While the economy is in the crapper, all too often Americans get slapped in the face by the Feds when they make certain announcements like we're going to dump $50 million into the Chesapeake Bay.
First of all, we can't afford it right now. I know, guys like Mike Pretl will come back saying, we can't afford not to. Well I say to Mike Pretl and those like him, PROVE IT!
When we spend this kind of money doing anything, it better come back crystal clear, yet every single report we've ever seen ever since they came out with this Clean The Bay crap has been a complete failure, as if NOTHING was actually done.
We sell Maryland State Tags with "Save The Bay" on it and get millions upon millions of additional funding and quite frankly, someone needs to step up to the plate and simply say, who's pocketing this money and getting rich?
I can say so without any recourse because like I said, every single report that comes back tells us it doesn't even look like any attempt was made because the Chesapeake Bay is still polluted.
This is only one of many programs the Feds back and while many politicians go into Office with perhaps a little bit of money, they sure do come out of Office milti millionaires and I want to know why, don't you?
The reason I challenge this in particular this morning is, I'm tired of watching our government spend good money after bad money. They are stupid businessmen and you keep electing them. If YOU knew $50,000,000.00 wouldn't do jack to help the Chesapeake Bay, would YOU go out and spend it? If YOU knew quite a bit of this money wasn't actually going to be spent on actually cleaning up the Bay, (even though that's what they sell the public on) and instead it is to be used to build trails, well, let me just show you what some of the money will be spent on.
In Maryland, the funds will include:
$1 million for the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Water trails Network, which provides support to more than 160 parks, wildlife refuges and museums, centered around the Chesapeake Bay, as well as 22 water trails.
$2 million for the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County.
$500,000 for the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail.
I just want to know, who's lining who's pockets? Who audits the $50,000,000.00? If Blogs are worth anything in America, I think watch dog Blogs who concentrate on these kind of issues educating the Public as to where your funding is going would best serve Americans and since I don't personally know of any I'll simply reach out to all of you to see if there are places you might know about that can help us better understand and trust our government officials.
IMHO, I have yet to see one of these programs actually work, yet I've watched billions of dollars get spent on these feel good organizations who get added as pork in Congress and they all need to get shut down. That's right, shut them all down. We do NOT have the money right now, shut them all down.
When the Bay starts stinking so bad we need to do something about it we can use all that money we saved over the years to actually do something about it. However, you and I both know that's never going to happen. Politicians like Barbara Mikulski would like to scare you into believing it will, but it won't. They're completely full of crap and either enjoying some kind of benefit from programs like this or completely stupid.
By the way, I'm not saying to close down the department of the Environment. Let them monitor the Bays, (or whomever does that) but my guess is, the Chesapeake Bay will do just fine. I also believe we're all conscious about not polluting the Bay and those who just don't give a crap will continue to not give a crap, like the City of Salisbury Waste Water Treatment Plant. If the MDE can't control them and fine them properly for truly polluting the Bay, well, I'll direct you back to my impression of this entire thing being a complete scam to start with.
When I hear of funding going to restore something like the Chesapeake Bay, (call me stupid) but I don't see that money going into trails. I see it going into filters and plants. Oh well, perhaps Salisbury News, (SBY News) can start to make a difference.
31 comments:
Ok, so apparerntly you don't have a clue as to how much money the MD/VA businesses as well as the states generate because of the Bay. 50 mil. is a drop in the bucket when you consider the amount of revenue generated from sports fishing, commercial fishing, boating, seafood industry, outdoor tourism, as well as the millions of people who either have moved here or are looking to move here because they enjoy these activities on the Bay.
I agree that we need to curtail spending but this is definetly a case where the investment is worth the return. Don't believe me, then talk to the local watermen that fight for Bay restoration right alongside the same environmentalist that they despise for imposing catch limits. They all agree on providing funds to restore the Bay.
I'm still outraged that I have to pay $30 a year for the flush tax. I haven't seen any thing that this money has done. The government always wants more. If we paid $60 flush tax the feds would still be convinced that we needed 50 million to clean it up. At some point we have to say enough has been spent on cleaning up the bay. I'm not even sure the bay needs cleaning up, I agree with the writter, prove it first and then only spend what we can afford.
Sure the waterman want the money for the bay restoration because they get part of it. They are paid for various things out of that money. It's similar to paying farmers not to plant crops. It's all insane and needs to be stopped now.
Sounds like pork barrel spending to me Joe.
Want to clean the bay, outlaw all farming that is so close to the water table. In other words get rid of all farming on the eastern shore and western shore 100 miles from the bay. The eco system can not handle all the chemicals that are dumped into this earth. I know I know, you don't like the answer. Don't ask then.
The only way the bay will ever be restored is to get some flushing action from the Atlantic. Somewhere enough obstacles have prevented tidal action from doing the job.
Probably a great deal of the funds that are supposed to go for bay clean up (or any other program for that matter) goes into beauracracy (overhead). How much actually goes to concrete on the ground action is just most likely a small fraction of the money spent. The enviro's have learned to make a great living through government programs and grants from the big foundations. They have to keep a problem alive to keep getting funded, therefore nothing is ever fixed.
8wt
No mention of the western shore dumping into the bay.
11:14
thats because they dont dump THEY HAVE A STRAIGHT PIPELINE TO THE BAY
hey 9:46
You missed the point , they can't and won't prove where the funds are being spent. The money that has been spent hasn't done a bit of good , the Bay is in worse shape. Where are the results of spending billions in the past 10 years? You don't know and neither does anybody , that's the POINT.
Not the top of your head.
I was a waterman , they don't care about anything but themselves. Got away from those idiots .
10:56, flushing action from the Atlantic? What do you think killed the Coastal Bays? Flushing action from the Ocean City inlet did. That naturally made inlet allowed salt water into the bay and slowly killed it over a few decades. It would do the same to the Chesapeake.
Joe you're absolutely right. These programs go unchecked for so long that there is no way to determine where these funds go. I would venture to say that less than half actually make it to the bay.
Theres to many people.
I wish we could spend $100,000,000! You're not seeing the real picture here. What would happen if we didn't spend the money that we do on the Bay? You may not see the results but they are there. Ever been to China or Japan? If you want to see what unchecked pollution looks like, go there. Stop thinking about your wallet, and think about the future.
anonymous 11:50, RIGHT ON!
My point is, where's all that money, how much has been robbed from the public, where did it go?
We already know the end result. Nothing worked. It's a scam, a lie, a theft. politicians are pulling this all over the United States and they get Tree Huggers like Jim Rapp, Mike Pretl, Mike Dunn and other a-holes that that work for companies that suck the life out of kind hearted people and screw them without any lubricant.
Show me projects that have worked. Take the shore line project Jim Rapp F'ed everyone out of along the river in Salisbury. Can someone please show me a PLANT that has grown over ther past 3 or 4 years from that multi million dollar project.
It's everywhere. Now it's time Salisbury News do sometyhing about it. This time it will be on a more National level. Look out Washington because here we come.
I too noticed that nothing in the article mentioned actually cleaning up the bay or what real plans they have to clean it up. I say take whatever money we can get because if we don't someone else will, but for crying out loud use it to decrease the pollution instead of building trails.
Joe, you talk big but never deliver. Stop complaining and get involved. I don't know any of these "a-holes" that you speak of but if they are trying to make a difference, even if they fail, that's doing more than sitting behind a computer.
anonymous 3:57, I do more behind this computer than you have ever dreamed of doing in your life time.
You pussy, why don't you man up and use your name when you make a challenge like that. Funny past is, while there's been next to no comments recently, only John Robinson tried to put one up a few minutes ago and now your comment. Grow up and man up John. You're about as stupid as they come.
$50 million is an insultingly small amount of money to clean up the Bay. It should be more like 10 times that amount. That's what the Great Lakes get.
4:27, you must suck off of the system and pay no taxes. If you have money, how about you just donating yours for this clean up. I personally am very upset with a bunch of politicians taking my money and deciding what to do with it. Instead of worring about cleaning it up, just stop polluting and it will clean up itself. You must love O'Malley and Obama and all the liberals.
Thanks for the compliment Joe, 11:50
was Wayne
I can build you a nature trail for a few grand. 20k at the most.
$500k? Someone's getting paid son.
For just another $100,000, Salisbury could outfit their new fireboat with anti-poluting plumbing.
I just saved 300 State jobs by suggesting this. These are jobs that PROBABLY would have gone away without my suggestion. Now I'm thinking of a campaign to promote smoking because that would same MORE jobs such has the State Employees that count State Tobacco Tax revenue.
Saving jobs is fun. Not much else you can do in this economy.
Unless more is done upstream,none of Marylands efforts to clean the bay will work.The Chesapeake Bay is one huge drainage basin for alot of waterways to the north and west of us
this is of course the same epa telling us we have to buy cfl bulbs, despite the fact of the cost & that they contain mercury & cannot "just be tossed" into a landfill, by their own recommendations. This same epa will be having us eat bugs since the farmers are so polluting the bay. HOG S%^#T. mercury contaminants in the bay are from LARGE plants spewing output on a large & daily scale, such as our own wwtps, just one out of many. Look "up-bay" for HUGE contributors. Epa will tell you the Hg is from coal burning, like we do soooo much of it here. Cheer up, though, MD will be building a new nuclear plant in it's about time someone did.
But I agree, in these tough times that money would be better served in repairs to that pair of bridges, imo & Mr. Kennedy can take his epa'ers back to Mass. & build some wind farms, that might obstruct his view while out on his yacht in unpolluted waters.
I can build a trail for way less than 20 grand. just rent me a bulldozer for a day & tell me where you want this trail. if it's too heavy we'll use goats...money for goat food, though.
Joe: here is a project that started last year and shows promise. It is hard to say that it "works" since it is new.
Last year our neighborhood started growing oysters off our docks. They did extremely well. A few months ago they were gathered up and transported to a non-harvestable reef. Now we are growing our 2nd crop.
From what communications I have seen, the participation, survival, and growth rates were well above expectations.
If we can grow new oysters and not over harvest them, we can slowly clean up the bay. And this project has not been very expensive, either.
Water trails! Do you know how much it takes to make a water trail???
Well, let me tell you. Those 87 bulldozers do nothing but sink and conk out once they're under water! We will keep trying, though, with the next shipment of your tax dollars! Smoothing out those waves will be this year's project, and next year we're gonna make all the water trails "Handicapped Accessible"!!!
It's clear most of the posters here don't have a clue about what it's going to take to actually clean the Bay up. It's a 64,000 square mile watershed that crosses 6 states. $50 million a year is nothing.
If we're going to stop the farmers from using fertilizer to grow the food you eat that will be ok. BUT, first you have to stop all those rich people with their ostentatious homes and well manicured lawns from dumping tons of fertilizer on them. They are releasing more nitrogen into the waterways than the farmers.
Who cares if the farmers live a good life, THEY WORK HARD FOR IT. How many of you work the hours in a day a farmer works? How many of you could keep up with a farmers work load?
Thats what I thought. NONE!
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