Wildfire Is Top Colorado Issue, But Not On Ballot: Report

DENVER, CO – Science is on the ballot in Colorado and across the country in the Nov. 6, 2018, midterm election. You won’t see referendums on the ballot, but natural and environmental disasters like Colorado and California wildfires and hog feces spills in hurricane-ravaged states raise the stakes in the midterms.

“This is the most important election of our lifetime,” Bill Holland, the New Mexico policy director for the League of Conservation voters, told Popular Science, which put together an inventory of the top scientific, environmental and technological challenges by state.

Governors are on the ballot in 36 of 50 states, and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the 100-member Senate will also be decided. Popular Science said candidates are actively campaigning on some issues, like opioids and fossil fuels, but silent on others. Still, regardless of the outcomes of the individual races, Congress and state legislatures will have to confront them, magazine said.

Colorado's increasing wildfires

This past summer was among the worst fire seasons in Colorado the state had seen in a decade, Popular Science said. One-hundred-eight-thousand acres in southern Colorado by the Spring Creek fire in July.

A state collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder might be able to predict where the next "big burn" may erupt.

"The prediction system will combine weather data, vegetation type, topography, and fire-behavior models to determine where a blaze will spread, how severe it will become, and how it will behave," the magazine wrote. The project has bipartisan support in the statehouse.

Water quality is a big issue across the country. States in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been asked by the EPA to submit specific nitrogen-reduction plans. In Iowa, farm runoff contributes to the massive algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico — called the “dead zone” — that chokes off oxygen to marine life, threatening that region’s seafood industry. Farm pollution is also a big issue in Arkansas, which has suspended permits for new concentrated animal feeding operations amid fears of water pollution due to the state’s density of CAFOs.

The water crisis in Flint, where 100,000 residents were exposed to dangerous levels of lead after a swtich in the city’s water source, is a big issue in the Michigan governor’s race. And in Kansas, where an investigation by the Wichita Eagle newspaper found that hundreds of residents of the Sunflower State drank and bathed in water tainted with dry-cleaning chemicals, voters are pressuring elected officials to rescind legislation that directed regulators to stop looking for contamination and “make every reasonable effort” to keep sites off the EPA Superfund list.

Oil and gas drilling threaten the caribou of Alaska and Delaware’s tourism industry. Oklahoma has seen a whopping 13,000 percent increase in earthquakes over the past decade, an uptick that corresponds with expansion of oil and gas exploration, especially fracking. Pennsylvania, which sits on the richest natural-gas deposits east of the Mississippi River, is also trying to figure out what to do about fracking.

Infrastructure, access to the internet and climate change — especially in coastal states threatened by rising sea levels — are issues in many states. And in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, residents are steeling themselves for the next storm as they struggle to recover from the the pummeling they took during the 2017 hurricane season. The local Climate Change Council says the island is unprepared for intensifying storms, droughts and what could be a 2-foot rise in the sea level.

By Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff

Image via Renee Schiavone/Patch

YOUR TURN: If you could tell Colorado politicians one thing about water conservation, what would it be? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Stay up-to-date with Colorado news with Patch! There are many ways for you to connect and stay in touch: Newsletters and Email Alerts|Facebook