Taxpayers Enjoy Getting PlungedDevvy Kidd
January 15, 2003They must, otherwise, we would not continue to see this kind of lunacy:
September 17, 2002
Benicia bridge rising: Crews' work saves strait fish, but slows completion
A Caltrans engineer's steel-sleeve plan should help keep the new span on track for 2004 opening
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times"After years of delay, physical evidence of the long-promised second Benicia bridge juts higher each day over the Carquinez Strait.
"Commuters and folks who cross the strait during weekend getaways can hardly wait. The new bridge will nearly double the number of highway lanes across one of the East Bay's most aggravating traffic choke-points.
"But to stay on schedule for a fall 2004 opening, Caltrans needs federal and state sign-off on cutting edge technology that shields fish from deadly construction noise.
"Developed by a Caltrans engineer, the never-before-used method uses a steel sheath, air bubbles and foam to dampen the intense underwater sound waves generated during pile driving.
"Saving the fish has delayed the work three months to date and potentially adds millions of dollars to the price tag. Officials do not yet know how much it will cost.
"Meanwhile, the bridge is already four years behind schedule and costs have skyrocketed to $653 million, more than twice engineers' estimates in 1995.
"We anticipate sometime in the near future coming to a conclusion," said Daniel Buford, a branch chief with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The data that we've seen so far shows us that this method had tremendous reductions in the impacts to fish."
"It was Day 2 of pile driving early this spring when construction officials observed gulls voraciously gulping down fish floating in the strait near the work site.
"They scooped up what they could find -- about 40 dead fish -- and immediately notified state and federal environmental regulators as required by the Endangered Species Act.
"The dead fish were common species, such as striped bass, but regulators say the pile driving threatens rare Delta smelt or Sacramento split-tail and commercially valuable salmon." End of excerpt.
There are a number of issues to address about this stupidity:
First, it sounds like more junk science and is reminiscent of the gross travesty foisted upon the good, decent people of Klamath Falls, Oregon. When all was said and done, crap science ruled the day. The criminally insane in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and various "greenie groups" drove thousands into bankruptcy and shut down more land.
I went to Klamath Falls twice and did my own on-site investigation. You can read all these articles on my CD Archive. It will make you gag, but at least those folks fought for what they believed in while most of the rest of the country was enjoying drugs, porn, shopping for made in Communist China and good times.
After all, Klamath Falls wasn't in their neck of the woods, so why should they care? Guess what? What happened in Klamath Falls is spreading like a plague and all of a sudden, those who paid no attention are suddenly finding their land is getting unwanted attention.
Next: Jurisdiction. So few understand how important jurisdiction is when government agencies come blowing into town and stomp on the lives of innocent Americans, all in the name of the environment. This entire "environmental revolution" is a creation of those out to destroy America and the documentation is overhwelming in support of that statement.
Until you understand jurisdiction and where agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife derive that jurisdiction from, you will never be able to effectively fight this kind of nonsense. Sadly, so few will take the time to get educated with the facts and the law. You can read these facts and a thorough legal explanation of jurisdiction for many of the alphabet soup agencies, FDA, EPA, etc., on my CD Archive.
I have fished the Carquenez Straits extensively where that bridge spans. Forty fish observed being eaten by gulls. "About" 40 fish that could have died from anything that day.
Hundreds of millions of tax dollars squeezed from those of us who live in this lunatic state to yet again, protect more fish. Some of them junk fish.
The ocean is full of salmon. They spawn every year. This state has many large hatcheries to keep putting new stock back in the rivers.
I'm real sorry a few fish might die.
But, you go in, drive the piles and get it done.
The fish population will eventually restore itself through nature and sensible, reasonable harvest management.
The traffic across that bridge is beyond insane most hours of the day. The taxpayers sit bumper to bumper wondering why the hosing they get in more and more taxes never produces any relief. When something is finally done and a few fish get killed, the project is delayed years and hundreds of millions of dollars are added to the tab.
And what do these taxpayers here in California do about it? Nothing. They call talk radio and belly-ache. They allegedly vote back in the same lice who serve in Congress (52 house seats here in California) that do nothing to stop the destruction and carnage by the EPA, ESA and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. My bet is maybe one or two of those 52 congress critters even have a clue as to where the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service derive their jurisdiction from and what it means.
These taxpayers also allegedly continue to vote back in the same crooks and criminals who serve in our Fascist legislature, even though that whole bunch sits back and lets the Feds whip their manhood to shreds. No, I won't forget about the "ladies" that serve in our legislature. We have some of the most vicious lesbians in the state running run shod over the "men" here in Sacramento.
I can hardly wait until the day I can pack my house up and get the hell out of here, the state of my birth. Many times I have attemped to get the people of this state off their collective backsides and fight this legislature on issues like gun control and recalling bad politicians. All I get are excuses. Well, one of these days I'm heading for a state like Tennessee where the people know how to stand up to their paid employees in government.
Instead of the taxpayers in this state getting educated and surrounding the State House and letting these people know they aren't going to take this kind of rape anymore, they just sit back and continue to allow themselves to be stripped of their hard earned money without a fight.
Personally I have a problem with cowards and lazy couch potatoes who won't stand up to their own servant government. I have a problem with people who put good times and "weekends off" ahead of standing up to protect their families, their future and their own state from tyranny.
There are many ways to take non-violent action that will work if people decide they've had enough. Here in California, it appears that the people are still willing to sit around and get beat up by the politicians and special interest groups.
California is allegedly facing a $32 billion dollar deficit. Of course, since California, like the other 49 states keeps a second set of books and we probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of a $1 trillion dollar reserve in assets, this so-called deficit to further rape us in taxes is in question.
But, assuming the state does have this kind of deficit, and you should hear the yowling going on from all the special interest groups because they're not going to get their usual plate of goodies, one would think the taxpayers would have stepped up to the plate years ago about this fish business and the Benicia Bridge.
Dream on, Devvy. Sheep are sheep.
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My Archive CD spanning 4 1/2 years of articles can be obtained at:https://devvy.com/cdrom_sales.html
The jurisdiction issue is found in the Wallace Institute section.