Letters: 7/20/17

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Sale of hunting licenses equals big bucks for CPW 

Kudos to Rico Moore’s piece on a study of the impact of fracking operations on Colorado’s declining mule deer population [Re: “Off Target, Part 7” June, 29]. There is an active culture of hunting in mountain and Western Slope communities and the annual influx of out-of-state hunters is a valuable source of income there. It is also the primary source of funding for Colorado Parks and Wildlife from the sale of hunting licenses. Hence the concern over the declining success of hunters. That CPW has focused on lion and bear predation rather than habitat degradation as the cause of the decline of mule deer is yet another revelation of how little power we have in addressing environmental concerns over gas and oil drilling. There is nothing CPW can do, but it would be helpful if it would acknowledge the validity of this study. As it stands, it is not cynical to suggest that the sale of high-end lion and deer hunting licenses is more about the agency’s revenue stream than the actual well-being of Colorado wildlife.

Robert Porath/Boulder

An Open Letter to Fish & Wildlife Service, Rocky Flats Stewardship Council, JeffCo Commissioners

I am a geologist/hydrologist/geochemist, with experience in geochemical applied research as well as consulting. My experience is broad-based and pragmatic.

I have been utterly baffled regarding plans for Rocky Flats, particularly as it seems to promote usage by humans, pets, and so on — terrible ideas, and truly contrary to the science and physics of plutonium and the probable never-fully-known various and moving sites of contamination out there.

So now I read yet something more that shocks me regarding this horrible, unsafe plan: a proposal to move a prairie dog population from Longmont to the Rocky Flats site due to further pursuit of development and displacement of critters in Longmont. This is alarming and nonsensical, to say the least.

We may want to ignore science, but our bodies and our health will not. Plutonium and its “daughter products” (also highly radioactive) are lethal substances beyond any measure. It is easily mobilized both as particulates, as well as during certain rainfall events, making the location of said horribly lethal substance difficult to contain, and difficult to know where it has migrated. But I assure you — once a particulate has “relocated” in your body, through your breath, through ingestion of that tomato you raised in your garden where particulates have settled in — you are highly likely to have it result in a cancer since the radioactivity will be as high then, and tens of thousands of years down the road, as when it was created. That’s the way radioactivity works, and that is how moving of soils and waters work. It is science — it is not wild speculation.

I ask that you immediately request a stay of this action — any efforts in the direction of putting displaced prairie dogs at Rocky Flats must be immediately halted. They are by their very nature burrowing animals! What have the site scientists alerted us to among so many things? That burrowing creatures — and on the scale of things, this is a big burrower (compared to movement of soil due to insects and smaller creatures). This will result in significant disturbance of soils that will surely be bearing particulates of plutonium. And let me once again say: one particulate that ends up in your body will likely result in cancer. Same for your pets. Same for your children. It is just the way it is.

Rochelle Rittmaster/via internet

Gardner should stand
up on health care

By now, Senator Cory Gardner should understand that the Republican health care bill is a betrayal of millions of Americans who have coverage under Obamacare. The bill is undeserving of his support.

He was not elected to protect corporations, which spend hundreds of millions financing campaigns and lobbying lawmakers. He should work with Democrats to take the profiteering out of the equation. Our situation in not normal. Thirty-four out of 35 developed nations have some form of universal health care. This means that Senator Gardner has 34 functioning models to study, adapt and modify in order to normalize America’s healthcare situation.

Doug Holdread/Trinidad