Editor:
 
I love hydroelectric. I love the lakes it creates and I love to watch water spilling over a dam, but there is something about this local project that scares me.
 
First, for every action there is often an equal but opposite reaction, and I don’t think we have fully explored the damage to waterways this project might create. 

 
Remember when they added something to gasoline that was supposed to drastically reduce air pollution? Turned out the stuff ate through storage tanks and wound up polluting ground water. Sometimes we just don’t know.
 
Second, this is one of those knee-jerk, feel-good projects that City Council
is so fond of. The idea of burning less coal makes everybody think this is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s not, and the fact that Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland wants it so badly scares me even more.
 
Third, the cost overruns on this thing are insane. Again, it seems Mick wants this at all costs, and at some point sane people will agree this is nuts.
 
And finally, if you build an electric plant of any kind you have to run wires and cables all over the place to get the electricity from here to there. Are these going to run overhead? Underground? Over my roof? We have yet to hear about this fiasco.
 
Aspen is not suffering a shortage of electricity and this project does not have to be built now. Let’s all sit back, take a deep breath and look a little harder at the negative effects this project might have.

Sheldon Fingerman
Aspen