Answer: Another disaster, but this one is the man-made kind.

And that is very close to home and is of great importance to all of us who live in this valley and beyond. The issue (really a large set of issues and impacts) is the exploration and development of energy resources (oil/gas and oil shale), primarily in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties, and also directly affecting the up-river areas as well. There are many aspects of what is already happening, and pending, that resembles earlier "boom-bust" cycle in the area -- silver/gold mining in the late 1800s and the EXXON oil shale experience (late 60s-early 70s). The present/immediate future boom portends to have a lot of impacts due to its "extraction-abandon" nature and therefore will almost certainly be followed by a "bust," or economic subsidence, also with high impacts on people, communities, neighboring areas, water & land resources and environment.

I have lived in western Colorado since the 1940s and am a board member of a non-profit primary health care provider. I have also worked for many years overseas helping communities, government agencies and local NGOs develop and work together mitigate the effects of disasters in Central Asia and Africa. It seems to me that the present and pending energy resource exploration and development in this part of western Colorado is very likely to create some very large and complex problems & impacts. You could say that we are in the process of experiencing a relatively slow-onset (over weeks and months, rather than seconds/minutes/hours), man-made disaster. I use the term disaster advisedly, because, like natural disasters, we are not engaged here in any useful effort to learn from the past and apply those lessons. Likewise, there is no movement to involve all of the stakeholders and potential sources of assistance in constructive/productive dialogiue and planning to identify anticipated problems, explore solutions and find & allocate resources needed to effectively address the problems before they become full-blown. Only by bringing together all of the elements that contribute and interact in the problem can sound and relevant comprehensive advance planning be accomplished.

For example, there are problems that will come up from the relatively large amount of labor needed by the energy and energy-related industries. And,. as we all know, labor is scarce here and will come in from outside the area and the demand will likely draw immigrants from south of the US border (with their families) and experienced "roughnecks" from Wyoming and other places where energy exploration and development has been underway for a long time. The problems of such an influx of workers and their families are not simple ones and even though much of the work may be initially seasonal, there will certainly be workers who choose to remain in the area, creating long-term needs and impacts as well.

I have seen a lot of opportunities to mitigate impacts lost, and resources wasted, by the lack of well-coordinated advance planning and implementation. Clearly, sound comprehensive advance planning embraces and integrates all the affected sectors: health, education, housing (short-term and long-term), financial, law-enforcement, social services, environmental management and transportation. Unfortunately, the tendency of industry and government in this sort of situation is to focus on only one or two aspects, failure to involve advocacy groups and the range of possible contributors and service providers at local, county & regional/state levels, and then bluffly say "We have taken care of it." Does this sound like an echo of the aftermath "assistance" for the Katrina disaster? half a dozen times in as many countries.

But when truly comprehensive advance planning, involving all the stakeholders, is undertaken, the results can be amazing. Pre-conceived notions & mindsets regarding how to deal with problems are adapted the new and changing conditions, and solutions tailored to better fit the needs of the beneficiaries, the local conditions and the agendas of the industries and governement agencies, at often outstanding savings and much better results for all.

I have heard/read about a few concerns in GarCo regarding worker housing and transportation impacts, special problems of remote worksites, and an odd comment or two about how not to do "mancamps" (from the EXXON oilshale era). Thus far, I have not heard anyone at the Commissioner or any level mention the high probability of workers being Latino immigrants, and the likelihood of them bringing along their families. The US House of Representative, I believe, recently passed a bill to lower the paybck royalty (to government) from oil shale development to 1%, from its previous level of over 10%. How will this reduction in funding be replaced? How sill the drastic needs for emergency, primary and special health care be provided for workers and families? And, how about the near certainty that significant numbers of the "seasonal" workforce will stay around and need to transition to long-term housing? This in a valley where at present the workers cannot afford to live in the towns where they work and commute from downvalley -- the very place where the "boom" will take place? Already we are seeing the prices for housing of every kind skyrocket.

There are lots of "lessons to be learned" that could and should be applied in the advanced planning process, so that we don't makes the same mistakes over and over again; so that the costs of expected (and unexpected) impacts/problems and solutions can be shared by industry, government (state, county, municipal) and private donor sources.

There are a lot of "turf" barriers to getting this sort of collaborative effort together and make it wor, but it is eminently worth the effort, and can produce great results! It takes people, like me and you, putting pressure on agencies and elected officials to to this.

Most sincerely,

John Barbee

PS: I have sent this sort of message to the Garfield Commissioners and to our State Reps. Please do the same. If enough of us bring up this and push for it hard enough.....it might work.