On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:37:34 -0700, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

Let me restate it for you. The enviro nazis. They want to move the boats
about 15 miles before doing any work on them. The enviro nazis want them to
do the job where they are anchored. A place where there are fast currents
and no facilities. How much more crap is going to come off the bottom in a
slow 15 miles tow at less than the currents they now see, than if they try
to clean the bottoms in a river anchorage.

I have to kind of agree - sometimes the environmental groups go to
extremes and impose some rather odd and frankly silly requirements for
doing the simplest things.

Two years ago when I was still active in the civilian side of our
local VFD, we discovered a 5,000 gallon diesel tank buried under the
old Civil Defense building next to the truck garage. We had to take
the building down to expand bays for new trucks and a ladder truck.

When we dug down to see what it's condition was like, we were
surprized to find that is was enclosed in a concrete bunker which was
in excellant condition - so much so, that when we pulled off the top
of the bunker to inspect the tank, the damn tank looked practically
brand new. And, here's the best part, it didn't have any diesel in it
- dry as a desert and in prestine condition. It never had any diesel
in it.

Ok, now what. Call Environmental Services and have the thing removed,
use the bunker as part of the new foundation for the building
expansion - hey, we're golden right?

NOPE. Gotta do ground water tests for a mile in each direction on the
compass rose - sink test wells, have the water checked for god knows
what - took a damn year and set our schedule back by a full year.
There were a bunch of other requirements that made no sense and when
we went to the state to get a waiver, they laughed at us. We
contacted the local politicians and DEP wouldn't budge.

Added $13,000 to the expansion project, set us back a year and all for
a solid concrete bunker and an empty tank that had never had any
diesel in it.