An Introduction to Mining Investment – Understanding the Risks
Part 2: Information Change Level Course Map Help

Information … | Experts … | Politicians and Spectacle … | Global Warming … | Sources … | Review #2 …
Investment Rule: Global Warming
Session Headings: Investment Rule 2.5

——————————————————————————–

Investment Rule 2.5
Do not worry about global warming affecting mining investing.

You do not have to read the paper, Climate Change Risk and Impact Assessment for Global Diversified Mining Group, for I summarize it below. The paper deals with the potential impact of global warming on mining. You can probably access the paper on the SME site OneMine. I note the paper here so that we can quickly dispense with the issue of global warming as a risk factor in mining investing.

The paper describes “a project undertaken for a multinational mining company to examine the physical risks from climate change across its international business operations. The study addresses 163 components of the business including operating sites (mines, smelters, and refineries), key transportation routes (road and rail) and port links.” It almost sounds like Rio Tinto, although the paper does not tells us which mining company commissioned the study.

The conclusions of this study:

“Examples of key risks identified include: (1) Flooding of key transportation networks; (2) Loss of glacial melt water in South America. and (3) Loss of permafrost. A considerable proportion of the risk was found to be borne by the transportation networks and ports… as they generally present much larger targets for extreme weather events than individual facilities.”

Ekati and Diavik lose their ice roads, Antamina runs out of water, the rail lines in Australia get washed out by flash floods, the ports need to raise their piers, and those mining-impacted glaciers that everybody is fighting about in South America simply disappear.

With uncanny prescience, the report notes these risks to mining in Australia resulting from global warming:

“Greater incidence of water stress; increased risk of wildfires; increased incidence of extreme events, i.e., hurricane, tornado; greater incidence of disease; increased risk of flash floods.”

What we do not learn from the paper is what the mining group will do with this information. Maybe their consultants will have to design for longer recurrence interval floods, provide more freeboard, go for thickened paste tailings, drill deeper into groundwater aquifers, and find a new way to get equipment to diamond mines in the far north of Canada.

Somehow these challenges seem very minor and trivial by comparison with the immediate issues of layoffs, no credit, takeover by the Chinese, and heavy snow blanketing London and Vancouver. I am sure that miners will find ways to cope with the small problems imposed by global warming, for they seem to be far less challenging than the day-to-day challenges miners deal with successfully all the time.

Thus stands my conclusion that global warming is highly unlikely to affect the value of any of the mining shares you or I are likely to buy in the short to medium time frame.
————————————-
So there we have it. Not too worry about global warming as it wont effect their short-term profits. Wow.

Sources of Information; BLM Course-work..
An Introduction to Mining Investment – Understanding the Risks – 15 October 2009;

http://premium.infomine.com/edumine/xutility/html/template.htm?category=xcourse&course=xinv101&session=doc0203.xml&level=text&lang=EN

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases

[1]
Date: Wed 25 Nov 2009
Source: Local News 8.com, Associated Press (AP) report [edited]

Bighorn sheep near Darby dying of pneumonia
——————————————-
Montana wildlife officials say 2 bighorn sheep south of Darby have
died from pneumonia — raising fears about the health of a large herd
along the East Fork of the Bitterroot.

Pneumonia outbreaks among bighorn sheep can cause herd die offs. One
last year [2008] in the Elkhorn Mountains near Helena killed an
estimated 200 sheep and similar die-offs occurred in 1995 in the
Highland Mountains and 1993 in the Tendoy Mountains.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks veterinarian Jennifer Ramsey says wildlife
agents plan to cull the East Fork Bitterroot Herd to remove sick
animals. The hope is to limit the spread of the disease, but once an
animal becomes sick it will likely die in a matter of days.

The herd of about 185 sheep was established in 1972 when 32 of the
animals were transplanted into the area.

–
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail

******
[2]
Date: Wed 25 Nov 2009
Source: Missoulain.com, Ravalli Republic report [edited]

Bitterroot bighorn sheep herd has pneumonia; disease fatal
———————————————————-
State wildlife officials have confirmed that bighorn sheep from the
East Fork Bitterroot herd south of Darby recently died of pneumonia.

“It’s really bad news,” said Craig Jourdonnais, Bitterroot-based
biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “There’s been a
history of herds losing 60 to 70 percent of their numbers in a very
short period of time when something like this hits.”

The nearly always fatal respiratory disease was first suspected after
hunters reported seeing coughing bighorn sheep near the East Fork
last Sunday [22 Nov 2009].

Jourdonnais said he found 2 dead sheep on the East Fork Road. The 2
rams — an 8 1/2- and 4 1/2-year-old — tested positive for pneumonia
at FWP’s wildlife laboratory in Bozeman Tuesday [24 Nov 2009].

“Both had a very advanced case of pneumonia,” Jourdonnais said. “The
vet had to almost peel their lungs away from the rib cage.”

Jennifer Ramsey, FWP’s wildlife veterinarian in Bozeman said the
state will attempt to cull more sheep from the herd over the coming
weeks. “Our top priority is to remove sick and dying animals and to
collect biological samples for testing,” she said. “Additional
laboratory tests will determine the specific strain of the bacteria,
and removing sick animals could help slow the spread of the disease.”

Jourdonnais said he will shoot 3 or 4 sheep that are exhibiting signs
of the disease on Wednesday [25 Nov 2009] for further testing.
“Typically we don’t have a lot of options in cases like this,”
Jourdonnais said. “It tends to have to run its course.” Once bighorns
contract pneumonia, they die within a few days. There are no known
vaccines to prevent pneumonia in wild sheep.

The East Fork bighorn sheep herd was established in 1972 when 35
sheep ere transplanted there.

Jourdonnais said he counted 185 sheep last year [2008] during an
aerial survey last March [2009]. “They all looked vibrant and healthy
at that time,” he said.

The herd has been the source of some “tremendous rams” over the past
few years, with a few close to record book size, Jourdonnais said.
“They are a real asset to the Bitterroot,” he said. “The East Fork
herd is pretty well known.”

In extreme cases, pneumonia-related outbreaks among bighorn sheep can
result in herd “die-offs.” The most recent case in Montana occurred
in the Elkhorn Mountains near Helena. Similar die-offs happened in
the Highland Mountains in 1995 and in the Tendoy Mountains in 1993.

Jourdonnais said there’s no evidence the disease originated in
domestic sheep or goats. “We do have a few isolated herds of sheep
and goats nearby, but there is absolutely no knowledge that has
anything to do with what’s going on here,” he said.

It is illegal to possess a bighorn sheep head picked up in the wild.
Anyone who finds a dead or sick bighorn sheep is asked to call FWP in
Missoula at 542-5500.

[Byline: Perry Backus]

–
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail

[_Mannheimia haemolytica_ (formerly _Pasteurella haemolytica_) and
_Pasteurella multocida_ are the most common bacterial organisms
causing pneumonia in sheep. Most sheep affected do display some
degree of anorexia, some evidence of labored breathing, and loss of
weight.

While culling of sick animals may seem extreme, this particular
disease runs through bighorn sheep with disastrous results so it may
be the way to save the larger portion of the herd.

If samples from any of the bighorn sheep have been sent for testing,
we would appreciate knowing outcome of the bacterial cultures.

Various photos of bighorn sheep may be found at
. - Mod.TG]

[The state of Montana in the Western United States can be seen on the
HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map at
. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

[see also:
2006
----
Pneumonia, bighorn sheep - USA (NM) 20060316.0824
2005
----
Pneumonia, bighorn sheep - USA (CA) 20050828.2546
Pneumonia, bighorn sheep - USA (SD) (02) 20050312.0729
Pneumonia, bighorn sheep - USA (SD) 20050309.0699
2004
----
Brucellosis, bighorn sheep - USA (WY) 20040118.0194
2002
----
Unexplained pneumonia, bighorn sheep - USA (Wyoming) 20020322.3791
1999
----
Epizootic hem. disease, deer, bighorn sheep - Canada (BC) 19991109.2005
1998
----
Psoroptic mange, bighorn sheep - USA (Utah) (02) 19980115.0114
Psoroptic mange, bighorn sheep - USA (Utah) 19980106.0031
1996
----
Bighorn sheep mortality, 1995 19960718.1287]
……………………………..sb/tg/mj/lm

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By Alejandro Zegarra Pezo
PIURA, Peru, November 13, 2009 (ENS) – It is four in the morning on Sunday, November 1 in the paramo and cloud forest of Huancabamba, Piura Department in northern Peru. Harsh detonations and yellow refulgence break the calm of a chilly dawn in this presently occupied habitat of the nearly extinct mountain tapir.
Here, the mining encampment of Henry Hills is incongruously located high in the Peruvian Andes. The camp is about four hours by 4WD vehicle and 10 hours by foot from the quaint regional seat of Huancabamba and is owned by Rio Blanco-Copper, a subsidiary of the Chinese company Zijin, formerly Majaz subsidiary of Monterrico of England. Monterrico’s principal asset is the wholly owned Rio Blanco Copper Project.

Rio Blanco mining camp at Henry Hill, in the Peruvian Andes, where the attack took place. (Photo courtesy Monterrico)
An estimated 20 armed persons with their rifles and Molotov cocktails bombard this encampment where 14 employees peacefully sleep. With the precise aim of their rifles, the assailants easily bring down two young guards, Joel Martin Severino Zapata and Luis Guillermo Gomez Vilchez, as well as the administrator of the encampment, Eduardo Ramirez Montero. They die terrible deaths and one of them is carbonized by the fires set by these anonymous attackers.
Able to escape the flames that consumed 80 percent of the mining encampment, the other employees flee and hide out in the steepest and wildest mountains until they can finally escape and advise authorities.
The Henry Hills installation was named by former British miners in the area and is one of four installations started by Majaz to extract copper by open pit mining within this vital remnant paramo and cloud forest region of northern Peru. The Rio Blanco copper and molybdenum deposit is one of the largest undeveloped copper resources in the world.
This is located smack dab in the heart of the exceptional Cerro Negro region fed by Rio Blanco itself. Here remains one of the last and certainly the largest population of the nearly extinct endangered mountain tapir in Peru. It is estimated that only a few hundred remain in our nation.
Many endemic species also occur here, a large portion of which are endangered with extinction as judged by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission and/or by Peruvian authorities as stated in Supreme Decree 034-2, 004.

A mountain tapir in Peru (Photo by Rennett Stowe)
Near the encampment is the small national Tabaconas Namballe Ecological Sanctuary of 29,500 hectares that protects endangered species such as the mountain tapir, Tapirus pinchaque, and spectacled bear, Tremarctos ornatus. Of hallmark importance also are the water resources of this highland area.
The deaths of these young miners are lamentable and could have been avoided had the mining company not persisted in occupying campesino community land. The communities here rejected the mining projects in a democratic referendum on September 2007 by more than 95 percent.
These same mining–resisting campesinos have been subject to persecution and even torture as well as assassinations for years, even within their own territories of Ayabaca and Huancabamba.
The campesino demands for justice concerning their illegal incarcerations, torturing’s, and killings have not been fairly heard by Peruvian authorities. In one case, over 30 campesinos were detained and tortured, accused of terrorism simply for trying to dialogue with the miners that were occupying their territories that contain forests and paramos.
In other words, the social will and ambience of this region has always been against mining, yet the mining companies always try to minimize and dismiss this resistance as having roots in ignorant, non-progressive classes of people.
On November 7, the President of the Council of Ministers Javier Velasquez announced that in view of the recent attack, the government of Peru would install a military base in the zone of the encampment. This would guarantee that the mining company, and other similar companies, could act with total impunity as concerns their infringements upon the communities of Yanta in Ayabaca and Segunda-Cajas in Huancabamba.

Mountain road near Huancabamba (Photo by Tom Kerem)
These are the communities whose land contains the greatest center of remaining occupied mountain tapir habitat along with a plethoric biodiversity and archeology, both unique in the world – but now at great risk of being obliterated from the face of the Earth.
It is not out of the question that the soldiers would be given an order to eliminate the mountain tapirs, since their presence as an endangered species in the zone could prohibit the open pit mining activities being planned.
We cannot afford to stall in our conservation efforts. The time is crucial to attain our objective in shortest duration, this being the Cerro Negro Nature Sanctuary.
For the mining companies and executive government officials of Peru, human lives mean little and wildlife much less. They only desire the minerals that lie beneath the soil of our magnificent paramos and cloud forests.
All the anciently evolved plants and animals, they willingly sacrifice in order to extract the monetarily valued metals, often found in very low concentrations, hence the massive processing of vast quantities of rock through open-pit mines.
Moneyed interests seek to impose their destructive mines on this headwaters area, but with the knowledge and will of the people, they will not succeed!
{Translated from the Spanish by Craig C. Downer, President, Andean Tapir Fund}

The Bureau of Land Management this week nominated 63 sites along Nine Mile Canyon, which some call the world’s longest art gallery. It contains more than 10,000 prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep, owls, a two-headed snake, spear-wielding hunters and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

In the coming years, the BLM in Utah plans to nominate more than 800 sites in the canyon for the national register, according to Megan Crandall, an agency spokeswoman in Salt Lake City. She said it’s the largest such attempt for archaeological sites in Utah.

The canyon is a prized destination for rock art enthusiasts. It’s also been a place of controversy because of plans for nearby mineral development.

The BLM is about to launch another in-depth study on the nearby West Tavaputs Plateau. The agency has been considering a proposal that would allow about 800 more natural gas wells in the area and increase truck traffic on the narrow, 78-mile road that snakes through the sandstone and shale canyon.

Conservationists worry the extra truck traffic would kick up dust in the canyon and jeopardize the irreplaceable rock art.

Listing on the National Register is an honorific designation and wouldn’t provide additional protections for the canyon’s petroglyphs and pictographs. It may, though, prompt decision-makers to be more thoughtful about development in the area, said Wilson Martin, Utah’s state historic preservation officer.

“People come from all over the world to see this level of concentration,” Martin said.

Pam Miller, chair of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, which advocates for the canyon’s protection, said her group is thrilled by the nominations — first sought more than 30 years ago — even though they would have preferred creation of a historic district rather than nominations for individual properties.

“What this listing will say is this is a place that’s valued in this country,” Miller said. “It doesn’t stop anything but it’s another way to get it on the table for discussion.”

The canyon’s drawings and carvings, easily spotted today from the unpaved road, have been a source of fascination and speculation since their discovery in the late 1800s. Some of the art is believed to be the work of the mysterious Fremont people, who lived in present-day Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Nevada from 700 to 1300 A.D.

Other inscriptions in the canyon’s walls are from the Ute Indians, early explorers and members of the U.S 9th Cavalry.

The first batch nominated for the national register includes 19 rock art sites, 40 that include evidence of people living and working during the Fremont period and four sites with homesteads and cabins from the late 1800s and early 1900s. All the proposed properties are on BLM land.

The public has until Nov. 25 to comment on the nominations.

The next round of nominations likely won’t be finished until next year.

Crandall said the designation for portions of Nine Mile Canyon, which is a mix of public and private property, is a clear statement of the area’s cultural importance.

The National Register is administered by the National Park Service. The BLM says about 30,000 properties are added to the list each year, often for historic buildings or districts.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=400713955&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20091112-pf1onfile-V0924

Industrial Gas Drilling

Since July 2008 Riverkeeper has tracked the prospect of industrial gas drilling in New York State. While gas drilling in New York is not new, what is new is the magnitude, scope, and location of the proposed drilling method of high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Indeed, industrial gas drilling throughout the Marcellus Shale and other shale reserves in New York has the potential to impact the environment and communities dramatically.

This is one reason why Governor Paterson ordered New York State to update an outdated environmental review of gas drilling impacts.

The entire West-of-Hudson portion of the New York City Watershed (supplying 90% of drinking water to over half the state’s population) sits on top of part of the Marcellus Shale, a large mineral reserve deposit deep beneath the earth’s surface. Oil and gas companies have known about this shale reserve for decades, but the technology to extract natural gas from it has become available only recently. The Marcellus Shale spans across at least five states. To extract natural gas from the mineral reserve, oil companies plan to use a process called “hydraulic fracturing.”

Fracturing involves injecting toxic chemicals, sand, and millions of gallons of water under high pressure directly into shale formations. This toxic brew, along with any natural gas, is then extracted, or leaked to the surface. Whether any toxic discharges will flow into New York City’s drinking water supply is uncertain.

Riverkeeper has led the charge for industrial gas drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing to be banned within the NYC Watershed and all other sensitive water supply areas.

RvK Gas Drilling Reporter Vol. I
RvK Gas Drilling Reporter Vol. 2
RvK Gas Drilling Reporter Vol. 3
RvK Gas Drilling Reporter Vol. 4
RvK Gas Drilling Reporter Vol. 5
News and Press Releases

http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/safeguard/gas-drilling/

NY National Parks / More National Parkland than All of the Western State Parklands Combined!

http://www.thingstodo.com/states/NY/nationalparks/index.htm

http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp007157.pdf.

14 J. Brewer and G.D. Libecap
Journal compilation © 2009 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
No claim to original US government works
‘The DWP [LADWP] is saying that, in order to fill Mono Lake to 10
per cent above its present level, all water from the area will have to be
cut off for 15 years. No one is asking for that. We all realise the necessity
of maintaining this water source for the city. We are simply asking for a
fair share of the water to save the lake and eventually restore its former
health. By reducing diversions by, say, 20 per cent, Los Angeles will
have its water and Mono Lake will begin to resume its original size
and beauty.’41
Even as late as November 1984, David Gaines, head of the Mono Lake
Committee stated that ‘We’re not advocating a cutoff of Mono Basin water
to Los Angeles. And we’re not interested in returning Mono Lake to its pristine
state. We just want more water for the lake in wet years, when water for LA
is available elsewhere.’42 But as predicted by our model, these demands would
soon be raised by other parties.43 In the end, the final ruling was skewed
against Los Angeles.44
An additional reason why the case took so long to resolve was the nonvested
nature of property rights under the public trust doctrine. In 1993, the
41 Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1983, ‘Letters to The Times: Court’s Decision on Mono
Lake,’ pg. C4.
42 Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1984, ‘Fate of Rush Creek Trout is at Stake in Court
Fight,’ Earl Gustkey, pg. E1.
43 This is especially true of the application of the public trust doctrine to the tributary trout
streams in Cal Trout I and Cal Trout II. In these cases, new plaintiffs, California fishing groups
joined the Mono Lake Committee in seeking additional constraints on Los Angeles. See Los
Angeles Times, August 15, 1986, ‘Mono Lake Group Wins Round, Slows Diversion of Creek,’
Ronald B. Taylor, pg. 3.
44 John Hart described the ultimate decision by the SWRCB as ‘more favourable to the lake
than any of the [environmentalists] could have dreamed.’ John Hart, Storm Over Mono: The
Mono Lake Battle and the California Water Future, University of California Press, 1996, p. 3.
Table 1 Advocates and desired lake levels
Year Organisation
Preferred lake level
(feet above sea level)
1978 Mono Lake Committee 6378
1979 Inter-Agency Task Force 6388
1979 Mono Lake Committee 6388
1988 Community and Organisation Institute 6382
1988 U.S. Forest Service 6377–6390
1993 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 6390
1993 State Lands Commission 6390
1993 Department of Parks and Recreation 6390
1993 U.S. Forest Service 6390
1993 Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District 6392
1993 CA Department of Fish and Game 6405
1993 Mono Lake Committee 6390–6405
1994 State Water Resources Control Board Final Decision 6392.6
Property rights and the public trust doctrine 15
Journal compilation © 2009 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
No claim to original US government works
LADWP predicted that the long-term costs of replacing Mono water could
be $1 billion.45 This figure did not include the costs of stranded, nondeployable
capital in water export and hydro-electric generation.46 Because so
much was at stake in the reallocation of the water without compensation, the
LADWP invested in efforts to advance its respective position in the all-ornothing
battle over rights to water.
5. Concluding remarks
In 1970, Professor Joseph Sax argued that the public trust doctrine could be
used to reallocate resources on behalf of environmental protection and natural
resource conservation. A test case for his arguments arose with the filing of
the National Audubon case. As described above, however, it turned out to be
extremely contentious and costly to resolve. The costs may have limited the
application of the public trust beyond what had been envisioned by its promoters
following the Audubon ruling in 1983.
Indeed, a Lexus/Nexus search of public trust litigation for the period 1985
through 2004 reveals 32 court cases in 12 western states with three-fourths of
them in California, Colorado and Idaho. In general, the rulings have held
that state responsibilities under the public trust doctrine may extend to
maintenance of stream flow and water levels in rivers and natural lakes,
including groundwater systems linked to them in order to guard for health,
amenity values, and fish and wildlife habitat.47 Even so, the range of the
issues addressed by the courts seems to be quite narrow. It does not involve
the broad sweep of possibilities for extending the doctrine to curtail private
appropriative water rights, to manage wildlife or to administer the federal
lands as has been proposed.
An alternative approach for addressing conflicting public and private values as
occurred in the Mono Lake case is a market-related response. In the case at
hand, rather than rejecting Los Angeles’ water rights under public trust
claims, state and federal agencies might have purchased water to restore
Mono Lake’s level to address public concerns. Where narrower private interests
are involved, such as with individual stream fisheries, private fishing
groups could have bought or leased water from Los Angeles. Organisations,
such as the Oregon and Montana Water Trusts, regularly secure water from
farmers in those states to maintain riparian habitats for fish and other species.48
45 Hart (1996, 162).
46 In 1991, LADWP estimated that it had spent approximately $12 million for outside lawyers
and consultants since 1979. John Hart, Storm Over Mono: The Mono Lake Battle and the
California Water Future, University of California Press, 1996, p. 176.
47 Shokal v. Dunn, 109 Idaho 330, 707 P.2d 441, 1985; Mineral County v. State of Nevada,
117 Nev 235, 20 P.3d. 800, 2001; Golden Feather Community Ass’n v. Termalito Irrigation District,
199 Cal. App. 3rd 402, 244 Cal Rptr. 830, 1988.
48 See http://www.owt.org/. Libecap (2005, 19–23) describes some of the transaction costs of
such exchanges, including bilateral monopoly, valuation and third-party effects.
16 J. Brewer and G.D. Libecap
Journal compilation © 2009 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
No claim to original US government works
Reliance on market transactions would have the advantages of producing
more information about the relative values of water for current and proposed
uses and of reducing the conflict associated with uncompensated reallocations.
Extreme demands encouraged by open standing under the public trust would
have been tempered by the requirement to purchase. Where no voluntary
agreements on water transfers for public environmental or recreational uses
are forthcoming due to bilateral monopoly conditions, eminent domain with
compensation could be used for government acquisition of water.49
All in all, the public trust doctrine appears not to have been an efficient
vehicle for timely protection of Mono Lake and its tributaries. This is an
important point because rising environmental and recreation demands for
water relative to traditional uses suggest that there will be many similar
reallocation efforts.50 Climate change and the likelihood of greater drought
conditions in the south-west will only exacerbate the problem. The model
and case presented here suggest that a broad array of options should be
considered for the speedy and low cost resolution of these conflicting
demands for the West’s scarcest resource.
References
Blumm Michael (1989). ‘Public Property and the Democratization of Western Water Law: A
Modern View of the Public Trust Doctrine,’ Environmental Law 19, 573–597.
Blumm, Michael C. and Thea Schwartz (1995). ‘Mono Lake and the Evolving Public Trust in
Western Water,’ Arizona Law Review 37, 701–38.
Blumm, Michael C. and Thea Schwartz (reissue, 2003). ‘Mono Lake and the Evolving
Public Trust in Western Water,’ Issues in Legal Scholarship. Joseph Sax and the Public Trust.
Article 3.
Botkin, Daniel B., Wallace S. Broecker, Lorne G Everett, Joseph Shapiro and John A. Wiens
(1988). ‘The Future of Mono Lake,’ Report of the Community and Organization Research
Institute ‘Blue Ribbon Panel’ for the Legislature of the State of California, Riverside,
California,: Water Resources Center, University of California, Report No. 68, February.
Carpenter, Kristen (2005). ‘A Property Rights Approach to Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting a
Place for Indians as Nonowners,’ UCLA Law Review 52, 1061–1148.
City of Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power (2005). 2005 Urban Water Management
Plan, http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp007157.pdf.
Cooter, Robert D. and Daniel L. Rubinfeld (1989). ‘Economic Analysis of Legal Disputes and
Their Resolution,’ Journal of Economic Literature 27, 1067–1097.
Dunning, Harrison C. (1990). ‘Dam Fights and Water Policy in California: 1969–1989,’
Journal of the West, XXIX, No. 3, July, 14–27.
49 The uses and problems of eminent domain and just compensation are outlined in Fischel
(1998). Eminent domain has been used to acquire private holdings in National Parks. There is,
of course, potential for conflict in these compulsory exchanges, but since compensation was
provided as to little or no compensation under the observed reallocation, it seems likely that
there would have been less contention.
50 For example, consider the contentious effort to reallocate water from agricultural use to
the rewatering of the San Joaquin River between the Natural Resources Defense Council and
other parties and the Friant Water Users Authority. The conflict began in 1988 and was not
tentatively resolved until the September 2006 San Joaquin River Settlement Agreement.
Property rights and the public trust doctrine 17
Journal compilation © 2009 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
No claim to original US government works
Epstein, Richard (1987). ‘The Public Trust Doctrine,’ Cato Journal 7, 411–430.
Fischel, William A. (1998). ‘Eminent Domain and Just Compensation,’ in Peter Newman, ed.,
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and The Law, London: Macmillan, Vol. II, 34–
43.
Fischman, Robert (2002). The National Wildlife Refuge System and the Hallmarks of Modern
Organic Legislation, Ecology Law Quarterly 29, 457–623.
Getches, David H. (1997). Water Law in a Nut Shell, St. Paul, West Publishing Co.
Gray, Brian E. (1994). ‘The Modern Era in California Water Law,’ Hastings Law Journal 45,
249–308.
Hart, John (1996). Storm Over Mono: The Mono Lake Battle and the California Water Future,
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Huffman, James L. (1989). ‘A Fish out of Water: The Public Trust Doctrine in a Constitutional
Democracy,’ Environmental Law 19, 527–572.
Huffman, James L. (2006). A History of the Public Trust Doctrine: A Tilting at Modern Myths,
Portland, Ore: Lewis and Clark School of Law.
Jones and Stokes Associates (1993). Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Review of the
Mono Basin Water Rights of the City of Los Angeles, Sacramento: California State Water
Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights.
Kahrl, William L. (1982). Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles’ Water Supply in the
Owens Valley, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kearney, Joseph D. and Thomas W. Merrill (2004). ‘The Origins of the American Public Trust
Doctrine: What Really Happened in Illinois Central,’ University of Chicago Law Review 71,
799–931.
Libecap, Gary D. (2005). ‘Chinatown: Owens Valley and Western Water Re-allocation – Getting
the Record Straight and What It Means for Water Markets,’ Texas Law Review 83,
2055–89.
Libecap, Gary D. (2007). Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West’s First Great
Water Transfer, Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Meyers, Gary D. (1989). ‘Variation on a Theme: Expanding the Public Trust Doctrine to
Include Protection of Wildlife,’ Environmental Law 19, 723–735.
Ostrom, Elinor (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective
Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sax, Joseph (1970). ‘The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial
Intervention,’ Michigan Law Review 68, 471–566.
Sax, Joseph (1990). ‘The Constitution, Property Rights, and the Future of Water Law,’
University of Colorado Law Review 61, 257–282.
Simms Richard A. (1995). ‘A Sketch of the Aimless Jurisprudence of Western Water Law,’ in
Kathleen Marion Carr and James D. Crammond, eds., Water Law: Trends, Policies, and
Practice, Chicago: American Bar Association 321–350.
Slade, David (1990). Putting the Public Trust Doctrine to Work: The Application of the Public
Trust Doctrine to the Management of Lands, Waters and Living Resources of the Coastal
States, Hartford: Report to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Wilkinson, Charles (1989). ‘The Headwaters of the Public Trust: Some Thoughts on the
Source and Scope of the Traditional Doctrine,’ 19 Environmental Law Journal 19, 425–72.

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AP – In this photograph taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, the sign and fire extinguisher were put up near a …
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By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer Judith Kohler, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 1, 7:19 pm ET
WALSENBURG, Colo. – Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.

The friend wasn’t hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.

Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West’s vital resources: Water and natural gas.

“The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption,” said Bernice Angely, who’s had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007.

Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks.

But Petroglyph says it’s not clear the drilling caused the methane leaks or prompted other area water wells to run dry. Eying what it calls an extremely promising natural gas field, it believes a shallow water formation tapped by area homeowners isn’t connected to a deeper one pumped by the company for its drilling operations.

Petroglyph chief operating officer Paul Powell also believes a growing number of new homes in the area could explain some of the dry water wells.

“We’ll do what we need to do,” Powell said, stressing that his firm is working with the state on a solution.

Petroglyph has a plan to prevent the flow of methane into water wells by creating a hydraulic barrier. The company has proposed pumping water from an underground formation and injecting it into a row of wells where gas drilling occurs. Powell said gas will migrate into a void, and “if the void is full of water, there isn’t room for gas to migrate through it.”

State regulators say the plan is plausible but that Petroglyph needs to prove it works. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Salazar, who farms in the nearby San Luis Valley, has asked the U.S. Geological Survey to weigh in by evaluating the area’s water quality and formations to determine if the gas drilling is to blame for the problems.

Water coursing through porous rock and streams has allowed farming, ranching and new subdivisions to thrive in the semiarid area about 160 miles south of Denver.

It also helps trap methane gas in the vast coal seams that once made the area a mining hot spot. The coal mines are gone, but the methane that made digging for it dangerous is a valuable resource. Companies like Petroglyph pump huge volumes of water out of the ground to relieve the pressure trapping the natural gas.

Steve Gunderson, director of Colorado’s water quality control division, said Petroglyph will have to build a water treatment plant before it gets a new permit to discharge water. The old permit allowed Petroglyph to release up to 8 million gallons of water daily.

Fourth-generation dairy farmer Brett Corsentino blames the discharges into the Cucharas River for ruining his corn crops. He uses river water to irrigate his crops just a few miles east of the homeowners having problems with their wells. He says the high levels of sodium in the wastewater has diminished his soil’s ability to absorb water and stunted the corn’s growth.

“They say, `Well, there’s no proof,’” Corsentino said. “Well, we’d been getting along for generations just fine until they started pumping 8 million gallons out of this country.”

Corsentino also says his herd suffered abnormally high birth and death rates and now numbers 400, down from 650. He believes the cows consumed too much sodium from the water and corn grown from it. His corn used to produce 6,000 tons of silage; this year’s crop yielded 1,500 tons.

However, Corsentino says his herd is healthier and milk production has increased since drilling stopped.

“There’s an obvious direct, substantial impact to Brett Corsentino’s dairy,” the state’s Gunderson said of the drilling.

Petroglyph paid for soil tests on Corsentino’s farm. They showed high levels of sodium but that it also needed more calcium, Powell said. Petroglyph and Corsentino are discussing possible treatments.

“We still don’t believe we have liability for the situation,” Powell said. “But we were willing to help him fix his land and get back to productivity.”

Ten miles west of Walsenburg, a rushing sound emanates from a pipe that vents methane from Ben and Melanie Bounds’ water well. The pipe was installed after a June 2007 explosion blew off a shed roof covering the well.

The Bounds had moved from Dallas to build what they call their dream home atop a hill with a breathtaking view of the Spanish Peaks. They say their problems started when Petroglyph began drilling nearby. They’re suing the company and haul water from town to their cistern.

“If I could run the clock back, we’d have never tried this,” Ben Bounds said.

“I had more methane coming out of my water well than they had out of any of their gas wells. It sounded like a locomotive going down the road,” said Kent Smith, who also has a methane detector in his house. “The damage and the problems they’ve caused have got to be addressed, and they keep getting pushed aside and forgotten about.”

Petroglyph insists it’s a good neighbor. Despite the methane mystery, it’s trucking water to 14 area homes and has supplied 15 homes with methane alarm systems.

___

On the Net:

Petroglyph Energy Inc., http://tinyurl.com/ybfpcco

Walsenburg 2009 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report for Calendar Year 2008, http://tinyurl.com/yenabct

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_methane_mystery

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AP – In this photograph taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, the sign and fire extinguisher were put up near a …
Related Quotes Symbol Price Change
EGAS 8.88 0.00
^GSPC 1,036.19 0.00
^IXIC 2,045.11 0.00

By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer Judith Kohler, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 1, 7:19 pm ET
WALSENBURG, Colo. – Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.

The friend wasn’t hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.

Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West’s vital resources: Water and natural gas.

“The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption,” said Bernice Angely, who’s had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007.

Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks.

But Petroglyph says it’s not clear the drilling caused the methane leaks or prompted other area water wells to run dry. Eying what it calls an extremely promising natural gas field, it believes a shallow water formation tapped by area homeowners isn’t connected to a deeper one pumped by the company for its drilling operations.

Petroglyph chief operating officer Paul Powell also believes a growing number of new homes in the area could explain some of the dry water wells.

“We’ll do what we need to do,” Powell said, stressing that his firm is working with the state on a solution.

Petroglyph has a plan to prevent the flow of methane into water wells by creating a hydraulic barrier. The company has proposed pumping water from an underground formation and injecting it into a row of wells where gas drilling occurs. Powell said gas will migrate into a void, and “if the void is full of water, there isn’t room for gas to migrate through it.”

State regulators say the plan is plausible but that Petroglyph needs to prove it works. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Salazar, who farms in the nearby San Luis Valley, has asked the U.S. Geological Survey to weigh in by evaluating the area’s water quality and formations to determine if the gas drilling is to blame for the problems.

Water coursing through porous rock and streams has allowed farming, ranching and new subdivisions to thrive in the semiarid area about 160 miles south of Denver.

It also helps trap methane gas in the vast coal seams that once made the area a mining hot spot. The coal mines are gone, but the methane that made digging for it dangerous is a valuable resource. Companies like Petroglyph pump huge volumes of water out of the ground to relieve the pressure trapping the natural gas.

Steve Gunderson, director of Colorado’s water quality control division, said Petroglyph will have to build a water treatment plant before it gets a new permit to discharge water. The old permit allowed Petroglyph to release up to 8 million gallons of water daily.

Fourth-generation dairy farmer Brett Corsentino blames the discharges into the Cucharas River for ruining his corn crops. He uses river water to irrigate his crops just a few miles east of the homeowners having problems with their wells. He says the high levels of sodium in the wastewater has diminished his soil’s ability to absorb water and stunted the corn’s growth.

“They say, `Well, there’s no proof,’” Corsentino said. “Well, we’d been getting along for generations just fine until they started pumping 8 million gallons out of this country.”

Corsentino also says his herd suffered abnormally high birth and death rates and now numbers 400, down from 650. He believes the cows consumed too much sodium from the water and corn grown from it. His corn used to produce 6,000 tons of silage; this year’s crop yielded 1,500 tons.

However, Corsentino says his herd is healthier and milk production has increased since drilling stopped.

“There’s an obvious direct, substantial impact to Brett Corsentino’s dairy,” the state’s Gunderson said of the drilling.

Petroglyph paid for soil tests on Corsentino’s farm. They showed high levels of sodium but that it also needed more calcium, Powell said. Petroglyph and Corsentino are discussing possible treatments.

“We still don’t believe we have liability for the situation,” Powell said. “But we were willing to help him fix his land and get back to productivity.”

Ten miles west of Walsenburg, a rushing sound emanates from a pipe that vents methane from Ben and Melanie Bounds’ water well. The pipe was installed after a June 2007 explosion blew off a shed roof covering the well.

The Bounds had moved from Dallas to build what they call their dream home atop a hill with a breathtaking view of the Spanish Peaks. They say their problems started when Petroglyph began drilling nearby. They’re suing the company and haul water from town to their cistern.

“If I could run the clock back, we’d have never tried this,” Ben Bounds said.

“I had more methane coming out of my water well than they had out of any of their gas wells. It sounded like a locomotive going down the road,” said Kent Smith, who also has a methane detector in his house. “The damage and the problems they’ve caused have got to be addressed, and they keep getting pushed aside and forgotten about.”

Petroglyph insists it’s a good neighbor. Despite the methane mystery, it’s trucking water to 14 area homes and has supplied 15 homes with methane alarm systems.

___

On the Net:

Petroglyph Energy Inc., http://tinyurl.com/ybfpcco

Walsenburg 2009 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report for Calendar Year 2008, http://tinyurl.com/yenabct

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_methane_mystery

A checkerboard of federally owned parcels within the boundaries of the Young Life Washington Family Ranch east of Antelope is fueling talk of a trade.
“We’re working on a very large land exchange between Young Life, a few other private landowners and the BLM,” Forrest Reinhardt, a Young Life youth pastor who represents the Washington Family Ranch, told the Jefferson County Commission Oct. 14.
Reinhardt and Aaron Kilgore, John Day coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, outlined the proposal for the commission. Kilgore’s association has been assisting ownership and land management issues along the Lower John Day River over the past few years.
Under terms of the proposal, the Bureau of Land Management would give up a total of 12,323 acres to Young Life. In exchange, Young Life would give 8,821 acres to the BLM to create two wilderness areas — Horse Heaven (8,015 acres) and Coffin Rock.
Two other property owners, Bud Shrum, and Bill Smith of Cherry Creek Ranch, would also be part of the exchange. Shrum would give the BLM 494 acres and receive 594 acres in return, and Smith would give the BLM 1,057 acres and receive 1,158 acres.
In total, the BLM would trade 14, 075 acres for 10,372 acres of private land.
“The final exchange numbers would be subject to an appraisal to ensure that the exchanges between three private landowners and the BLM are equal value,” Kilgore noted.
“The fact that the total acreage reflects a net gain to private landowners is because the public would be acquiring higher-value lands along the wild and scenic river, while private landowners would be primarily acquiring uplands, at significantly lower value,” Kilgore said.
The exchanges would give the public access to more than 10,000 acres of public land that had previously been surrounded by private land and unavailable for public access. At the same time, it would make the Young Life property, which hosts youth camps, safer for visitors, since hunters would no longer be attempting to access properties within its borders.
Over four miles of the Wild and Scenic John Day River would be converted to public ownership in the Coffin Rock area, “thereby expanding public access for river users including anglers, hunters and boaters in a popular area,” Kilgore said.
Federal legislation must be enacted for the government to exchange land with private parties, Reinhardt pointed out. “Now the only way you can execute these large land exchanges with the BLM is through legislation. There has to be wilderness involved.”
If Reinhardt can obtain approval from the three counties affected by the trades — Jefferson, Wheeler and Wasco — he intends to work on a bill with Oregon legislators in Washington, D.C.
“I’m heading back to D.C. at the end of this month to get the ball rolling on legislation,” he added.
When commissioners asked if Young Life had run into any problems putting the land exchange together, Reinhardt responded that although there have been concerns expressed along the way, “It’s a win-win-win, or no deal. There’s been no opposition by an private landowner.”
The commission unanimously agreed to write a letter supporting the exchange and creation of the Coffin Rock and Horse Heaven wilderness areas.

http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2009/10/news10-25-09-03.shtml

By Barry R. Noon
Posted: 10/24/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 10/24/2009 06:20:29 AM MDT

Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the Forest Service, said that our public lands should provide for ” the greatest good for the greatest number”. He came up with this vision for our national forests over a hundred years ago. Today, Pinchot’s goal is as meaningful as it was at the turn of the last century. Tens of thousands of Americans across the country and here in Colorado took up his cause this past Saturday, National Public Lands Day, by helping to plant trees, repair trails, clean campsites and pick trash out of rivers and wetlands. While it’s always inspiring to see people take an interest in our public lands, it is important to consider how our view of public lands has changed over the last 104 years.

The land-use practices on our public lands that bring the greatest good to the greatest number are different than they were a century ago. In Colorado and around the country, our public lands are of increasing relevance to us because of the accelerating rate at which we are losing our land and water to development.

At this time, the available scientific evidence suggests that all major ecosystems are dominated by humans. That is, humans have altered the landscape so much that we’re impacting the diversity of fish, plants and wildlife — we are changing the very processes of life essential for human welfare.

As a consequence or our behaviors, many plant and animal species in all ecological systems—on land, in our seas, and in rivers, lakes and streams—are currently declining. To illustrate the magnitude of our environmental footprint, consider that humans consume over 45 percent of all plant growth, over 25 percent of marine productivity, and about 60 percent of accessible freshwater. And as our population continues to grow, the human impact on the environment will only get worse.

Although we have seen rapid improvements in technology, and our capacity to change the landscape through mining, timber development, and energy production have greatly expanded, the majority of laws governing the management of our public lands (over 400 million acres) were passed from 30 to over 100 years ago. An extreme case is the 1872 Mining Law, but even the National Environmental Policy Act is now 40 years old. Most land-use laws largely made sense at the time they were passed—and most favored the exploitation of natural resources. However, given the rate that private lands are being development, the continued exploitation of our public lands no longer achieves Pinchot’s goal of the greatest good for the greatest number.

It’s time to revisit the policies governing the management of our public lands. We need to shift away from merely exploiting timber, minerals, and water from our public lands. Environmental trends, and particularly climate change, suggest that the greatest good for the greatest number will be achieved by emphasizing ecological sustainability and environmental stewardship. Both Congress and the Obama administration have the opportunity to advance environmental stewardship on our public lands.

For example, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has decided not to continue the Bush-era regulations that govern the use of our national forests. Instead, they are exploring new forest policy that could emphasize stewardship and restoration of degraded lands, such as the decommissioning of roads and the removal of outdated dams. Importantly, both Congress and the Obama administration have the opportunity to instate a clear requirement in the National Forest Management Act that the Forest Service should manage national forests and grasslands for sustainable wildlife populations, including species such as deer, elk and trout that are particularly important to a majority of Coloradoans.

Currently, Congress is considering a bill, America’s Wildlife Heritage Act, H.R. 2807, introduced by Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Walter Jones (R-NC) that would achieve this. The Obama administration should support that bill and also develop land-use policies that emphasize science-based management of our public lands—that is, policies that promote science based tools to sustain fish and wildlife populations and the resources and ecosystems on which they depend. Doing so will produce the greatest good for the greatest number, finally fulfilling Pinchot’s vision.

Barry R. Noon is a professor of wildlife ecology at Colorado State University. This column represents his own views and not necessarily CSU’s.

This online-only guest commentary was not edited.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13627919#