"The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.
"Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both."
Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson
It's been a long, hard and frustrating week. I've finally gotten most of the work associated with the new GOER web site completed, and it looks like there isn't too much more left to complete. Seems like all of those long nights and stressful days have paid off.
I haven't written anything in what seems like such a long time, but in actuality, it's probably been only a week or so. In the interim, I feel as if my world has been rocked to its foundation. It seems that the EPA, as part of the rush to finalize projects before the change in administrations, has recommended that the Hudson river be dredged.
As much as I'd like to see GE made to pay for the fouling of the river, I don't feel this is a good thing, and I'll tell you why.
First of all, I need to explain that I live right on the banks of the Hudson. I mean RIGHT ON the banks of the Hudson. As I've explained earlier, my back door is approximately 15 feet away from the water. Sure, the actual dredging will be inconvenient, annoying and unsightly, but aside from that, I can't understand just how it will help.
What about the existing wildlife? Will they quarantine and kill all of the fish, amphibians, beavers, muskrats and waterfowl that now live there? How else will they be able to say with any certainty that they are healthy?
What about all of the people living along the river that use wells? My well is approximately 20 feet away from the river, and is roughly at the same level as the river. When the river is bloated in the spring, the sediment from the river seems to leach into my well, since the water filter becomes clogged with sand. What's going to happen when those sediments are the PCB-laden material dredged from the river bottom?
There are too many questions without answers. And I have no confidence in the ability of the government to plan and manage this project with any competency. This is the same government that can't figure out that the fact that there's a "drug problem" in this country is because people's lives are so bad that they are desperate for a way to escape them.
Fortunately, I rent. I can move. But what about everyone else?
