Hey Whats A Little Slap on the Wrist..Homeport Agreement

[Patricks on the White]

Crippled Caddis:

Clean up Arkansas politics? What about the other 49 states; ain't gonna happen. Typical big business BS; the little guys get the crumbs, like it or not.

Patricks

[John Berry]

There are some great comments here on this situation. The gist of the matter is that the agreement though flawed requires that the developer fix this in fourty five days. I am a pragmatist. I want the pollution to stop. Oh sure, I would like to see this scoundrel hanging from the nearest yardarm but not before he fixes what he has broken. Our first matter of business is to stop the bleeding! My great fear is that this thing will get held up in court for the next ten years and all we can do is sit and watch the Norfork decline. At least this way something is being done!

[Crippled Caddis]

< Clean up Arkansas politics? What about the other 49 states; ain't gonna happen.>

While you're 100% correct about the problem as a whole Arkansas does have a richly deserved reputation as a poster child for 'Good Ol' Boy' politrics. (Yes--I DO know the proper spelling of the final word!)

I would remind you that in the lengthy debates preceding the adoption of the 2nd Amendment that no mention was made of target shooting, hunting, skeet or trap. The 2nd Amendment was written solely to insure that the American people would always have the means to overthrow a despotic form of government, foreign or domestic. The greatest concern of the authors by far was domestic despotism.

"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny."---Thomas Paine, Intellectual Father of the American Revolution

"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."----Thomas Jefferson

"Corruptisima republica plurimae leges." (The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.)---Tacitus, Anals III 27

[SilverMallard]

There are some great comments here on this situation. The gist of the matter is that the agreement though flawed requires that the developer fix this in fourty five days. I am a pragmatist. I want the pollution to stop. Oh sure, I would like to see this scoundrel hanging from the nearest yardarm but not before he fixes what he has broken. Our first matter of business is to stop the bleeding! My great fear is that this thing will get held up in court for the next ten years and all we can do is sit and watch the Norfork decline. At least this way something is being done!

That's a good point, John. One that shouldn't get lost in the bigger discussion. However, when we allow a regulatory environment to exist wherein there is no real penalty for not doing it right the first time, many business people take the "we'll fix it if we get caught" approach like most of us do toward speeding on the highway: it's not wrong unless you get caught. The result: almost everybody speeds. In this case, almost everyone pollutes. So there's a balance that must be struck. You can't destroy the offender, or they will never fix their messes. But you can't encourage others to take their same approach and play the odds of avoiding detection...cuz those odds are stacked heavily in favor of the polluters. Enforcement catches only the worst...the tip of the iceberg.

In my observation, when offenders get hammered really hard and forced to do complete restorations, it often halts all future development of a similar nature. Nobody wants the risks. I've seen this happen in Iowa and Illinois in recent years where long-standing clay shooting clubs were forced to clean up the lead shot in surface water on their properties. A 1 acre pond where a club shot clays in Iowa for almost 100 years cost $3.5 million to clean up. The members were forced to split that bill...the current members, many of whom had only been members for a year or two. Now, if someone in those areas wants to sell a hunting or clay shooting property where there is ground water, they're just out of luck. Nobody will buy one. Because the CURRENT owner accepts full liability for any clean-up that might be required. And the folks who want to sell usually don't have the millions of dollars required to remediate these problems and have them certified as clean. So the gun club/hunt club market from Chicago to Cedar Rapids is dead in the water...no pun intended.

[Crippled Caddis]

As one of the leading skeptics in the discussions concerning the Overlooked Mistakes out of court settlement I feel it incumbent on me to issue a "Mea Culpa" and admit to being wrong in many of the assumptions I voiced on the subject.

Rather than trying to paraphrase it and get it wrong again I'm going to copy in verbatim the words of Greg, the attorney who represented Trout Unlimited in the case, direct from his post on John Wilson's Flyfishing Arkansas & Missouri forum. If anyone would like to read the entire thread you can access it at:

<http://p222.ezboard.com/fflyfishingarkansasandmissourifrm14.showMessageRange?topicID=3262.topic&start=1&stop=20>

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<This is just the first step in the process. Until the silt stops coming off that hill, there is no way to determine the extent of the damage to the river or how to correct it.

After the site is stabilized and the silt is no longer entering the river, then the Court will deal with the issues of damage to the river, how to fix it, money damages, and civil penalties. The amended complaint that was filed on Thursday makes it crystal clear that damages are being sought for any harm done to the river. It is also important to note that, if Homeport fails to comply with the terms of the consent decree, then it will be in contempt of court.

With all due respect, anyone who thinks that this consent decree isn't good for the the river, and is the end rather than the beginning of this litigation, is simply misinformed. TU had just as much input into this consent decree as ADEQ and Homeport did and would never have agreed to it if it did not think that it was the best thing for the river and the trout that live in it.>

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In conversations with John Wilson and Dennis McCarty, Arkansas state co-ordinator for TU and plaintiff in the TU suit, they echo every point made in the quote above. In summation it appears that a very good settlement for the future of the river has been made. The offender has a limited time to make good on the provisions of the settlement without being in contempt of court.

Damage assessment is still on-going and it may be quite some time before AGFC and/or ADEQ even know the financial losses initiated by the failure of Homeport to follow sensible legal requirements. As pointed out in Greg's post an amended suit will ask for reimbursement for the damages to the system, but how long it will be before we know the extent is currently anyone's guess I suspect.

I cannot close without once more donning the hat of the skeptic by warning all concerned not to relax their guard. This isn't over by a long shot and warrants close scrutiny by the public lest offender or state agency attempt short-cuts. CC

[SilverMallard]

Hey, thanks for cleaning this up. Actually, that makes a LOT of sense. And it sounds like TU and ADEQ are actually taking this matter VERY seriously. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

[John Berry]

This is good information. Thank you for the clarification.

[Terry Beeson]

Well, honestly, call me a skeptic or whatever, but I'm not holding my breath until a reliable source (like John Berry) posts something about the work actully starting and then I'll only hold it long enough for another post stating the work is done and appears to be effective.

And all the finger pointing between the states is VERY childish. We are ALL in this thing and ALL 50 states and the whole human race are to blame for this problem. We all eat and support the ag industry and want our food to be cheap. And we all want a big house on a hill overlooking (insert your favorite watershed or other natural area here.)

[Rusty]

I am still not going to hold my breath on this issue.

Wasn't Homeport fined a substantial amount by the ADEQ? Were the fines erased from the books or were they payed? I haven't found any information either way.

[Danoinark]

I for one was very skeptical of the whole process, but after getting the updated information from the TU attorneys I feel much better about the entire turn of events. Lets all hope for the best.

Dano