"Eco-criminal" prison-bound?"John A. Rapanos has spent more than $1 million on attorneys, consultants and fines while tussling with regulators lot some 15 years over accusations of illegal wetland destruction," observed the April 26 Detroit Free Press The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep". Some still refer to it locally as "The Friendly" -- a slogan from an ad campaign in the '70s. . "Now, the Midland subdivision developer may go to prison?' Sixty-eight-year-old Rapanos, a son of Greek immigrants, bought a parcel of land in 1988, cleared off the scrub trees, graded it, and tried to market it to strip-mall developers. The Michigan state eco-Soviet, acting on behalf of the federal environmental bureaucracy, accused the developer of destroying a "wetland." Eventually the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and successfully prosecuted Rapanos in federal court for supposedly destroying a wetland. However, as Detroit News columnist columnist, the writer of an essay appearing regularly in a newspaper or periodical, usually under a constant heading. Although originally humorous, the column in many cases has supplanted the editorial for authoritative opinions on world problems. Nolan Finley points out, "Rapanos' land is surrounded sur·round tr.v. sur·round·ed, sur·round·ing, sur·rounds 1. To extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle. 2. To enclose or confine on all sides so as to bar escape or outside communication. n. on all sides, and divided down the middle, by drainage ditches dug by the county drain commission in 1904. The land was tiled tile n. 1. A thin, flat or convex slab of hard material such as baked clay or plastic, laid in rows to cover walls, floors, and roofs. 2. A short length of pipe made of clay or concrete, used in sewers and drains. 3. at the same time to further aid drainage so it could be used for farming. The combination of drainage ditches and sandy soil means the land couldn't be a wetland if it wanted to be. It won't hold water." "I don't see any way that could have been a wetland," states Russ Harding, former director of the state Department of Environmental Quality. "There's no evidence that wetlands have been disturbed." Federal prosecutors accused Rapanos of dumping several tons of fill dirt Fill dirt is earthy material which is used to fill in a depression or hole in the ground. Fill dirt is usually subsoil (soil from beneath the top soil) and underlying soil parent material which has little soil organic matter or biological activity. on the land, without producing a molecule of credible evidence. Despite efforts by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff to set aside the conviction, and then to avoid sending the innocent developer to prison, federal eco-Commissars are demanding a five-year sentence. In one hearing, Zatkoff pointed out that on the same day the feds demanded a lengthy prison term for Rapanos, a convicted drug dealer was sentenced to l0 months. "[Here] we have an American citizen, who buys land, pays for it with his own money, and he moves some sand from one end to the other and [the] government wants me to give him 63 months in prison," complained Judge Zatkoff. "And I am not going to do it. I don't believe he got a fair trial." The feds responded by appealing to the Sixth Circuit, which approved jail time for the supposed criminal--who also faces a $10 million lawsuit lawsuit: see procedure; tort. involving another tract of property. |
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