Take Note!

Oil & Gas Drilling: Rapid oil & gas development in Colorado is hurting wildlife, water quality and the health of people who live in the gas patch. New draft rules would protect our environment and human health in new ways. Government officials need to hear that we support the draft rules and want them to be even stronger.

WCC and two of our community groups have filed for party-status for the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission's (COGCC's) rule-making hearing from June 23-27. Being a party to the rule-making gives us the legal right to present testimony and expert witnesses.

However, you - as an individual citizen - can submit your own comments on the draft rules. Your comments must be sent by May 29 to Dave Neslin, COGCC, 1120 Lincoln St, Suite 801, Denver CO 80203.

Oil Shale: The comment period on the Bureau of Land Management's draft Programmatic EIS for oil shale is now closed. For more information on where it goes from here, contact Frank at our Grand Junction office at (970) 256-7650.

Public Lands: On March 5, WCC and a coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the BLM and Forest Service for their approval of the Bull Mountain pipeline and its path through three separate roadless areas between Paonia and Silt. On April 30, a District Court judge denied our request for a temporary injunction on construction activities. WCC and its allies have appealed that decision.

Wilderness: Help win wilderness designation for the Greater Dominguez Canyons in Mesa, Delta and Montrose Counties.

Also, since last spring Sheep Mountain Alliance has worked on a wilderness proposal that would protect a number of remaining wild areas in the San Juan Mountains as well as the Dolores River watershed in San Miguel County. The Ridgway-Ouray Community Council has done the same for an addition there to Mount Sneffels Wilderness. The draft bill now sits with Congressman Salazar’s office and we are hopeful that it will be introduced this summer.

Water: Check out all the materials available from our workshop, Keeping Public Drinking Water Supplies Clean, held on November 8 in Grand Junction.

WCC in the News

Allard pushes for oil shale development in western Colorado (5/2/08 Glenwood Springs Post Independent)

Mesa County Commission will support law to create wilderness, conservation areas (4/15/08 Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)

Thawing oil spill sends "something" downstream (3/25/08 Denver Post)

Misidentified photo released by enviro group shows new runoff (3/26/08 Denver Post)

Will Congress protect Roubideau and Escalante/Dominguez? (2/3/08 Montrose Daily Press)

A strong message to preserve lands (12/14/07 Ouray Co News)

Group environmentality (Front page, 12/5/07 Denver Post)

Help sell this house!

A Rare Opportunity : If this custom home on one acre in Olathe is sold through a referral from WCC, the owners will donate 1% of the sale price to WCC! To schedule a tour or for more information, call Fred Wetlaufer and Virginia Kile at (970) 249-3604. Tell them you saw it here!