My Page: John Yewell

Exploring Solutions for the Western Water Crisis

Click here to read the full dispatch from the Boise State Conference, titled: "Troubled Water -- Exploring Solutions for the Western Water Crisis."

The "Troubled Water" conference at Boise State University continued today, starting off with a satellite interview with Idaho U.S. Senator Mike Crapo. The senator, who recently was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, spoke broadly about federal involvement in water issues. He defended the administration's approach to climate change, saying the Bush energy bill would address the problem. He also said he was hoping to pass modifications to the Endangered Species Act that he claimed would reduce the number of lawsuits while promoting species proctection. He did not elaborate. [more]

Drought in Idaho

After taking into account water as a worldwide issue, then looking at water and the West in an historical way, the Boise conference on the Western water shortage was yanked rudely into the here and now. Karl Dreher, director of the Idaho Deptartment of Water Resources, told the conference that the drought in the upper Snake River basin is the "worst on record." It is so bad, he said that it appears to have a recurrence interval of 500 years. Six years of back-to-back dry years is something that didn’t even occur in the dry years of the 1930s, which were interspersed with years that weren’t so bad. "Reservoirs have made the difference," he said. "What we’re going through is bad and it could get worse."

Limerick's Historical Perspective

Over lunch, University of Colorado History Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick gave attendees at the Boise Water conference a historical perspective. The problem with water debates, she said, is that few people are willing to confront their own responsibility for a problem and would prefer to blame others. "We need to spend less time blaming each other and more time finding solutions." But since blaming each other is going to happen anyway, let’s use that as a starting point. [more]

Privatization v. Human Right

Maude Barlow, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, came to Boise to argue for water as a human right. She clashed today with Patrick Cairo, Sr. Vice Pres. of Suez Environmental of North America, a French company and one of the largest water companies in the world. The two could agree on virtually nothing. [more]

Boise State Conference

"I was lost in the desert for a week and all I had to drink was water," W.C. Fields once said, "and I nearly died of thirst."

That old joke could serve as the theme for the opening remarks at a conference underway today and tomorrow at Boise State University entitled "Troubled Water -- Exploring Solutions for the Western Water Crisis." The conference is sponsored jointly by the Andrus Center for Public Policy and the Idaho Statesman newspaper.

The conference opened with remarks by former Idaho governor and Andrus Center Chairman Cecil Andrus, Boise State President Robert Kustra, and Idaho Statesman Executive Editor Carolyn Washburn. But before getting to the Western water crisis, keynote speaker Dr. Richard A. Meganck, rector of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, gave a global perspective on the water crisis. [more]

Murdered Wife

I remember July 19 well. I was sitting in a local cafe near my Avenues neighborhood home when someone came in and asked the barrista if she could put up a poster about a missing woman. I asked the woman with the posters what had happened, and she told me the woman whose picture was on the poster, Lori Hacking, had disappeared that morning. Her husband, family, and half the neighborhood was looking for her. [more]

CDC Challenged

The University of Utah lead researcher on a study of the affects of cold war-era fallout on residents of Southern Utah is questioning the decision to cancel the study -- and whispers of a cover-up are in the air. According to the Deseret Morning News, Dr. Joseph L. Lyon says the decision by the Centers for Disease Control to cancel the study came at a critical moment, before evidence of thyroid and other health problems could be fully developed. Dr. Lyon and Mary Bishop Stone, the project manager, rebut in detail the CDC rationale for cutting off the study’s funding. Accusations that the study’s protocols were inadequate are unfounded, says Bishop.

The EWG Knows

A huge new report published on the website of the Environmental Working Group details the extent to which extractive energy concerns have rewritten the map of the West, exploring for oil and gas -- or submitting applications to do so -- in places within a few miles of some of the regions last remote wilderness areas and parks. Complete with maps, policy analysis, and a description of industry players, the EWG study presents a catalog of what is happening in the West and how it affects you. The executive summary of the report follows.

With some experts predicting that the area could contain more oil than the Middle East, the stakes are high -- and getting higher with each increase in the cost of a barrel of oil. That’s why the Senate Energy Committee held hearing Tuesday on the massive oil shale deposits in Utah’s Uintah Basin, northeast Colorado, and southeastern Wyoming. [more]

A Culture of Secrecy?

Is a culture of secrecy in Utah to blame for a dramatic increase in sexual assaults? That’s what Ned Searle thinks. Searle is the director of the Office on Violence Against Women and Families. He was reacting to a new report from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, which showed that between 2000 and 2003 Utah’s rape rate grew by 93 percent. The state now ranks 14th in the country. "It's the secrecy and the silence that really perpetuate this. But us remaining silent, in essence, we've condoned it," Searle told the Deseret Morning News.

Loose Cannon

With Utah having the highest bankruptcy rate per household in the country, you would think few issues would be more sensitive to Utahns than bankruptcy reform. And yet Congressman Chris Cannon (R-Utah) is leading the House floor effort to pass legislation that will negatively affect many thousands of his constituents -- even though it has been demonstrated that the vast majority of personal bankruptcies are the result of catastrophic events, such as a health crisis, not irresponsible behavior, as asserted by Cannon. If conservativism gets any more compassionate, we are all going to end up in the poor house. [more]