Earth Equity News

Solitude Becomes Exhibit A in Battle Over National Parks Management. By Scott Streater, Greenwire, October 8, 2009. "Great Sand Dunes National... in the remote south-central Colorado, [labeled by NPS's] Natural Sounds Program Office to be the quietest national park in the United States could become an echo chamber for the state's burgeoning energy industry. [There is a] pending proposal to drill two oil and gas exploratory wells in the adjacent Baca National Wildlife Refuge, 2 miles from Great Sand Dune's western border... Now Great Sand Dunes is at the center of a lawsuit and growing national debate about the effects of sound pollution in national parks and wildlife refuges like Baca. Two environmental groups are suing the Fish and Wildlife Service to block the issuance of permits to Toronto-based Lexam Explorations Inc. that would allow for the drilling of two 14,000-foot-deep wells on the Baca refuge. Their argument hinges in part on sound monitoring data collected by the National Park Service in Great Sand Dunes, which they maintain would be ruined by the pounding hydraulics and thundering machinery of oil and gas wells. A federal judge in Denver last month handed a partial victory to the environmentalists by issuing a injunction against any drilling at Baca until the lawsuit is resolved."