"Joe, thank you for the kind words and flattering photo. If you can have it blown up and framed, I will send a copy to my 92-year-old mother in Glen Arm.
With respect to the recent sewage spill -- WET representatives denounced the last five or six spills, to no avail. As you know, the County is building a new facility at incredible cost to County taxpayers, which will be near capacity when it comes online. What is the solution? Certainly not more septics, or package sewage plants scattered throughout the County. How about we knock down the Bay Bridge, to keep out the likes of me and my family.
Seriously, though, one has to pick your battles; and as an activist lawyer for nearly 40 years, I find damn few that can be won. A number of us in WET looked hard at the 72-inch discharge pipe planned for the Wicomico in Salisbury. If anyone has a legal strategy they believe will be succesful, please come forward so we can consider it.
We are going forward to Circuit Court next month with the first legal appeal in anyone's memory, from a subdivision decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission (via the Board of Appeals) involving a development called Deer Creek, off Morris Road. While the "cluster" designation seems unwarranted, we are also challenging several of the P&Z procedures which seem stacked in favor of developers. Wish us luck; or more helpful, join us in some of these battles.
Your readers are encouraged to see "what we are up to" by viewing our website at www.wicomicoenvironment.org. It is perhaps more fun to sit on the sidelines and pick on our lack of accomplishments. However, WET volunteers contribute several hundred hours of their time each month to what we conceive as the public interest. Come help us, if you agree; if not, then show us where we go astray.
Which brings me back to Andy Harris. I find it ironic that the bloggers criticize WET and others for not taking effective steps to address perceived wrongs in our community; and yet you seem to line up behind the likes of Harris, who bring nothing but negativity, and vote consistently to deny us the tools and the bucks to do anything about these problems. So it goes.
Fondly, Mike Pretl"
9 comments:
Mr A:
Please ask Mr. Moonbat to give us the details about this revelation--
". . . the County is building a new facility at incredible cost to County taxpayers, which will be near capacity when it comes online."
And please pass this info on to Rick Pollitt when you next speak with him.
speaking of wrong doings. What in the world are they doing behind Kmart. There is a creek that runs behind it, and they have cleared all the woods on one side of it. I thought there was a 50 foot boundry along waterways?
Maybe Mr.Pretl can explain why the Wicomico River in the 1960's was full of bass, crappie and in the spring had huge spawning runs of herring and white shad. Also the river was full of aquatic plants.The river was also full of human waste,oil slicks and trash of all descriptions. When the city started to process its sewage and claim to clean up the river all these species have largely disappeared. I have been told that the treating of our waste by clorine has lead to our river poor condition.I have had local waterman who use to work the mouth of Wicomico River in the late 1970's report to the state their concerns overlarge amounts of clorine in the water and that all their oyster beds were dying along with the fish.It looks again that goverment is problem not the answer!
To anon 7:23 - They are constructing a stormwater pond to serve the entire "Shoppers World" complex effectively protecting the existing stream from runoff by collecting it first, allowing the sediment to fall out and only the clean water will end up in the existing stream. It will actually be a huge environmental benefit - it doesn't look like it now, but it will.
anon 7:30- Thank you for letting me know, that is great to hear. I also know the Morris Rd project Mike is talking about. There are many deer, turkey and other animals where those houses will go. Its really ashame.
Joe u removed a comment earlier recalling the early spawning of shad,herring in the creeks in the Wicomico River. To add a thought,I remember a time we use to catch herring by the bushel basket with dip nets for baiting our crab pots.Every spring we went to Ouantico Creek in Quantico or at the creek that runs under Pemberton Road and loaded our pickup.Well today if you happen to be at the marina in Salisbury and a seagull chits on your head you damn well better call out the hazmat team.HARDHEAD
We used to scoop herring out of the river down at the park and that wasn't to awfully long ago. See how many buckets full you can get down there now. Not that I'd want anything out of the river. It just breaks your heart to see this entire area being killed off and it is not a slow death.
Anon 7:35 --
There no doubt were deer and wildfowl where your abode sits, once upon a time, so if you and Pretl don't want to let another owner develop that Morris Road land please tear down your homes over the weekend and return the site to its pristine state.
A good letter, with some self-deprecating humor. Also condescending.
WET can be effective not just by litigating, but speaking up, even if the vote doesn't go their way. It wouldn't have cost a dime for them to express concern about the 6-ft. pipe the city will send torrents of filthy water into the downtown river.
Environmental groups spend big bucks to back candidates for election. But here two officials on the city council were trying to promote dealing with flood water AND the environment, and would WET spend even $0 worth of breath to back them with a kind word for the river? Yes, you have to pick your battles. But not to even say anything just came off as cowardly. Who knows but that their plea could have changed just one mind on that council?
I wish them luck in litigating their cases. P&Z here stinks. But to borrow from that famous commercial:
Court fees, $500.
Attorney fees, $28,000.
Taking a public stand, Priceless.
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