Ah, the joys of being an adult

Sitrep: 1x Boot Camp (~45 min), 1x Abs Essentials #2

When the cat's away, the mice will play.

That's how I feel about some of the "goings on" while I was on vacation. Apparently a local Sand & Gravel company applied for a permit to begin a new gravel pit about a mile or so from my house. Smack dab in the middle of my town, really, on 111.5 acres. EH is probably 95% residential as it's just a sleeper community for H. Nice of them to try to run this through during the holidays, isn't it? I just got wind of it yesterday afternoon.

So last night I ended up at a local community meeting to inform everyone about the issue. Now, I can normally be found on the side of environmental protection, and private property rights, and yes, the two can work together. I'm also practical and understand that these kinds of projects have got to go somewhere. With the proper forethought and protections in place, I could be okay with this particular project. Except for a few things:

1. The Environmental Assessment provided has very little data to backup the "minimal" impact they claim they will have
   
   
2. This will not increase the tax base as they will be closing down their other gravel pit that is pretty much played out
   
   
3. They've used one months worth of data to determine the water level, and want to mine to within 5 feet of that.
   
   
4. We are already a designated Super Fund site with much cleanup of soil and water going on. They've supposedly done two 4-pt tests on 111.5 acres to determine that it is not contaminated. WTF? When the majority of plots around this property have had to have their yards replaced?
   
   
5. There's a loophole they can use to avoid having to apply for a water permit - means no study whatsover of the impact the 24/7 operations will have on our aquifer level and existing wells. An area already having problems. Heck, the whole valley is having water issues.
   
   
6. Their existing operations have had multiple violations for non-compliance with dust control, noise, air quality, etc.
   
   
7. Main access road is already below county standards for existing amount of traffic. The county keeps denying residential subdivisions because of this, even when the developers will pay half the cost of repairs/improvements to the road. The county requires an engineering report and cost estimate. This EA has none of that, and they say the estimated minimum 76 trucks per day (no mention of # of trips per truck) is a "slight" increase.
   
   
8. It's next to several elementary schools, how about air quality of the kids breathing in the dust daily, dust which may well be contaminated with lead, arsenic and cadmium?
   
   
9. Reclamation portion of the EA is sketchy at best.

See, I could go on and on...So I've done my dutiful, voting, property-owner bit and put in my comments to the Dept of Environmental Quality (the comment period ends today!), talked to my local representatives and county commissioners (who were at the meeting last night, too.) I'm not totally against the project, I just think they need to do a proper environmental assessment. I've read the EA myself, there is very little factual/statistical data in it. From what I hear and read in news articles (thank goodness for the internet!) this is not a very good EA done by the DEQ. Even engineers who do these things for the DEQ are saying so. It's like they just checked things off the list, not expecting there'd be opposition.

The sand & gravel company purchased this land in 2001, and have not posted any signs saying they were going to mine it or anything. They have another parcel of land just a bit further north of this one, where they have had a sign posted for fifteen years saying they were going to mine there, and they've already gotten the permits. The housing developments in that area were put in after that.

So why the rush? Because the area is about to be zoned by the county as residential, that's why. If they get at least one of the permits they need prior to that, they will be grandfathered in and able to develop the pit and processing plants in this area.

I have little hopes they'll do another EA or an environmental impact statement, or deny the permit. So it looks like I'll be breathing dust by year's end. Just what my allergies needed. Sigh. And this will most likely not help my property value. Who wants to live that close to a 24/7 mining operation?

Politics, politics, politics...

Always a subject that can rile me up, a subject I'm interested in. I've been trying to avoid the national news, because the Democrats are setting themselves up to Lose the next elections. And the President is being his regular self-absorbed, egotistical, 'I'm the bully of the school-yard' self.

But surprisingly, this week I'm struggling with politics on a local level. Because I just found out (quite by accident) that there is a school election coming up on May 8th for the town I live in. Ummm, hello? Why haven't I heard about this? It's not posted anywhere, not even the school's website. Nothing in the post office, nothing on the city's website, nothing came in the mail...What the heck is up with that? A coworker said they probably only mail out notices to parents so they will be more likely to get the funding approved. That sucks. And is probably true. Thank goodness for my home page, with my local news!

I've had a heck of a time finding info, calling multiple school board and superintendent offices. Turns out there are TWO elections. One on the 8th for the elementary school district, and one on May 22nd for the high school district. Both of which I am supposed to vote in. The shock in these people's voices when I ask them if there is any material I can read before going to vote. I mean, really...Don't you think I oughta be informed????

All of these levies they are trying to get approved are last minute because our state government couldn't put aside their pathetic squabbling to approve a state budget, school budget and one other thing I can't remember because I'm tired right now. So they adjourned the session and left town. So the Governor has to call a "special" session, which is going to cost Montana taxpayers millions, so they can squabble some more over who has the right idea on how to spend the money the government doesn't even have yet (projected surplus). :( What a freakin' bunch of idiots. And sadly, I did help put a few of them in office. From what I can tell, however, it's a handful on each side of the aisle that are causing the problems, the ones in control of the powerful committees. They're able to stall/kill/table bills and motions just because a different one of theirs was. Pathetic. Give them a good spanking and then ground them all, I say. They're acting like 5 year olds and should be treated as such.

One of my coworkers said to me "Just vote no." Arghhh. Am I the only one that understands the importance of sufficiently funded schools? I mean, they get bad because they are the first place we cut funds when money is tight. And frankly, I live in this town so I'd like the kids around me to grow up not stupid, okay? A better trained/educated work force attracts better paying jobs, and helps the economy for everyone! [Banging head against wall] What if it's actually a good plan? Economically feasible, well-planned, and won't hike my property taxes that much. Geez. Just voting "no" right off the bat doesn't sound like a good idea. Neither does voting yes, either.

Granted, just throwing money at the school won't fix all the problems. But if there's no money to have enough space or teachers or computers, what the heck can we expect? Maybe if we paid a realistic wage to teachers, we'd have better quality ones. And maybe if we stopped molly-coddling kids and make them accountable as well...

Whoa. I'll stop now. My point is, whatever happened to informed, educated and thought-through voting? Maybe then things wouldn't be so screwed up in this country.