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| If Andy Marlette HATES the process of IP garnering their discharge renewal permit so badly--he should prove it by going to congress with his issues--it is a FEDERAL process, something over which the Escambia BCC has no control.... |
It's easy to shake one's fist in anger and lash out at people. It's somewhat amusing to watch this happen when such a person who is decompensating and going apoplectic happens to be glib on the subject about which he is so aggrieved.
Fire! Ready! Aim! and the shadow-chasing, windmill tilting simpleton takes shots at people who have no say in the issue about which he is so heated and lathered. Who cares though, right?
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more" is the tone, as if channeled directly from the 70's cult favorite "Network." "Dammit--I'll show them!!" is the attitude.
This, folks, perfectly describes PNJ cartoonist Andy Marlette's ridiculous garbage "pieces" in Sunday's paper. (They preempted Walter Williams' excellent piece on police entrance examinations that should have run on Sunday-and did in most markets--and instead ran Andy's rambling screed about IP and Escambia County on Sunday, relegating Williams' excellent article to the no-audience Monday edition of the PNJ...ho hum)
What's he so worked-up over now--you might ask?!?
Andy is "angry" about International Paper's attempts to get a renewal of their discharge permit under NPDES.
But wait just a minute.
Who is in charge of that process anyway, you might ask? The County Commissioners?? (here is a hint--it ain't the BCC)
Answer: it is a FEDERAL program and process, delegated to the States, a product of the FEDERAL Clean Water Act. And yes, it is a very circuitous, cumbersome, opaque, and time-consuming process. And yes, it has layers and layers of processes, procedures, appeals, mitigation strategies, and due process protections for the applicant. Yes, due process--that thing that progressives like Andy normally really, really support....except when the recipient of such due process is an "EVIL" large and successful Corporation!!!
So why the heck is Andy blaming the Escambia Board of County Commissioners for this process, anyway??
Because he apparently doesn't get it.
Andy, listen to me, and check out this logical advice......
If you don't like the NPDES process, go to Congress and tell them to modernize the process and protocols under the CWA. Go yell at them---IT'S THEIR PROCESS!
Otherwise, you are just exercising yourself, pushing a wet noodle up a hill. And you look foolish.
Of course we all want a clean environment. Nobody likes pollution, and nobody wants the water flea to die. That's why I met with FDEP back in June to learn what is going on--something you obviously didn't do yet...so tell the truth--the toxicity tests on the minnow and the flea come from water at the "end of the pipe"--but water from the "end of the pipe" goes for miles and miles and through a three-berm system within 1200 acres of private "polishing" wetlands---- before it ever hits Perdido Bay. Did you know that Andy? Come on man, really?!?
