An extra elephant

To the Editors:

I teach International Water Law and International Environmental Law overseas. When I come home to Colorado, I come home to a state that has more than 20 active Superfund sites, nine of which involve contaminated groundwater. The damage done to the Durango community by the Smelter Mountain disaster, which became a Superfund site, is incalculable. I would expect everyone in this county to be highly motivated to prevent any further damage of this nature. Wyoming is currently experiencing publicized and tragic fracing results in Sublette County (see www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_110018350 ). Therefore Riddle’s recent fracing vote was startling.

Then I listened to the audio recording of the minutes of the fracing discussion vote at the La Plata County Board of Commissioners Business Meeting, July 14, 2009, and heard, to my disbelief, Commissioner Riddle: “…I feel extremely ignorant, so ill suited and like this discussion is just so not appropriate for a county to be having on these technical things that I don’t even know the questions to ask and this just seems so out of my realm… (giggle, giggle, giggle)” (found at http://laplatgranicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=600, jump to Resolution 29# 2004, A Resolution on…audio time 2:55).

Commissioner Riddle did not go to Dr. Theo Colborn’s (http://endocrinedisruption.com/home.php ) lecture on fracing which over 100 people attended at Fort Lewis College in the preceding week.

Commissioner Riddle opted not to meet with Theo Colborn when Commissioner White tried to arrange a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Colburn. Other meetings on this subject have been missed by Commissioner Riddle as well. “Strategic ignorance” is becoming a recognized anti-environmental tactic.

Last year I was dismayed to find that Commissioner Riddle voted for gas drilling in the BLM outcropping even though there was a moratorium on drilling, CO2 emissions in this county are known to be causing health problems in the County, and there is worldwide meltdown of the ice caps and glaciers caused by CO2.

There’s an extra elephant in La Plata County. She’s dressed in a donkey suit that needs to be deCommissioned.

– Christine Anderson, Cairo and Vallecito

Industry fracs back

To the Editors:

It wasn’t too terribly long ago when it was reasonable to expect of those submitting letters to the editor at least a basic understanding of the issue about which they wrote. La Plata County Democratic Executive Committee member Jean Walter’s recent letter on hydraulic fracturing, riddled with factual errors and outright falsehoods, demonstrates how unreasonable that expectation has become.

Let’s start with Ms. Walter’s declaration that “prior to (2005),” the federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing “had been in place since 1974 in the Safe Drinking Water Act.” Your readers should know that’s categorically false. Hydraulic fracturing has never been regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Not before 2005, not after 1974, not ever. That’s not my personal opinion; that’s a simple matter of fact.

The truth is, for more than 60 years, state officials have effectively regulated every single stage of oil and gas operations related to the hydraulic fracturing process – from siting, to well construction, to the materials involved in coaxing hard-to-reach energy resources to the surface. That’s why every independent agency to review the situation, from the IOGCC, to the EPA, to the Groundwater Protection Council, have found no evidence of frac-related contamination. These state regulations continue to evolve.  Look no further than Colorado for proof of that: Energy producers in your state maintain detailed chemical inventory information made available to Colorado regulators and medical providers. 

Maybe that’s why Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter recently asked Rep. Diana DeGette to do a little bit more homework on the consequences of her bill before rushing it past the finish line. Ms. Walter would do well to pursue that same due diligence. 

– Lee Fuller, Energy in Depth, Washington, D.C.

A bankrupt health-care system

Dear Editors,

Wow, Telegraph, true to your promise, you will “print damned near anything” – including email blast letters from right winger radio talk host Dennis Prager (“Questioning ObamaCare”). At first, I thought Prager lived near here, and so I set out to research fully his objections to answer them with, you know, facts and figures. Then I ran out of editorial space, so I had to pick which few questions to answer. Needless to say, Prager will probably not actually read my responses, but hopefully someone else out there will.

Is it Care or Insurance? Supporters of health care reform substitute the word “care” for “insurance” because, while America offers excellent care (state of the art MRIs, cancer treatments, etc.), it’s only for those who can afford it. Think of a town with a four star restaurant: most of the people in the town can’t afford to eat there, but someone (probably the restaurant’s owner, or one of its patrons) will brag about their town having the best food in the state. Too many Americans are not able to eat at the common table. According to data collected in 2007, the American Journal of Medicine has found that health care costs caused 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies at that time.

No Medical Rationing. The right wing keeps yammering about the “fears of medical rationing of health care.” But I ask, is that not what insurance companies currently do? Every procedure must be vetted through your insurer; many are denied despite the best honest opinion of your doctor. Now, pay attention to what the health care bill actually SAYS:

The public option in health insurance will NOT take away your choice about doctors, nor interfere with what can be done on your behalf.

The public option will, however, prohibit providers from withholding insurance because you have a pre-existing medical condition and prohibit them from rescinding insurance if you get more ill.  

No longer will you lose your insurance if you change jobs, lose jobs, start a business, or are self employed.

All this, with a cap on what you pay the insurance companies each year, but no cap on the benefits you receive.

This can all be done effectively, but cutting existing waste and reining in exorbitant profits (i.e., profits and CEO salaries, see below).

Poor Pharma Giants. What about the struggling pharmaceutical companies? With 4.4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. contributed more than one third of global pharma revenues. We do take more drugs, but we also pay more for them. A study in the British Medical Journal (2005) suggests that:

Prices of patented drugs are substantially higher in the U.S. than in other affluent countries;

Discovery of innovative new drugs in Europe is proportionately equal to that in the U.S.;

U.S. pharmaceutical companies invest just 1.3% of net sales in basic research. The balance is spent on MARKETING.

Poor Private Insurers. Would a public option unfairly compete against private insurance companies? Many of Prager’s listeners will be relieved to learn that private insurance companies’ profits expanded 426 percent in the seven years to 2009. Don’t worry about the insurance CEOs too badly: their compensation averages more than $14 million a year.

But let me ask a different question: why should we be more concerned about private companies’ CEOs and shareholders than we should about our fellow citizens’ health??

Poor U.S. And, last but most important: We are NOT healthier than citizens of other nations. The last time the World Health Organization checked, we were 37th! In every age category except one the death rates per 100,000 are significantly lower in the “socialist” countries than in the USA. In the 15-55 age bracket the death rates are more than 30 percent lower than in the US.Again, we have great medical care, but it’s beyond the reach of too many.

We do NOT wait less time for urgent procedures and surgeries. Urgent procedures are taken care of immediately in all industrialized countries (UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, to name a few). Optional, or nonurgent procedures do take longer but hey, guess what? They’re basically FREE. Personally, I can wait an extra two months to get a hip replaced if it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.  

– Anne Markward, Durango

Another piece of fan mail

Dear Editors,

Funny how Will, Missy and the Durango Telegraph (DT) staff promote so called green ideas with the exception of your passions. You have no problem tearing down trees and driving to these bald mountains for your ski-play time. But, if anyone drives through Durango in a big SUV, you’re pissed off. If a driver honks at a bicyclist holding traffic up in the left turn lane, then you’re ready to go to war with him. 

You hate the natural gas companies, but enjoy the winter heating. You dislike the road construction traffic, even though it helps your local economy. The DT lives in a world of self. Come on Mickey, take my hand!

– Dan Baldwinson, via e-mail

(Editors’ reply: Glad you’re enjoying the paper, Dan. Be sure to honk at us the next time you drive through downtown.)