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STRIP MINING the ROCKY FLATS WILDLIFE REFUGE
The designation of the Rocky Flats buffer zone as a wildlife refuge is a
crucial first step in the long term preservation of this area. The buffer
area has been closed to the public and to human activities for many decades.
As a result, nature has re-established a rich stronghold there. We should
all be pleased by this wildlife refuge designation and the potential for
preserving nature that it presents.
But we must not get complacent; there is much work left to be done. The
Rocky Flats Plant core area is being cleaned up, but is not included in the
wildlife refuge. It could eventually be sold for development. Developers
would love to have a prime piece of real estate surrounded by a wildlife
refuge. There is big profit potential here. And, as the work of Dr. Carl
Bock and his graduate students at CU has shown, just 10% urbanization of an
area has a very significant negative impact on surrounding natural lands.
Loss of sensitive bird and mammal species appears to be inevitable. Although
this conclusion is based on correlative evidence and the actual mechanism
producing the loss of organisms is not yet known, the correlation is very
strong and must be taken seriously as a major threat to wildlife in the
buffer zone (and in any other areas which are undergoing development).
Equally as disturbing is the likelihood that a major part of the western and
northern portions of the wildlife refuge itself will be STRIP MINED. In
leaving open this possibility, Udall and Allard fall far short in their bill
(probably caving in to special interests and/or political realities).
Mineral rights under most of the western and northern portions of the buffer
are held by the Lafarge Company. This is the company that has the big plant,
silos and crushers on the east side of Hwy 93 immediately south of the
Jefferson County/Boulder County line near Rocky Flats. Its business is the
(strip) mining of aggregate, a non-renewable resource used as a base for the
building of roads, homes and buildings. With Colorado's growth, the demand
for aggregate is strong, the supply is being consumed and the price and
profits are steadily increasing. (Truly meaningful legislation that actually
limits growth would help immensely with this and many other problems in
Colorado.)
The wildlife refuge bill leaves a large loophole for owners of mineral, oil
and water rights to pursue their interests unencumbered. The bill does
direct the Secretary of the Interior to try to buy out these rights, but
denies her the right of condemnation and thus takes away the major incentive
to get these interests to the bargaining table. The bill also will not allow
the Secretary to pay more than the "fair market value" for the rights and
provides the money to do so only if our (anti-environmental) Congress
authorizes it. The Secretary's hands are tied, the resource extractors have
free reign, and nature, as usual, bats last.
On a well-attended field trip of Rocky Flats this past summer, Lafarge
Company representatives discussed their reclamation plans. They will remove
and sell all of the coarse materials (sand to boulder size) and resurface
the ground with the fine materials (silt and clay-size particles which have
no economic value). This will create a new soil which is drastically
different from the very coarse-to-very fine, erosionally unsorted soil which
supports a well-adapted, water-dependent plant community. This new soil will
be drier and much less forgiving of wet and dry spells. It also will be
depleted in organic materials.
As a result, one of the most unique plant communities that is there now will
not endure. This community is co-dominated by an unusual assemblage of two
plains species (big and little bluestem), two mountain species (Porter's
aster and mountain muhly), and about 60 associated species. In the new soil,
knapweed, chicory and other invasive non-native weeds will likely be
favored. The alteration in the plant community will produce an alteration in
the populations of plant-dependent herbivores and, consequently,
herbivore-dependent carnivores. Some species, particularly the "junk"
species, will increase. Other sensitive and more desirable species will
decline and perhaps die out. Nature will be impoverished and will never
again be the same. This is a high price for ALL future generations to pay
for today's politically expedient, me-first loophole in the current law.
Although the bill calls this a "wildlife refuge," it won't be unless we stay
vigilant and fight to preserve ancient soils, plant communities and
wildlife.
The surface upon which Rocky Flats is built was created by horrendous floods
about two million years ago. This makes it the oldest existing surface in
the state of Colorado. It should be protected as a natural landmark,
preserved as part of America's heritage. Let's hope that Mark Udall and
Wayne Allard are sincere in their desire to establish a viable natural
wildlife refuge at Rocky Flats and will continue to fight for it. But, to
date, neither of them has said that this is just a first step; they are
allowing us to think of this as a done deal. The facts are clear, there's
much left to do.
Bruce Bland
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STRIP MINING of ROCKY FLATS. 2 Corrections: Good News/Bad News
The previous article on Strip Mining of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife
Refuge contained two items of erroneous information and needs to be
corrected (before it is repeated).
The GOOD news is that the Udall/Allard bill (that was actually passed) DOES
require the core area of the Rocky Flats Plant to stay in federal ownership
(it can't be sold to private developers). Furthermore, portions that are
sufficiently cleaned up will be transferred to the wildlife refuge unless
congress chooses in subsequent legislation to change this provision. Areas
that can't be cleaned up or are needed for monitoring purposes will remain
under control of the Department of Energy. This provision was added due to
the advocacy of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments. Thanks to
two astute readers and Mark Udall's office for this correction.
The BAD news is that under the bill that passed, neither the Department of
the Interior (DOI) nor the DOE has been directed to try to buy out the
mineral rights. Worse yet, neither of these departments, under current
leadership (Gayle Norton at DOI, and Spencer Abraham at DOE), even want to
buy these rights. Instead they have agreed in the bill to "provide
strategies for resolving or mitigating" impacts caused by the exercise of
private resource extraction rights. Mitigation of strip mining on these
lands is simply not possible. Mining must be stopped before it occurs.
Polls tell us that a hefty majority of the American population does not want
oil and gas drilling to occur in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Citizens, wisely, don't want to risk damage to our precious north slope
refuge. But here we are saddled with the high probability of strip mining in
Colorado's own wildlife refuge. The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is
no less valuable to the preservation of America's natural heritage than is
ANWR. Strip mining WILL create permanent damage to this irreplaceable
natural treasure regardless of the how sincere the intentions to mitigate
are. Our wildlife refuges are America's nature museums. Should we "mine" the
Smithsonian for gems and precious metals too? We can manufacture more
clothes, more homes, more tools, more amenities of all sorts, but we can't
recreate life, we can only preserve it - where it is.
The worst part of this bill is the dangerous precedent it sets for the
preservation of nature in America. This, I am told, was done to appease the
property rights advocates in Congress so the bill could make it through. The
resource extraction provisions of this bill will be used as a model for
future political deals when other federal lands are being considered for
protection. There may never again be a wildlife refuge created where
resource extraction doesn't take precedent over preservation of nature.
Wildlife refuges will, in reality, become extraction reserves. Resource
extractors can argue "We are allowed to do this at Rocky Flats, why not ANWR
and the wilderness areas too? ... Let's be consistent and fair."
This bill has created an end run around the fifth amendment to the
constitution and, in effect, transfers power from American citizens to those
who are privileged enough to hold property rights. In our political climate,
this will be very difficult to reverse. The fifth amendment simply states
".....nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just
compensation." This clearly implies that private property CAN be taken for
public use and that when this is done JUST COMPENSATION is required. So why
should property holders be so bitterly contemptuous of condemnation when the
constitution requires that they receive just compensation? If anyone who
reads this has a legal background it would be interesting to hear your
comments on this topic.
My suspicion is that this isn't about property rights, it's about the
creation of "speculation rights." Owners of property rights often, sometimes
incorrectly, anticipate becoming wealthy from those rights. By screaming
"property rights" and "takings," they are actually trying to get the nation
to compensate for their SPECULATED wealth potential. Yet, a properly done
property right appraisal will reflect the future profit potential of that
right because the profit potential is already built into the market value of
the right (after all, profit potential is what buyers of rights are paying
for). Of course, some people are simply angry at our government and don't
want the nation to acquire their property rights regardless of how
beneficial it is to the American people or how much they will be
compensated.
Worse yet, by existing laws, neither the Secretary of the DOE nor the DOI
can pay more than the "fair market value" for property rights (even if they
can be persuaded to buy them). This doesn't make sense economically. A full
cost-benefit analysis, which balances today's cost against the benefits to
this and all future generations of Americans would undoubtedly reveal that
the benefits FAR outweigh the costs. (Was Alaska worth 3 cents an acre?)
This is particularly true when we remember that future generations will have
much less nature to benefit from than we do today, and there will be many
more of them to value it. The supply of nature is going down, the demand for
nature is going up, so the value of nature is sure to increase. If the price
paid was two or even ten times the market value, the nation would still be
getting a great deal in the long run. How much will a biologically rich,
intact, and UN-MINED Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge be worth tomorrow?
There is still much work left to be done before Rocky Flats is a wildlife
refuge in more than name only.
Bruce Bland
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Subject: [nature-net] Strip Mining at Rock Flats. 2 Corrections: Good & Bad
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