The problem, according to the report, lies in the definition of “rural.”

(Flickr, cc; tipiro)

Congress defines what qualifies as rural. The rules vary from program to program, but most focus on an area’s population and how close it is to a large city. Small towns in metro areas can qualify for rural home loans if the Agriculture Department decides they are “rural in character”…

Still, the result is that money originally intended for rural areas is also streaming into major population centers. Metropolitan Phoenix has received $191 million so far, federal records show; greater Dallas has received $110 million. Counties around New York City received $32 million.

Queen Creek, a desert boomtown about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix, typifies the paradox. The town’s population mushroomed from barely 3,700 at the start of the decade to more than 24,000 last year, making it the nation’s eighth-fastest-growing community. Yet Agriculture Department maps show much of the town remains eligible for rural loans, under which middle-income buyers can purchase houses with no money down.

The news follows an April report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found the Rural Utilities Service, charged with expanding broadband access in rural areas, was still giving money to urban areas. The Department noted they were particularly concerned because the Rural Utilities Service was scheduled to receive an additional $2.5 million from the stimulus package.

Wrote ProPublica:

The Rural Utilities Service’s broadband program faced heavy criticism in 2005 when auditors found irregularities [2] (PDF) with a quarter of the funds the program had received in its first four years of operation. In one case, the program loaned $45 million to wire affluent subdivisions in the Houston suburbs—including one that was built around a golf course and another outside one of the richest cities in Texas.

Monday’s report found that the Rural Utilities Service continues to grant loans to areas that already have broadband service and to communities near major cities…

More than 90 percent of the loan applications the agency has approved since the critical report in 2005 went to areas that already had broadband service, the report said. “OIG remains concerned because the overwhelming majority of communities…receiving service through the broadband program already have access to the technology,” [Assistant Inspector General Robert W. Young] wrote.

That matters for a state like Colorado—which has real gaps in broadband service.

At the recently-built, $21 million Weld Central High School, for example, students can’t download music or watch streaming video. They have to take turns going online to look at colleges. And for that, the district pays $8,000 a month, receiving only 7.5 Mbps of bandwidth, or 3.5 kilobits per student.

Maybe Weld should build a world-class golf course next to the school.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

A looming drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale of New York and Pennsylvania has regulators digging deep into the potential impacts of fracking on groundwater supplies, although some industry officials maintain there’s never been a documented case of contamination resulting from a frack anywhere in the United States.

That’s a debatable claim, but the process in Colorado is enough of a concern — at least anecdotally — that U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) last summer introduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Chemical Awareness (FRAC) Act.

Growing concern about fracking in more populated places like New York City and even smaller New York cities like Syracuse will no doubt add more fuel to the fire in the increasingly heated debate about whether the EPA should regulate the process under the Safe Drinking Water Act – an exemption it gained during the Bush administration in 2005.

Here’s an expert from the executive summary from the New York City report:

“Intensive natural gas well development in the watershed brings an increased level of risk to the water supply: risk of degrading source water quality, risk to long-term watershed health and the city’s ability to rely on natural processes for what is accomplished elsewhere by physical and chemical treatment processes, risk of damaging critical infrastructure, and the risk of exposing watershed residents and potentially NYC residents to chronic low levels of toxic chemicals.”

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Held up by proponents of proposed federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as yet another example of potential environmental problems associated with the process, the Pennsylvania case has been portrayed as another warning sign in the ongoing natural gas boom in the Mid-Atlantic region’s Marcellus Shale formation.

In Colorado’s heavily drilled Garfield County, commissioners are weighing a resolution supporting federal legislation co-sponsored by Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis that would remove a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption for fracking that was granted during the Bush administration in 2005.

While some Coloradans are concerned about water quality and wildlife habitat in the Rocky Mountains, opponents of the boom in the Marcellus Shale are worried New York City’s watershed may be compromised by fracking, which involves injecting water, sand and undisclosed chemicals into tight rock and sand formations to force out more natural gas.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Last year, the mayors of Colorado towns like New Castle and Rifle complained loudly about the impacts of drilling on quality-of-life issues like water, air and wildlife habit. Now, according to ProPublica, New York City mayoral candidate William Thompson is taking on Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the potential contamination of the city’s water supply by gas drilling upstate.

“I am also concerned that the City and the Water Board have been extremely lax in responding to this threat,” Thompson told ProPublica, adding the mayor should be more vocal about a pending city report warning that “nearly every activity” associated with gas drilling could contaminate the city’s drinking water supply. Bloomberg’s office responded the mayor was withholding comment until the full report comes out in December.

According to ProPublica, the city-commissioned report runs counter to the state’s environmental assessment paving the way for a major New York gas boom.

Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna told ProPublica the mayor is very concerned about maintaining the quality of the city’s water supply.

“This is not a fringe issue for this administration,” LaVorgna said. “This is a mayor that adamantly orders tap water every night he dines out.”

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.