Correction: Regarding last week’s food news [May 19, “Just keep truckin’”], we would like to clarify that Civic Center EATS attracts 2,000-3,000 people per day, not 1,000 people as stated in the article. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Oil and Gas Industry Declares War on Colorado
Hydraulic fracking companies in Colorado inject into the ground solutions containing known carcinogens endangering the health of the people and the environment.
Fracking wastes massive amounts of water, which is a problem in arid Colorado, as well as producing large amounts of polluted water and mud.
Fracking endangers local aquifers, our drinking water and our health.
In March of 2012, Physicians for Social Responsibility called for a moratorium on fracking in order to protect human health and the environment. In June 2015, New York state banned fracking because of threats to the environment and significant public health risks.
On May 2, 2016, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that profits from fracking trumped the heath, safety and welfare of the people of Colorado.
Colorado has become a leading oil and gas producer with over 50,000 active wells. The oil and gas industry has declared war on Coloradans and the Colorado Supreme Court will not protect the people from this significant risk to our health and environment.
Coloradans must confront this threat to our health and environment and fight back in self-defense. Weibo Ludwig of Calgary, Canada fought back by pouring cement down wellhead shafts and blew up other wells. Malcolm X said: “I don’t even call it violence when it’s in self defense; I call it intelligence.”
Andrew J. O’Connor/Lafayette
Editor’s note: Boulder Weekly does not advocate violence against people or property.
Help protect at-risk species in North Boulder
Many may not know that extremely fragile habitat and the creatures who live there are in serious danger due to the planning of a particular trail in North Boulder on the west side of U.S. 36.
City Council is about to review a proposed plan to take a major trail through a critically sensitive area, which is home to many at-risk inhabitants. From Golden Eagles and other vulnerable birds and mammals, to rare butterflies, important plant communities and eleven riparian drainages, the damage would be immense.
Wet conditions which could keep the trail closed half the time, along with proven susceptibility to flooding, are just a few of the many reasons to avoid future disasters for many species, including major problems for our own.
Since there is an equally beautiful and more easily accessible trail previously suggested by staff on the east side of the highway, the plan to do it on the west is as needless as it will be devastating to a designated Habitat Conservation Area.
Boulder has been the precious and restorative place to live that it is because we have tried so hard to protect our rare wild spaces. Now the nature that we love so much is in danger of being loved to death by the ever-increasing flow of visitors who are drawn to it. Thus the need for utmost care is greater than ever.
Northern open space has already lost four species of mammals — once common, now rarely or never seen — since 2000. On May 26, Boulder City Council will hold a study session on plans for the North Trail Study Area. City staff has said more than once to the public that a trail on the east side would be less damaging ecologically.
Please consider letting Council know at [email protected] that we must be very careful to cause the least disturbance possible in our forays into some of our last, and extremely vulnerable, wild areas.
Cathy Comstock/Boulder
