Jimmy Higgins
Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
- Messages
- 50,259
- Basic Beliefs
- Calvinistic Atheist
So, one of George W. Bush's decent plans back with his original Blue Print in 2001 was to help in the push to split up Storm and Sewer lines (the general Cleveland area has a mixed storm/sewer system) to reduce sewer discharges into waterways (ie when precipitation intensity raises above a not so high level).
The NEORSD in Ohio had put together a plan before hand that was looking towards a long term capital plan that would build massive temporary storage tunnels, as well as other changes, in order to reduce the necessity of dumping untreated sewage into the waterways. A number of these have been built already, others are being designed right now, others are on the drawing board.
This stuff costs money. So the NEORSD did a massive study to determine how much to charge local residents, as well as studies on private corporate property and how much impervious surface cover they have. Then in '13, they started charging people for impervious surfaces because those surfaces lead directly to runoff... the stuff we need to store so as not to dump poop into the creeks, runs, streams, rivers.
Some local towns protested! They said they don't want to have to pay. Ironically, Bath Township is one of those protestors, who has suffered from pretty big flooding recently in the past couple of years due to some decent sized storms (and they want the flooding to stop).
So you have the NEORSD, which was put into place to deal with wasterwater and stormwater (directly says so in the Ohio Revised Code). Their authority in this area is blatantly obvious. NEORSD puts in a fee to deal with stormwater and then the 8th District Court of Appeals in Ohio rules that NEORSD has overstepped its bound in dealing with stormwater.
This case was heard by the Ohio Supreme Court (also known as the Right-Wing Not Thinking Tank) and the Justices couldn't understand, that despite the clear language of the code, how the NEORSD was a player in stormwater management. I'd have to say that the NEORSD lawyer was overwhelmed and not answering questions as well as he could have, him being a lawyer and all and not actually involved with the massive stormwater management program that has been going on for over a decade, but the Justices kept wondering why stormwater was in NEORSD's control when in fact, the NEORSD system is a combined storm/sewer system. That when it rained hardish, the NEORSD system was overtax'd causing overflows in the waterways.
I couldn't handle listening to the questioning. It was so absurd. It was like the NEORSD lawyer saying the sky was blue and they replied, "but what about when it cloudy?" To make things even more absurd, NEORSD, as are other wasterwater management organizations are under the thumb of the EPA, being instructed to reduce the overflows. So the Ohio code says it, the EPA says it, in Ohio the OEPA says it... yet it seems almost assured that the Ohio Supreme Court will say otherwise because they are fucking lawyers and they are either ignorant at best and under the thumb of Americans for Prosperity at worst.
That this is even being heard in the Supreme Court at all is absurd, forget about being ruled against! They are going to say that NEORSD isn't responsible, despite what the code says in clear language and what the EPA has mandated.
Dog, parts of America are so fucked!
The NEORSD in Ohio had put together a plan before hand that was looking towards a long term capital plan that would build massive temporary storage tunnels, as well as other changes, in order to reduce the necessity of dumping untreated sewage into the waterways. A number of these have been built already, others are being designed right now, others are on the drawing board.
This stuff costs money. So the NEORSD did a massive study to determine how much to charge local residents, as well as studies on private corporate property and how much impervious surface cover they have. Then in '13, they started charging people for impervious surfaces because those surfaces lead directly to runoff... the stuff we need to store so as not to dump poop into the creeks, runs, streams, rivers.
Some local towns protested! They said they don't want to have to pay. Ironically, Bath Township is one of those protestors, who has suffered from pretty big flooding recently in the past couple of years due to some decent sized storms (and they want the flooding to stop).
So you have the NEORSD, which was put into place to deal with wasterwater and stormwater (directly says so in the Ohio Revised Code). Their authority in this area is blatantly obvious. NEORSD puts in a fee to deal with stormwater and then the 8th District Court of Appeals in Ohio rules that NEORSD has overstepped its bound in dealing with stormwater.
This case was heard by the Ohio Supreme Court (also known as the Right-Wing Not Thinking Tank) and the Justices couldn't understand, that despite the clear language of the code, how the NEORSD was a player in stormwater management. I'd have to say that the NEORSD lawyer was overwhelmed and not answering questions as well as he could have, him being a lawyer and all and not actually involved with the massive stormwater management program that has been going on for over a decade, but the Justices kept wondering why stormwater was in NEORSD's control when in fact, the NEORSD system is a combined storm/sewer system. That when it rained hardish, the NEORSD system was overtax'd causing overflows in the waterways.
I couldn't handle listening to the questioning. It was so absurd. It was like the NEORSD lawyer saying the sky was blue and they replied, "but what about when it cloudy?" To make things even more absurd, NEORSD, as are other wasterwater management organizations are under the thumb of the EPA, being instructed to reduce the overflows. So the Ohio code says it, the EPA says it, in Ohio the OEPA says it... yet it seems almost assured that the Ohio Supreme Court will say otherwise because they are fucking lawyers and they are either ignorant at best and under the thumb of Americans for Prosperity at worst.
That this is even being heard in the Supreme Court at all is absurd, forget about being ruled against! They are going to say that NEORSD isn't responsible, despite what the code says in clear language and what the EPA has mandated.
Dog, parts of America are so fucked!
