Weighing In

I see the <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/04/20/news/state/30-epa.txt">EPA is weighing in</a> on the CBM issue here in Montana. They are telling our fair haired Governor that the proposed law, SB 407, that would allow the CBM water to be stored in unlined stock ponds might violate the Federal Clean Water Act.<br />n<br />nBoy, what a way to put me on the spot here. If anybody has any doubts about how I feel about CBM development, they can just <a href="http://nowherethoughts.net/sarpysam/plugin/freetag/cbm">look here</a>. In short it scares me spitless. I've even <a href="http://nowherethoughts.net/sarpysam/archives/2469-Destruction.html">talked about SB 407</a> and my feelings on it. Pumping the precious water out of the ground here in Eastern Montana and dumping it out is short sighted and wrong. The water will evaporate away and then there will be no water for cattle, wildlife, or humans around here and it will just become the "Big Dry." Surface water is a very short commodity in Eastern Montana and more and more ranchers are relying on wells to water their cattle. Pumping the water out for short term profit will damage the long term potential to raise livestock in this country. That's my position, short, sweet and to the point.<br />n<br />nWhat puts me on the spot though is the Feds stepping in and saying something about the issue. This whole CBM issue has put me in league with the <a href="http://www.northernplains.org/"><acronym title="Northern Plains Resource Council">NPRC</acronym></a>, a radical environmental group who I never thought I would see eye to eye with, and now I find the Feds stepping in and also supporting my side. Radical environmental groups bother me, but the Feds sticking their nose in State business really torques me off. What a a spot I'm in. <br />n<br />nThey say politics makes strange bedfellows and I guess this just proves it. I am aligned with some of the things I despise but the importance of water in this arid part of the State is very important to me so I'm stuck. Am I happy that the EPA is sticking its nose in on this issue? No, but anything to stop this bad piece of legislation will have to do I guess. I think I had better go gargle now. I sure have a bad taste in my mouth.<br />n<br />n<strong>There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory. Marcel Proust</strong>