|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||
|
For Immediate Release Friday, August 03, 2007 |
CONTACTS: Cody Wertz (Salazar) – 303-350-0032 Eric Wortman 202-226-9928
|
||||
“Residents from every community in the Four Corners-area deserve more time to review the draft environmental impact statement for this controversial project,” said Senator Salazar. “A proposal of this magnitude must be examined, studied and scrutinized carefully. Desert Rock will have a large impact on the Four Corners region and it is our responsibility to ensure that the time needed to evaluate Desert Rock is made available.” “Many elected officials and community members have contacted me with concerns about the proposed Desert Rock Plant,” said Congressman Salazar. The plant’s impact to air and water quality needs to be thoroughly understood by the residents of Southwest Colorado. Extending the public comment period to allow the public to have the time to read and understand the lengthy and complex Draft Environmental Impact Statement is something that the federal government needs to do.” The full text of the letter follows:
August 03, 2007
Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary Dear Secretary Kempthorne: We write on behalf of many of our Southwest Colorado constituents concerned with the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. This project is extremely controversial. Many of our constituents and local elected officials have expressed concern about the proposed plant’s impact on air and water quality. We understand the DEIS public comment period is slated to end on August 20. The Executive Director of the BIA Navajo Region, Omar Bradley, has mentioned publicly that the EIS document contains so much information it is important “to have a thorough comment period for people to really be able to look through it and recognize the nature of it and the complexity of the project.” We agree that a thorough process is needed and feel that the 60-day public comment period is insufficient given the length and extreme technical complexity of the 1,600+ page document. Also, many of our constituents have informed us that they did not get their copy of the DEIS until the comment period was almost half over. On behalf of our constituents and because of the profound impact such a project would have, we thus respectfully request that you extend the comment period for the EIS by at least another 60 days. Thank you in advance for your attention to this request. Sincerely,
cc: Harrilene Yazzie, NEPA Coordinator BIA/Navajo Nation # # # |
|||||
