Author: Dan Elliott
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Feds: Moving BLM headquarters to Colorado will save money, improve decisions
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The Trump administration says that it can save taxpayers millions of dollars, make better decisions and trim a “top heavy” office in Washington by moving the headquarters of the nation’s biggest land agency to Colorado and dispersing scores of jobs across 11 western states. Interior Department officials said they hope to open the new Bureau…
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Losses from Colorado mine spill may be less than feared
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Economic damage from a Colorado mine waste spill caused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency might be far less than originally feared after attorneys drastically reduced some of the larger claims, The Associated Press has learned. Farmers, business owners, residents and others initially said they suffered $1.2 billion in lost income, property damage and personal…
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New study indicates low health risks found in oil-gas air pollution
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Colorado officials who reviewed thousands of air samples and a dozen studies on air pollution from oil and gas sites said Wednesday the risk of harmful human effects appears to be low, but they stressed that more study is needed. “The main message (is not) that we didn’t find anything,” said Mike Van Dyke of…
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Supreme Court asks US government’s view on mine spill suit
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The U.S. Supreme Court asked the Justice Department on Monday to weigh in on New Mexico’s lawsuit against Colorado over a mine waste spill that polluted rivers in both states and in Utah. The court asked the Office of the Solicitor General to submit the Obama administration’s views on the lawsuit. The solicitor general represents…
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Feds look into claim of unofficial VA wait lists in Colorado
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Government investigators said they are looking into allegations that Department of Veterans Affairs employees in Colorado kept unofficial lists of veterans waiting for health care that could conceal how long it takes to get an appointment, possibly broadening a nationwide scandal. The VA’s internal watchdog announced an audit in a letter Wednesday’s to Republican Sens.…
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Aurora VA hospital investigation goes big-time
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers formally asked the U.S. Justice Department Thursday to investigate whether Veterans Affairs Department executives lied to Congress to conceal massive cost overruns at a Denver-area hospital. Twelve Republicans and nine Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs Committee made the request in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “It is…
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Colorado town on verge of big changes amid Superfund cleanup
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A historic Colorado mountain town is on the threshold of a transformation after the federal government announced it will embark on an ambitious campaign to stanch the flow of acidic wastewater cascading from abandoned mines. The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday designated an area north of Silverton as a Superfund site, clearing the way for a multimillion-dollar…
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U.S. clears way for cleanup of Gold King mine after huge spill
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A Colorado mine that spewed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into rivers in three Western states was designated a Superfund site Wednesday, clearing the way for a multimillion-dollar federal cleanup. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally added the inactive Gold King Mine and 47 other nearby mining-related sites to the Superfund list. It also included nine…
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Two Colorado coal-fired power units to close in clean-air deal
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One coal-fired power plant in Colorado will shut down and part of a second plant will stop operating under an agreement that will make deep cuts in air pollution but cost at least 90 jobs over the next decade, officials said Thursday. The Nucla Station power plant in southwestern Colorado and its coal supplier, the New Horizon Mine, will…
