feet of natural gas....
Bow hunt sanctioned to solve bruin problem Bears have become such a nuisance in the Crystal Lakes community that residents are hoping hunters armed with bows and arrows will solve the problem. Up to 12 archers will be allowed to stalk bears on roughly 600 acres of greenbelt in the private mountain community located about 50 miles northwest of Fort Collins. It is the first time the state has approved a bear hunt in a private subdivision. Wildlife officials and many residents of Crystal Lakes say a regulated hunt is the only way to manage a massive influx of bears....
Who'll maintain the Beartooth? Suppose there were a road that nobody owned. And suppose the money to keep up that road had run out. That might be fine if it were a road to nowhere. But the Beartooth Highway, an acclaimed ribbon of pavement over the mountains on the Montana and Wyoming border, just happens to lead to Yellowstone National Park. With the spring 2007 opening of the spellbinding road just nine months away, there are questions about who will foot the bill to scrape it clear of snow and prepare it for the flocks of summer tourists. For decades -- because of peculiar circumstances dating back even longer -- crews from Yellowstone have plowed and maintained most of the road. Park officials, though, say they've run out of money to maintain that stretch. They say they could continue to pay for it but would have to make cuts to the park's budget to do so. Instead, park officials and others are trying to work with local communities to come up with other funding ideas....
A Man, a Plan, a Dam. Then, an F.B.I. Call On July 25, Jim Bensman of Alton, Ill., attended a public meeting on the proposed construction of a bypass channel for fish at a dam on the Mississippi River. Less than a week later, he was under investigation by the F.B.I. — the victim, depending on how you look at it, of either a comedy of errors or alarming antiterror zeal. The meeting was organized by the Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains Mississippi River navigation systems, including the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in East Alton, Ill., where it is considering construction of a fish passage. At the meeting, Mr. Bensman, a coordinator with Heartwood, an environmental organization, suggested the corps simply destroy the dam. It was an idea the corps itself had considered. In fact, a photograph of an exploding dam was included in the corps’ PowerPoint presentation, explosive demolition being by far the most common method of dam removal. But news accounts of the hearing did not put it quite like that. One newspaper said simply that he “would like to see the dam blown up.”....
Volunteers repair damage to the nation's only known Sasquatch trap Dave Enge and Jeff LaLande figure they are following in some mighty big footsteps. They point to the hefty 12-inch wide and two-inch thick planks that form the ceiling, floor and four sides. Then there's the heavy expanded metal grate and telephone poles that anchor the 10-foot by 10-foot wooden cage to the ground. "I don't know how they carried them up here," LaLande observed. "Back in the days when they built this, it was still fairly remote. You had to hike all the way up from the Applegate River at that point." Perhaps, it went unsaid, the builders of the legendary Bigfoot trap in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest had a little help from a large hairy fellow. Despite the fort-like strength its 1974 builders apparently felt was necessary to nab the elusive Sasquatch, age has taken its toll. The floor planks have nearly rotted through and rot has punched a hole through one side....
Volcanic Destruction Of United States Is 40,000 Years Overdue! Such an event has happened in North America not once, but three times in a place you normally wouldn’t think of as a hotbed of volcanic activity. This particular renowned and famous tourist destination has a little-known periodic feature that is more deadly than Old Faithful and is ominously about 40,000 years behind schedule. Of the three most massive volcanic eruptions in our continent’s geological history, Yellowstone National Park holds the first and second place records. The Long Valley California caldera comes in at number three. Yellowstone so far has had two mega-destructive events — 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and a smaller one (for the sake of comparison, not severity) 600,000 years ago. The area around, beneath and within our nation’s first national park is known in scientific circles as a “Super Volcano” and there’s a good reason for all that magnificent mountain scenery. Approximately two million years ago the first Yellowstone blast left a crater that has been estimated at 49.8 miles long by 40.5 miles wide. Geological records reveal a ballpark figure of the output of that eruption at 585 cubic miles of molten magma. According to geologists, our pleasant little nature and wildlife preserve has an average cycle of caldera-building eruptions of about every 600,000 years — and the last one was 640,000 years ago. That one produced a crater measuring 53 miles long by 28 miles wide. The resulting pyroclastic flow deposited enough material to cover 3000 square miles, settling into a rock layer known as the Lava Creek Tuff, a volume, if rolled out evenly, that would equal covering the entire continental United States with five inches of asphalt....This will never happen. After all, it would be in violation of the ESA, CWA, CAA & NEPA.
Climate linked to plague increase Climatic changes could lead to more outbreaks of bubonic plague among human populations, a study suggests. Researchers found that the bacterium that caused the deadly disease became more widespread following warmer springs and wetter summers. The disease occurs naturally in many parts of the world, and the team hopes its findings will help officials limit the risk of future outbreaks. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The bacterium Yersinia pestis is believed to have triggered the Black Death that killed more than 20 million people in the Middle Ages....
Willie Nelson Joins Protest Against Slaughtering Wild Horses "If you’ve ever been around horses a lot, especially wild horses, you know they are part of the American heritage," Willie Nelson says. "I don’t think it’s right that we kill them and eat them." Nelson’s comments were in support of a news release this week where Nelson urges participation in a September 5 rally planned in Washington, where people will gather to support a bill sponsored by Rep. John Sweeney that aims to end the horse slaughters. Nelson himself can’t attend the rally, but his daughter Amy will, along with other celebrities including Jennifer Pryor, wife of the late Richard Pryor, and actress Bo Derek, who regularly campaigns on behalf of animal rights. Nelson has owned horses for many years and has several buried on his ranches. "I do have a lot of respect for my horses," Nelson said, which explains his passion about supporting the bill that will ban the slaughters. The U.S. House is scheduled to vote on the bill, HR 503, on September 7....
Arizona ballot initiative challenges livestock-raising techniques Several Arizona farm and ranch organizations have formed a coalition to defeat an out-of-state animal activists-supported initiative headed for the Arizona General Election ballot on Nov. 7. If passed by voters, Arizona hog and veal producers would be required by law to increase stall sizes for hogs and veal calves. Currently no veal industry exist in the state. Under the initiative called Proposition (Prop) 204, hog and veal producers who fail to make the changes could face up to six months in prison and a $20,000 fine if the proposal passes. Prop 204 was launched by the out-of-state groups Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States. “Just plain and simple - the proposal is hogwash,” said Jim Klinker, chair of the agriculture-based Coalition for Arizona Farmers and Ranchers (CAFR) that developed the simplistic ‘hogwash’ message. The coalition consists of the Arizona Pork Council, Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, United Dairymen of Arizona and the Arizona Farm Bureau. Klinker is Farm Bureau’s executive secretary. Klinker said the issue is not about stall size. Arizona hogs are raised humanely in a safe, clean environment and are fed a nutritious diet of corn, soybeans and supplements. The real issue is about out-of-state animal activists trying to force their anti-meat, pro-vegetarian and pro-vegan lifestyle on every Arizonan, he noted. The activists’ goal is to knock off the small hog-producing states like Arizona and Florida and work to derail hog and veal production in larger livestock production states, said Klinker....
USDA's Johanns Urges Broad Support Of Animal ID System Speaking at the National Institute of Animal Agriculture's Animal Identification/Information Exposition 2006 in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns encouraged participants to continue working toward full participation in a national, voluntary system of animal identification. "Don't let naysayers dampen your enthusiasm," Johanns said in a speech to the group. Other countries have animal-identification systems, and they are using the fact that their livestock are traceable as a marketing tool, Johanns said. The U.S. also should have a system for tracing livestock to stay competitive. The USDA is listening to market concerns and is addressing them all through a campaign of education about what the system is and is not, Johanns said. During his presentation, a question-and-answer session and a press conference, Johanns addressed issues of effectiveness, cost and confidentiality. He defended the USDA's stance on turning over the database program to private industry, saying it provided a competitive environment to keep the costs down. Johanns also said a privately grown system will produce the best system, one that meets the needs of producers and attracts them to the program....
Arlen Lancaster Succeeds Bruce Knight as NRCS Top Man Arlen Lancaster has been selected as the new Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Lancaster succeeds Bruce Knight at NRCS, who was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate as under secretary of agriculture for marketing and regulatory programs. "Arlen Lancaster's dedication, leadership and experience has well prepared him to serve in this new leadership role on our USDA team," says Ag Secretary Mike Johanns. "He has a passion for conservation and I look forward to working with Arlen in this new capacity. I'm very confident that our nation's farmers and ranchers will have a strong advocate in him for improving the quality of our natural resources and conserving our land." Lancaster has served as deputy assistant secretary of Congressional Relations at USDA since April 2005. Prior to his service at USDA, Lancaster served in various senior staff positions in Congress, having worked since 1999 for Senator Mike Crapo, as a senior policy advisor and as the staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Conservation, and Rural Revitalization since 2001, he played a key role in crafting the conservation title of the 2002 Farm Bill. He also worked for Senator Robert Bennett from 1998 to 1999....
Gillett forms new natural meat firm Vail businessman George Gillett Jr. has combined two of his investment groups to create a natural meat company with more than $500 million in annual revenue. Golden-based BC Natural Foods, parent of Coleman Natural Meats, merged with KDSB Holdings and its Kings Delight and Snow Ball Foods brands to form Coleman Natural Foods LLC, the company said Wednesday. "It is taking on (the Coleman) name because that (name) has the greatest consumer awareness," said Chief Executive Officer George Chivari. Headquarters will remain in Golden. The combined company will employ 2,300 people at 17 facilities in six states and produce meats under several brands, including Coleman, Petaluma Poultry, Kings Delight and Snow Ball Foods. The company has about 300 workers at three Colorado facilities, said spokeswoman Robyn Nick. Chivari will continue to head the larger company, and Mel Coleman Jr. will remain as chairman of the board. Coleman's father, a Colorado cattle rancher who helped pioneer standards for natural and organic beef, founded the company that bears his name. Mel Coleman Sr. died in 2002, but the ranch is still in the family and is one of about 500 ranches that supply cattle to the company, Chivari said....
County rancher finds surprise visitor in backyard Ken Miller has lived on a ranch north of Fort Lupton for 50 years. He knows a thing or two about snakes. “I see bull snakes and water snakes all the time,” he said. But not even Miller was prepared for what he found lounging in his grass a couple Saturdays ago. “Animal control tells us it was a red-tailed boa and they’re native to Central and South America,” he said. Miller said he was watering his lawn when they came across the creature. “At first we didn’t even realize it was a snake, looked closely and it was,” he said. Pat Mallet, who cares for Miller’s elderly mother, at first thought the snake, estimated at about 6 ½ feet long by an animal control officer, was a fallen tree branch....

Lots of good news out there folks. Let's just hope they catch Sasquatch before he gets blown to smithereens by a volcano or dies of the plague. And oh yes, don't mess around with the Corps of Engineers.