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The need for a statewide Community Rights Amendment

Today, the law elevates the rights of private corporations over the rights of people who live in Colorado communities.  For a video that explains this, see So Your Community is Going to be Fracked, Mined, Factory Farmed, or fill in the blank…

Private corporations regularly invoke these rights and privileges when their interests conflict with communities’ attempt to protect the local environment, economy and workforce, and residents’ health, safety and welfare.  Read the rest

Lafayette Climate Bill of Rights

passed March 21, 2017

ORDINANCE NO. 02, Series 2017
INTRODUCED BY COUNCILOR ALEXANDRA LYNCH

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LAFAYETTE, COLORADO, ENACTING THE CLIMATE BILL OF RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS

WHEREAS, the people of the City of Lafayette find that global environmental destruction, which includes degradation to the climate, ecosystems, flora, fauna, land and water, constitutes an emergency that threatens our very survival; and;

WHEREAS, the people of the City of Lafayette believe that the systematic poisoning of our water, air and soil are activities that directly affect the health and safety of all residents and infringe upon our right to life, liberty and property; and

WHEREAS, the people of the City of Lafayette find that the environmental degradation and introduction of toxic chemical pollutants resulting from the extraction of coal, oil and gas, and disposal of drilling waste within the City would significantly contribute to environmental destruction, and life-endangering health risks.… Read the rest

Lafayette Community Rights Act

CITY CHARTER AMENDMENT

Lafayette Community Rights Act

Finalized April 30, 2013

Voted into law November 7, 2013

 

Section 2.3. – COMMUNITY BILL of RIGHTS and OBLIGATIONS- PROHIBITING THE EXTRACTION OF OIL AND GAS TO SECURE THOSE RIGHTS

The rights secured here are not mere privileges; they are obligations justly placed on government and on each member of the community to respect freedoms held individually and collectively by every member of the community.… Read the rest

Colorado Leaders’ and Developers’ Ambitions Eclipse Human and Environmental Health: I-70 Trench & Storm Drainage Projects

Joint proposals by the City of Denver and the Colorado Department of Transportation seek to widen and lower an I-70 viaduct into a trench below the water table within Environmental Justice neighborhoods that occupy an unremediated Superfund Site in the most toxic zip code in the U.S.; as well as digging a 2-1/2 mile stormwater drainage system for 100-year flood protection of the project just south and parallel to I-70, named the “Platte to Park Hill.”… Read the rest