Fed Up With Draconian Environmental Regulations
Note: The following letter was written in response to proposed changes in the Clean Water Act. Different subject, same sentiment. I think all of us can relate to the sheer frustration when we take the time to volunteer and adhere to a public process that has ignored us and failed us. Have you noticed how overwhelming public opposition to these insane proposals seem to have no impact whatsoever? — Helen F.
From: Daniel H. Varoujean, Chair, Coos Soil and Water Conservation District Board
To: U.S. Senators Wyden and Merkley; U.S. Representative DeFazio
I and my Board of Directors urge you to not support the changes to the Clean Water Act as proposed in S.787 [here, here]. We have spent the last ten years trying to bring farmers and ranchers into compliance with the last round of Draconian environmental regulations while trying to minimize the loss of farmland and farm production. What has become apparent to us and our constituents is that this latest attempt to further regulate the use of our private property is not about clean water just as the carbon emission/global warming fraud is not about clean air or “saving of the planet.” It is simply a brazen attempt to gain further control over our property and our very lives.
I am a marine ecologist by trade, and have spent the last 35 years conducting research on the population dynamics of endangered species, including salmon and seabirds, the restoration of coastal wetlands and the quantification of pollution in our coastal embayments and estuaries. Over this period I have watched environmental standards first used to correct serious resource use and pollution problems, but then these standards, over the last two decades, evolved into regulations that take one’s property (both real and monetary) at the “point of a gun” with no compensation, for reasons that have little, if anything, to do with proper resource management and everything to do with achieving a [imaginary] state of ecological nirvana.
What I and my Board want to make you aware of is that a growing number of people are no longer going to voluntarily cede control of their lives and property for some perceived “collective” good so politicians can placate the environmental groups or so a pack of morons living in our urban areas can feel good about themselves.
Allowing the change of the wording in the Clean Water Act thereby making it possible for the federal government to control all surface water is unacceptable.
Couple this with the State of Oregon proposing several new statutes to control our water use (e.g. requiring us to put meters on our domestic wells) to go along with the existing statutes that steal our property (e.g. wetlands and non-point source pollution regulations), I can assure you that rural land owners will revolt. And by “revolt” I do not mean peacefully demonstrating on the steps of the State Capitol.
What is becoming abundantly clear is that we no longer have recourse through our federal and state legislatures, administrations, or courts to stem the taking of our property and thereby our liberty as the quest to satisfy bogus claims of protecting our natural resources and the environment marches on. Members of Congress and Oregon’s legislature have come to the point of having to decide to reinstate our rights by rolling back the hundreds of rules and regulations that prevent the actual, wise use (i.e. conservation) of our natural resources on public lands and that take our private property without compensation, or to continue down the course of subjugating us to the power of growingly despotic governments.
If you decide to continue on course, then you should not be surprised or feign indignation before the TV cameras when a great number of us decide to protect our freedom, our property and our very lives at the point of a gun. We are no longer going to just sit in the darkness fearfully awaiting the rap on the door by some fascist regulator your actions have loosed upon us.
Daniel H. Varoujean II, June 11, 2009
Note: Maggots Merkley and Wyden are both sponsors of S.787 [here], so they are unlikely to vote against it. The bill as written drops the word “navigable” from the Clean Water Act, thereby expanding the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cover every drop of water in the Nation.
by bear bait
The road to ruin is paved with good intentions. The Anyone-But-Bush mentality got us a cleverly placed “Anyone” who is running roughshod over democracy, rule of law, capitalism, our bankruptcy laws, and legislation by administrative rule. We got change, and the wheel of the ship of state is hardover with nobody near it to correct oversteerage in any way. I have seen boats capsize under just that condition.
We know who Ron Wyden is. He is the Stanford dolt who couldn’t pass the Oregon bar exam, several times, so became a politician. We know Merkely as the guy who never worked anywhere but for some NGO or government job. He, too, is a career politician, government hack, and most recently a Habitat for Humanity guilt purveyor. They both hate WASPs. They hate Oregon. And we have no effective members of the House.
I stopped to see a friend who has singlejacked a living as a real estate broker and salesman for 25 years after a career in contracting home building and repairs. He took social security two years early, to pay the bills. His $60,000 savings is gone. He sold his commercial real estate property (a house zoned commercial), and I saw his car at the shop so stopped to chat. He was cleaning out his desk. Bunched it. Threw in the towel. Quit. Last year, he sold a quarter of all the commercial property sold in this two town area, a third of the multiple listed properties sold, and half the residential properties in one town. His commissions were less than $30,000. He paid $48,000 in capital gains taxes to Oregon and the Feds for selling his commercial property to pay bills. His wife can work in another town where they have an interest in living, and they can lease a home reasonably. They are gone. Leaving. He will keep the real estate license, and eke out something elsewhere. There is no bail out, no federal or state help for guys like him. They are just eliminated and forgotten. So who is going to be left to work and pay taxes to fund the migrant child only pre-school? Who will fund the working poor babysitter? Oregon closed the Blind School and is selling the land. If that is how we treat blind kids, why do we even need Democraps running this place? I am confused by the total lack of understanding of economics and government in Oregon, and wonder if, after living here my whole life, if this is a better life than some dying town in the Great Plains where property is much cheaper, and so is the cost of living.