Some weeks there is lots of news. Other weeks, it is pretty lean. Early August was lean. It appears to be fattening up. A few examples…

—Holy guacamole. The Crested Butte Community School is bursting at the seams…this just three years after a major expansion. So people appear to like it enough here that they are moving their families to the valley. The school is one big reason our population base is increasing. The CBCS is a quality learning institution that provides a top-notch education for those hoping to move on to the country’s finest universities. It is probably one of the biggest draws for people moving here and it is becoming too small. With another 10 percent increase in enrollment, it won’t be long before another expansion will be needed—or those mobile classrooms will have to return.

—The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is departing Crested Butte. There’s something odd about that. Maybe as a local mountain biker, I took it too much for granted and I shouldn’t have. After talking to Hall of Fame co-director Don Cook this week, I understand the decision. I don’t like that it is moving but it might actually help the sport’s exposure by relocating to northern California. Thanks to those who have maintained it here in the valley throughout the decades and good luck as it moves to a new home in Marin County.

—U.S. Energy Corporation, the owners of the molybdenum mining rights on Red Lady, are publicly talking up the potential of a mine on Mt. Emmons. It appears they really want to sell the “opportunity” of a mine. In a conference call with investors last week, company executives said they expect to have Forest Service approval for the mine through NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act). They said they hope to be fully permitted in three or four years. They insinuated they’ve had some nibbles of interest from real miners that may want to take on the project. Sure. It just seems USE shouldn’t expect any sort of easy NEPA process from this community and if they expect to be fully permitted in three years, they’re dreaming. Even if they eventually do get mining permits from the feds, the price of moly better skyrocket to pay for the billion dollar start-up costs involved. The last “real” miner they partnered with, Thompson Creek, came, saw, spent and ran after getting a feel for the real situation. Smart mining company.

—The monsoons are here but the lakes aren’t filling. The moisture is a blessing but Blue Mesa is still really low so understand that the drought conditions haven’t totally evaporated. We have a long way to go. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill the Mesa next spring from the copious amount of snow we receive this winter.

Water from borehole not conducive to most life

There was a time when I believed that if water flowed cold and clear and straight from the ground that it was pure. Untainted by man or machine. I don’t believe that anymore.

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“Really nasty water” has been flowing into area creeks for decades

For the last 40 years highly acidic, metal-laden water has been pouring out of an abandoned borehole in Redwell Basin just northwest of Crested Butte on the back flank of Mt. Emmons at a rate of approximately 20 gallons per minute. This summer, the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (CDRMS), in cooperation with local and state groups, is aiming to do something about it. Read More »

Big risk for water and wallets

The High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA) is expressing concern with the lack of official permitting and bonding that is tied to the Mt. Emmons Water Treatment Plant.

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Honestly, I am glad that the week started without anyone feeling the need to comment, “We need the moisture.” Instead, this spring week in May has a summer feel to it. If “we need the moisture,” can we make a deal with the powers that be to bring it in December instead of May? That would help keep everyone sane as well as fill the water in the area’s rivers and lakes.

I see HCCA is protesting with the Forest Service that the state and feds don’t have any money set aside for emergencies from the operators of the Mt. Emmons water treatment plant. You can read the details in next week’s issue of the Crested Butte News. If something goes wrong up there, it could go really wrong and there isn’t any money in the wings to fix it. That sounds crazy. The plant is decades old. Stuff can go wrong. At a minimum, there should be an insurance account to make sure that the plant doesn’t just shut down with no chance of being fixed. That doesn’t sound crazy. That seems reasonable.

The Gunnison County commissioners are taking the first steps to officially prohibit the sale of recreational marijuana in unincoporated parts of the county. Such sales will soon be allowed in the state under Colorado Amendment 64 and regulations recently approved by the legislature.
But the commissioners voiced fear with allowing the amendment to be implemented in Gunnison County. This despite the fact the county voters overwhelmingly supported the amendment at the polls (5,811 to 2,727) last November. Twice as many people voted to approve the legalization of recreational pot as voted against it in this county. The commissioners should use that bit of information in making a decision on the issue instead of publicly citing what the councils of Mt. Crested Butte and the city of Gunnison decide.
Board chair Paula Swenson kindly emailed me to also cite 1) the county’s fear of a potential federal reprisal with funds received by the county from the feds since growing, selling and using marijuana is still against federal law, 2) the fact the county discourages retail sales outside of municipalities and 3) the fear of extreme fire hazard with grow operations and serious water issues with sprinklers.

Real quick: there are plenty of retail and plant nursery-type operations outside the towns in Gunnison County, the feds have kept very quiet on the state’s move to legalize marijuana and it’s not like the county is opening PP&J’s (Paula, Phil and Jonathan’s) smoke shack…the county would just choose to not “opt out” of the state regulations governing recreational marijuana. I’m not aware of any federal threat to withhold funds to counties or states with marijuana regulations on the books. As for the fire hazard and sprinkler issues, that could easily be addressed in any county permit.
Two of the commissioners were voted into office at the same election as Amendment 64 so you’d think Commissioners Houck and Swenson would remember the will of the people and work to implement the new state rules rather than trying to prohibit them in Gunnison County.
While marijuana certainly needs to be regulated at the very least like alcohol, the federal fear-mongering over this weed is ridiculous and our commissioners should reflect a sane approach to marijuana, not a 1950s “killer weed” mentality. Respectfully, that direction is crazy…

Speaking of crazy. A crop once grown by the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson has been outlawed in this country for more than 60 years—because it’s related to marijuana. But a new hemp crop with a Crested Butte connection was planted this week. Crested Butte’s Ryan Loflin is using 60 acres of his parent’s farm in eastern Colorado to grow a hemp crop this summer. That too was made legal in the state under Colorado Amendment 64. Hemp has none of the psychoactive properties of its cousin, marijuana. But it has a lot of practical qualities valued all over the world. So the prohibition of hemp has been just a crazy law that hopefully is now being rectified.

Let’s not even get into the national issues like the Internal Revenue Service shaking down select organizations for audits or President Obama’s Justice Department crossing a line and secretly seizing telephone records of the Associated Press, seriously jeopardizing the tenets of a free press in the process. That’s real world stuff and that’s real crazy…

On the sane side, the Crested Butte Town Council didn’t hold a meeting this past Monday for the first time in almost two months. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is asking questions about why no bank was prosecuted after they helped cause the world’s worst financial crisis. And the valley forecast calls for sunny skies and warm temperatures the rest of the week. There’s nothing crazy about those things…thank God.

Cool temperatures contribute to extended runoff

The spring showers that sent a surge of drought-quenching water into Front Range reservoirs last month didn’t do much to ease local concerns, but the cooler temperatures that came with them gave local water managers some hope that the summer won’t be as dry as once feared. Read More »

Statements don’t mean much without perspective. US Energy, the company with the rights to the molybdenum under Mt. Emmons, is touting the recent U.S. Forest Service decision to allow detailed analysis of a mining plan as a major move and just about guarantees a mine “sooner rather than later.” That is doubtful, given any sort of rational perspective.
The Forest Service decision says that on its face, the company has provided enough of a plan that the government is obligated to really delve into that plan. The public too will now get the chance to really dig into that proposal and comment on it. If US Energy executives believe that will be a quick process, they are simply foolish. And I don’t think they are foolish.
But I do think they are a bit desperate and trying to exude a patina of inevitability for the mine in an effort to attract a potential partner with deep pockets that might want to take this mine off its hands.
What? Take a valuable mine off its hands? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? Not so much. Let’s remember a bit of history. Tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent investigating the realistic potential for a moly mine under Red Lady. Those who have spent those millions have all walked away.
It wasn’t long ago that US Energy had a “real” partner in molybdenum miner Thompson-Creek Metals Company. That company had the know-how, expertise and contacts to perhaps make a run at a mine. After spending a few million dollars, they abruptly backed out of the potential project after doing some on-the-ground research. It wasn’t that long ago that US Energy was in a lawsuit with mining energy giant Phelps-Dodge and the loser essentially had to take the mine. US Energy lost and now has the mine.
The mine comes with an annual expenditure of close to $2 million to run the water treatment plant that treats water coming from the old Keystone mine. That treated water feeds Coal Creek and is consumed by people downstream of the town of Crested Butte. The town of Crested Butte is keeping a close eye on the situation and will be very careful about what it allows in its watershed. US Energy also cites some crazy poll saying that people around here want a mine on Red Lady. Right. And Blue Mesa might overflow its banks this weekend.

The Forest Service decision means that the company can now head into an environmental review process called NEPA. NEPA is not for those in a hurry. NEPA brings out the buzz saws. A controversial project of this proposed size with this much opposition should last years if it’s on a fast track and cost US Energy millions of dollars. In-depth studies, analysis, answers to questions brought up by members of the public and organizations like HCCA and the Red Lady Coalition will take many, many, many, many minutes of thought, engineering and fact gathering. And it is then that the Forest Service will decide whether or not a mine can happen responsibly. And then, whichever way that decision falls, more lawsuits should be expected. Despite the insinuations of the mining company, this is not a short process with backing of the people living in this community.
Oh, and then there’s the simple cost and ramifications of getting a mine started in central Colorado. A financial analyst with a home in the valley emailed me earlier this year with some interesting information about moly mining in general. He pointed out that molybdenum mining requires “enormous water flows and an oven to cook at 600-700 degrees. Both generating enormous waste products…Moly mining is so extraordinarily polluting that most experts feel future growth will need to be in emerging nations such as Indonesia where there is no EPA type of agency,” he surmised.
The costs of opening a new mine in a location such as this are staggering. Infrastructure that includes tailings ponds, mills, electricity infrastructure and transportation infrastructure upgrades could reach not into the hundreds of millions of dollars but top a billion dollars.

I understand why US Energy wants to put lipstick on this pig and dress it all up in frilly clothes to try to attract another partner and scare those living near the potential mine into taking action no matter what the cost. They are running out of money and opportunity. Keeping a water treatment plant that only blows expenditures without producing revenues is not a good part of any business model.
And did we mention that the price of molybdenum is now about $11 a pound? And there is no shortage of moly around the world. Those factors don’t make extracting the metal in a new mine a cash cow.
Look, the idea of a mine certainly hangs over this end of the valley like the smell of an industrial pig farm. It’s something we have to pay attention to and not take lightly. A new mine would change this place and damage what tourist economy we have.
But for those freaking out over US Energy’s public statements about the recent Forest Service decision, take them for what they are … an attempt to push a pig into the corner and put lipstick on it.

“Gives the town mechanisms to protect its water….”

The Crested Butte Town Council held a special meeting on Monday, April 8 and quickly passed an amended Watershed Protection Ordinance. The changes will make some things easier for property owners in the watershed district and utilizes state 1041 authority to consider environmental impacts to the town’s watershed.

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The mine:
I spent more than a few minutes this past week looking over the Plan of Operations (PoO) submitted to the U.S. Forest Service by U.S. Energy. A couple of things strike me as interesting. First, that it is called a PoO. Love it.
Second, the mine would be operating every minute of every day for 33 years. That’s a lot of activity. Two 12-hour shifts per day for those 33 years would employ about 335 people. That doesn’t seem like a lot of people if one of the mine company’s big arguments for approval is employment.
They’d bring in close to 1,000 workers to get it up and going for four years prior to actual mining. Like it or not, that usually brings with it a high number of transient workers who oftentimes (not always) bring with them a transient attitude—and that can mean trouble. I’m sure the local cops will love it. I smell more money in the law enforcement budgets.
The company plans to push the operation toward the railroad line, which means using Kebler Pass Road—a lot. Summer, fall, winter, spring. They don’t plan to pave it but “upgrade” it. A plowed dirt road over Kebler in March, April and May? How messy could it really be? Real frickin’ messy. And following big mining trucks over the pass as you go to pick up apples and peaches? Fun stuff that. And you might as well post a tow truck somewhere up there all winter. Kebler gets a tad more snow than Crested Butte in the winter so the vision of massive trucks navigating steep twisty turns in a blizzard is pretty interesting.
“The top of the Mt. Emmons molybdenite deposit lies approximately 1,000 feet below the surface of the west flank of Mt. Emmons. The full deposit is about 2,300 feet in diameter and is approximately circular in view, resembling an inverted cup.” I just found that interesting. And the plan to have giant crushers processing literally tons of earth underneath the mine sounds like a television show on Discovery. If it wasn’t in a place that could get screwed up so permanently in our valley, it might be fun to watch the giant machines. But the potential ramifications to a tourism-based economy are so intense it’s a little upside-down to consider it and I don’t want us living in some bad second-rate TV show.
Tailings ponds. Those are essentially poison lakes that will be located south of the mine toward the Ohio Creek valley. Pristine areas of this neighborhood will be turned into storage areas for trash with three new dams.
And I always like the disclaimer that “Although a temporary shutdown of operations is not planned, circumstances beyond the control of the Project may require a temporary cessation of operations. In the event that the facility has to be temporarily closed due to severe weather conditions, unfavorable economic conditions…” What this is acknowledging is that mining is inherently a boom-and-bust industry. Heck, my understanding is that most moly mines in this country are either closed or operating at super slow rates right now.

The trial:
There is a long murder trial taking place in the Gunnison County courthouse. It could go on for another month. Apparently 600 local people were called as potential jurors. I sat in the courtroom and listened a bit last week. Expecting to go for about a half hour, I sat riveted for closer to an-hour-and-a-half. That too was like a TV show…but one that was interesting and real and wild. Talk about reality television. The guy is accused of killing his wife near Lake City. Wow.
And that trial started about the same time a Gunnison guy allegedly killed his uncle. The thing that gets me is that the guy’s rap sheet more than indicates he shouldn’t have really been out in a position to possibly hurt someone. He apparently did some nasty, violent things in the years prior to this incident but never spent a long time in prison. Instead, the prisons are too often clogged with dudes who dealt drugs to a narc. The United States incarcerates more people for drug offenses than any other country. And possibly as a result, we see a tangible example of someone with a violent past who gets let out time after time. That just isn’t right.

The cold:
Last January I spent a few days at Hartman Rocks riding the mountain bike. It was pretty darn pleasant. This year it is back to normal. The past weekend recorded a high of 5 degrees. Gunnison hit 38 below. Crested Butte was 30 below just before the sun rose on Tuesday. The snow squeaks, car engines groan, exposed skin stings and there is no melting going on outside. It feels like January is supposed to feel in this high mountain valley. Now, having said that, I am glad that the temperatures are climbing back into the 20s and 30s during the day. It may feel like a day at the beach. It will be February before we can truly count on the turn. That is when we pray for decent snow at night and pleasant days to play in it.

The X Gamer:
Local phenom and half-pipe skier Aaron Blunck was invited to participate in the 2013 X Games this week. That’s the big time. In the young demographic, the X Games continue to be cooler than the Olympics and it will be a tad more affordable for the 16-year old since it’s happening at the end of the month across the mountain range in Aspen. Described on NBC Sports this past weekend as a “Young Gun in the sport,” the smooth skiing Blunck is another of this mountain town’s really good people. He’s a special athletic talent and he will be a wonderful ambassador for this town as the event is broadcast around the world. Good luck to a good kid.

The Broncos:
When you play not to lose you cannot win. When you stray from your strengths, you have a tendency to flounder. When you choose to take a knee and surrender opportunity, you lessen the chances of victory. When you keep making mistakes you worked so hard to avoid but keep trying to do the same unsuccessful thing time after time hoping it might work the next time, what do you really think is going to happen? Those are lessons that might be learned here. Just saying…

Stay classy, Crested Butte.

Kebler is proposed to be a year-round road

If a molybdenum mine in Mt. Emmons is approved and becomes operational, it would be a 24-7-365 operation for the next 33 years. Once up and going, it is expected to employee about 335 miners. More people would be employed to run the water treatment plant and work in the office. Approximately 1,000 people would be needed for mine development and mill construction in the four years before the mine got going at full bore. Read More »