Legalectric

It’s that time again — Thursday, July 24, is the next meeting of the Silica Sand Rulemaking Advisory Committee.  It will be held at the People’s Energy Cooperative, in Oronoco, and run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Will there be draft rules trotted out for review on Thursday?  $50 says they won’t have draft rules for review this time either… and folks, I do NOT want to win that bet.  But this is a repeated problem. What I’m seeing is that if they are going to put the draft rules before the EQB in September, this is the last chance to receive a draft, take it to constituents, and bring back comments and concerns to the Committee in August!  Now … the last chance…

Those who are “representing” us:

How about standing up and demanding full process and disclosure of draft rules?  And how about reporting back on what’s going on, and more importantly, what’s NOT going on?   You also need to forward the draft rules and other information to all of your “constituents” who you’re representing and solicit for comments to take back to the Rulemaking group.  The communities at stake here should be aware of the utter lack of progress and lack of draft rule disclosure and should be storming the agencies and Governor’s office!  Informing us is a big part of the job of being a “representative” on this committee.  (Listening to the June meeting, Charlie is delivering a message about the importance of keeping alternates informed and of alternates to keep themselves up to speed… that goes for letting the rest of us know what’s happening too!)

I’m also curious about Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy’s role, and why MCEA is the only NGO represented — what’s up with that?

In the recorded WebEx for June 24 there are some great comments from members on cumulative impacts and density of projects, threshold of acres of farmland lost.  Also consideration of the AUAR process applicable to silica sand mining permits, and baseline info about silica sand mining footprint.  And DOH, the need for the SONAR to be able to address rules, and a need for holistic review and a mine inventory.  Check it out.

Here’s the July 24 agenda — do you see any mention here of the September plan to present rules to EQB?

AGENDA

• 10:00 a.m. – Facilitator: welcome, introductions and agenda

• 10:15 – Theresa Haugen: Water Permitting 101 Overview of NPDES permitting, including difference between general and individual permits Specifics on permitting of silica sand facilities

• 11:10 – Break

• 11:15 – Erik Dahl: Environmental Review Rules EQB timelines, next steps, process Legislative directive: rulemaking Historical and current context: rules

• 12:15 – Lunch

• 12:45 – Erik Dahl (continued discussion) Discuss survey results Discuss rulemaking buckets and scope Threshold topics.

• 3:00 – Facilitator: Check-In and Wrap Up How would you rate your participation today? (Scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the highest) What do you need to be more effective? Examples: Group process suggestions, additional information, etc.

The statutory purpose of a Rulemaking Advisory Committee is to comment on DRAFT rules PRIOR to release by the agency for comment.  This is where input is most important, because once the draft rules are released for comment, the agency may not approve rules that are substantially different!  Comments after release won’t have a heck of a lot of influence, that’s how the rulemaking process works (or doesn’t work).  So meanwhile, what’s happening here is that not enough is happening, that the agencies here are sandbagging the rulemaking process.  Listen to the WebEx recordings, it’s worthwhile to get the flavor of these meetings.

Yes, it’s true, I’ve not gone to these meetings.  Why?  Because odds are it would be like the last time I went to a meeting where Charlie Peterson was “facilitating” and lots of questions were dodged, answers were not provided and those that were only covered 1/2 the issue, narrowing the discussion rather than broadening it as should be done for scoping, and crucial information was being withheld in a transmission scoping Advisory Task Force group.  The historical scoop:  I’m asking you to leave…

Here’s what the Rulemaking Advisory Committee has done thus far, from the Silica Sand page:

Past meetings

June 2014

• See the recorded WebEx
• Presentation: AQ rule concepts: Walkthrough and dashboard
• Handout: [DRAFT] Shared agency definitions for rulemaking

May 2014

• Meeting notes (May 2014)
• See the recorded WebEx
• Presentation: Silica sand rulemaking – Reclamation (Part 1)
• Presentation: Silica sand rulemaking – Reclamation (Part 2)
• Handout: Overview of DNR rulemaking

April 2014

• Meeting notes (April 2014)
• See the recorded WebEx (part 1)
• See the recorded WebEx (part 2)

March 2014

• Meeting notes (March 2014)
• See the recorded WebEx
• Presentation: Air permitting 101 – Air regulations and permits

January 2014

The panel first met on January 29.

• Meeting notes (January 2014)

• Presentation: Rulemaking 101

Again, here is the statute:

Once more with feeling:

To the rulemaking staff at MPCA, EQB and DNR:  YOU’RE AVOIDING PUBLIC INPUT ON DRAFT RULES PRIOR TO BRINGING TO PROPOSAL TO THE BOARD.  STOP SANDBAGGING THE PROCESS AND PRODUCE THE DRAFT RULES FOR REVIEW.

DISCLOSE DRAFT RULES FOR REVIEW BY ADVISORY COMMITTEE PRIOR TO TAKING THEM TO EQB BOARD & AGENCIES!

To the representatives on the Rulemaking Advisory Panel, please represent your constituents and let us all know what’s going on, get the draft Rules, and get them to your constituents — US — for review and comment!

Guess they should try “open carry” of fishing poles!  See what they do then?!?!

“Rueful city officials have slapped a ban on some political speech…” what IS and IS NOT banned?  Who is deciding?  What are the guidelines?

Seems Delaware City had decided to give the 1st Amendment a good swift kick and quash free speech at Delaware City Days.  WHAT?  What could possibly be such a problem with people saying, “PFB REFINERY: STOP KILLING OUR FISH!”

Jeff Montgomery, The News Journal

Rueful city officials have slapped a ban on some political speech at Saturday’s 34th annual Delaware City Day, claiming protesters hijacked the city’s parade, skies and a few activities last year to target PBF Energy’s nearby refinery.

The ban – enforced through requiring a review before the event of brochures and parade floats – drew accusations of a free speech foul from Delaware Audubon, and a charge that the city was fishing for the refinery’s favor. Audubon now plans a floating protest Saturday afternoon in waters just off the community’s Battery Park.

“It’s a family event,” said City Manager Richard C. Cathcart, a former state lawmaker. “They’re the ones who created the problem last year. In the parade, they were coming down with pictures of the governor in a hangman’s noose.”

The Green Party of Delaware’s parade entry last year included a banner with a likeness of Gov. Jack Markell as a pirate with eye-patch and parrot, alongside the words “Toxic Jack Markell.” A chartered plane also circled the area briefly last year, towing a banner calling on the refinery to “Stop Killing Our Fish,” a reference to fish losses to the plant’s outdated cooling water intake.

Dave Carter, conservation chair for Delaware Audubon, said the city’s effort amounts to an attack on a civil liberty and is inconsistent with the public intent of a $33,000 grant-in-aid that lawmakers approved for the Delaware City Day Committee last month.

“It’s clearly intended to limit and chill free speech at this publicly funded event,” said Carter, who plans to use his own watercraft, possibly with one or more fish-suited crew members, to display a sign objecting to the refinery’s large daily withdrawals from the Delaware River for plant cooling needs.

PBF’s water intake and discharge permit is up for renewal, with environmental groups pressing the state to require investments in towers that would reduce fish loss.

“Is this the appropriate way to use grants-in-aid at a time when people are suffering and people have real needs?” Carter asked, adding he believed the city was protecting aid that the community receives from the refinery.

Carter shared an email exchange in which Cathcart said state aid and sponsorship from the refinery “had absolutely nothing to do with our vendor and parade policy.”

“If you want to protest, go up to the refinery. Don’t come to our battery park, where there are kids and family members going to enjoy themselves,” Cathcart said.

The Sierra Club Delaware chapter, also critical of the refinery, plans to have a table at Delaware City, as it did last year.

As many as 6,000 people are expected at daytime activities in the city, with a nighttime fireworks show expected to draw 6,000. Cathcart said the city’s streets will be closed at 4 p.m. and visitors directed to remote parking and shuttle buses for evening activities.

Delaware City’s fire company manages the parking, with a $5 per car fee supporting cadet programs.

Contact Jeff Montgomery at (302) 463-3344 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com

Only six dogs on this dog transport, last time we had 12!  Tomorrow we meet a mom Bridget, her three “chipmunk” pups Alvin, Theodore and Simon; chi/feist mix Perez; and Nora.  Nora’s a wiggle-butt “lab mix” (bottom photo) and she’ll probably be the lap dog this trip.

My friends at Xcel are miscalculating my schedule, sending the guys with the boom trucks over on a Friday without a deadline!!!  HA HA HA HA HA HA and not only that,

Yeah, give ’em the raspberries…

Today they’re taking out the poles across the street so they can start on the mother of all retaining walls.  We do now have a distribution line in the front yard.  Where’s that gauss meter?

Did you know that they saw down utility poles?  Odd, I figured they’d take them out and resuse them.  Here they’ve sawed the support pole in half, then took it down and are sawing it up into little chunks.  So small that I’ll bet they haul them over to their garbage burner here in Red Wing, or down to La Crosse where I know they burn railroad ties.  Railroad ties, penta poles, what’s the difference!

We’ve told the city that we LOVE the quiet at night, what a difference, and they were tickled that we thought they’d done something right (guess Alan and I are known around city offices).  There are deer back in da ‘hood again, one strolling down the middle of the dirt street, and somebody’s been eating the day lily buds.  We need to move some of the construction hazard lights closer.

Life goes on with construction… but work?  No way!