Today in Salt Lake City there is an effort underway to clean up a crude oil spill that polluted Red Butte Creek. A Chevron pipeline that carries Western Colorado crude oil to a Salt Lake City refinery was fractured. At one point 50 gallons of crude oil per minute was spilling into a creek that runs through a neighborhood park. Geese and ducks were covered with oil. Local officials had a sense of urgency because the crude oil running through Salt Lake City neighborhoods was heading toward Great Salt Lake. First responders were overwhelmed by phone calls reporting the smell of petroleum in the air.
Yet, half a continent away, legislators in Washington were voting on a bill sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski that would gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the environment. The vote, on a bill that Obama threatened to veto if passed, was 53 to 47. The bill did not pass, but 47 legislators are still completely tone deaf to the squawking of geese in kiddy pools in a neighborhood park as they are washed with Dawn dishwashing soap.
Equally bizarre is the fact that our local newspaper didn’t report one word about a spill that is so close to us that we could almost smell the polluted air and hear the squawking geese. Wake up, Grand Junction, the next oil spill could be running through our city.
Homework:
Editorial about Senate Vote
Oil Spill in Red Butte Creek
Salt Lake City Residents Demand Clean Up
Yet, half a continent away, legislators in Washington were voting on a bill sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski that would gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the environment. The vote, on a bill that Obama threatened to veto if passed, was 53 to 47. The bill did not pass, but 47 legislators are still completely tone deaf to the squawking of geese in kiddy pools in a neighborhood park as they are washed with Dawn dishwashing soap.
Equally bizarre is the fact that our local newspaper didn’t report one word about a spill that is so close to us that we could almost smell the polluted air and hear the squawking geese. Wake up, Grand Junction, the next oil spill could be running through our city.
Homework:
Editorial about Senate Vote
Oil Spill in Red Butte Creek
Salt Lake City Residents Demand Clean Up
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