From the Plaistow Town Crier;
Letter to the Editor in Fosters Daily Democrat.
Change is opposed
To the editor: New Hampshire. groundwater law has stated for almost 20 years "nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to preempt the authority of municipalities, under other statutes, to enact local ordinances or regulation affecting groundwater."
Now the House has voted to repeal that language and replace it with; "... Municipalities and any other local authorities are expressly preempted from enacting regulation with the same effect under this or any other statute"
What is the purpose of this amendment to the law which was trying to clarify the respective roles of the state and municipalities in the process of large groundwater withdrawals? The SB 155 Groundwater Commission, after 18 months plus of getting input from the public in eight public hears around the state, had proposed clarification which did not include this power grab by the State. The NH Senate voted for the Commission's recommendation on a voice vote and sent it to the House.
The House Committee held a public hearing, at which no person testified against the Legislation. Then the Committee voted for this change and the full House went along. The Bill now has to go back to the Senate to see if they will accept this change which will hurt Towns and Cities in this State.
Call your state senator and urge them to vote against this amendment which hurts our municipalities. Please call now, time is short.
Bill McCann
Dover
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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22 comments:
This is outrageous! The NH Groundwater Commission was formed by the legislature to specifically, address and enact changes to the current legislation which shuts towns and municipalities from having a say in
decisions involving local ground water withdrawals.
I've been seated and serving on the Commission sub-committee which was specifically charged with making changes in current legislation so that local towns and municipalities can have some measure of control over its water
resources. After over a year of work, the subcommittee came up with wording changes that gave much local control over groundwater withdrawals. DES hated the loss of their monopoly control. The subcommittee then submitted our work to the full Groundwater Commission which
voted to accept it and submit it to
the legislature for a vote and enactment.
First it went to the Senate where it easily passed.
Then the bill went to the
House, where a House committee, at the urging and instigation of DES, completely disregarded all of the hard work of the subcommittee and Groundwater Commission and totally changed, reversed and did a 180 on the wording and intent. The totally reversed bill then was then sent to the full House with a ''Recommended to Pass" label put on it by that manipulative anti-local imput and in DEA's pocket house committee.
The problem is that there are so many bills before the legislature that no legislator re-reads every bill to see if any intent or word changes have been made between the House and Senate versions of a bill. The House legislators were led to believe that they were voting on the same bill which the Senate had passed and which the Groundwater Commission and submitted for enactment.
Fortunately, Atkinson's alert Rep.
Jim Garrity discovered the changes and voted No on the changed bill.
The revised damaged bill now has to go back to the Senate for a re-vote.
Everyone, please, contact your state senator and tell them to vote No when it comes back to them for a re-vote.
What is especially outrageous is that the House committee which destroyed the bill is chaired by one of the co-chairs of the Groundwater Commission. She, in effect, vetoed what the Groundwater Commission had passed and unilaterally changed the wording WITHOUT THE CONSENT or PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE GROUNDWATER COMMISSION -- changed it to what DES wanted -- another state power grab!!
I'm so angry and disgusted at the secret backroom corrupt politics
of unethical legislators and power-hungry state agencies like DES.
Please contact our State Senator
Downing in Salem and ask him to vote no on the bill. Atkinson and other towns should have a say in their own groundwater policies.
Once all the water is sucked out from under our land, then what?
Thank you Mrs. Grant, for the example you set.
Email Senator Downing at:
michael.downing@leg.state.nh.us
What will it take to get people to care enough to band together and act as a group against what is going on. What kind of tragedy will have to happen for people to "take a stand"?
This experiment, we call human being, can come to an end very easily. One way is by disasterous pollution another is economic and resource mismanagement.
To acquiece to the selling of the water resource that belongs to all into the hands of a few that sell it wherever is a wrong that you will live to regret.
Already your water is sold back to you locally and clorinated so even a cat won't drink it. Yet you will?
Human being will fail from cowardes and total selfishness.
I think often, when I am working with a petrie dish how the bacteria use up all the media (food) as quickly as possibly unroll the excretia starts to limit growth of the colony and eventually destroy it.
What is the difference between bacteria and human Bering? Rational thought? Courage in the face of adversity? The creation of brew possibilities?
To anyone who is interested I am looking for pictures of MRS. Davis' property before the construction done by the Osborns. pictures of old growth trees that used to exsist. If you could be of any assistance please contact me. I am carol's daughter. You can contact me by e-mail. That will be checked daily. thank you and I appreciate any help I can get.
ftigerlady71163@hotmail.com
We have all kinds of pictures of the old growth trees before the Osborn destruction. Will email them to you shortly.
Sounds like a well known town liar offering their lie to send pictures so nobody goes ahead and looks for any. What a jerk.
Please look for pictures. Notify Carol Davis.
"... Municipalities and any other local authorities are expressly preempted from enacting regulation with the same effect under this or any other statute"
This can be extremely problematic. The State will hold ALL authority and therefore ALL RESPONSIBILITY for groundwater withdrawals within the state. No entity, other than the state, will have any enforcement authority.
Remember the Claremont decision. The legislature was held responsible for educational funding therefore the state pays. When the state holds all groundwater responsibility they must Pay to maintain it. Constitution 28a. prevents any unfunded mandates. Health or safety ie. Water, becomes a state funded expense.
The legislature should think and read before passing legislation. NH has a strong committee system in the legislature and many times the legislative body relies too heavily on the committee input and sometimes the committee input may be traced to a single “misguided” committee chairman. Perhaps, that is the situation here?? It would be interesting to see an explanation of the reasoning and associations involved here.
Grant said... To May 2, 12:25 p.m.,
You're operating/posting based on
a premise that the legislature can't revise or change previously passed bill. The legislature is always revising wording to meet current circumstances.
The new SB 411, as submitted by the NH Groundwater COMMISSION, and which easily passed the Senate, REVOKES/CHANGES the old wording you led off in your post about and replaces that wording with wording that includes local imput into local groundwater issues.
That's the whole purpose of the legislature -- to pass bills which address and reflect today's needs and issues. The old, out-dated wording passed by a long-ago out-of-touch-with-local-municipalities
legislature was finally going to be changed and up-dated.
So, your premise that the new Senate bill 411 as passed by the Senate shouldn't be allowed to change the current law which allows premption against local communities is out of touch with reality.
Bad old, out-dated state laws should ALWAYS be changed, as SB 411 was attempting to do. The fact that the HOUSE committee chairman
Judith Spang believes that towns should be shut out from imput on issues concerning water resources, and the fact that she used her house committeeposition to cripple the Senate bill, was an arrogant slap in the face to the NH GROUNDWATER COMMISSION who worked for 18 months on the bill, and also a slap in the face of the NH Senate which passed the bill.
Dear Blog Manager,
I've posted four separate postings this morning, each about a separate bit of information about SB411. The first posting never appeared. The second posting also never appeared, but someone else's post at the same time did appear. Then I posted a third separate article on the topic, which never appeared. Now my fourth posting did appear, but what about the other three postings dealing with SB 411 which contained info about the bill and Sen. Downings phone number and other information needed for citizen imput.
What's going on with this blog????
Dear Blog Manager,
Whoever your are, please give me a call at 362-4848.
I need to talk to you and I assure you, I will respect your privacy,
and never reveal your identity.
Dear Atkinsonians,
Here, AGAIN, is the information I've three times already, tried to provide you.
Please contact Atkinson's N.H. State Senator Michael Downing, 7 Darryl Lane, Salem, at 893-5442.
Ask him, when the now-changed Senate Bill 411, (which easily passed the Senate but was crippled by House commiteewoman Judith Spang) comes back for a re-vote in the Senate, to either . 1. get the other Senators to restore the original wording by which it already passed the Senate, or to
2. kill the now-crippled bill which now, by Spang's intent, denies local municipalities any imput in local water issues.
For the HOUSE version to pass would be disasterous to N.H. towns and municipalities.
Did Anyone hear that Frank Polito won "Person of the year" award?
Have the lions gone mad?
The Lions let in Consentino, what do you expect. Wasn't he honored a few years ago?
It tells you how messed up they are.
I have HAWC water. Over the past year, the quality has gone down drastically.
I have tons more staining of fixtures and it cannot be consumed. The smell of chlorine is so bad, you would not drink it and I think it is not safe.
I added filtration to the shower, buy spring water and want you all to know how important it is to stand up before you are in the smae position as I am in. We are under water conservation restriction indefinitely and have been for two years.
Email Senator Downing at:
michael.downing@leg.state.nh.us
Come on Team Blog. You guys must be slipping. Frank Polito gets named man of the year, or whatever, and THIS is going to be the FIRST time you hacks don't cut & paste from the Tribune and pass it off as what you consider to be journalism...reporting...debating...etc?
Yawn
Speaking of water - what the HELL is going on with the Atkinson Academy water supply? Received a notice that lead content is above mandated safe levels...AGAIN - in a GRAMMAR SCHOOL?!
Unreal.
Where is the school getting it? Is it HAWC or a well?
Polito? Yeah, right.
This is unreal....a hanging curve ball that Team Blog can knock out of the ballpark...Frank Polito...one of the "rouge's gallery" of the blog and all it stands for...and nothing!?!...
Mister Blog himself and "Team Members" must on vacation.
This is getting boring...you hacks move on to something else yet?
I have seen nothing about in the paper. Besides, who cares?
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