Lamborn 'woefully misinformed'
Dear Editor:
I read with interest your article on Rep. Lamborn's support for the Christo "Over the River" project.
It concerns me one of our elected representatives would issue a press release that details their obvious lack of knowledge about an issue to which they vociferously lend support.
Christo is trumpeting the OTR project would bring revenue to Colorado to the tune of $195 million during a two-week period. That's true. The Christo OTR Plan, Appendix J2.1.2-1 anticipates 380,000 visitors during the two-week viewing period.
Christo's estimates mean each person viewing the OTR project will spend more than $500. This isn't realistic by any stretch of the imagination.
Although Christo claims to pay for "all costs" of the project, he ignores the very real costs to residents and users of Big Horn Sheep Canyon, and makes no provision for these people.
How will he reimburse the ecology for the damage to the ecosystem from his industrial assault on the canyon, portrayed as a "gentle disturbance?" About 1,100 days of drilling and installation of anchors, many of which will be left.
All this done without leaving a mark? Come on, are we that gullible?
By Christo's own reckoning, the Arkansas River Valley will accrue only 8 percent of the two-week economic benefits of the OTR project, while the same area will bear 100 percent of the negative economic and other impacts - environmental, safety, wildlife, way of life - through a three year period.
This cost-benefit analysis may make sense for Denver, but it makes no sense for the Arkansas River Valley.
Nowhere in the Bureau of Land Management Resource Management Plan are projects of the nature of OTR considered. This is especially of concern because portions of the OTR project are proposed for land within the Arkansas Canyonlands Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.
These are places in Colorado receiving special recognition because of the quality, uniqueness and significance of their natural and cultural resources.
The massive industrial assault Christo proposes to install the OTR project is inconsistent with values for which the Arkansas Canyonlands Environmental Concern was designated and inconsistent with BLM designated management for this area.
The statement, "It is significant that the artists themselves called for the EIS," is completely false. The artists, were forced to pay for the Environmental Impact Study if they wanted the application process to proceed, and did so when the BLM concluded there was no way the environmental assessment alone would allow the project to proceed.
Rep. Lamborn, although you are charged with representing the people of the districts in which this display is proposed, you are woefully misinformed as is evidenced by your press release.
Your statements say to me you are in favor of trashing an area of critical environmental concern so the "artists" can make a buck. That you would publicly endorse such thinking is an affront to your constituents.
I urge everyone interested in this debacle to visit http://roarcolorado.org/ for the rest of the story.
Marshall Nichols,
Howard
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