GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado - A video of local musicians - including a workers' compensation attorney - singing a less-than-flattering song about EnCana may have been viewed by some 350 million people in various parts of the world.
Clips of the song were featured in a 10-minute BBC World News America television segment on natural gas drilling in Colorado. The four musicians are Don Kaufman, with the law firm Kaufman and Kaufman LLC, plus Don and April Paine and Dustin Micheli. They all play with the Last Minute String Band.
The BBC reportedly approached Kaufman after hearing an original recording and requested to film it on location on the banks of Divide Creek.
The song was written after one of EnCana's wells leaked into West Divide Creek in 2004. The seep was found to contain the carcinogenic chemical benzene, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission fined EnCana a record $371,000.
The video shows the four musicians along the creek in a traditional string band arrangement with guitar, upright bass, banjo and mandolin. It starts with harmony singing, "What have they done to the old home place, and how did they blow it down, and how did they poison my water and hay, by drilling for gas in the ground."
Kaufman solos other lyrics including: "They drilled my ranch, they sucked my gas, they bulldozed my homestead, too," and, "Land values went south, a cold wind blows as I sit here and hang my head. I've lost my ranch, I've lost my home, and now I wish that I was dead."
It ends with, "And how did they put benzene in my creek, by drilling for gas in the ground."
BBC News correspondent David Willis, who reported the natural gas story, wrote in an e-mail, "BBC has an audience of about 350 million people around the world - so plenty will have caught Don and his chums."
The video has also been making the rounds via the popular YouTube website.
EnCana spokesman Doug Hock wrote in an e-mail, "This song is actually a re-vamp of a song called 'The Old Home Place' performed by The Dillards in the 1960s. While Don Kaufman and his group are certainly talented musicians, we prefer the original version for obvious reasons."
He said nothing EnCana did was out of compliance with regulations at the time and that the company learned, along with regulators, that a different cementing procedure was needed for well casings given the area's geology. Extensive monitoring indicates there was no contamination of residential water sources, and the contamination has been effectively stopped and contained within an area of about a half-acre, Hock said.
There's also an air-convection system in place to remove benzene from the groundwater, Hock said, and most importantly, the seep caused EnCana to reassess its approach to working with landowners in areas where it drills.
Reached for a comment, Kaufman said, "I can neither confirm nor deny any involvement in the song."
Willis says in the news segment that Divide Creek is the main source of drinking water for 10,000 people. He mentions the 2004 seep and leads into the clips of the song by saying, "Still nothing grows there, and locals have taken to venting their frustration in song."
He says they call it the "EnCana Bluegrass Blues" after the company that poisoned the water with levels of benzene 80 times higher than officials deem safe.
Willis closes the segment with the conclusion, "The energy companies are making billions of dollars in Colorado, yet that's not enough money to comprehensively research the effect they're having on the people who live here."
The BBC segment aired April 29 and was repeated several times. A video of the segment can be viewed at uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y5iSPFbj6Zc. That segment and a video of just the song can be viewed at www.dividecreek.com. Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121 pfowler@postindependent.com Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgEoVqwLO5M
Don Kaufman
Judge orders companies to pay workers $54,400 DENVER (AP) USA TODAY
Two companies have been ordered to pay $54,400 to Mexican Workers.U.S. Circuit Judge David Ebel ordered JNS Construction of Austin, Texas, and Leno & Co. LLC of Denton, Texas, to pay 68 workers $800 each after recruiting and transporting them to Glenwood Springs in November 2007. Both companies have until April 23 to contest Ebel's order that was issued April 3. There was no answer at several phone numbers listed for JNS owner John Herzer, who was acting as his own attorney. A message left for Leno & Co. attorney Charles Kimball was not immediately returned. Fifty-eight of the stranded workers returned to Mexico on two buses provided by Herzer shortly after Glenwood Springs charities scrambled to help the workers find lodging in hotels.Thirty-five workers could not be found afterward while another 10 workers remain legally in the country on visas, said Don Kaufman, attorney for the workers.The workers arrived in Colorado with valid Mexican passports, identification and H2B visas, which allow companies to employ foreign workers if efforts to hire locally are unsuccessful.Midwest Drywall, which was also named in the case, said a letter filed by JNS with the Department of Labor to obtain the work visas was not theirs and they never asked for the workers. Ebel's order said Midwest owes nothing. "The applications were fraudulent and they were just being brokered by human traffickers," Kaufman told The Associated Press via phone Saturday. "They came here for one reason, to work."Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Published for educational purposes.
Mexican workers who were stranded in Glenwood get an attorney Lawsuit filed for lost wages
Post Independent Staff Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado,
GLENWOOD SPRINGS — About 65 Mexican citizens took legal action Thursday, demanding a total of more than $177,000 from companies they say brought them from Mexico to Glenwood Springs with the promise of work they never got.
Glenwood Springs attorney Don Kaufman filed the lawsuit for the workers free of charge. He said they had no money and no way to seek justice on their own.
“Normally these guys kind of blow away,” he said. “They come in twos and threes, become illegal or disappear. We’ve never seen a situation where so many people were disenfranchised at one time.”
The workers said they traveled from Mexico in hopes of working over Christmas to save money for their families. They arrived at the end of November and ended up in limbo at local hotels after not getting jobs they were contracted to do. All but about 10 left on Dec. 21 on buses sent by JNS Construction Services LLC.
As they were being sent home with no work, several said they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to repay loans they’d taken to get here. One man said they came here with nothing in their pocket but lies about the jobs.
Kaufman said the immigration debate is separate from this unfair treatment of legal workers.
“These are not the guys who jumped the border unlawfully,” he said. “These are the guys who stood in line, played by the rules and did everything legally.”
According to the complaint, all 65 men came to the U.S. with valid Mexican passports, identification and class H2B visas to work for the Texas-based JNS. JNS transports laborers from Mexico and gets them contract jobs. JNS said it contracted with Midwest Drywall Co. Both companies are named in the complaint, as well as Leno and Co. LLC. The complaint says Leno’s role was to organize the men, and JNS obtained visas for each of them.
Each plaintiff paid at least $650 to get to the U.S. with the promise of employment, Kaufman says, and they’re owed a total of $177,450 for lost wages plus other damages. The complaint says the men were each promised $910 per week for three weeks.
Denis Dieker, treasurer for Midwest, said, “What we see is JNS fraudulently used our name when they applied for visas for these guys. … We had asked for workers from JNS for another project earlier in the year, and they never delivered on those workers. We never asked for workers after that on the project they are talking about.”
The workers turned to Catholic Charities after getting stuck in Glenwood Springs with no work and hearing the organization might help. That led them to Kaufman.
John Herzor, who’s named in the lawsuit as a principal owner of JNS Construction, said previously he made a cash offer to the men and sent two buses for them to take them home. He hung up the phone after that statement and didn’t return a phone message Friday afternoon.
Tom Ziemann, director of Catholic Charities, said the cash offer was for $690. Some men received only $200 and others received none at all.
“I’m happy that Don is seeing this through,” Ziemann said. “We’re trying to seek justice for these 65 men.”
According to Ziemann, 10 men stayed and became illegal out of desperation. “They tried to stay, play by the rules, and things didn’t work out,” he said.
The Mexican Consulate said it had attorneys looking into the situation. Kaufman said the Mexican government hired an attorney to help keep him in contact with the men, who are ready and willing to travel back to the U.S. to testify if need be.
“If we were to prevail, if somehow it were to become profitable to stop trafficking human beings, maybe people would stop doing it,” he said.
