Mesa Verde pollution draws lawsuit

Local air pollution triggered major litigation this week. A coalition of groups prepared a suit to clean up air pollution in 10 national parks, inlcuding Mesa Verde.

This week, Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund and National Parks Conservation Association announced their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to enforce deadlines for the adoption of clean air plans.

The groups noted that the 1977 Clean Air Act set a national goal of cleaning up dirty air in major national parks and wilderness areas. Decades later, only a small handful of states have submitted the legally required plans to comply. As a result, emissions from power plants and factories are continuing to obscure views in national parks across the country. Parks like Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Glacier, Big Bend, Acadia, Sequoia, and Yosemite made the cut, in addition to Mesa Verde.

“The millions of Americans visiting our national parks expect clean air and clear views,” said Kevin Lynch, attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund. “This legal action will jumpstart real world solutions to address the industrial air pollution at our national treasures.”

The Clean Air Act required that states submit plans to clean up hazy skies in parks and wilderness areas to the EPA by last December. More than six months later, only five states have submitted plans. The Earthjustice letter gives notice of intent to sue EPA unless the agency enforces the deadline against delinquent states within 60 days.

Much of the pollution problem comes from old power plants and factories with outdated pollution controls, including the Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station.

This week’s lawsuit comes just weeks after Mesa Verde made the National Parks Conservation Association’s Top 10 Most Threatened list. According to a report by the group, the Bush Administration has proposed to weaken pollution rules for new power plants seeking to build upwind of several national parks. These rules would make it easier for developers to build at least two dozen new plants, including the Desert Rock Power Plant proposed for the Navajo Nation, that would threaten air quality in at least 10 national parks. The  NPCA called on the Administration to halt its efforts to weaken clean air protections for national parks. A month later, the group has opted to pursue litigation.  

Chef Alice Waters taps local farm

World-renowned chef Alice Waters put La Plata County on the menu this week at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The “Mother of American Cooking,” as Waters has been dubbed by the New York Times, selected lamb from Fox Fire Farms, a small family farm in Ignacio, and other sustainably grown foods for a dinner she prepared for festival guests on July 2. For a small farm like Fox Fire, being featured by the high-priestess of sustainable agriculture was more than just a dinner – it was confirmation that despite increasing pressure from corporate agriculture and residential development, their hard work still pays off.

“We’re very excited to have Alice Waters feature our lamb shoulder and rack of lamb at her dinner,” said Brent Walter, sales and marketing director at Fox Fire Farms. “It’s one of the finest compliments we can receive. We’ve spent years building a farm that allows animals to live the way nature intended while producing meat that is tastier and healthier for consumers and better for the planet. It feels fantastic to have Chef Waters recognize us.”

For decades it has become more and more difficult to find local, sustainably grown food as corporations and supermarkets have replaced family farms and grocers. Food often travels thousands of miles to reach the American table and hybrid crops raised to withstand the journey don’t have the nutritional value or taste of local foods. Alice Waters feels there’s a better way and

has been demonstrating it since she began championing local growers in the early 1970s.

“Several Colorado restaurants already feature our meats,” Walter said. “We hope that being featured at the Aspen Ideas Festival will increase awareness that there are sustainable choices available and consumers can directly benefit family farms by choosing local products.”

Fox Fire Farms has been owned and operated by the Parry family since 1913 and raises certified organic grass fed lamb, goat, beef, eggs and grapes.

Fort Lewis hooks up with Manhattan

An educational link has been established between Durango and Manhattan. This week, Fort Lewis College announced an agreement that will allow local students to study in New York City.

After a year of negotiation, the local college completed an exchange agreement with Eugene Lang College – The New School for Liberal Arts, located in New York.

Rochelle Mann, interim dean of the FLC School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, commented, “This agreement provides for an exchange of up to six students per semester, and it includes all programs including study abroad and internships. I am thrilled that students at each institution will be able to pursue both curricular and extracurricular opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to them, and I am particularly excited by the possibilities that exist in the areas of museum internships and Southwest studies.”

The agreement would allow students from FLC and Eugene Lang College to study at the other institution for one or two semesters. Eugene Lang hosts about 900 students at its campus in Manhattan. There, students study everything from the arts and religion to economics and urban studies. In contrast, more than 3,900 students call Fort Lewis College home.

Delta Airlines dumps Durango flight

Durango travelers will lose a vital connection Aug. 31. Delta Airlines announced this week that it will drop four routes from its Salt Lake City hub, and Durango is among them.

Citing record fuel costs, the Atlanta-based carrier will stop flying to Durango at the end of August. The airline is also cutting service to Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz. 

“We are reducing these flights due to the direct impact of fuel,” Delta spokesman Anthony Black told theSalt Lake Tribune. 

Black added that the price of oil has nearly tripled since Delta opened the Salt Lake to Durango connection in Aug. of 2006.

“As we’ve said before, if fuel prices continue to rise, we will continue to make the tough decisions on capacity that we’ve made so far,” Black told the paper.

– Will Sands