Canyon of the Waste

This article mentions how local ranchers and conservationists are up in arms about the proposed toxic waste dump that would sit right next to Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.

But no quotes from archaeologists, which I found odd. Yet the “Outhouse Recycling Facility,” as the 474-acre waste pits are being termed, would be

a stone’s throw away from the Painted Hand Pueblo and would be located alongside a national scenic byway en route to Hovenweep National Monument. In addition, any breaches or leaks in the Outhouse would flow downstream into Canyons of the Ancients.

The Outhouse would contain “exploration and production materials” used by the oil & gas industry in the region. What, pray tell, does that mean? Oh, just those “fracing” fluids injected at high pressure below ground to get the gas out.

One landowner from the area said his main concern

is that the predominant winds come up from the Monument Valley to the Southwest, and this project will be directly upwind of many of these farms,” Wright said. “I know for a fact that the salt brine in the fluid will defoliate our crops. But there are also a bunch of other chemicals in that mixture along with a bunch of unknowns.”

Actually nobody really knows what’s in those chemicals because industry refuses to say. At any rate, seems like one helluva location for a toxic waste dump.