One more thing...
Editors, Asheville Global Reprot,
From my perspective, Craig Madison did not threaten to sue us [People
Advocating Real Conservancy]. While there may have been some pressure,
and Mr. Madison was clearly unhappy with some things said by people
outside of our group, he never explicitly threatened to sue us or
anyone else.
Barry Summers
Asheville, NC
[Ed. Note: Barry Summers’ letter is in reference to Charlie
Thomas’ article “Community defeats high rise on Pack Square”
in AGR#260.]
Water and land hurt by mining
Editors, Asheville Global Report,
Thank you for being a great service to mankind. My wife and I bought
40 acres of land in beautiful southern Colorado about two years ago.
We have begun Earth Mountain Education Farm to teach children and
adults a sustainable existance. I studied at the Ecovillage Training
Center at The Farm in Tennessee. My wife, Joni, studied at Turtle
Island near Asheville, North Carolina. Everything is going along really
nice, except that the gas industry wants to put a pipeline through
the center of our property and drill wells every 80 acres in our area,
as close as one every 40 acres in some areas out here.
The prize for the industry is coalbed methane (CBM), a form of methane
gas found in coal deposits mostly in the Rocky Mountains and Appalachians.
Approximately 85 percent of the methane is used to generate electricity
around the country. Trying to convince people that they don’t
need the gas for electricity to power their TV’s and hair dryers
is challenging but I feel confident that we are up for that challenge,
with the help of many, many other people and organizations like yourselves.
Most of us have heard about the water shortages and drought here in
the West. A waste product of this coalbed methane extraction is water.
They have to pump out the water to get to the gas. I have heard that,
as a rule of thumb, the deeper you go the worse the quality of water.
They drill sometimes up to 5,000 feet to get to the gas, usually 2,000-3,000
feet. Most of the water is very high in salt, unfit for human consumption
unless heavily treated. In our county, Las Animas, they are pumping
out approximately 8-10 million gallons of water every single day from
underground aquifers. It is a decimation of a water supply never before
seen by mankind. Most water is dumped into streams or put in pits
where the water evaporates, concentrating the salts further. There
are hundreds or probably thousands of miles of explosive gas pipelines
in our county. Up north in Greeley, Colorado in March there was a
pipeline explosion that sustained flames up to 800 feet in the air,
and left a crater 1,000 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 20 feet deep!!
I’ve researched a couple hundred gas pipeline explosions in the
US and the rest of the world, it is amazing how treacherous it is
to have this in your front yard. Methane is 18 times more volatile
than gasoline. We will be having a solar, wind, and pedal powered
concert on our land in the Spring to promote renewable energy and
to protest the gas industry’s invasion of private property.
The landowners really have no say in accepting wells or pipelines,
you get one whether you like it or not. The government retained the
rights to minerals under the land in the Stock Raising Homestead Act
of 1916. There may have been a precedence before that that we are
unaware of, but now the mineral rights are leased to the gas companies
and individuals and corporations who have no ties to the land except
the investment that is under it.
We need help and we need to get loud. We will not allow any pipeline
to cross our land. We will not allow any wells or construction of
any kind by outside influences. We will not get destructive or violent
about it, instead we are writing letters to media and others who can
help in this matter. There will be a protest march in the town of
Trinidad, mid-February.
Thank you so much.
Carter Morris and Joni Steiner,
Earth Mountain Education Farm
