Explore ways to create new water

As Colorado and other Colorado River Basin states negotiate the river’s future, one important question is missing. Why are we only debating how to divide less water instead of exploring ways to create more?

Conservation is essential, but it can’t solve a long-term shortage if the supply keeps shrinking. One concept deserves a serious look. Seawater from the Sea of Cortez could be pipelined to an inland desalination plant powered by modern nuclear energy. The freshwater produced could then be delivered into Lake Mead, adding a new water supply to the Colorado River Basin.

That would strengthen the stability of the entire river system, benefiting Southern Colorado as well as downstream communities, agriculture, and the regional economy.

Such a project raises legitimate questions about cost, engineering, environmental impacts, and permitting. That’s exactly why the first step should be an independent feasibility study conducted by leading engineers, universities, national laboratories, and water experts.

If the study concludes the concept is impractical, we will know based on evidence. If it finds the project feasible, it could become one of the most important water infrastructure projects in the history of the American West.

The Colorado River serves nearly 40 million people. We owe future generations more than debates over scarcity. We owe them a careful, fact-based evaluation of ideas that could strengthen the future of the West.

Sean McEniry

Centennial

Think about the state’s fees

Re: Proposition NN. The supporters were on the news Wednesday trying to convince us that the teachers and students desperately need the money that would otherwise be refunded to the taxpayers. You know, us? Those of us who overpaid our taxes and would be getting our “extra” taxes back? Saying “all that extra money” would be going to help the teachers get pay raises, money into the schools so our kids can get a better education, classroom supplies, etc., etc.

Something that was not mentioned is that if Proposition NN passes, only about 25% will go to education. The rest will go into the general fund for the state government to spend any way they please – no restrictions! That’s 75% for them to spend! If NN passes, the TABOR refunds go away forever! Not a temporary diversion of the refunds, but a permanent halt to citizens receiving TABOR refunds…. There is a lot of evil in this ballot initiative that cannot be overlooked.

They can’t control their spending as it is. Do you really want to hand over your tax refunds? it’s your money! That’s why Doug Bruce gave us TABOR! Granted, we voted it in, but Doug wrote it for us. That’s the best gift we have ever received….and the spendthrifts in our state government have been doing everything they can think of ever since to try to get rid of it. And tugging on heartstrings using education has been used before!

That’s why we have so many “fees”. They can’t add taxes because TABOR won’t let them! So their workaround is to call their taxes “fees”. Think about it.

Vote NO NO on NN

Billie Nigro

Colorado Springs

Kudos for DMV office

Today, for the second time in six months, I was at the DMV on Garden of the Gods Road. Both times it was easy to renew, etc. The employees are friendly, knowledgeable, and organized. Kudos to a well-run department.

Leslie Herzog

Colorado Springs

A dead ideology

Communists have always existed; it’s just that, as opportunists, they have
“come out” with all the others in society who have “come out.” Communism is a rejection of private property and capitalism, state control of economic activity and the media, no freedom of religion except to the state, and suppression of opposition by re-education centers instead of jails.

In a communist world, the state has no counterpoints, no checks and balances; just one godless entity decides what to impose upon the people, and in turn the people must follow what is handed down. So, although it’s said to be classless, different levels of society exist. Those at the top live well; the rest exist as modern-day serfs or less, since equality without liberty is slavery.

Families are split up and the children indoctrinated. No personal identity is allowed. Those who don’t conform will be among the forgotten millions upon millions who lie in unmarked graves.

The sad thing about this is it’s a dead ideology with no ideal—certainly a modern version of hell. The irony is there is no petty crime; everyone is “scared straight” by the state.

In conclusion, if we don’t honor our history and learn basic knowledge about our founding, we have lost our identity through deliberate intention. Thank God for the excellent educational documentaries filling this void. As Christ said, “The poor will always be with us.” We just don’t want them to be in charge.

Fred Stewart

Grand Junction

Something we can’t control

Re: Article in Thursday July 23 edition with headline: “OpenAI AI models went rogue during testing.”

An autonomous agent powered by advanced artificial intelligence models went rogue during a security test in a “controlled environment”, escaped that “controlled environment”, entered the Internet and triggered a hack that compromised the infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face. Hugging Face used Chinese AI to stop it because U S. AI “refused to process the data needed for analysis”.

An autonomous agent is an AI system that doesn’t require human interaction to independently achieve a goal by planning, making decisions and taking multi step actions to achieve it. Apparently it can’t be controlled by humans in a controlled environment and can only be stopped by another AI agent.

Sorry, but I think humans are in trouble when we can create something that can create havoc and which we can’t control.

Bill Schaffner

Colorado Springs