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Spill showed the need for Colorado TV

The major spill from Gold King Mine on Aug. 5, leading to emergency water-use restrictions in three states so far, illustrates the need for full public access to Colorado television in La Plata and Montezuma counties. Today, only town residents with cable service or those with antenna reception can receive Colorado TV feeds; those with satellite service can’t, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission.

I appreciate efforts by The Durango Herald, radio stations and the Environmental Protection Agency to inform the public. Nevertheless, my daily Internet searches have disclosed many helpful photographs, videos, event details, interview statements and data that are not available from those sources. Some of the better stories on the Internet are from Denver-area TV news broadcasts.

Several months ago, a Herald story about TV feeds quoted from a letter that I wrote to the FCC years earlier. It said that I hadn’t seen any Colorado governor, or any of our federal or state legislators, on TV since I moved to Durango roughly 15 years ago. By now, it’s actually been about 20 years. Of course, I’ve also missed state-level election coverage and debates.

Why can’t all county residents have the same access to news about Colorado events and issues? This is especially important in an emergency.

General information about the Gold King event is on the EPA website, http://www2.epa.gov/goldkingmine. More details are on a different website, http://www.epaosc.org/site/doc_list.aspx?site_id=11082. Later state-tested results for a larger area may be found at https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/animas-river-water-quality-sampling-and-data. It would help those who want details if news stories reference their data sources.

Mary L. Gillam

Durango



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