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Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO

On March 8, Mr. Don Simpson of Ursa Resources told Post Independent reporter John Colson that in 2013 the company would be conducting “workover” operations on approximately 50 former Antero natural gas wells south of Silt.

At the Silt Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 25 (where Simpson was the guest speaker), Mayor Dave Moore stated something to the effect that “fracking fluids must be safe because Governor Hickenlooper drank Haliburton fracking fluids and the governor did not die.” Mayor Moore then asked Ursa’s Simpson exactly what is a “workover operation”? Simpson side-stepped the question with an ambiguous answer.

Most likely, all of the 50 Ursa workovers south of Silt will be to conduct fracking operations on existing wells but at a different depth seeking a new formation closer to the surface. Which means, Ursa will consume between 50-75 million gallons of water, because each fracking job requires between 1 million and 11⁄2 million gallons of fresh water. In this ongoing drought, where does Ursa intend to acquire 50-75 million gallons of our precious Garfield County water?



Think about it: Wal-mart charges 75 cents for a gallon of drinking water, and in Rifle the citizens will not water their lawns this summer because they cannot afford to pay the new increased fees for domestic water. Yet this summer Ursa is going to consume 50-75 million gallons of Garfield County water to frack for natural gas that is not in demand and cannot be sold?

Under C.R.S. 30-11-101 (2) Garfield County Commissioners Tom Jankovsky, Mike Samson and John Martin have the authority to adopt and enforce ordinances regarding health, safety and welfare issues as otherwise prescribed by law. Accordingly, Haliburton and Ecosphere Technologies both have on-the-shelf technologies that utilize ozone to clean and sanitize the dangerous fracking fluids for recycling the same fracking water over and over again. However as everyone knows, asking Martin, Samson, Jankovsky and Gorgey to adopt local ordinances requiring all fracking fluids must be treated with ozone and recycled (to save our precious water), is similar to chasing after the wind.



Carl Mc Williams

Silt

As I was reading the latest information on Fox News this morning, I couldn’t help but notice two particular articles that were right next to each other on the website. The first article was about making budget cuts to the tuition assistance programs for military personnel to help further their education as well as providing aid to military veterans who are homeless, to get back on their feet.

The second article was about how the federal government recently awarded $1.5 million dollars to study obese lesbians. No, I’m not kidding. Check it out on Fox News. This is the kind of lunacy that takes place each and every day in our own government. Then, millions of Americans simply can’t comprehend why this country is $17 trillion dollars in debt. This is just one example of how politicians and government officials justify themselves with our tax dollars.

The brave men and women who either currently serve in our armed forces today as well as the thousands of veterans that have served in the past, just received a hurtful slap in the face from the very government that they are protecting. Talk about a situation being an oxymoron. What I can’t understand is the importance of studying why a large percentage of the lesbians in this country are obese. Will it have an impact on our government operations or help our tax problems? If so, I would really like to have someone explain it to me.

Here’s an idea; how about all of us country folks here in Garfield County write a letter to Uncle Sam, asking for funding, to study the long-term effects on rednecks when we run out of beer and ammo during hunting season? Let’s ask for $50 million or so to get it started. It’s a good round number. I wouldn’t want to run it by no means, but I would love to participate in the study.

Dan Snyder

Rifle

Out walking the other day, I thought … water. Where will SG, et. al., get water?

Fracking is, to say the least, water intensive.

Nationally, oil and gas extraction generates 878 billion gallons of wastewater annually. Equivalent to what Niagara tumbles every two weeks.

As we know, fracking drills down and then horizontally under pressure into shale level. Shale is exploded with a mix of 90 percent water and a 10 percent stew of diesel fuel and 200 chemicals. At 2 million to 4 million gallons per frack. Half remains in the ground and half reverses course to come up to the surface as “flowback,” having picked up hydrocarbons, heavy metals like arsenic. This flowback is then forced at high pressure into yet more wells that can be 13,000 feet deep. An upside-down Sopris. Each well is fracked six times during its 30 year life.

So, I was thinking about all of us, living in our high alpine desert, about the origination and use of water. A desert. The Colorado River has been appropriated down to Mexico. There are 14 watersheds in the Thompson, apportioned for ranching, towns’ services and we send some to help out the Eastern Slope. Oh, and we are in a drought, which scientists see as long-term.

Here’s the SG story: the requirements for one of their proposed four well pads.

One well, drill and frack: 2-4 million gallons

As shale gas wells deplete quickly: must re-frack it each five years: 10-20 million gallons

Four wells: 48 million to 96 million gallons/one pad

Aerial views of drill pads and their tethered wells dot extraction areas cleared for natural gas like stars in the Milky Way. And every one of those wells goes down and then back up through our aquifer.

Where is the water for this intensive extraction?

Mabel Macdonald

Carbondale

“Just Say NO to CDOT” regarding Highway 82 through our wonderful downtown Glenwood Springs. What was once a beautiful, quiet and enjoyable environment for locals and visitors has already become a noisy and unpleasant destination due to the increasing traffic volume needed to supply the upper valley.

Growth during the past 40 years has seen Aspen go from a small ski town to a resort destination. Add to that the new ski resort development of Snowmass Village, plus enormous growth in the Roaring Fork Valley including Basalt, El Jebel and Carbondale areas, and we now have a traffic condition already too much for our main street to handle.

Residents of all these areas are joining us in asking CDOT to move Highway 82 off Grand Avenue (Glenwood’s main street). Please listen to the people. Just read the recent letters to editor, plus so many by knowledgeable experts who have been responding to this issue for several years. Traffic will not decrease. It will continue to increase.

Our downtown businesses are already hurting. They’re finding it impossible to leave their doors open to the outdoors and customers because of the excessive noise and pollution created especially by the large trucks needed to deliver upvalley services. Offering these and commuting workers another route would move this traffic to their destination faster and safer while returning to Glenwood its once beautiful and pedestrian friendly community.

Build a bridge across the river at existing 1-70 Exit 116 to connect with the existing old railroad right of way and give us a bypass to connect with Highway 82 south of town. Leave the current bridge small for local access. If our city leaders can’t say no to CDOT, put it to a vote so that the people of the area can say it for you.

Thank you,

Portia Griefenberg

Glenwood Springs


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