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Dam promoters cleave to false and corrupt pretense of justice.
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Opinion Archive
Posted by Steve Cone on 6:59 AM October 8, 2007
The sad truth is that water from the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico Navajo Water Rights Settlement through the Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline would never reach many needy Navajo who have been promised their rightful share. Rather, the Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline has been conceived as a conduit to convert water held in trust for the Navajo People to profits reaped by Sithe Global, LLC and the promoters of the Desert Rock Energy Facility. Thus, the politics of unbridled greed feed on the promise of environmental justice, and the People inherit a dismal legacy of pollution, degradation and death.
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 7:59 AM September 3, 20076
Just as Navajo Dam—pitched to Congress in the 1950s to bring water to remote Navajo homes—was really about water for energy development and the massive Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, the Navajo-Gallup project is not really about water haulers. It is an attempt to engineer an infrastructure solution to a political problem: Navajo claims to San Juan-Chama water that area cities pray will alleviate a crisis caused by drought, unfettered growth and politicians’ unwillingness to govern for life in a desert.
Lacking New Mexico water rights for the project, the Bureau of Reclamation bent to political pressure and "created" the water on paper. The diversion will dry up the San Juan below Navajo Dam and will further deplete a drought-parched Colorado River where, at Lake Powell, the reservoir remains more than half empty, as experts warn that global warming means a 30- percent decrease in precipitation.
Opinion
> Environment
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Posted by Steve Cone on 6:59 AM September 3, 2007
Critics charge that only this mega-project, not cisterns, individual wells, state-of-the-art solar-powered water reuse systems or any of a variety of less-grandiose projects or approaches, has been considered. It appears proponents are interested only in Cadillac solution, when a Ford or Toyota might do.
In fact, it would likely be cheaper to import Perrier water to each Navajo household - that is, if this project's purpose really has anything at all to do with water for Navajo homes.
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 6:59 AM September 2, 2007
The Gallup Pipeline—if that is the water “Water Haulers” refers to (This presentation was short on details.)—is highly controversial and will deliver an enormous, perhaps fatal, blow to the already terribly overtaxed San Juan River. Many people—including many Navajos, despite “Water Haulers’” depictions—feel that more state-of-the-art, more imaginative and cheaper approaches than a highly centralized project designed as though for a city, rather than a sparsely populated reservation, would be more appropriate. (What, for example, will be the per-household cost of this project as proposed? I suspect exorbitant.) On-site water-reuse facilities, on-site wells, cisterns, even government-sponsored water hauling would likely be far cheaper and more environmentally friendly, especially in an era when global warming requires less resource- and less energy-intensive approaches, that is, if the purpose of this project is really about providing water to remote Navajo families. Most importantly, in a time of global warming, we deserve public projects that reflect a 21st century engineering paradigm predicated on low carbon emissions and low resource (carbon) consumption. We also deserve leadership from government in designing projects that walk the walk of their expressed concerns (Gov. Richardson) about climate change.
Opinion
> Environment
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Posted by Steve Cone on 7:01 PM August 8, 2007
And why had Interior, the Department of Bad Irrigation Projects, as they’re known out west, decided to wreck a hearing that had every indication of being well staged for quick passage of S1171? The new Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Bob Johnson, speaking for Interior, said the bill did not comport with longstanding policy requiring, among other things, that OMB review the economic feasibility of Indian settlements and the costs of other alternatives.
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 6:59 PM August 7, 2007
Is this justice? Have our due process rights been served and protected? Without sounding too priggish, I hope, our interest, all along, has been to foster good government, while protecting the natural resources and rights of Coloradoans. We don't ask for a billion dollar hand out like the other side. All we ask is that they demonstrate some legitimacy to their claims before we hand over our money and our water.
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 8:01 PM July 23, 2007
Now, time is running out. If you will not fight back when the Government and corporations work as one and the same to poison the Earth, to poison your food supplies, the rivers, the air, your children, your parents, your own body with carcinogens and radiation, when, exactly will you fight back? What is your threshold? How much deeper must the culture cut, before you will act to bring it down? What will it take?
Opinion
> Environment
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Posted by Steve Cone on 6:59 PM July 23, 2007
The settlement is good for all Navajos and New Mexicans who care about their water resources. [Yes, we all drink water, Joe, but this "settlement" is not "good" for us.]
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 3:57 AM December 18, 2004
Angel (CO), McElroy (SUIT) & Israel (UMUIT) Weigh-in on ALP at NARF Symposium
Opinion
> Economics
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Posted by Steve Cone on 2:56 AM December 10, 2004
Did I detect a note of scorn in your report on the latest cost-avoidance triumph of the A-LP gang? They are indeed world class plunderers. They want A-LP, but they only want it if somebody else pays for it. That means thee and me.
Opinion
> Economics
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