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Mountain News: Unsafe levels of DDT found in alpine lakes

REVELSTOKE, B.C. -Dangerously high levels of DDT have been detected in the seldom-visited high alpine lakes of Mount Revelstoke National Park. How did the chemical get there? Nobody really knows, although scientists say they have theories.

REVELSTOKE, B.C. -Dangerously high levels of DDT have been detected in the seldom-visited high alpine lakes of Mount Revelstoke National Park. How did the chemical get there? Nobody really knows, although scientists say they have theories.

The Revelstoke Times Review explains that Health Canada advised that fish caught in the high lakes not be eaten because the fish contain up to 16 times more DDT than the agency recommends.

Only a dozen or so fishing permits were issued for the high lakes last year, indicating the advisory won't affect that many people. But the issue does hit close to home, as the community has been considering a ban on what are called "cosmetic" herbicides and pesticides applied to achieve aesthetic landscaping goals.

As well, says the Times Review , the announcement poses questions about the purity of water in local, lower-elevation lakes around Revelstoke as well as the Columbia River itself. The river flows through the town.

Parks Canada, the administrator of the national park, has two theories that might explain the DDT presence. One theory holds that the DDT was deposited in the 1960s when it was used as an insecticide. It does not readily break down and can remain in the environment as DDT for a century.

A second theory sees more distant, even global sources. The theory holds that DDT can be evaporated along with the water in a place and then redeposited elsewhere. But if a lake remains frozen well into July, as is the case in Mount Revelstoke National Park, then the water in which the DDT is found has little opportunity for evaporation and deposition elsewhere.

DDT was banned in Canada in 1972 because, among other reasons, it weakens the egg shells of raptors. The Revelstoke area has osprey and bald eagles.

Sarah Boyle, a conservation biologist with Parks Canada, told the Times Review that this case illustrates why Revelstoke and other communities should carefully evaluate scientific evidence about long-term effects of chemicals such as Roundup.

"I think that is a really good example of what happens when we use persistent chemicals in the environment (without knowing) how long they last and what the legacy effects are. And I don't think it's worth the ecological or human health risks," she said.

Flat is the new normal

DURANGO, Colo. - Taking stock of the economy in Durango this summer, local tourism official John Coen describes a perspective that probably resonates in many other places as well. "Flat is the new normal," he told the Durango Telegraph . "But it's better than going down."

Actually, others in Durango report statistics that resemble a good uphill climb. But then, those comparisons are against 2009.

Gates shares worries

ASPEN, Colo. - It is the season for casual-wear conferences at mountain resorts. Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg and the Gates, Bill and Melinda, gathered in Sun Valley along with 300 other people with a stake in media of various sorts. The event was the annual Allen & Co. conference, a time when the local airport has not nearly enough room for the private jets.

At Aspen's Ideas Festival, the Gates and 300 other big-picture thinkers shared their outlooks but in giant outdoor tents normally used for music concerts. But the tent was figurative - and much smaller - at Steamboat Springs, where conservatives emboldened by the tea party movement prepared to host marquee speaker Karl Rove last summer.

The Sun Valley festival is the oldest, but not necessarily the most interesting - unless you're among the select. Reporters are not included. As is usual, the scribblers from even the big-name outfits - think New York this and Financial that - were kept in a small pen, allowed to talk only to those business executives who chose to share themselves.

Sometimes, big deals are quietly struck at the conference. Last year, for example, a conversation that led to the Comcast acquisition of NBC University occurred at the conference. But none of that came out for six months.

But John Malone, a Denver-based magnate of cable, did share with an Associated Press reporter his belief that he had missed an opportunity to acquire newspapers a year ago. He seems to think that they'll make a comeback of sorts.

In Aspen, reporters from The Aspen Times were very much in evidence as Bill Gates talked about the need to control health care costs. Those and other costs are eroding the ability of middle-class Americans to gain higher education. He called for the nation to more closely examine the benefits of costly end-of-life medical care. He questioned if "spending $1 million on the last three months" of a person's life makes sense when the same amount can keep 10 teachers employed.

"That's called the death panel, and you're not supposed to have that discussion," Gates said. He questioned why America's health-care system has so many specialists as compared to general practitioners. That leaves little financial incentive to keep people healthy with preventative care.

Gates also talked about China and India, predicting that they will take their place on the world stage as innovators. He sees this as good.

"They represent 20 per cent of the global population and they are on their way to using 20 per cent of the world's energy and having 20 per cent of the ideas and having 20 per cent of the military budget. I mean, it's outrageous they should do this," he said, tongue in cheek.

Another speaker, financial historian and Harvard professor Niall Ferguson, declared that the United States as an empire is "on the edge of chaos." As did Gates, he took aim at Medicare and Social Security. He also predicted that China will overtake the United States as the world's economic superpower - likely even before 2027, as had been predicted by Goldman Sachs.

"Most empires collapse fast," Ferguson said. "They're complex systems. They exist on the edge of chaos. It doesn't take much to tip them over, and when they tip over, they fall apart really quickly."

Where will this leave the silver-heeled mountain resorts of the West? If Gates, et al., addressed this question, the local newspapers didn't report it.

In Steamboat, meanwhile, the Freedom Conference of late August is being planned by a locally based institute. In addition to Rove, speakers will include Jason Mattera, author of Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation.

Vail bans sales of pot

VAIL, Colo. - The Vail Town Council has decided to ban medical marijuana dispensaries because, in the words of Mayor Dick Cleveland, they do not belong in a family resort environment.

Cleveland said that less than 1 per cent of people in Eagle County, where Vail is located, are marijuana cardholders - and not all of them are in Vail. If people already leave the town for necessities, such as buying underwear at Wal-Mart, they can also go elsewhere to buy marijuana. "This should not be seen as a referendum on medical marijuana (in general)," he said. "That's not what this is about."

One council member, Margaret Rogers, dissented, pointing to estimates that officials in Boulder, Colo., expect to reap $250,000 in sales taxes from sale of marijuana there.

Mt. Baldy finances secured

OSOYOOS - The Thompson Okanagan's southern-most ski hill has secured its financial future for at least the next two years.

The Penticton Western News reported July 1 that Mt. Baldy Ski Resort, located 35 km east of Oliver and Osoyoos, has reached an agreement with Quest and BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) to extend its financing until Aug. 1, 2011 with an extension option to Aug. 1, 2012.

Mt. Baldy President Brent Baker said, "The beauty of this agreement is that it has a mechanism to release funds from imminent real estate sales to meet operational needs, while simultaneously providing a parallel repayment of underlying debt."

Mt. Baldy's master plan calls for a number of real estate development areas adjacent to the ski area. Its newest real estate release, a "ski-to" and "ski-from" community named The McKinney, is located next to the future Upper Village Core. It is currently in the final stages of approval. The sales launch is expected in July and lots should be available in August.

The subdivision will include a condo/hotel, three condominium lots, a cabin-in-the-woods development, a bed and breakfast lot, and 22 gently sloping single-family lots.

"We expect that The McKinney lot sales will be brisk, as the pricing will represent the best value of any comparable ski mountain in British Columbia," said Fred Brown, manager of Landquest Realty Corporation, who will co-ordinate the sale.

Bike master plan approved

KAMLOOPS - In early June, Kamloops city council officially adopted an updated Bicycle Master Plan for the community. Kamloops This Week reports that besides promoting cycling in "Canada's Tournament Capital," the update includes a proposed new $13.2-million network of bike routes that will connect all the major neighbourhoods in the city.

City council has given the plan a base amount of $500,000 per year in funding. A number of projects are expected to begin this year under the plan, including pre-design work on a Peterson Creek pathway and Lorne and Singh streets multi-use pathways.

Work on the much-anticipated Valleyview interchange should also get underway soon, since the city has awarded a $1.5-million contract to begin the first phase of the project. Construction work on the path is expected to begin in August.

The Bicycle Master Plan also calls for construction of other bike overpasses in the city.

Lab wants designation

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. - Managers of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory want the national forest surrounding Crested Butte to be designated as an experimental forest.

The U.S. Forest Service has 80 such designated experimental forests, including one near the ski town of Winter Park. There, at the Fraser Experimental Forest, scientists for decades have conducted experiments in water matters. For example, how much does runoff increase if trees have been cut down?

At the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, university researchers from California to Maryland return every summer to further their work while enjoying cool summer nights.

One of the experiments, now more than a decade in duration, has been to replicate how warmer temperatures predicted by climate-change models will change the vegetation. (The results show sagebrush eventually replacing the Van Gogh-like pastiche of summer wildflowers).

Researchers for years have fretted about what they perceive to be too much human intrusion into their natural laboratory, which is located at the ghost town of Gothic, about five miles from the ski slopes of Crested Butte. The Crested Butte News reports that exactly how this proposed designation would further the aims of researchers is not clear. Such a designation would not affect existing users or further restrict transportation.

Bears conspicuously absent

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. - Last year at this time, Crested Butte abounded with bear stories. Bears were breaking into offices, houses, and cars - some 300 altogether before the season ended. Six repeat-offender bears were captured and killed.

It's different this year - so far. Authorities attribute the absence of the ursine to an abundance of berries and other food in the backcountry. Possibly also of relevance is the lesser attraction of human food in Crested Butte. Town officials last year followed Snowmass Village, Vail and other ski towns into demanding garbage not be put onto the street until the day of pickup - and only then in bear-resistant containers.

But elsewhere in Colorado, bears have been active. Over the weekend a bear bit a camper along the Animas River in Durango. Transients camp along the river in that area, and state wildlife authorities said a hamburger and a container of ice cream were found inside the bear's stomach after it was killed.

"A bear that bites a person - or loses its fear of people - may be a serious threat to public safety," said Patt Dorsey, a state wildlife manager.

Food was also the story at Bailey, about an hour from Denver. There, in the community where the creators of the animated comic series South Park grew up, a bear bit a 51-year-old man as the bear tried to flee the basement of the home.

A door to a garage containing trash and a refrigerator had been left open, and the door from the garage into the home did not latch properly, state wildlife officials said. Bears can smell bird feed, pet food and most certainly a greasy barbeque grill grate from miles away, said state wildlife officials.

You've got to wonder what Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the South Park creators, would do with this morsel of a story.

Telluride following through on vow

TELURIDE, Colo. - Telluride has started taking baby steps on its vow to tamp down its carbon footprints. The town, in conjunction with the adjacent Mountain Village, plans to install a 100-kilowatt photovoltaic solar array at the community wastewater treatment plant.

The site is at the edge of Telluride, near a road junction called Society Corner, outside of the town's famous box canyon. As such, it will get plenty of sun and no rolling rocks. State grants will pay for a quarter of the $600,000 cost, with Telluride footing the bill for roughly two-thirds of the remaining cost and the smaller Mountain Village picking up the final portion.

Solar panels teach a lesson

BANFF, Alberta - Solar panels have been erected on the flanks of the gymnasium at the Banff Community High School. The 200-kilowatt array can generate roughly enough power to keep 600 computers humming.

That's really not all that much electricity, but teacher Maya Capel tells the Rocky Mountain Outlook that the panels have a broader purpose. Seeing the panels, she explains, students have become more conscious of their choices. They turn off classroom lights more frequently and have been more inclined to recycle.

With the same educational purpose in mind, school officials hope to erect a wind turbine. The panels cost about $30,000, a third provided with a grant from current bad actor British Petroleum, and a majority of the rest from sundry fundraising efforts.

Shopper shuttles offered

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. - The factory outlet stores located hard along the side of Interstate 70 in Silverthorne have begun an outreach program. The stores have started offering shuttles to Breckenridge, Keystone and even Vail and Beaver Creek, to expedite shopping. It's all free - if you drop $250 with the merchants, reports the Summit Daily News.