Category Archives: Wetlands

Yet More of My Thoughts on the Oil Spill and a few links

Posted on May 18, 2010 | 2 comments

This is going to be another short post related to the big British Petroleum (BP) Transocean Deep Water Horizon Rig Tragedy. I am just throwing up some links that might be relevant. First I recommend watching the film Louisiana Story directed by Robert Flaherty, with portrayals by Joseph Boudreaux and Lionel Leblanc and produced and funded by Standard Oil of New Jersey. This film is described or offered for sale in the next two links. 

http://www.amazon.com/Louisiana-Story-Joseph-Boudreaux/dp/B00008UALJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Story

I also want to give some idea of the cultural and historical significance of Louisiana’s barrier islands. I think that reading Kate Chopin’s novella The Awakening is a good portal into this whole world of discussion and discovery. 

http://www.katechopin.org/the-awakening.shtml

Then I also wanted to give you a chance to see the significance of disrupting Atlantic Bluefin Tuna spawning in this area at this time. There is so much more at stake than is proportionate to the size of the waters that are being disrupted relative to the world’s ocean’s. In this case I am reproducing a few lines from the site as well. 

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=236

“Although Atlantic bluefin are widely distributed and migrate thousands of kilometers, there are two confirmed spawning locations—the Gulf of Mexico in the western Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea in the eastern Atlantic. Although many ecological and environmental variables undoubtedly affect both the location and productivity of spawning in these two areas, relatively little is known concerning why bluefin spawn where they do.

Spawning in the Gulf of Mexico occurs between mid-April and mid-June when females, which mature around age 8, release approximately 30 million eggs each. The highest density of bluefin larvae, the primary indicator of spawning, occurs in the northern Gulf of Mexico with lesser larval concentrations appearing off the Texas coast and in the Straits of Florida.”

In addition to all of this I am providing a link to the Board which promotes Louisiana seafood.  They are among those trying to cover th Gulf spill and response as well. 

http://www.louisianaseafood.com/

There are many links which I have not covered or shown here.  I do want to end by including a link to this great habitat of birds and plants as it has been protected by the government for over a century. There is a wide variety of habitats outside of these parks which also need help and support.

http://www.stateparks.com/breton.html

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Gulf of Mexico, Oil & Gas Industry, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands

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The Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill: Thoughts About the Crisis

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 4 comments

The Deep Water Horizon rig which was a Transocean craft operating off the Louisiana coast at a depth of more than 5,ooo feet. This operation was a British Petroleum operation and British Petroleum does not exist but is succeeded by BP LPC. I usually refer to the corporation British Petroleum. Transocean is, I am fairly sure, a Swiss based corporation and had flagged this ship as Marshall Islands vessel although it had no historical operation ties with the tiny islands and was built in the Far East not the middle of the Pacific. These corporations allege that Halliburton which was the cement contractor possibly had something to do with the  accident which resulted in an explosion, eleven deaths and the sinking of the floating Deep Water Horizon rig. The Mineral Management Service is charged with the safety of these offshore rigs and also collects money from offshore leases for the coffers of the US government. Since April 19 it is alleged by many that 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons of crude oil every day have been percolating up and gushing out of the wrecked well. That is well over 4,000,000 gallons of oil.

The Louisiana coastline nearby is a fragile saltwater marsh. Pelicans, rare sea turtles, a pod of sperm whales, porpoises, rare terns and 400 other species breed (mostly at this time of year in these marshes) other rare species breed in adjoining states. The Atlantic Bluefin tuna reproduces only in thses waters. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port or LOOP acts as the door to a huge portion of US petroleum imports. New Orleans and the Mississippi River serve as a very major world port.  The fisheries of varied commercial and recreational finfish are an enormous industry. In addition hundreds of millions of annual dollars in income are derived from the harvest of oysters, shrimp and crabs. Countless small ports and resorts are operational fo fisheries and beaches throughout the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  

Culturally and historically this calamity comes at a time when many other factors stress the cultures and communities and states in this reason. In addition there are very grave geopolitical  consequences. I hope to comment more about this crisis in future blog posts. I am already committed to discussing this and have done so elsewhere. The problems raised are not new to me.

Please read this old post: 

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

I will return to this topic when I can. I have made a few editorial changes since publication adding about ten words above and also now saying that the companies involved asked for environmental waivers, flagged a ship with an undemanding flag of convenience, had no extraordinary measures ready to deal with the extraordinary drilling that have been shown to be very prudent or excellent measures. The company which made several billions in profits in the last reported quarterhas so far allegedly spent about 350 million US dollars on response to the spill.  It would seem to me that their lack of respect for this location and the nature of the project demands the most forceful legal response conceivable. Stopping at the legal limits of response is probably imoral but it is what one might ask people to do for the sake of preserving this civilization. This may not be an act of war or piracy but it is nearly tantamount to such an act.

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Posted in BP - British Petroleum, Environment, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Wetlands

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The Direct Imperial Government in the New American Regime: Part Two

Posted on May 10, 2010 | 1 comment

In the first post of this series within a series I delineated the role of the royal waste and ruins right  included in the traditional lore of rights pertaining to established Acadian-Arcadian royalty and its expression in the Imperial Waste Authority  of the new Direct Imperial Government.  In this post I want to discuss the next service selected for our little series of posts on this topic.  In the first post I set out what I intended to cover: ” The four Agencies discussed here will be The Imperial Waste Authority, The Human Habitat Expansion Agency (Distinct from the Human Habitat Expansion Office of the Imperial House),  The Imperial Wellness Agency and the Government Liaison Agency for the Imperial House, Household and Services. In discussing these agencies I will discuss the DIG as a whole.” Some very key agencies mentioned  in previous series of posts would be part of the DIG and are not included here. These agencies include the Securities Assurance Administration regulating and providing a minimal insurance package for stock markets, Imperial Transport Authority not mentioned directly bit alluded to briefly in several places and the Direct Imperial Governments constituent zones, districts and fiefdoms  as well as their means for interacting with the whole DIG. What can be done in this little series is to define a few aspects of this government. Let this post delineate the Agency of the Direct Imperial Government which will most exemplify the uniqueness and aspirations of this proposed regime. If this regime were to become what might honestly and widely be called a great success in both its own time and in the view of history then it must be in substantial part because the Human Habitat Expansion Agency has succeeded to a significant degree. However, no challenge undertaken by this newly proposed regime will be as difficult to satisfy as the successful operation of this agency and the furtherance of its aims.

 The Human Habitat Expansion Agency

  A. Constitutional and Legal Founding of the HHEA

1. The Constitutional Provision  

The Human Habitat Expansion Agency would most certainly challenge much of the established order of the world by its mere existence. That is true of many aspects of this regime’s proposed operations and undertakings however none more than this. Yet with an irony that occurs fairly frequently in the course of human history this agency and the undertakings that will  be led and facilitated by this agency and the relevant counterparts it will have offer the best chance of long-term development in a peaceful and productive future in the world. The new Constitution shall provide in the Article on the Direct Imperial Government in the Subsection on Human Habitat Expansion that:

“Principal and most serious of all the obligations undertaken by this regime which were not undertaken by the previous constitutional order of the old republic shall be the pursuit of a realistic and careful plan which is nonetheless bold and innovative for human habitat expansion. This shall be among the Offices and Ministries of the Emperor and his Imperial House. The Direct Imperial Government however, shall play a very important role in its own right by coordinating and integrating the operations of the Imperial House, the United States Government, the governments of the Constitutional Jurisdictions and the activities of private persons and private enterprise in this endeavor of  human habitat expansion. The Direct Imperial Government shall discharge these duties primarily under the auspices of the Human Habitat Expansion Agency.”

2. The Statutory Creation and Structure of the HHEA

In the Direct Imperial Government Civil Code Title Direct Imperial Government there will be a major Section called Agencies and in that Section a Subsection called Human Habitat Expansion Agency. This Subsection will not be fully outlined much less written here but I will specify in paragraph form what it shall basically provide. The law will provide that this is an agency of the highest rank and order in the DIG. It will provide that it consists of an External Minister of Human Habitat appointed by the Emperor from five nominees submitted by the DIG Legislature for a period of twelve years renewable for seven more years  and removable by the Emperor at the end of one or at the end of  five years and by the DIG Legislature at the end of three years and by the GRIHHA at the end of eight years. Under this shall be seventeen position filled by the External Minister at his or her whim and four positions nominated by him or her that must be confirmed by the US Senate. Those positions shall be Surveyor General, Waste Authority Liaison, Chief Biologist and Bricoleur General. Each of these shall be entitled to appoint five of their immediate subordinates in rank and ten staff to their direct offices. All other positions shall be filled by the Imperial Civil Service, The Emperor’s Maintenance Corps, the Direct Imperial Government Police  or the other proper agencies or contractors. However, Civil Service and Maintenance Corps personnel may be classed as permanent employees of the  Human Habitat Expansion Agency. 

The Surveyor General will locate and assess areas for human colonization on desert pelagic shelfs in the seas near the Empire and in its waters, in seamounts, and on craters on the Moon and on Mars. Once a Human Habitat Expansion Treaty is effected the Surveyor General will work with other powers to effect mutual benefit and avoid confrontation wherever possible. This Division will also set up the basic markings and plans of a site selected for colonization.

The Waste Authority Liaison and the Division subordinate to this official will prepare projections of materials and resources needed for all aspects of a colony and work with the planning, preparation and prepositioning as well as final transport of all resources which can be had from the lower end of distressed and devalued assets of the IWA for which the IWA will be paid mostly in rights in the new colony and by not having to dispose of that true waste in other sites. This Liaison will also keep a record of what is placed where and arrange for a program of monitoring health risks, emissions, and leaching as well as supporting IWA services to the established colony.

The Chief Biologist will be in charge of setting up all Crown Colonies as places with sustaining agriculture, recreational stressed species nature reserves and fisheries as significant parts of the overall plan. In colonies licensed and not operated by the Crown the Chief Biologists Division will be  responsible to see that the sustainable biotic component and environmental impact standards specified in the Direct Imperial Government Civil Code are fully met.

The Bricoleur General shall be in charge of interacting with the Colonial Architect in charge and the Master Architect who shall serve at the pleasure of the External Minister of Human Habitat Expansion. He shall be in charge  of special labor and planning units who can optimize substandard and distressed resources used for these massive projects and who especially can take irregular object that make up the vast majority of an artificial island and join it to the basic premium structures built directly by the Colonial Architect. He shall also have a vast library of modeling software over time which allows the best use of varied objects for building massive artificial islands.

The statutes will also provide some detail of the basic concepts of artificial islands and crater cap colonies. These things have been discussed at length elsewhere in this set of blog posts and in related sites and will not be discussed here at length. That will be a substantial portion of the Statute.

The highest Imperial Civil Service Position will be the Licenser General who will license the colonization projects of private parties and of governments and provide for their interaction with this agency. The Imperial Civil Service  will be a separate title in The Direct Imperial Government Civil Code. Civil Service positions will offer  access to the comforts and securities of a middle class American Dream to people from throughout the Empire. That will probably be more valuable as less is going to be given as an open-ended entitlement than in the regime in which we now live. They will be expected to do very good work at a humane pace and seldom to do excellent work at a frenetic pace.

B. Logistics of Starting  Up and Operating

1. The HHEA shall be a bond issuing authority overseen by the Imperial Services Operating Treasury.

2. License Fees shall be payable in advance.

3. In some case the Imperial Waste Authority will pay advanced fees for storage of certain scheduled materials.

4. The HHEA will receive on percent of DIG revenues every year outside the regular budget process of the DIG Legislature. It will invest a third in a Trust and spend the rest in annual operations.

5.The HHEA will receive funds as may be allocated by the DIG.

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Posted in Crater Cap Colonies, Environment, Geopolitics, Labor, Moon, Royalty and Empire, United Nations, United States of America, Wetlands

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The Direct Imperial Government in the New American Regime: Part One

Posted on May 6, 2010 | 1 comment

The last few months I have been blogging mostly about a proposed new regime in America. I intend to continue to do this while at the same time addressing the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Direct Imperial Government does not yet exist in any way and is not at all the same as the components of the new regime which are reformed aspects of the current United States or State government. Nor is the Direct Imperial Government  like the Acadian people, or the general concept or institution of polygamy.  Nor is it like the concepts or remaining practices of classic Greek political science or royalism. Here the topic being discussed is something that is not, has never been and may never be. It is the part of this whole model of a proposed regime which is the most similar therefore to a megalomaniacal delusion or a whole cloth fabrication. There is very little evidence or standard to say whether it is right or not.  As with other parts of the model I want to use the part to illustrate and illumine the whole. I will not even attempt a complete overview here. However, there is something close to a complete overview if one examines all related posts closely. Here in this series of posts I will discuss four Direct Imperial Government Agencies and there proposed operation.  The four Agencies discussed here will be The Imperial Waste Authority, The Human Habitat Expansion Agency (Distinct from the Human Habitat Expansion Office of the Imperial House),  The Imperial Wellness Agency and the Government Liaison Agency for the Imperial House, Household and Services. In discussing these agencies I will discuss the DIG as a whole. Not how to dig a hole but the D.I.G. as a whole system.

About the oil spill, I want to encourage anyone reading to look at my earlier post. This was written before the disaster in the gulf.  Please see:  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/ this will give one an idea of lots of contextual issues. As recently as when I posted this post I had not yet begun to openly incite change to a royalist form of government. Although this is an issue that would be addressed mostly by the Kingdom of Louisiana in my larger proposed Imperial America it is still relevant to the issues discussed in this post as well. Before continuing I also want to include a statement of sympathy for the families and loved ones of forty-nine year old Donald Clark of Newellton, Louisiana as well the bereaved mourning forty-year old Stephen Curtis who leaves of a wife and two teenage children.  Also missed and remembered by their families and loved ones are fifty-six year old Eunice, Louisiana  native Blair Manuel who lived a life resident in St. Amant and left a family and fiancée. Twenty-nine year old engineer Gordon Jones allegedly died three days before his sixth anniversary. His wife Michelle (my ex-wife’s name) is expecting their child. Two other Americans who will be missed were from Texas and four were from Mississippi. The bodies of these eleven have not been recovered. All of these losses have been somewhat overshadowed by the potential cataclysm that is this spill of thousands of  square miles.

I. Imperial Waste Authority 

In this post I going to discuss the Imperial Waste Authority. I will relate it to the overall picture of the Government and to the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill occupying much of my mind at present. However, I will really try to map the agency out as well.

A. The Constitutional Founding and Legal Establishment of the Imperial Waste Authority

In the formation of the totality of the new regime there will be many elements of the grand political palette which will be brought to bear on the problems and issues of the present and which will be addressed as regards the institutions of the future.  The Direct Imperial Government in general will be the portion of the regime where the efforts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the New Deal and the  big government programs of Wilson and even of Lincoln. The Direct Imperial Government will be fairly compared to the corporate fascism of the Axis powers of the Second World War in some ways. However, unlike the image of those very varied examples this will be a government of both enumerated powers and enumerated agencies of theat power. The Constitution and the other founding documents and bodies must be designed and put into effect in such a way as to make clear what the balance of powers in the relatively complex regime must be. The Imperial Waste Authority must be the most in this corporate authoritarian regime of all the agencies of the Direct Imperial Government.

1. The Constitutional Article on the Emperor in a Subsection on Waste and Ruin shall Provide:

“The Emperor shall have a supreme right and sovereign privilege to profit from the waste and ruins of the realm personally, in his House, in his Peers and in his Direct Imperial Government. Among the Ministers of the House there shall be a Minister of Waste and Ruins whose office shall assume other functions provided in this clause when those to whom they are assigned are unable to perform them or when such institutions may have been temporarily dissolved or abolished at the pleasure of the Emperor. The Court Architect and the Majordomos di Palazzo of the three Unity titles along with the Head of Imperial Ruins Board along with five persons appointed by the Direct Imperial Government and four persons appointed by the Emperor from among the Representatives of the House of Representatives. The Imperial Waste Authority shall have authority over all waste and shall itself establish and constitutionally govern under the pleasure of the Emperor the Imperial Waste Corporation and the Imperial     Waste Authority Federation of Constitutional Jurisdictions. While there shall be a regular review of the constitutional operation of this Imperial Waste Authority every five years which shall determine its possible undue authority and influence over matters unrelated or insufficiently related to waste it shall not conform to the general structure of our constitution as regards federal issues or the separation of powers. It shall be an agency of extremely direct and unreviewed powers to accomplish its purpose. The Imperial Waste Authority shall have a Marshall General and Marshall’s Corps  to enforce its laws and regulations as well as standing in all legal matters and disputes related to waste. ”

2. Constitutional Jurisdictions:

Every Constitutional Jurisdiction will have to pass a provision of its Constitution authorizing full cooperation and compliance with the Imperial Waste Authority and also recognizing the Emperor’s rights in Waste and Ruins.  This will have to take place as part of the revolutionary founding of the new regime. In this they will specify how their delegates to  the Imperial Waste Federation of Imperial Corporations  will be appointed, salaried and managed.

3. The Imperial Waste Corporation

The Imperial Waste Corporation shall assume all contracts for waste management of any kind in which a government is involved as a party at any level at the time of this founding. The party currently contracted shall be presumed to continue in operation of the contract in one of a number of ways. All major corporations engaged in activities related to waste in the realm which wish to continue to be major actors in this industry will rewrite their corporate bylaws and articles of incorporation to conform to the new regime. They shall develop a unique three-part structure in which there shall exist under one supreme board a subsidiary of the Imperial Waste Corporation, a Conformist Division and a Competitive Division. Under Imperial Waste Authority Regulations these will each operate in different spheres of activity. All will be subject to being summoned to assist the Imperial Waste Authority in emergency response and waste related disaster response activities to a substantial degree. All such established corporations shall exchange some of their stock as demanded by a scale in the laws for Executive Stock in the Imperial Waste Corporation. All minor players, individuals and governments involved in these activities will have the opportunity and sometimes the requirement to buy Preferred Stock. By formula and law ten percent of the assets valuation of the Imperial Waste Corporation will be traded on a market (starting with the New York Stock Exchange) as Common Stock. This Corporation will have reviews by the Imperial Waste Authority which will publish an annual white paper. However, it will be able to use tax funds in some operations, to interact in unique ways with the overall authority. It shall support unique project related to Waste that are overseen and authorized by the Imperial Waste Authority.

B. Goals of the Imperial Waste Authority

The goal of the Imperial Waste Authority is to operate in such a way that as much of the waste it handles as possible find its way into good and useful service which cause it not to be waste. It is especially to seek to build up assets to assist in the clean-up related to events such as storms, floods, oil spills and fires which produce great waste. It cannot be sued for not participating or raising a standard but will seek to gradually raise a standard in these matters as it proceeds. The Imperial Waste Authority will seek to develop a new structure to see the   varied distressed and devalued  items into newly useful entities as often and as easily as possible. It will be able to access large resources from throughout the Empire for that purpose. It shall maintain an Academic Division and Library which shall accumulate and advance all technical and social knowledge and skill related to the activities in which it is engaged.

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Posted in Acadians, Environment, Geopolitics, Louisiana, Royalty and Empire, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands

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Autumn in Acadiana

Posted on October 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

Around Abbeville Anglo-Acadian Americans as appellation for autumn say fall.

Unless there are reasons not to say things for cued content or audience.

There is gumbo, TV baseball and football.  We hunt and play or watch ball.

Untill November it is too early for the apt application of “fall” present tense.

Mostly  life looks like summer although  so much nicer to most us for the cool.

Not like summer where comfort comes from the AC or, better yet, the pool.

 

I love this time of year in average terms though storms can make it nearly hell.

Now Yankee Autumn in Acadiana‘s tale was a worse time yet for what they tell. 

 

Abbeville, Breaux Bridge, New Iberia and Ville Platte will no Vermont rival.

Colored leaves beyond the imagination of most folks exist in that state.

Around here we get the generous chicken tree to call out fall’s arrival.

Dour grow our perennial oaks and hold shabby green out even late.

In conifers too we have more poverty of leaf than color’s carnivals.

As among these greens, greys and browns we look we see bursts of blaze.

Now we see more game and fowl amid the wildlands less lush maze.

Autumn in Acadiana is our autumn and acceptably summer lulls.

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Posted in Acadians, College Football, Environment, Wetlands

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Ideal Wetlands Policy on the Louisiana Coast

Posted on October 2, 2009 | 10 comments

I have decided to address the issues of wetlands conservation in Louisiana briefly in this post. In the past I have conspired for significant political change which would address the challenge of wetlands and coastal preservation and restoration along with many other issues that would be addressed only in the context of some very large political changes. This post is sort of an admission of defeat compared to those nearly forgotten goals. On the other hand it is for more than I am ever likely to see happen.

1. I would like to see some kind of stimulus fund used to by not one very large single tract but a series of many smaller tracts operated as a single National park with a total of perhaps 100,000 acres in all from the Atchafalya Swamp, the Chandeleur Islands, Cheniere Au Tigre, Grand Isle, Vermilion Bay’s coast, the Mississippi natural levees, and Ile des Dernier among other places.

2. I would like to see each oil and gas drilling and production corporation which has a part in developing the resources of Louisiana’s share of the Gulf madeto participate or have its own artificial barrier island. Each of these would have to include a fish hatchery, a wetlands plants nursery and  an artificial beach as well as a grassy wetlands section of several times the dry acreage on the inland side of the island. These islands would also have to hold a clinic, a regional drilling office, serve as a juncture for pipelines and have a public docks and small hotel. On the gulfside of the islands the corporations must operate or lease out underwater habitats and laboratories joined to a central umbilicus running up the island. The islands must be  built of at least eighty percent certified clean waste such as wrecks,  broken concrete, compressed and sealed garbage and other materials.

3. A Louisiana State Park should be set up in long lanes connected to several giant purification and oxidation farms worked by convicts and detainees as well as other workers. Part of this farm would be leased out as cattle pasture to offset expenses. As much as possible of emergency drainage and partialy cleaned sewerage would go from the cities of South Louisiana to these farms. After going through a simple plant and oxidation ponds the waters would go through an artificial eco system until reaching the park lanes. These lanes would resort to canals and pipes where necessary but would generaly run as continous fishing, hunting and camping stips of wetlands and coulees dep into the Gulf waters.

4.The lanes would enter the fully flooded areas and there would be an artificial long island causeway with many breaks through which as many as possible future pipelines should be run. The surface of this would have to be ninety percent suitable and reseved for ither simple recreational use or pure wildlife reservation.

5. There would be a designated spillway zones between the island causeway and the ends of the lanes. These  zones would  have a concentration of wetlands preserves, erosion fences and jetties and all of the storm water pumps sediment rich floods and excess waters which could not be used in ordinary diversions would be pumped ad diverted into these areas. The state would also operate commercial species hatcheries and nurseries for seafood supported by a special tax and operate lease and overseen new oysterbeds in this zone.

6. When this was done a series of sites for artificial islands set in between and landward from the oil and gas islands would be leased to casino resorts.

7.  A series of  levees and canals would be built around and between the lanes which would try to use existing structures and make a coherent feature of wildlife, wetlands, transit and drainage policies.

I expect things would be far from perfect if we did all of this. However, I also expect this is far better than the horror to which we are headed and have always been headed.

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Posted in Environment, Wetlands

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