7-21-09
7-21-09
Merced Sun-Star
Comment cards a source of contention at City Council
New system for public comment not winning everyone over...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/961042.html
A handful of Merced residents on Monday asked the City Council to reconsider its new system for public comment, which asks that residents fill out a card before meetings.
"There's no rationale and justification for this," Lisa Kayser-Grant said, clutching one of the information forms. "It's frankly something of an insult."
The council listened and didn't comment. It seems unlikely they'll bring the system, approved in May, back for discussion.
Since the last meeting two weeks ago, residents have been told to fill out cards and turn them in when the meeting begins if they wish to speak.
The goal was to make meetings more efficient. Oftentimes people walk up one by one, write their names on the sign-in sheet, state their name and address and offer their input. Council members saw this as wasting time.
Under the new system, the cards are collected and the residents' names are called out in the order that they'll speak. They stand in line and no longer have to sign in during the meeting.
Kayser-Grant said she understands the council members aren't paid much for serving and that they spend lots of time keeping up on city business.
However, she said, the council must listen to its residents because they're part of the dialogue on issues. Some residents are nervous speaking before the council and the cards add one more obstacle, she said.
Resident Tom Grave and John Grant agreed.
"This is an unreasonable limitation, and in my view, unnecessary," Grant said.
Mayor Pro Tem John Carlisle, noting that he voted against the card system, said he thought it stifled discussion.
"The whole idea of the City Council meetings is to give the public the opportunity for input. I don't relish the idea of staying here all night," Carlisle said. "On the other hand, it's our responsibility to give people the opportunity for input. If that requires long hours -- so be it."
Councilman Bill Spriggs said there's no time restriction on completing the card. If a person decides in the middle of a discussion that they want to give their take, there's nothing holding them back, he said.
Other cities use similar systems. By cutting down on wasted time, there's more available for commenting. "We're trying to expedite the meeting and move it faster so more people can speak," Spriggs said.
State budget's impact on levee system
A failure in San Joaquin Delta system would put California's entire water system at risk...Our View
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/961043.html
Massive program cuts, state worker salary reductions and IOUs aren't the only consequences of California's budget stalemate.
The deadlock is also preventing the state from selling bonds needed to fund initiatives that have already been approved by voters.
A case in point is Proposition 1E, passed overwhelmingly in November 2006, which provided $4 billion for Delta levee repairs and Central Valley flood control.
In normal times, the levee repair projects that 1E was written to finance wouldn't be scrambling for funding. But these are unusual times and they are impacting Delta levees, as well as projects in the rest of the state.
New projects have stalled for lack of financing. Old projects, financed by private levee districts on the understanding that the state would reimburse half the costs, have had to wait five months longer than usual for reimbursements.
This may come as a surprise to those who recall the hoopla surrounding the state's sale of about $13 billion in infrastructure bonds last March and April.
The bond sale reportedly allowed the state to restart about 7,000 infrastructure projects that had been frozen by the 2008 cash crunch -- including making good on what was owed for completed Delta levee repairs. But new levee repair projects were all but shut out of that money.
That's very unfortunate. The levees don't just keep Delta farmland safe from flooding. They allow fresh water to flow south to cities and farms, and keep that water untainted by tidal saltwater.
A Delta levee failure wouldn't just create floods. It could put the state's water system at risk. With experts questioning the levees' capacity to survive a major earthquake or flood, that catastrophe is far from unimaginable.
Hopefully, neither disaster will arrive before a budget deal is reached. Because funding the levee repairs that Proposition 1E called for will require a new bond sale -- that sale won't happen unless the Legislature produces a budget balanced with more than smoke and mirrors.
With California's credit rating flirting with junk status, there's no guarantee that even that budget deal will be enough to attract the bond buyers needed to make the levees whole. But one thing is certain: A bad budget will keep the levees teetering on the brink.
Modesto Bee
Campus foundations need to operate openly...Editorial
http://www.modbee.com/editorials/v-print/story/788562.html
A foundation associated with California State University, Sacramento, spent $27,000 on a kitchen remodel in a house purchased by the university president. According to The Sacramento Bee, University Enterprises also provided the president with more than $200,000 in personal loans at a low interest rate.
A Sonoma State University foundation made personal loans to a former foundation board member -- and might be out more than $1 million because he can't repay.
In both cases, the money didn't come from the university directly. And that means the public is shut out from details on where the money came from and who decided to use it that way.
California's public colleges and universities receive and spend millions in gifts, property and funds through nonprofit foundations and enterprises that are largely hidden from public view. These "auxiliary organizations" are not subject to California's Public Records Act -- a major loophole that the Legislature needs to close. Senate Bill 218 would do that.
Currently, these nonprofits operate as separate legal and financial entities but are supposed to contribute to the educational mission of the campuses. All of their activities are controlled by the schools, with oversight by the campus president and boards.
For the most part, they dole out scholarships and grants and fund student and faculty programs. But when it comes to details about how the money is being spent, these nonprofits often deny public requests for information.
Under SB218, public college and university auxiliary organizations would be subject to the California Public Records Act -- exempting anonymous donations, commercial enterprises on campus (like Taco Bell) and trade secrets. The bill passed the Senate 35-1. It has wide support in the Assembly, but the colleges and universities are mightily opposing the bill. The issue will land at Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk. Those who believe that the public should have access to vital information about the conduct of the people's business on public college and university campuses should weigh in.
Fresno Bee
Stimulus funds spread far, wide in Valley
Local projects, economy get a boost from federal money...Sanford Nax
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1547917.html
The federal government's stimulus package is coming to the Valley -- and there is something for everyone.
From tax relief to retraining. From new solar panels on schools to refurbished airport taxiways. From traffic signals to freeway extensions. From new apartment complexes to renovated houses.
The money is starting to flow -- and is finding a home in the Valley.
Over the next two years, California is expected to receive about $85 billion of the $787 billion pledged nationally through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
How much comes to the Valley depends in part on how well local agencies and businesses compete for funds.
Some federal money already is being put to work in the Valley.
For example, the Fresno County Workforce Investment Board got $18 million in stimulus money, said Pam Lassetter, assistant director. The board is using most of it to help put 3,000 students in summer jobs, provide vocational training to former Elkhorn Correctional Facility youths and to teach adults who lost their jobs new skills in health care and other expanding industries.
In Hanford and Lindsay, two affordable-housing developments, delayed after their complicated tax-credit financing sources dried up, got the financing from the stimulus act -- more than $16 million combined.
One of the biggest transportation projects in the Valley -- the extension of Highway 180 from Temperance Avenue to Academy Avenue -- will start in the fall with help from nearly $18.5 million in stimulus money.
That project, which will provide dozens of construction jobs, originally was earmarked for 2011-12, but the state budget crisis would likely have delayed it, said Tony Boren, executive director of the Council of Fresno County Governments.
At least $58 million is earmarked for dozens of transportation-related projects in Fresno County. Those include new traffic signals along Maple Avenue in northeast Fresno, a $1 million roundabout at Dinuba and Buttonwillow avenues in Reedley, resurfacing parts of Blackstone Avenue in Fresno and an automated farebox system on Fresno Area Express.
Valley officials have their eyes on more than $1.1 billion in stimulus money, enough to fund 26 regional initiatives on the eight-county San Joaquin Valley Partnership's wish list.
They include widening parts of Highway 99 and other highway improvements; $108 million for high-speed and intercity rail projects; new railroad tracks and a shipping container yard at Port of Stockton; expanding telemedicine programs centered at the University of California at Merced; expanding broadband to rural communities; and the rehabilitation of a water pumping plant in Kern County.
"The Valley is in a good position to do well if they continue to work together like they have been doing," said Cynthia Bryant, director of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Task Force.
Boren said the construction projects are important because they ripple through the economy. The workers buy food from stores, eat at restaurants, buy vehicles from car dealers.
"There is a real benefit," he said.
Stimulus money will be used to make houses and public offices more energy efficient. Paul Johnson, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization, hopes it also can lead to more ambitious green projects in the Valley.
"These funds, if pursued and captured wisely, could help make the Valley a leader in alternative fuel," he said.
Grants for weatherizing houses can be leveraged with stimulus money to improve struggling neighborhoods -- and to provide jobs to contractors and small businesses at the same time, said Craig Scharton, director of the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department in Fresno.
The city has joined with three agencies and one business to buy, renovate and resell abandoned houses in the Lowell Jefferson area of downtown Fresno to low- and moderate-income families.
The goal is to stabilize neighborhoods and create construction jobs. Scharton said stimulus funds can be used in conjunction with other money to go beyond just buying houses.
"We want to concentrate some of the resources in areas where we can have a lasting, positive change in the neighborhood rather than dispersing it into the wind," Scharton said.
Next El Niño not expected to challenge drought...Mark Grossi
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1546851.html
After three years of drought in California, weather gurus are talking about the appearance of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean — raising hopeful memories of drenching winters.
Unfortunately, it might not be that kind of El Niño.
Scientists say it is too early to predict what the phenomenon — a huge blob of warm water at the equator — might mean for California. But many climate researchers suggest it won’t be strong enough to influence predictions of a wet winter.
“It is likely that this winter will feature moderate El Niño conditions,” said climate researcher Dan Cayan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
A moderate or weak El Niño means the water blob warms only by a degree or two. But the water must warm up three to five degrees to become a strong factor in wet-weather predictions. Such a strong El Niño hasn’t happened since 1998.
If only moderate or weak ocean warming takes place, many scenarios could fit the forecast, including another drought year.
“That’s one reason I’m not jumping up and down,” said meteorologist Jan Null, who runs a weather-consulting business in Northern California.
Still, it’s the first hint of good weather news in years for California, where a $36 billion farm industry is idling thousands of acres due to drought and water cutbacks for threatened fish species. Water rationing is becoming a regular topic in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Temperatures near the surface of the Pacific now are rising noticeably for the first time since 2006. It is the classic profile of El Niño, which is Spanish for “the boy.”
The phenomenon occurs when westward-blowing trade winds weaken, allowing warm water in the western Pacific to spread thousands of miles eastward toward the coast of South America. It happens every three to seven years.
The warm water and shifting wind can influence Pacific storms to move toward the southwestern United States. Southern California often can receive above-average rainfall while the Pacific Northwest dries out.
Scientists track El Niño using buoys with sensors all over the equatorial Pacific, recording water temperature, humidity, wind speed, precipitation and other data. The information is pumped into computer models designed to describe and predict weather.
El Niño has been blamed for droughts in Indonesia and credited for suppression of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.
In California, a very strong version of the phenomenon was lurking in the Pacific during 1982-83 when the state had its biggest storm totals on record.
Fresno’s biggest seasonal rainfall total — more than 23 inches — occurred that year. Such strong El Niño events do not happen often.
Is there a chance El Niño will be strong this winter? Yes, but it is small, if forecast models are correct.
Of the climate research groups forecasting the El Niño, only a few predict it will be very warm by January. Most scientists suggest moderate warming.
The 2006 El Niño was considered weak, and Fresno had 6.03 inches of rain. The last moderate El Niño was in 2002 when Fresno had 9.8 inches of rain, shy of the city’s 11.31-inch average.
Indeed, the last time Fresno had above-average rainfall during El Niño was in 1998. The city had more than 20 inches.
“We’ll have to wait until November to get a better idea,” said meteorologist Elissa Lynn of the California Department of Water Resources in Sacramento. “But if it’s moderate or weak, it may not help our forecasting.”
Stockton Record
Airpark 599 work started
County owns land for 510-acre project...Reed Fujii
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090721/A_BIZ/907210311
STOCKTON - Earthmoving equipment widening Pock Lane off Arch-Airport Road is the first step in developing a 510-acre project that might some day encompass everything from manufacturers and warehouses to corporate headquarters, retailers and a hotel.
The initial work involves building a northern entry to what is called Airpark 599, owned by San Joaquin County and being developed by the Catellus Development Group.
Starting those improvements now, despite the recession and real estate downturn, is the right move, said Leroy Ornellas, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors.
"This is an important project," he said Monday.
"There's not a lot of economic excitement out there, so anytime we see a tractor moving dirt, that's a good sign. That's a sign we've got a lot of confidence in the future."
Ben Peterson, Catellus' first vice president, noted that his company has developed many other projects in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, primarily distribution and light industrial developments.
"What we're excited about is this land gives us something different. It allows us to bring something ... entirely different to the market," he said.
That difference, provided by the county's special-purpose plan for Airpark 599, is a full range of commercial projects from corporate headquarters and government offices to warehousing and small manufacturers, and from air services businesses with direct access to the adjacent Stockton Metropolitan Airport to biotech labs to highway retail and even a hotel.
"There's a lot of land in San Joaquin County, but there's not a lot of land that's entitled and ready to build on, where a company can come in, literally, now and build on it," Peterson said.
Ornellas said the project becomes even more attractive with plans to build the so-called Arch Road connector, which would establish an east-west throughway between Highway 99 and Interstate 5.
Officials say the project will attract new businesses and generate about 14,000 jobs on what is now leased farmland.
The initial phase of development, 84 acres on the north side of the project area, is adjacent to the recently completed Robert J. Cabral Agricultural Center.
San Francisco Chronicle
Low-priced foreclosures incite bidding wars...JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/20/national/a101435D02.DTL&type=printable
PHOENIX (AP) -- Each time Lance and Kelli Thorson thought they had found their first home, someone would outbid them. It's already happened at least 15 times.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be in a depressed housing market like Phoenix. Buyers are supposed to be able to walk in, and get pretty much whatever they want. Now, the Thorsons have taken up a tactic not seen since the heydays of the housing bubble — they are making offers on homes before they've seen them, as many as three per day.
"It's frustrating because we've jumped through all the hoops and there still isn't a reward," Kelli Thorson said.
In Phoenix suburbs and other areas of the nation saturated with foreclosed homes, low prices for bank-owned properties are sparking bidding wars that drive up sale prices, entice investors and frustrate traditional buyers who make dozens of offers and still can't land a home.
Experts say the environment is strikingly similar to what they saw at the height of the real estate bubble.
"This market is about as abnormal as the hypermarket that we came out of a few years ago," said Jay Butler, director of the Realty Studies program at Arizona State University.
Just as they did during the boom period, investors now are stocking up on homes, driving up prices and forcing traditional buyers to the sidelines in some areas, Butler said.
Because they often pay cash and buy several houses at once, investors are attractive to banks trying to shed dozens of foreclosures, he said. Traditional buyers add time and hassle to the process because they have to be approved for a mortgage.
The market won't stabilize until investor influence diminishes and it is once again driven by buyers who plan to live in the home, Butler said.
The problem is centered in newer, lower-priced communities affordable for young families and other first-time home buyers. They're the same neighborhoods that were overrun with foreclosures as mortgage rates adjusted and home values dropped.
Homes are now listed at much lower prices than when they were sold just a few years ago. In the Phoenix area, the median resale home price last month was $125,000, down from a peak of nearly $265,000 three years ago. Prices have risen from a low of $115,500 in April, when agents say they began seeing a buying frenzy.
Real estate agents have been noticing the problem for the past two to three months, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.
It is especially acute in heavy foreclosure areas such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, southern California and southern Florida, where prices are correcting to levels well below their peak during the boom, Molony said. In those areas, it's not uncommon for sellers to get multiple offers.
The Thorsons thought they were ideal home buyers. They saved money, have good credit and little debt. But at house after house, the prices are being bid up above the asking price.
They made an offer on one bank-owned house, only to hear a counter offer that was $33,000 above the initial asking price of $117,000.
Federal legislation designed to help people stay in their homes has slowed the flow of foreclosures into the market, lowering the inventory and increasing the demand for remaining homes.
In Maricopa County, which includes metropolitan Phoenix, nearly 32,000 homes are on the market, down 30 percent from January.
In the Las Vegas area, home inventories are down nearly 10 percent since March, according to data from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Last month, 4,702 homes were sold in southern Nevada, a record number; 74 percent were foreclosures.
Las Vegas real estate agent Jonathan Abbinante said he has clients who are making three offers a day on homes they've never seen. If they get a response, they'll check out the house and decide whether to continue or back out.
He said he sees a similar frenzy for houses he's selling.
"I sell homes right over the Internet," Abbinante said. "That's what I did in 2004."
Bidding wars often result in prices higher than a home's appraised value, putting traditional buyers at a disadvantage against cash buyers who don't need an appraisal to secure a loan. That's happening a lot lately, said Jerry Lou Davis, a real-estate agent in foreclosure-heavy Merced, Calif. She saw similar activity early in the housing bubble.
For the Thorsons, with a lease expiring next month and a second child on the way, the pressure to find a home is growing. Kelli is eager to paint and decorate. She already has plans mapped out for their 2-year-old daughter's room.
"Buying a first home is supposed to be a really exciting thing to do for a family," Lance Thorson said. "But all the hoops you have to jump through kind of take away from that excitement."
Hanford Sentinel
Water woes could impact LNAS...Seth Nidever
http://hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2009/07/20/news/
doc4a64bc2ef1088335910928.prt
A new federal study demonstrates that groundwater levels in the San Joaquin Valley have dropped to near-historic lows as pumping and drought have prevented the replenishing of the aquifer.
The U.S. Geological Survey study found that groundwater pumping continues to cause the Valley floor to sink, endangering the California Aqueduct.
The Aqueduct delivers water to farmers and millions of urban residents.
Other structures that could be threatened are the 2-mile-long parallel runways at Lemoore Naval Air Station.
The Navy relies on the base as a permanent home for about 250 F-18 fighter jets that supply all the West Coast-based aircraft carrier groups.
No runway sinking has been reported.
However, Navy officials are studying the issue to assess how much of a threat might be posed to runways, according to Machelle Vieux, LNAS public works officer.
It's no secret why farmers are pumping so much groundwater: Cuts in water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta brought on by drought and environmental restrictions.
As the water table drops, wells on the Westside are getting deeper. They are also multiplying as farmers try to make up for the loss of delta water.
"I think it's survival for these farmers. It's kind of like having a sick child. You're going to do everything you have to do to keep the child alive," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for Westlands Water District.
Westlands includes about 30,000 acres of Kings County farmland -- 12,000 of which is on LNAS property.
Navy officials say farming is critically important to protect the runways from urban encroachment issues, control dust and prevent wildlife from interfering with jet traffic.
Most of the water for growers on the base is usually provided by delta deliveries. But this year, contractors are only getting 10 percent.
Many farmers with leases at LNAS have decided to either leave the ground unplanted or let the leases expire.
So Navy officials have added their voice to the chorus of Westside farmers calling for an easing of environmental restrictions on water deliveries from the delta.
But Obama administration officials and Congress have declined to override pumping cutbacks ordered to protect endangered fish species that include the smelt, Chinook salmon and steelhead.
Delta problems are blamed for the collapse of the California salmon fishing industry.
Los Angeles Times
Interior calls for 2-year hold on mining claims near Grand Canyon
The freeze reverses a Bush-era ruling that opened the land to uranium mining. The Interior Department plans to study the environmental impact...Julie Cart
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-uranium21-2009jul21,0,5297205,print.story
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday called for a two-year "timeout" on new mining claims on nearly 1 million acres near Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona.
The move reverses a decision by the George W. Bush administration to open the land flanking the park to hard-rock mining. That ruling, which opened the way for lucrative mining of uranium ore, was opposed by some in Congress and within the National Park Service over concerns about the toxic heavy metal's potential effect on the park's watershed, wildlife, and cultural and archaeological resources.
The Interior Department says it is placing a two-year hold on leasing of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land -- mostly on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and much of it within miles of the park -- while it studies the environmental effects of hard-rock exploration and mining.
The department could extend the mining ban for up to 20 years.
The land remains open to leasing for the mining of other minerals and for geothermal projects, according to a notice in Monday's Federal Register.
National Mining Assn. spokesman Luke Popovich blasted the decision as a "de-facto ban on mining."
"We can't see how a sweeping ban for up to 20 years for all mining is justified," he said. "Particularly when we are at a time when we are trying to strengthen our nation's energy security."
Increased interest in nuclear power has sent uranium prices soaring, sparking a rush of exploration.
Mining claims within five miles of the park increased to more than 1,100 last year, from 10 in 2003, according to government data reviewed by the Environmental Working Group.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who co-sponsored legislation that would permanently prohibit uranium mining on federal land around the Grand Canyon, said: "This is a treasure that we cannot risk contaminating."
Grand Canyon Supt. Steve Martin told The Times last year that he was concerned that uranium could get into the watershed and affect the fish in the Colorado River at the bottom of the gorge -- and the bald eagles, California condors and bighorn sheep that depend on the canyon's seeps and springs.
Last year the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which sells wholesale water from its Colorado River Aqueduct, wrote to the Interior Department asking it to ban uranium mining near the Colorado River, arguing that "exploration and mining of radioactive material near a drinking water source may impact the public's confidence in the safety and reliability of the water supply."
L.A. panel calls for rooster restrictions
The plan, which must win City Council approval, would allow only one rooster per property. Exceptions would be made for film-star roosters and businesses such as animal parks and educational farms...Victoria Kim
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-roosters21-2009jul21,0,5471922,print.story
They are noisy, they drag down property values and disrupt the peace in neighborhoods, and they can carry deadly illnesses. And they sometimes associate with criminals, through no choice of their own.
Not to mention the havoc they wreak on sweet early morning slumber.
Pity the poor rooster, in some regions decried as public enemy No. 1. In the latest step in a years-long effort to rein in pet roosters and their owners, the Los Angeles City Council's Public Safety Committee on Monday approved a draft ordinance to allow only one rooster per property citywide.
City officials said the cap is necessary because of nuisance complaints, the possibility of spreading avian flu and Newcastle disease, and the illegal "blood sport" of cockfighting. The ordinance must be approved by the full council before becoming law.
The proposed law contains a rooster phase-out provision: Residents who own more than one rooster would have to get a permit, have the animals micro-chipped or fitted with a city-approved leg band, and probably would have to pay a one-time permit fee. These licensed roosters would be allowed to live out their natural, and noisy, lives in the city, but no "replacement roosters" would be allowed.
Violators would be slapped with a $50 fine for the first offense, $100 for the second and $250 for the third.
This being L.A., Hollywood-bound birds -- roosters used for film and TV shoots -- would be spared the limit with a proper permit. Businesses for which roosters are integral, including educational facilities and animal exhibits, would also be allowed to retain more than one rooster with the proper zoning allowances.
As it stands, roosters have it pretty easy: They must be kept at least 35 feet away from their owners' home and at least 100 feet from neighbors' homes, a rule only loosely enforced by overburdened animal control officers. Noise complaints are handled by the city attorney's office.
Some residents said they were concerned that the regulation would unfairly affect Latino immigrants.
"You don't see too many other cultures having roosters," said Margarita Amador, secretary of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council. "It's like having a cat or a dog for others."
Los Angeles isn't the only Southland city with a rooster problem. Voters in Riverside decided last year to restrict roosters to seven birds per property -- down from 50 -- and require them to be kept in sound-muffling structures from sunset to sunrise.
Washington Post
Water experts: Mining near Grand Canyon is risky...JOAN LOWY, The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072101568_pf.html
WASHINGTON -- Water experts are telling Congress that uranium mining near the Grand Canyon would court disaster.
Witnesses told a House panel Tuesday that the risk of polluting the Colorado River is high if mining is permitted. They want lawmakers to make permanent a decision announced this week by the Obama administration that temporarily bars the filing of new mining claims on nearly 1 million acres.
Hydrologist David Kreamer says it is "unreasonable" to believe uranium mining doesn't risk polluting streams and groundwater that feed the river.
Kay Brothers, the deputy general manager of a Nevada water utility, says if a mining disaster should occur, nearly all of Southern Nevada would be left without water supplies.