Chemicals being applied to LCR41H on
September 12, 2007
Thursday,
March 22nd - Road Crews Cited By State...
Roads crews from the Cedar Park
and Cedar Springs subdivisions on Storm Mountain
were recently cited by the State for violation of
the Colorado Water Quality Act.
The Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment Water Control
Division recently served the road crews who were
responsible for the chemical application with a "Notice
of Violation" and "Cease and Desist
Order" for the negligent use of dust
control chemicals on LCR41H, leading to contamination of
State waters.
Residents have repeatedly
complained about the applications of dust control
chemicals running onto private lands and into the
area streams since 2004. This runoff has
reportedly killed many large, mature trees and
various shrubs in its path.
In 2005, an area dog was
reported to have died from exposure to the road
chemicals running through private property. Toxicology revealed the presence of arsenic in the
deceased dog's liver and kidneys. Testing off the
runoff in 2004 confirmed high amounts of arsenic,
barium and chromium to be present in the sludge
left on private land by the runoff from the road.
In addition to the roads crews,
the chemical manufacturer, Enviortech, and
trucking company which applied the chemicals were
also cited for this violation.
This evening at
6:07PM MST The Vernal Equinox will occur signaling
the the official start of the Spring here in the
Northern Hemisphere, and Fall in the Southern
Hemisphere.
The Vernal Equinox is the first
day of Spring and on this day the sun is directly
over the equator (0º latitude). The lengths of
day and night are about equal (hence Equinox), and
the sun rises due east and sets due west.
Since the winter solstice the
sun has been traveling northward. The days should
now become longer and warmer in the northern
hemisphere.
It is just the opposite in the
southern hemisphere where it will be the autumnal
equinox "down under." It will be Fall
there and they are moving towards Winter while we
are moving towards Summer.
Many of the ancient cultures
made buildings or had stone calendars using
shadows or a beam of sunlight to mark this day.
The Mayans in Southern Mexico built solar
alignments into their buildings. On the vernal
equinox at Chichen Itz, Mexico, a shadow, in the
form of a serpent will appear on the main
staircase of the great pyramid. Then it will move
down the stairs as the sun moves across the sky.
This week's photo features a male Downy Woodpecker hanging from a branch, outside of
Storm Mountain News' office window, on last Wednesday morning.
The Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) is the smallest woodpecker in North America. Adults are mainly black on the upper parts and wings, with a white back, throat and belly and white spotting on the wings. There is a white bar above and below the eye. They have a black tail with white outer feathers barred with black. Adult males have a red patch on the back of the head. The female is similar in appearance, but without the red patch on the head.
They are virtually identical in plumage pattern to the much larger Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus). These species are not closely related at all, and they will certainly soon be separated in different genera. The outward similarity is a spectacular example of convergent evolution. Why this is so cannot be explained with confidence. It certainly is interesting to note that the species exploit rather differently-sized foodstuffs and generally do not compete very much ecologically.
These birds are mostly permanent residents. Northern birds may migrate further south; birds in mountainous areas, like here in Colorado, may move to lower elevations. Downy Woodpeckers roost in tree cavities in the winter.
Downy Woodpeckers forage on trees, picking the bark surface in summer and digging deeper in winter. They mainly eat insects, also seeds and berries.
They are often seen in the mixed flocks of chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, and kinglets that gather in the woods during migration and winter. As with other woodpeckers, the male is larger than the female and chisels deep into wood with its longer, stronger bill, whereas the female pries under the bark with her shorter bill. Thus a pair is able to share the food resources without competing with one another.
