Letter from Paul Martz
Immigration – May 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors
My first reaction to reading Hal Walter’s column in the April edition, even after reading the postscript apology, was one of disbelief. I quite frankly found his apparent conclusions about the current illegal alien situation to be abhorrent. He seems to be saying that all other legitimate considerations aside, it’s OK to exploit these people if it’s for the good of the economy.
Article by Paul Martz
Geology – April 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
“We don’t have earthquakes here do we?” is a question I’ve been asked a number of times over the years — although, I’ll confess, it does seem to come up more frequently at functions where alcohol is served.
As I’ve matured I’ve learned to temper my response to something on the order of “Well, in my opinion we’re just lucky Salida isn’t a pile of bricks.”
Letter from Paul Martz
Geology – February 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The Boxing Day tsunami which resulted from an offshore earthquake is not something we in Central Colorado would ordinarily have to worry about. However, there is an earthquake related type of event that can occur in our lakes and reservoirs.
Letter from Paul Martz
Bill of Rights – November 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors,
I’ll start out by saying that I’ve been a member of the NRA for 37 years and a Life Member for more than 25. I found Ben Long’s stated views on the organization in last month’s edition to be not only patently offensive, but totally ignorant. The level of “professionalism” demonstrated by his article makes me wonder if there shouldn’t be some sort of exam before one is allowed to call oneself a professional.
Article by Paul Martz
Geology – September 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
With one eye on the storm and running late, I was driving way too fast for conditions. But I needed to catch a shift of drillers before they left a remote drillsite an the southeast flank of the Pilot Mountains east of Mina, Nevada. The drillers had been leaving the site by cutting cross-country, making a new two-track in the process, instead of following the permitted route back to the county road on which I was driving.
Letter from Paul Martz
War on Terrorism – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Martha,
There is no honor in war, it is always a dirty business. The object is to kill people, hopefully more combatants who are theoretically able to fight back, than non-combatants. You kill them by any means possible and fair or “honorable” doesn’t enter into it. You’ve seen too many John Wayne movies.
Letter from Paul Martz
Mining – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors,
I suppose given the circumstances I’ve put myself into through the agency of a big mouth and my own free will, I’m required to respond to Hal’s diatribe against the proposed mica mine on Poncha Pass, and to try and reconcile fact from the various fictions that are being touted as truth about it.
Letter by Paul Martz
Geology – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine –
Where does the water go?
Editors:
After reading both parts of the article on water in the San Luis Valley, one significant question remains unanswered: Does the artesian aquifer (lower one) drain anywhere? The reason that knowing this is significant is because if it does — say south to the head of the Rio Grande gorge — then recharge has been occurring constantly from the already adjudicated surface waters. If the “missing” or unaccounted for million acre feet has been leaving via gravity, then obviously any pumping from that formation will withdraw additional water from the annual runoff budget.
Article by Paul Martz
Geology – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
HOT SPRINGS, as simple as they may seem on the surface, have a wide variety of mechanisms that drive them from the crust of the earth.
The most common type of hot spring in Central Colorado, or for that matter worldwide, is caused by hot rock, sometimes even melted rock, at a depth where it heats ground water and drives it back to the surface. The greater the amount of heating, the more rapidly the water rises to the surface.
Letter by Paul Martz
Mine Pollution – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Summitville needs science, not silver-water scare stories
Editors:
In reply to the call for some perspective in Jeff Stern’s letter in your September edition, I think he’s right, but probably not in the same fashion he had in mind. I’d like to introduce some facts into the discussion about Summitville, not just the anecdotal “evidence” and political opinions contained in his letter.
Letter by Paul Martz
Summitville – July 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Is Silver the Solution? or, Who Makes the Rules?
Editors:
I’d like to comment on a misstatement of fact in a part of Briefs from the San Luis Valley in the June edition of Colorado Central. The topic was Summitville Studies and the brief states that “The river was contaminated with copper and other toxic substances after leaks from the leach-pit mining operation of Galactic Resources….”
Letter from Paul Martz
Mining – October 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
There’s a lot more to it than just staking a claim
Editors:
I’m still trying to understand some of the points that Ken Wright was trying to make in the September edition of Colorado Central. I agree with, and certainly sympathize with, some of the things he says about the West and those of us who actually live and work here. I am further heartened to read that he is no longer a strict constructionist tree-hugger. However, his article repeats several distortions that the environmental movement promotes about the Mining Law of 1873, and I object to that.
Article by Paul Martz
Geologic Hazards – July 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
The first article in this two-part series dealt with potential problems with a more-or-less immediate negative result: Losing control of your pickup while towing a horse trailer up Droney Gulch because of slick bentonite after a thunderstorm is pretty immediate, from my point of view.
Article by Paul Martz
Geology – June 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
The subject of geologic hazards gets a lot of media attention every time there is an earthquake in California, (or a minuscule, on the scale of things, volcanic eruption like Mt. Saint Helens), but not a lot of discussion most of the time.
Letter from Paul Martz
Saguache mosquitoes – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I don’t know but what this Saguache mosquito business is starting to get out of hand. However, since everyone else has his own theory on the subject and there certainly seems to be more unanimity on skeeters than on, say, flying saucers, I’ll put in my two bits worth as well.
Letter from Paul Martz
Rural Economics – February 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editor,
Well, I’ve tried to read all the way through Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies before pronouncing judgment on it. However, after the first half, I’m still stuck with the same view I had after reading the preface.
Letter from Paul Martz
Mining – November 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
It all comes out of the ground
Editor:
It’s been a few issues since Lisa Dolby’s letter on growth, mining, and what her version of what the economy of the West (outside of California that is) should be, was printed in #27. I was hoping someone other than the “patriot” (issue 28) who didn’t like the magazine anyway, would respond to her remarks. However, since no one else has yet, I will. Although as a “decrepit” baby boomer I don’t really think this chore should fall to me, since my generation supposedly lacks all sorts of intellectual strengths including both work experience and wisdom, according to the sociologists, political pundits, and now apparently Generation X.
Letter from Paul Martz
Transportation – January 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editor:
After attending the Dec. 6 Railroad Abandonment Regional Meeting at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds, I came away with the feeling that the group was missing the forest for the trees, or should I say, the rails for the bucks.
Letter from Paul Martz
Government – August 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine
Just a short note to tell you that I enjoyed and agreed with Martha’s editorial in the July Colorado Central. My personal vote for the year things started going bad is 1965 too, and I’ll tell you why. It was the first time that I remember when a passerby who stopped to help was sued by the “victim” of an auto wreck. The driver responsible for the accident didn’t have insurance, but the innocent bystander did: Sue the passerby.