by Jack Lee
The strange case of the EPA verses the Sackett’s has come before the Supreme Court and it makes us wonder if we’re still the land of the free? This is a must read.
It all began when the Sackett’s purchased a regular building lot in a subdivision for a new home. There were homes all around them and there was nothing unusual about their lot. It looked like all the other lots before homes were built on them. So construction began when the Sackett’s ordered a load gravel to begin the concrete foundation. Then the EPA sent them a notice to cease and remove the gravel from the property because their lot was declared to be a wetlands. Further improvement and failure to comply with the EPA demand would result in a fine of $32,000 per day until compliance was met.
What’s a wetlands and who says so, they wanted to know? And just who says the EPA has the authority to do this to them? Show us the freaking law!, they demanded. But, no answers were to be forthcoming for this was an “administrative compliance order” and believe it or not there is no right to appeal! You either do it or the fines will keep going and they could reach into the millions. At some point the fines become absurd. If it was me I would say go ahead, add another million, make it $10 million, $100 million…what’s the difference?
When the EPA was conceived they were given incredible power by Congress to issue “administrative orders” and they had the effect of a written law, only without the right of review before being passed into law. People did not have the right to challenge an admin order and that clearly violates due process! What a crock, what high handed and illegal BS that is! This is not how America is supposed to treat its citizens, that is the kind of thing reserved only for ruthless totalitarian societies like North Korea.
Why our bureaucrats couldn’t foresee some problem when authorizing this (illegal and unconstitutional) power for the EPA is yet another blatant example of incompetence. Add this boondoggle to the growing list titled, “Why we need to vote the bums out.”
My question now is, what’s the stupid EPA doing in a subdivision in the first place? A subdivision is created after an environmental impact study has been approved and the subdividing is sanctioned under code and in full compliance with all local laws, there is no reason for the EPA to be there…period!
The EPA should have no jurisdiction in such a legal subdivision and further the “Due Process” clause of the United States Constitution says they acted without any legal authority. As obvious as this may be to you and me, the liberal 9th Circus Court of Appeals actually agreed with the EPA! This forced the victims to go before the Supreme Court of the United States where it is now under consideration. How it has gone this far is alarming and it should be to every American, this is bureaucracy gone mad!
Now the case: Section 10-1062 on the SCOTUS calendar reads, “Issue: (1) Whether petitioners may seek pre-enforcement judicial review of the administrative compliance order pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 704; and (2) whether, if not, petitioner’s inability to seek pre-enforcement judicial review of the administrative compliance order violates their rights under the Due Process Clause?
The Plain English Translation: When the Environmental Protection Agency believes that a landowner is engaged in a violation of environmental laws, it may issue an administrative compliance order requiring the landowner to take certain actions and seek judicial enforcement of the order if the landowner does not comply. May the landowner challenge the administrative compliance order in court before the EPA seeks judicial enforcement?
Yes! The poor dedicated WWII era president couldn’t possibly have imagined the adolescent insanity that would follow his considerate gesture toward stewardship of the land. I admit it! He should have seen the money grubbers, like Al and his charming carbon trading partners, the bogus science fabricators, and the control freak supporters, not to mention the BIG LIE coming…alas he didn’t.
But nothing to blog about? PHffffft! People will always provide more than enough craziness to discuss.
If in fact the land is deemed to be wetland, why was it sold in the first place?
That eyesore coming from Paradise into Chico just over the little bridge is supposed to be a wetland too, I guess anyplace that water collects in the winter is a wetland. 🙁
Harriet, good point. It would seem the developer would have some liability selling wetlands property as property suitable for construction. And how about the county that approved the zoning? And what about the people who did the EIR? It just gets sillier and sillier, the EPA was out of bounds, they were wrong in pursuing this.
Quentin, so you’re saying we would not have run this story if we had known that Richard Nixon proposed the EPA?
Well, we knew it and we ran with the story. Now what?
The EPA has run amouk, just like the endangered species Act, I voted for that one thinking if passed it would save the White Tigers, did not expect that beetles on a bush would stop development, but then so did a weed, red frog and so on…
Don’t be too hard on Quentin, he can’t help it, he has the same mind set as Jaimie O’Neill and Jack Jamison of the Paradise Post. They are so off center cannot even disagree without calling names. they are liberal
Similar situation happened to a dear girlfriend and her husband. They bought 20 acres with a fishing shack, in Eldarado county on the south fork of the Consumes river. Their plans were to build their dream retirement home big enough so their kids and grandkids could stay and they could all fish, swim and enjoy the life they had worked so hard for.
One day two guys, who said they were with the government, were found on their property and told to leave because they were trespassing. Not long after they received a letter saying a male red-legged (or some-such color) had been seen on their property and no plans for new development, or building would be allowed.
They fought it all the way to Sacramento, but ended up only being allowed to add a couple of rooms to the fishing shack making it at least big enough for the two of them to live in.
The fight isnt over. My girlfriend, who can be a Mama Bear, is organizing others and is now running for a political office. Another sleeping giant has risen and Id put my money on my friend.
Those two men may have planted the red frog.
Remember the big fight about extending a freeway on 70 (I think, its been so long) the plans had to be rerouted or discontinued in that area because of a red frog, came out much later that the frogs were brought in.