November 28, 2008
Copper’s Every Dip Is Felt in Arizona
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF

MORENCI, Ariz. — For this isolated mining town, which lives and dies by the price of copper, the last few years have been a roller coaster ride of steep climbs and sudden dips. Over all, however, the direction seemed to be up.

Copper’s dizzying climb began in 2003, when prices surged in response to booming demand from China and other fast-industrializing economies. The price spike spurred a major revival of Arizona’s once-battered mining industry, and towns like Morenci, once devastated by layoffs, returned to flush times.

This past summer, even as the dire housing market contributed to widespread job losses and other economic woes in Arizona, copper prices reached a record, drawing thousands of new workers to the mines, where jobs were plentiful.

But the arrival of the credit crisis this fall has stalled the mining boom. Reeling financial markets stripped copper of 60 percent of its value in only a few months, and expansion projects in Arizona, the nation’s leading copper-producing state, are being postponed.

A sense of anxiety permeates Morenci, where almost everyone follows copper’s daily rise and fall on financial cable shows and the Internet. “Everybody is just wondering day-to-day what is going to happen,” said Hector Ruedas, a Greenlee County supervisor and member of the Morenci school board who once worked in the mines.

The speed and the depth of the price plunge has taken even longtime industry observers by surprise. “The end has come just incredibly abruptly,” said Nyal Niemuth, chief mining engineer for the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. “There weren’t many of us predicting this collapse.”

In late October, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, the copper industry’s largest employer in Arizona, announced plans to lay off 600 mine workers in the state. Those layoffs came in addition to hundreds of independent contactors already let go by the company.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/business/28copper.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=price%20of%20copper&st=cse

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New York Post

WATER-GORED: MIKE BOOTS CRITIC OF RATES

By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief

September 13, 2008 –

A respected environmentalist who publicly criticized City Hall’s soaking of water ratepayers was forced out by Mayor Bloomberg yesterday as chairman of the Water Board.

Jim Tripp, general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund and a 16-year member of the Water Board, unexpectedly announced his resignation at a routine meeting of the panel in lower Manhattan.

In a brief interview later, Tripp said he felt it was time to step down because “there’s kind of a threshold the board had reached and I had reached as chair.”

But sources said Tripp decided to depart after learning Bloomberg intended to replace him as chairman with another board member, Alan Moss, a former Parks Department official.

Tripp, a former federal prosecutor and a prominent environmental advocate, held the chairman’s post for the past four years.

“They wanted someone more pliable as chairman,” said one insider, referring to the mayor’s office.

“Jim is too independent, he’s a person of principle. This sends a very clear signal: ‘We don’t want the Water Board to do anything but say yes.’ ”

Councilman James Gennaro (D-Queens), chairman of the Environmental Protection Committee, said Tripp was toppled because he “stood up for what was right.”

“The mayor wants to continue to divert over $100 million a year in water and sewer revenues and has shown by his action today that he will vanquish anyone who stands in his way,” said Gennaro.

Tripp wasn’t one to pull his punches, even if that meant taking on City Hall on behalf of ratepayers.

Last May, he announced that he had contemplated quitting to protest the continuing “rental payments” the city imposed on water users under an outmoded deal struck two decades ago.

Tripp’s comments came as the board reluctantly approved a 14.5 percent rate hike, the highest in 16 years.

A study is now under way of the water system’s entire rate structure.

Moss told The Post he agreed with Tripp that “we don’t want the city budget to be balanced on [water] rates.”

But he parted ways on tactics.

Moss, whose government service dates back five decades to the Wagner era, was the only board member who wouldn’t sign a letter to City Hall questioning the rental agreement.

“You don’t do that until you’ve exhausted everything else,” Moss said.

“My experience and take on the matter is you fight this out first with various agencies of the city internally.”

Mayoral aides declined to say if Tripp was pushed out, saying only that “he resigned today for the reasons he gave at the meeting, and the mayor appreciates his exemplary service.”

david.seifman@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09132008/news/regionalnews/water_gored__mike_boots_critic_of_rates_128877.htm

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This scoping session was held in the rain on March 22, 2007. Guess we are never going to get any one from the NYC DEP to help us with public access and/or maintenance.
What happened to all the promises? Can we walk inside the fence? Will we ever have the Outdoor Urban Ecology Lab, aka the OUEL?

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This starts with Anne Marie telling the NYC DEP Facilities Monitoring Committee on April 17, 2008 about a letter from the DEP Commissioner to Amalgamated explaining the security reasons for not allowing people to walk inside the fence. We will find that the reasons were not true. The walking tour of Jerome Park Reservoir on April 18, 2008 to check for security and quality of life issues. It was a bright sunny day so I decided to go for a walk.

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Facilities Monitoring Committee 6/19 agenda:

Jerome Park Reservoir public access question, JPR Construction, Night Blasting at VCP

1. On May 30, 2008, I received a call from Martha Holstein (consultant to the DEP CWTP) that the DEP that they will not be discussing the public access to JPR at the next meeting. DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd told the DEP officials Lawitts and Canty that they she is going to set up a “working group” to do a study of why the agency would say they are against public access without looking into it. The results will not be quick, but would take 7 to 9 months. There will be no community partners, no outside entities, no agencies and no community representatives. They will try to clarify and understand why it is not possible to have public access at Jerome Park Reservoir.

The FMC members agreed by phone on May 29^th to remove this item from the agenda. Instead, the DEP will provide periodic reports to the FMC and will discuss the process for public participation. They will make this presentation at the meeting in June.

This is another stalling tactic. This is similar to the ploy in the Alienation Legislation to give due consideration to making Jerome Park into a park. When they did that internal study, the three former DEP Deputy Commissioners agreed that Jerome Park Reservoir could not be a park for many reasons, including security.

Last March the DEP and the FMC agreed that the DEP was going to present their case, and Anne Marie and Karen were going to rebut. We have spent hours working together on this, taking photographs, gathering information, planning on the power point presentation It is not clear yet, but I think we are off the agenda.

2. To replace the agenda item, the DEP is now proposing to add new topic. It is about time they thought of adding the tunneling and new meter chamber construction work at Jerome Park Reservoir. It is a new contract (although the work is started).

3. Finally, last week the FMC was notified about a two week potential (on or after May 23) for night blasting for the Raw Water Tunnel to the Filter Plant. The blasting will be 170 feet beneath Mosholu Golf Course, approximately 1800 feet west of Jerome Avenue.

This is a heads up. As the time goes on, there will be more info.

/Karen

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Watch BronxTalk on Cablevision Channel 67

Live on Monday May 18, 2007 (call in number 718-960-7150)

GREG LOBO JOST - University Neighborhood Housing Program
HAROLD SHULTZ - Sr. Fellow, Citizen Housing and Planning Council

BronxTalk is aired live on Bronxnet’s channel 67 tonight at 9.

Repeated each day through the week at 9:30am, 3:30pm, and 9pm

BronxTalk is The Bronx’ flagship talk show and has been hosted by Gary Axelbank and produced by Jane Folloro for nearly 14 years.

Here are the replay times… channel 67

Tuesdays at 3:30 am, 3:30 pm, 9:00 pm
Wednesdays at 4:30 am, 7:00 am, 9:30 am, 3:30 pm, 5:00 pm, 9:00 pm
Thursdays at 4:30 am, 3:30 pm, 9:00 pm
Fridays at 1:30 am, 4:30 am, 7:00 am, 9:30 am, 3:30 pm, 9:00 pm
Saturdays at 1:30 am, 3:30 am, 11:30 am, 3:30 pm, 10:00 pm, 11:30 pm
Sundays at 11:30 am
Mondays at 4:30 am, 9:30 am, 3:30 pm

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__________________________

NYC Water Board Approves Major Rate Hike

POSTED: 10:28 am EDT May 16, 2008

UPDATED: 10:33 am EDT May 16, 2008

NEW YORK — The city water board has approved a 14.5 percent rate hike — the second double digit increase in the last year.

The move came during a board meeting Friday morning.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/16292538/detail.html

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Agency Oversight

DEP REPORT CARD

CDWC Issue DEP Report Card, May 15, 2008

On May 15, the Clean Drinking Water Coalition (CDWC) — The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, NYPIRG and Riverkeeper — announced the release of their first annual DEP Report Card: “Making the Grade: New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s Drinking Water Protection Programs.” The DEP Report Card grades, analyzes, and provides recommendations for thirty-three DEP watershed programs which protect New York City’s drinking water.

http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/watershed/we_are_doing/1544-dep-report-card

Click on the link above to continue to read the article and report on the Riverkeeper Home Page, then return to our page to comment.

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———————————–

City’s Drinking Water Gets Good Grades in New Report

By Anthony DePalma, New York Times City Room

From the time they are children squirming in diner benches with their parents, New Yorkers are told to drink their water because it is the best anywhere. A report issued today by a number of environmental organizations that make up the Clean Drinking Water Coalition pretty much confirms that impression — at least in terms of purity, cleanliness and safety.

Click on the link above to continue to read the article and comment to the NYT blog, and/or return to our page for more chances to comment.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/

citys-drinking-water-gets-good-grades-in-new-report/?scp=1&sq=&st=cse

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The watersheds that supply water to New York City are roughly the size of Delaware.

Thank you from Michael who saved the bottle cap message for me.

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