Institutional Controls & the Constitution

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Subject: Institutional Controls: The Current Insanity of Environmental
No
 Action!
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 21:34:30 -0500
From: Steven Pollack <themissinglink@eznetinc.com>
Reply-To: steve@familyjeweler.com
Organization: The Missing Link
To: lsiegel@cpeo.org

(Lenny, please post)

Yes, lets just fence off all the sections of the United
States which contain contamination. Lets destroy future freedoms of
life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on (X)% of the USA. Is 5%
acceptable? 10%, 20%, 30%? Again we reduce environmental hazards to
local
issues when we had just begun to understand that they are regional and
global in nature.

I can just imagine that the cost/benefit analysis in just about every
Feasibility Study will conclude that $10,000 of fencing is advantageous
and
preferable to expensive and uncertain remediation. The fact that the
capping option is currently the order of the day is proof that the
regulators take the path of least resistance, least expense, and least
environmental remediation.

Insofar as institutional controls apply to military installations, I
believe
the Third Amendment to the Constitution would prohibit this as a long
term
solution. I begin this discussion with part of Lenny Siegel's message
today:

"5. In several sections of the Manual, the work group discusses takings
and
compensation issues. Although it is appropriate to identify the issue,
the
discussions of these issues should indicate that takings would not
necessarily occur and compensation would not necessarily be required.
The
current language implies that any time a regulator imposes a use
restriction, such restriction would effect a takings. The current state
of
the law, however, does not support such a conclusion. Rather, some case
law
indicates that it is the contamination, and not the regulatory action,
that
effects the loss of use and value."

The Third Amendment states: "No soldier shall, in time of peace, be
quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of
war
but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

This Constitutional Amendment is not about whether the Army has the
right to
use your house during wartime. They do have that right under the
takings
clause of the Fifth Amendment. They can condemn your property under
Eminent
Domain and kick you out with "just compensation". What the Third
Amendment
addresses is the scope of intrusion, and interference, of the Army, into
the
lives of private citizens. Institutional controls are a barrier to
LIBERTY! Liberty of ourselves and our posterity are guaranteed in the
preamble to the Constitution. I ask each of you to look up liberty in
your
dictionary. Every one of the definitions is contrary to institutional
controls.

Institutional controls abridge Americans' rights of land ownership and
freedom of movement. Protecting toxic waste from human contact is not
the
public use which is the precondition for condemnation under the Fifth
Amendment. Clean it up!

You may say to yourselves that I am taking this to an excessive
interpretation of the Constitution. Is free speech taken to an
excessive
interpretation as applied to campaign contributions? Is illegal search
and
seizure taken to an excessive interpretation when criminals are let off
on
technicalities of probable cause? Is cruel and unusual punishment
interpretation excessive when it demands television in prison and
better
health care than the average working person?

I am tired of hearing that the protective missions of the military
mitigate
their guilt in being the worst environmental offender in the country.
There
is nothing more un-American than polluting America and poisoning
Americans!
Nothing besides erecting a fence as the final remediation of their toxic
contamination!

Steven Pollack
steve@familyjeweler.com
http://www.familyjeweler.com/fortweb.htm

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org