Letter: St. Augustine guilty of pollution crimes?
Edwin L. Bricker; Olympia, Washington
Publication Date: 07/06/06
Editor: As a long-time environmental regulator for the state of Washington, I know from viewing Florida Department of Environmental Protection photographs that the city of St. Augustine and its officials possibly could be prosecuted for environmental crimes.
City managers must take personal responsibility.
It is mind-boggling to imagine what city officials were thinking when they took the contents of St. Augustine's old illegal dump and deposited it into the Old City Reservoir.
They owe you answers.
Ed Slavin represented me in my whistle-blower cases against two Department of Energy contractors, Westinghouse Hanford Company and Rockwell International. They involved retaliation against me for reporting nuclear safety concerns at the Hanford, Wash., nuclear weapons plants; the world's largest and dirtiest polluted site.
I worked undercover for Congressman John Dingell and was profiled in Ralph Nader's 1997 book, "No Contest."
Our Founding Fathers pledged "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" for liberty. I am grateful for Ed Slavin's work in my community and in yours.
If Ed had not reported the city of St. Augustine's immoral, illegal pollution, there is no telling how much damage might have been done to your aquifer and groundwater.
I hope that the good people of St. Augustine will rise up in righteous wrath, working to change their government to protect your beautiful environment.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/070606/opinions_opi76b.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Letter: End tyranny, waste in our Oldest City
Letter: End tyranny, waste in our Oldest City
David Brian Wallace
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 07/04/06
Editor: I strongly agree with Ed Slavin's June 25 column, "St. Augustine: We can make it much better."
Congratulations to The Record for its recent journalism prizes, particularly reporter Kati Bexley's investigative story on the New York City junket by five commissioners, the city manager and their spouses and significant others.
Our city of St. Augustine has so much to be proud of ñ our people, nature, beauty, schools, music, art, culture, scholars and history.
It's a tragedy that our city government so poorly serves our city's people. It discriminate against African-Americans and gays, while refusing to discuss a Living Wage Ordinance. It rubber-stamps sweetheart contracts and wastes money on junkets to New York City, Germany and Spain.
Since I moved to St. Augustine, I've noticed apathy is ending. It's about time.
A bit of our city's soul died earlier this year when our city manager and his cronies polluted our Old City Reservoir with the contents of the old illegal city landfill.
Ed Slavin blew the whistle on the pollution, reporting it to the U.S. government's National Response Center; which referred it to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection; which began a criminal investigation.
I've known Ed Slavin for 17 years. In 1983, as a young weekly newspaper editor, Ed obtained the Department of Energy's declassification of the world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Ed has helped reform the nuclear weapons complex and other tyrannies, holding governments and corporations accountable and investigating abuses of power for three decades.
Ed has rightly been speaking out on St. Augustine city government issues.
We must protect the rights of our citizens and government employees and end the tyranny and waste at City Hall.
As Ed said in this column, we get to "overthrow" our city government "every two years."
Register and vote.
See www.cleanupcityof staugustine.blogspot.com.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/070406/opinions_3930124.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
David Brian Wallace
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 07/04/06
Editor: I strongly agree with Ed Slavin's June 25 column, "St. Augustine: We can make it much better."
Congratulations to The Record for its recent journalism prizes, particularly reporter Kati Bexley's investigative story on the New York City junket by five commissioners, the city manager and their spouses and significant others.
Our city of St. Augustine has so much to be proud of ñ our people, nature, beauty, schools, music, art, culture, scholars and history.
It's a tragedy that our city government so poorly serves our city's people. It discriminate against African-Americans and gays, while refusing to discuss a Living Wage Ordinance. It rubber-stamps sweetheart contracts and wastes money on junkets to New York City, Germany and Spain.
Since I moved to St. Augustine, I've noticed apathy is ending. It's about time.
A bit of our city's soul died earlier this year when our city manager and his cronies polluted our Old City Reservoir with the contents of the old illegal city landfill.
Ed Slavin blew the whistle on the pollution, reporting it to the U.S. government's National Response Center; which referred it to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection; which began a criminal investigation.
I've known Ed Slavin for 17 years. In 1983, as a young weekly newspaper editor, Ed obtained the Department of Energy's declassification of the world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Ed has helped reform the nuclear weapons complex and other tyrannies, holding governments and corporations accountable and investigating abuses of power for three decades.
Ed has rightly been speaking out on St. Augustine city government issues.
We must protect the rights of our citizens and government employees and end the tyranny and waste at City Hall.
As Ed said in this column, we get to "overthrow" our city government "every two years."
Register and vote.
See www.cleanupcityof staugustine.blogspot.com.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/070406/opinions_3930124.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)