Reining in Drillers
Issue 4 > July 1, 2008
- Feature story: Colorado considers stronger drilling protections
- EARTHWORKS sues to protect Rock Creek fishery
- Recycle your cell phone from home
Colorado considers stronger drilling protections
 Credit: Earth Science Picture of the Day |
The State of Colorado is in the midst of an unprecedented oil and gas boom. Drill rigs, pipelines, tanks and pits dot more and more of Colorado’s landscape from Fort Collins to Durango and Trinidad to Craig.
Unfortunately, the boom hurts our land, air, and water, as well as our homes and communities. Oil and gas wastes are left behind, chemicals are injected into our aquifers. And, citizens struggle to negotiate with Big Oil & Gas about where, when and how this development occurs, and what to do when spills, leaks and accidents occur.
In June the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission held a hearing on an updated draft of Colorado’s oil and gas rules. The draft rules are a good and responsible start; however, they need to be strengthened in key areas.
EARTHWORKS, through its Oil & Gas Accountability Project, is a formal party to the hearing. We’re working to strengthen the rule to protect landowners, address water and soil contamination from oil and gas pits and runoff, and require that companies publicly disclose the chemicals that they are using near our water sources and within a stone’s throw of homes. [Learn More]
EARTHWORKS sues to protect Rock Creek fishery
In June EARTHWORKS and our partners, the Rock Creek Alliance and the Clark Fork Coalition, filed a lawsuit to protect the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness area from the proposed Rock Creek Mine.The lawsuit claims that the sediment created by the mine may threaten endangered bull trout in nearby Rock Creek.
The Rock Creek Mine is a proposed copper and silver mine that will tunnel underneath a wilderness area in Montana, threatening both endangered trout and one of the last remaining grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states. [Learn More]
Recycle your cell phone from home
Do you have old cell phones and PDAs in a desk drawer somewhere? Don’t thrown them away, recycle them!
Throwing them away puts toxic metals into the environment, while recycling reduces the need for more mining.
If you use EARTHWORKS’s recyclemycellphone.org website, you can even recycle your phone from home for free.
You can also set up a recycling program in your community to help benefit a local charity! [Learn More]