2006.08.21: August 21, 2006: Headlines: COS - Mali: Environment: Durango Herald: Mali RPCV Wano Urbonas is moving to Salida to become the environmental health manager for Chaffee County
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2006.08.21: August 21, 2006: Headlines: COS - Mali: Environment: Durango Herald: Mali RPCV Wano Urbonas is moving to Salida to become the environmental health manager for Chaffee County
Mali RPCV Wano Urbonas is moving to Salida to become the environmental health manager for Chaffee County
Overall, La Plata County lacks strong leadership in the environmental field, Urbonas said. "They need an injection of conservation leadership and forward thinkers," Urbonas said. "Wally White is doing a stand-up job, but he needs help." Urbonas' recommendations to the environmental community: "Stay involved, question authority and don't take 'no' for an answer."
Mali RPCV Wano Urbonas is moving to Salida to become the environmental health manager for Chaffee County
Growth a threat, official warns
Local environment in trouble, outgoing health department expert says
August 21, 2006
By Dale Rodebaugh | Herald Staff Writer
When Wano Urbonas arrived in La Plata County a decade ago, he visualized the community as a three-legged stool with social, environmental and economic footings.
But the cumulative impacts of increased population, traffic, gas drilling and air pollution - and the corresponding decrease in air and water quality - have caused a slow, inexorable degradation of the quality of life, Urbonas said in an interview last week.
"I was wrong," said Urbonas, who until Friday was director of environmental health at the San Juan Basin Health Department, which serves La Plata, Archuleta and San Juan counties. "With the knowledge I gained, I see social responsibility and environmental integrity as the important factors. Economics plays a lesser role."
In fact, social responsibility and maintaining the integrity of air, land and water resources will go a long way toward creating economic vitality, Urbonas said. The opinions are strictly his, not those of the health department, he said.
As a result of his disenchantment, Urbonas is moving to Salida to become the environmental health manager for Chaffee County. It will be an enormous change - three county commissioners instead of nine (La Plata, Archuleta and San Juan counties), a population of 8,000 instead of 60,000, and close involvement with the planning department in smart growth projects related to air, land and water issues.
Urbonas worked four years as an environmentalist specialist in Routt County in northern Colorado before coming to the San Juan Basin Health Department. Earlier, he served two stints in the Peace Corps in Africa - in the Congo in the mid-1980s and in Mali in the mid-1990s.
Overcoming the decline in regional attractiveness will require La Plata County and the city of Durango to demonstrate more leadership in strategic planning to meet challenges, Urbonas said.
"It's questionable if this position (director of environmental health) can adequately address the needs of three counties, especially with such rampant growth," said Urbonas, who spent four years as a health department inspector before taking the top environmental job in Durango.
While negatives outweighed the positives during his time in La Plata County, Urbonas takes several pleasant memories with him. Among them:
• The cooperation of Durango Mountain Resort in creating an air-quality management plan.
"They've been good neighbors in voluntarily creating the air-quality plan and in collaborating with the health department through the entire development," Urbonas said.
• The community assessment of environmental indicators program in La Plata County.
"We were successful in getting Durango and the county to work together to develop a hazardous household-waste collection event," Urbonas said. "The collection in October will be the second year."
But as Urbonas departs, he still fumes over the smoke from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
"On paper, the D&SNGR commits to clean air but in reality they remain the No. 1 stationary source of particulate pollution in Durango and La Plata County," Urbonas said. "The installation of scrubbers at the roundhouse to reduce the emissions of trains idling overnight is like skiing on Chapman Hill. It doesn't work."
The railroad could follow the lead of Durango Mountain Resort. Or it could take the approach of Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs in developing the Village at Wolf Creek - working behind the scenes to receive continued exemption from pollution control, Urbonas said.
"Why is it so hard for the City Council to draft a letter to the state health department saying that train smoke is a natural health hazard," Urbonas said. "All we want is support for the south Durango neighborhood (which receives the bulk of the train smoke in town). But there is no response from the city.
"In a perfect world, there would be no environmental community and separate chamber of commerce," Urbonas said. "There would be a chamber for the environment in which everyone works for a common cause."
Urbonas also would like to see BP, the gas behemoth, make the solar panels it produces available to the general public at cost.
"We talk of going beyond petroleum, cutting reliance on foreign oil," Urbonas said. "Let's talk as well about reducing our consumption of natural gas."
The staff at San Juan Basin Health Department has made inroads in protecting the environment, Urbonas said.
"But my fear is that rampant growth will outgrow the department's ability to operate effective programs," Urbonas said.
Overall, La Plata County lacks strong leadership in the environmental field, Urbonas said.
"They need an injection of conservation leadership and forward thinkers," Urbonas said. "Wally White is doing a stand-up job, but he needs help."
Urbonas' recommendations to the environmental community: "Stay involved, question authority and don't take 'no' for an answer."
daler@durangoherald.com
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Story Source: Durango Herald
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mali; Environment
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