Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 11:32:43 -0800
Reply-To: Ken Wyatt <kokopellis@ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ken Wyatt <kokopellis@ATT.NET>
Subject: VANAGON STICKER CONTEST UPDATE & environmental comments
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Hi folks,
Somehow I sent this messahe only to Larry Hamm, Sorry Larry.
I usually don't jump into off vanagon topics but this time I had to.
(see ENVIRONMENT section below)
VANAGON STICKER CONTEST UPDATE
(Vanagon content)
I have updated the Contest website with new additions. Keep those
stickers coming in. We have one more week, then voting starts.
I also set up the contest site on another free hosting site that I like
better than webjump. It doesn't have those goofy blinking banners at
the top that distracts you and tries to make you click on something
inadvertantly which takes to to a far off website. I may even move my
KokopellisGarden.com domain there.
See it at:
http://www.321website.com/members/home/data/kokopellis/
The original one is at:
http://www.KokopellisGarden.com/vwsticker/
(INSURE THAT YOU GET THE SLASH "/" ON THE ENDS OF BOTH!)
Tell me which site you prefer, PLEASE! (pmail)
Should we extend the deadline as several folks have requested? (Again
pmail me) The more entries we get the more selections and the better the
winning sticker will be. This is democratic list isn't it?
Now for the unrelated context.
ENVIRONMENT
I've worked in environmental field for 23 years now.
I work in the environmental regulation of Coal Mines in Utah. I have
visited the strip mines in Wyoming in the Powder River Basin. VERY
IMPRESSIVE. They are mining coal seams that are up to 50 - 100 feet
thick. This is a large scale operation. Lots of coal for the
disturbance, plus it is in the National Grasslands. (Stripping grasses
versus forest areas) The mines even provide safety areas for wildlife.
Wildlife (deer and antelope) go onto the mine property to avoid be
slaughtered in the fall.
Very much different from the mines that are removing mountain tops and
forests in West Virginia to extract a seam less than 10 feet thick. This
often exposes acid and toxic producing minerals which tend to create
environmental nightmares on a large scale that will likely required
chemical treatment of water for a very long time into the future.
The issues in the west tend to be related to ground water degradation
and loss of aquifers. The strip mines are essentaially mining through
the aquifers. The west doesn't have a serious problem with Acid Mine
Drainage as they do back east and the midwest. Mostly due to low
sulfur/pyrite coal, which is why much of the coal is shipped back east.
In Utah all of our mines are underground, our issues are hydrologic
mostly. What is the impact when they mine drains millions of gallons of
water from the inside of a mountain? Utah is a conservative state and
our adminstrators are hard pressed politically to admit there are
impacts. That's where my job gets frustrating, I see some of the
impacts but our agency will not admit it when the mine hires high
rolling consultants to say there is no problem we roll over and succumb.
I don't agree with clear cutting the last of the great redwood groves
and other old growth forests that remain. There are plenty of Wood
industry tree farms and USFS areas that are already logged and could
continue to be reused on a cyclical basis. The REAL problem is people.
TOO MANY all wanting to be great consumers in a discardable society.
SOAP BOX OFF / Fire suit on : )
It is time to go ski the four feet of new POWDER in the Wasatch
Mountains!!
Later on Vgonauts,
Ken
82 westy
