Colorado health authorities will not fully enforce new EPA rules designed to protect people from air pollution at oil and gas facilities.
The state’s Air Quality Control Commission voted instead for a partial adoption of the federal clean-air rules. They plan to hold public meetings next year to consider full implementation.
Mobile equipment is being installed on the South Platte River to clean benzene from groundwater spreading from under Suncor Energy’s oil refinery to metro Denver’s adjacent sewage-treatment plant.
Suncor had proposed that Metro Wastewater help handle the cleanup. Metro declined.
Denver’s wastewater system endures the municipal equivalent of a continual colonoscopy — snaking robot cameras inspecting every turn of the massive sewer system. Last week, the examination prevented a catastrophe.
The cameras caught two exceptionally large blockages that threatened to back up sewage and foul the Sand Creek greenway.
Fifteen bicycle-rental companies that deliver to trails along Vail Pass were sent letters this week advising them that after Nov. 1, they will need U.S. Forest Service permits to continue the service.
Similar letters were sent this year to companies that drop off all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles.
The permits may also be required for drop-offs on non-national forest land, if the bikes will be used on national forest land, White River National Forest district ranger Jan Cutts said in the letter.
A study unraveling the genetics of Colorado’s state fish, the greenback cutthroat trout, has found that pure greenbacks exist only on a 4-mile stretch of a creek southwest of Colorado Springs.
This overhaul of what is defined as a greenback cutthroat may come as a blow to anglers who fished such high-country sweet spots as Rocky Mountain National Park and thought they caught the real thing.
CASTLE ROCK — Deep wells are being drilled to tap 1.5 million acre-feet of water under the Greenland open space in Douglas County, a potentially game-changing project at a time when south-metro communities are scrambling to reduce their dependence on underground aquifers.
MONTEZUMA — Colorado mining authorities have dug through a mountainside and reopened the dark granite shaft of an abandoned mine that turned deadly — trying to find options for dealing with one of the West’s worst environmental problems.
The Pennsylvania Mine, perched above timberline, discharges an acidic orange stream moving 181 pounds per day of toxic metals into Peru Creek and the Snake River, which flow into Denver Water’s Dillon Reservoir.
The poisoning of the watershed has gone on for more than 60 years.
A judge has reversed Douglas County’s approval of the $4.3 billion Sterling Ranch development of 12,050 new homes.
The reason: failure to line up enough water.
County commissioners are livid, vowing an appeal
FAIRPLAY — The federal Bureau of Land Management is preparing to open South Park — metro Denver’s main water source — to oil and gas drilling.
But Aurora Water, local authorities and conservationists are pushing back, demanding careful planning before any land is leased.
Driven by drought, Gov. John Hickenlooper is urging President Barack Obama and federal engineers to speed decisions on proposed water projects designed to sustain urban growth.
A journalist and lawyer, Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. In his position as a staff writer for the Denver Post, he is focusing on environment-related news including water challenges, the oil and gas boom and wildfire.
Learn more... 