Justice Alito: "The position taken in this case by the Federal Government?a position that the Court now squarely rejects?would have put the property rights of ordinary Americans entirely at the mercy of Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) employees."
You can now have a wading pool in your backyard without worrying over a $75,000/day fine.
"HeyBub" wrote in news:-tOdnVIml_DquPfSnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:
And when your kid pees in the pool it no longer automatically qualifies as a Superfund site?
That probably initiates the superfund designation.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
And when your kid pees in the pool it no longer automatically qualifies as a Superfund site?
And a biggee it is. That case has gone on for a couiple years now at least. It is almost in my back yard (only 50miles away). the back story is couple buys vacant land, Starts to build house, Fills in a low spot and flit hits the shan. EPA says it it wet lands. Owners say it isn't but then have no right to haul EPA to court and make them prove it is wet lands, EPAs word is thethe thaw and that ends everything.
From day one, all the owners wanted was a day in court to make their case.
I'm surprised it had to go to the Supremes before that decision was made.
By the time it got there, the fines had built to astonomical levels.
Harry K
In the majority opinion, Justice Scalia commented "Wet lands? The plaintiffs in this case testified that they never once saw a boat or vessel cross their property."
The whole point of the case is that EPA claims it is wet-lands, owner says it isn't and under the current (or what was current) there was no way to force the EPA to justify there claim.
Basically it was:
"we say it is wet, stop building and remove the fill".
anybody recognize jackbooted thugs in that? I suspect that the owners will lose but at least now they'll get their day in court.
Harry K
Back when the EPA first sstarted, they would rule 'wetland' if htere was a puddle of water on it at any time of year. My a a neighbor got our tit in the wringer over a grove of Willow trees we removed. WETLANDS they screamed. Reality? A spring on one end of the 10 acre plot with the rest being a spring time drain from feild run-offm read stream running through that was dry 10 all summer/fall. We lost.
Harry K
Woe! My bad.
The statement was not part of the decision; Scalia's statement was part of the oral arguments:
"Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking in the courtroom, mocked the EPA's view that the Sacketts' small lot was protected by federal law as part of the 'navigable waters' of the United States. The couple, 'never having seen a ship or other vessel cross their yard,' questioned that their lot was a wetland, Scalia said, and they are entitled to a civil hearing before the agency to contest the EPA's jurisdiction over their property. "
I'd have to agree. I have seen what appears to be weaponized baby poop.
Oren wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I heard that French babies fart Dijon mustard gas.
Or is it Grey Poupon?
There's a reason they call it "projectile"...
ROTFLOL. ;-)
Oren wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Don't knock mustard gas. It started chemotherapy.
Italian: Poopaeroni German: Pooperschnitzel English: Tea and poopets Iraq: Muslim suicide pooper
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
I heard that French babies fart Dijon mustard gas.
Or is it Grey Poupon?
Let me guess, an observant physician noticed that mustard gas victims were cancer free? ^_^
TDD
But at least now they _can_ have their day in court, before it was "I sadd it ws wet" that ends it.
Harry K
The Daring Dufas wrote in news:jkghfd$kqu$2 @dont-email.me:
At the link: The beginnings of the modern era of cancer chemotherapy can be traced directly to the discovery of nitrogen mustard, a chemical warfare agent, as an effective treatment for cancer. Two pharmacologists, Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman, were recruited by the United States Department of Defense to investigate potential therapeutic applications of chemical warfare agents. A year into the start of their research a German air raid in Bari, Italy led to the exposure of more than one thousand people to the SS John Harvey's secret cargo composed of mustard gas bombs. Dr. Stewart Francis Alexander, a Lieutenant Colonel who was an expert in chemical warfare, was subsequently deployed to investigate the aftermath. Autopsies of the victims suggested that profound lymphoid and myeloid suppression had occurred after exposure. In his report Dr. Alexander theorized that since mustard gas all but ceased the division of certain types of Somatic cells whose nature it was to divide fast, it could also potentially be put to use in helping to suppress the division of certain types of cancerous cells.[1]
So, maybe Sadam was really trying to find a cure for cancer?
Agreed. But the case was merely a correction to a badly written law (hence the unanimity - they have no qualms about bashing Congress - they are slightly more reluctant to overrule their predecessors). Some people were hoping for a much more powerful ruling, as in the Feds have no inherent right to protect wetlands or whatever they *decide* is a wetland on a Constitutional basis.
With the hideously crowded court dockets the recession has created, I really don't see much change. The horrendous fines reporters are writing about almost always accrue on paper only. Judges routinely stop the fine clock from the day a suit is filed unless the ligitant does something to really piss them off. From what I've read, the long times to trial are a strategy aimed at encouraging abatement before litigation.
Anyone familiar with disaster caused by hog waste pens (they call them lagoons) being overrun in North Carolina's hurricane Floyd knows that the EPA, as pesky as it might seem, actually does good work. At the very least they serve as an "institutional memory" for disasters like the NC hog lagoon releases. Agricultural stormwater discharges and irrigation return flows were specifically exempted from permit requirements of the Clean Water Act and now those sorts of discharges represent some of the worst and costliest water pollution events in the nation. That was rather a predictable outcome.
Pigs generate an enormous amount of manure that sits around in lagoons, stinking to high heaven but eventually decomposing. North Carolina faced enormous water cleanup costs after Floyd from all the pig crap that got into the drinking water when the lagoons overflowed with storm water. Walled enclosures and even better lagoon siting rules could have and should have prevented that disaster. But the EPA can't regulate those sorts of situations, to the best of my knowledge, although they're moving in that direction now that it's clear how much a cleanup of such a disaster costs. Now that states are going broke they don't want to get stuck with costs of such cleanups when the proper solution resides with the hog farmers.
-- Bobby G.
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