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Enron Mail |
God, when will it end!!!
----- Forwarded by Scott Bolton/Enron Communications on 12/23/99 08:06 PM ----- Kevin Kohnstamm 12/21/99 10:00 AM To: Scott Bolton/Enron Communications@Enron Communications cc: Subject: Qwest's construction problems ---------------------- Forwarded by Kevin Kohnstamm/Enron Communications on 12/21/99 10:02 AM --------------------------- From: Robb Justice on 12/20/99 02:00 PM To: Scott Smith/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Kevin Kohnstamm/Enron Communications@Enron Communications cc: Subject: Qwest's construction problems Fiber Optic Network Gets Hung Up on Indian Graveyard Posted December 20, 1999 04:00 AM PST California officials have slapped a stop-work order on one company's effort to wire the state with fiber optic cable, saying the project may be threatening traditional Indian burial grounds. Peter Allen, a lawyer for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), said Friday that Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc.had been instructed to pull its construction teams from the field pending resolution of the issue. "They need to show that they are following the proper procedures and not going through any actual Indian burial sites,'' Allen said. The stop work order was issued Thursday after local Ohlone Indians spotted a Qwest construction crew digging a trench near a well-known tribal burial ground in San Jose, California. "They should have known it was there. It was a recorded site,'' Larry Myers, executive secretary of the state's Native American Heritage Commission, told the San Jose Mercury News. The 1,000-year old graveyard was unearthed a decade ago, and has been called one of the most important ever found in northern California, providing valuable clues about the Ohlone diet, health and social structure long before the arrival of European explorers. While the construction crew was operating several blocks from the grave site itself, state officials generally consider such areas to be surrounded by a "sensitive area'' of up to half a mile because bones and artifacts can moved by underground streams and shifting soil. For Qwest, the order means that construction and repair work must stop for up to two months in California, an important part of its 24,500 mile network of fiber optic cable around the United States. "We're trying to meet this aggressively and head on,'' said Qwest spokesman Matt Burkett, adding that the stop work order applied only to actual physical installations and would not effect the company's existing service. "We want to be sensitive to whatever issues (Native American groups) have and get a resolution that is fair to everyone as soon as possible.'' As part of its moves to address the issue, Qwest asked an Ohlone activist to serve as a paid monitor at the San Jose construction site. Allen said the order against Qwest was the latest in a series of actions against telecommunications firms which Indian heritage preservation groups say are flouting environmental laws and measure designed to preserve archeological sites. Other telecoms firms that have been hit with temporary stop work orders in the past include Level 3 Communications, Pacific Fiber Link and Metromedia Fiber Network , which have been asked to stop installation work for periods ranging from six weeks to six months. Allen said the Public Utilities Commission was concerned that upgrade plans within the intensely competitive telecommunications industry could lead to more environmental and historical sites being endangered by rampant and unsupervised construction. "There's a lot of competition and a lot of competitive pressure. A lot of people are out there building as fast as they can,'' Allen said. "It's tough to balance the need to meet the demand for this telecoms infrastructure with the need to do an adequate environmental review.''
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