Harmful gas damaging ancient ruins

[Owlscrying]

July 8

Lakewood, Colo. - A pipeline leaking a greenhouse gas into Colorado's air is said to be damaging the ruins of Ancient Puebloans, who inhabited the area some 3,000 years ago.

The pipeline, located in the Sand Canyon area of Colorado, has sprung numerous carbon dioxide leaks in recent years. The pipeline runs for miles across the rock-and-sand structure created to protect the ruins, known as the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

The acidity of CO2 is known to cause erosion to the rock structures.

A leak in the pipeline causes CO2 to spill onto the ground, allowing gas to be released into the atmosphere. CO2 is known as a major contributor to global warming and can be deadly if inhaled in large amounts.

A Bureau of Land Management natural resource officer, has called the 1940s era pipeline dangerous and dirty and has called for measures to improve the situation.

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[Gatofeo]

July 8

Lakewood, Colo. - A pipeline leaking a greenhouse gas into Colorado's air is said to be damaging the ruins of Ancient Puebloans, who inhabited the area some 3,000 years ago.

The pipeline, located in the Sand Canyon area of Colorado, has sprung numerous carbon dioxide leaks in recent years. The pipeline runs for miles across the rock-and-sand structure created to protect the ruins, known as the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

The acidity of CO2 is known to cause erosion to the rock structures.

A leak in the pipeline causes CO2 to spill onto the ground, allowing gas to be released into the atmosphere. CO2 is known as a major contributor to global warming and can be deadly if inhaled in large amounts.

A Bureau of Land Management natural resource officer, has called the 1940s era pipeline dangerous and dirty and has called for measures to improve the situation.

go

Okay, who says it's affecting the ruins?

Because I went to that site and all I could find for a source on this issue was, "according to the Denver Post."

This is a bad habit that today's journalism does more and more: quoting another news source as an authority.

Now, a Bureau of Land Management employee says the pipeline is dangerous. Perhaps I'll buy that. But it sounds as though he's talking about its structural integrity --- and he said nothing about the damage to the pueblos.

I was a reporter for 12 years on newspapers. If I had gone to my editor and said, "It must be true. A major newspaper said it," I'd be scolded for lousy ethics, abysmal research and laziness. And rightly so!

Associated Press should be ashamed to run this without a reputable source on the danger to the pueblos.

It may very well be a fabrication; propaganda created by an environmental group or tribal members at odds with the natural gas company.

If so, the AP just played into their hands.

Remember when you read news reports: Who says? Why did they say this? Do they have an ulterior motive for saying it?

And if you apply this scrutiny to news reports, you'll want to scream "B.S.!" at a lot of reports.