Citizen for Open Government

Search! Smurch! We don’t need a town manager search committee,.. a mayoral charter amendment committee will fill the void nicely....…

 

 

 

If John Klimm walks through the doors on South Street again, it'll be to buy a license for his dog.

 

Voters spoke their dissatisfaction with the town charger two years ago when they approved the proposed hybrid charter by a single vote, then saw it defeated by ten votes in a recount.

 

The point is at least half the people were willing to take something less if they could pick their leader.

 

There's no telling what the outcome would have been if voters were offered the opportunity to pick the town leader in the same manner they pick the Governor and President.

 

One thing is for certain voters said they wanted no part of picking their leader through the watered-down 1/13th vote they currently enjoy.

 

The last five major charter changes in Massachusetts communities did not come about via charter commissions, but through charter amendments written by  

 

charter COMMITTEES.

 

Voters in these communities saw that they didn't need to reinvent the wheel and throw the baby out with the bath water so they made a single major change by enabling each voter to pick their choice for top man or woman.

 

 

For example in 2002 voters in the town of Braintree elected a charter commission that worked two years writing an entire new charter.

 

 

Voters subsequently rejected the charter because it didn't call for an elected mayor.

 

 

Braintree voters knew they were mired in a maelstrom of political muck, but rather than go through the three-year process of electing a new charter commission, town meeting members elected a charter committee to come up with a method that would enable them to elect their leader.

 

The committee offered voters;

 

(1) a charter change limited to a method to elect a mayor

 

(2) a plan to appoint a town manager like we have in Barnstable

 

A special election was held and Braintree voters overwhelmingly rejected the town manager form of government.

 

The plan was sent to the General Court asking for its approval under the Home Rule Amendment, and quick as a wink, wham, bam, thank you ma’am, Braintree voters elected Mayor Sullivan and have lived happily ever after.

 

 

The problem with Barnstable government is each voter has a one-thirteenth sat on issues that affect the town as a whole. 

 

It's like the guy who says, "I make all the big decisions in my home, like what we should do about the war in Afghanistan, Social Security changes, immigration, and the homeless problem, while my wife makes all the little decisions like the family budget, vacations, what to buy."

 

The town has thirteen demographically-extreme divergent parochial representatives whose first job is to represent village voters, and secondly to represent the town as a whole IN THAT ORDER.

 

Eugenia Fortes said it every other week, sic, "It doesn't work because Hyannis always gets short shrift."

 

 

Main Street, Poshterville (1999 per capita income of $40,000) is seven miles and 180 degrees from Main Street, Hyannis (1999 per capita income of $18,000).

 

The town's per capita income of $33,000 is also different from Hyannis and Posterville.

 

 

Instead of hiring a new town manager who will be saddled with all of Klimm's hacks why not keep Lynch on the job until an appointed committee amends the town charter replacing the town manager language to a mayor?

 

A special election could be held enabling voters to simultaneously approve the mayoral change and elect a mayor who would serve in the best interests of all its inhabitants while the legislative branch continues to serve precincts just like these Massachusetts communities; 

 

CITY          POPULATION

Boston        617,594

Worcester     181,045

Lowell        106,519

Cambridge     105,162

New Bedford    95,072

Brockton       93,810

Quincy         92,271

Lynn           90,329

Fall River     88,857

Newton         85,146

Lawrence       76,377

Haverhill      60,879

Waltham        60,632

Malden         59,450

Medford        56,173

Weymouth       53,741

Revere         51,755

Peabody        51,251

Methuen        47,255

Pittsfield     44,737

Attleboro      43,593

Everett        41,667

Westfield      41,094

Leominster     40,759

Fitchburg      40,318

Holyoke        39,880

Marlborough    38,499

Woburn         38,120

Gloucester     28,789

Northampton    28,543

Agawam         28,438

West Springfd  28,381

Melrose        26,983

Gardner        20,228

Greenfield     17,456

Newburyport    17,416

Amesbury       16,283

Easthampton    16,053

North Adams    13,708

 

Thirty-eight seconds of unsolicited testimony leads to a mountain of mendacity…

 

Take 38 seconds to watch and hear Barnstable Airport Manager, Bud Breault on January 19, 2012 tell the Barnstable town council;

 

(1)  That he removed a diesel fuel underground storage tank that powered a 50-year-old generator.

 

(2)  In response to a question from Councilor Jennifer Cullum Brealt says he plans to move the old generator to replace an even older generator and an underground storage tank that provides back-up power to landing lights at the airport.

 

Breault, CLEARLY AND UNMISTAKENLY characterized BOTH tanks as

 

UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS.

 

 

WANTED; BUD "MAD DOG" BREAULT

 

In early January, 2012 Barnstable Airport Manager, Bud Breault, illegally removed an unregistered fifty-year-old Underground Storage Tank (UST) at the Barnstable Airport.

 

The diesel fuel UST, was illegally buried in the ZONE I AREA OF CONTRIBUTION TO THE HYANNIS WATER SUPPLY, to provide fuel needed to power an old emergency generator to light up the old airport terminal and parking area, was removed by Mad Dog Breault without first obtaining a MADEP UST FP 290-R permit from the Hyannis Fire District making him eligible for a

 

fine of $25,000 and/or two years imprisonment, which will add up to millions of dollars and a life-sentence because each day constitutes a SEPARATE OFFENSE.

 

 

At the January 19^th, 2012 Barnstable Town Council hearing Breault, in answer to a question from town councilor,  Jennifer Cullum, said, sic.

 

“I plan to use the old generator to replace the underground storage tank and small back-up generator to provide power to landing approach lights in the event of an extended power failure.”

 

 

WHOOPS!!! 

 

Breault "copped a plea" to having

 

TWO ILLEGAL STORAGE TANKS ON TOP OF THE HYANNIS WATER SUPPLY...

 

 

Neither the MADEP, nor the Hyannis Fire Department, have records of either underground storage tank.

 

 

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL LAWS

TITLE II EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH

 

CHAPTER 21O OPERATION AND REMOVAL OF UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS

 

Section 8. No person shall violate, or allow or suffer any employee, agent, or contractor to violate, any provision of this chapter, or of any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval adopted or issued pursuant to this chapter.

 

Any violation of any provision of this chapter, or of any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval adopted or issued pursuant to this chapter shall be presumed to constitute irreparable harm to public health, safety and welfare, and to the environment.

 

Such presumption may be rebutted by the introduction of competent evidence.

 

Any person who violates any provisions of this chapter, or any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval issued or adopted under the provisions of this chapter, (a) shall be punished by a fine not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both; or (b) shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars for each such violation.

 

Each day each such violation occurs or continues shall be deemed a separate offense.

 

This shall be in addition to any other penalty or remedy prescribed by law.

 

The superior court department of the trial court shall have jurisdiction to assess civil penalties as set forth in this section, and to enjoin violations of, and grant such additional relief as it deems necessary or appropriate to secure compliance with, the provisions of this chapter, or any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval adopted or issued pursuant to this chapter, upon petition of the attorney general, a district attorney, the department, the head of the fire department, or a city or town.

 

 

CHAPTER 21O OPERATION AND REMOVAL OF UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS

Section 1 Removal or relocation of underground flammable or combustible fluid tanks; permits; abandoned underground residential tanks

 

Section 1. No underground tank which has been used for the keeping or storage of flammable or combustible fluids shall be removed or relocated unless a permit for such removal or relocation has first been obtained from the state fire marshal or the official designated by it to grant permits in the city, town or district where such tank is located.

 

The board of fire prevention regulations may from time to time, adopt, amend or repeal regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter thirty A, to insure that the removal, abandonment, or decommissioning of underground storage tanks which have been used for the keeping or storage of flammable or combustible fluids is done in a manner which protects public health, safety, welfare and the environment. Any violation of any regulation adopted by the board shall be presumed to constitute irreparable harm to public health, safety, welfare and the environment. Any person who violates any provisions of this section or any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval issued or adopted under the provisions of this section shall be subject to the penalties specified in section eight; provided, however, that such person shall have thirty days upon notification of the violation to begin compliance procedures with such provisions before any penalty may be imposed.

 

Upon abandonment of a tank, notice of such abandonment shall be reported to the board of health for the city or town in which such tank is located.

 

 

(1) Each owner of an underground storage tank first put into operation on or after January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-one shall, within thirty days after the tank is first put into operation, notify the department of the existence of such tank, specifying the age, size, type, location, and uses of such tank. The requirements of this subsection (1) shall not apply to any underground storage tank that is (a) a farm or residential tank of one thousand and one hundred gallons or less capacity used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes, or (b) a tank used for storing heating oil for consumptive purposes where stored. In prescribing the form of such notice, the department shall take into account the form of the notice prescribed pursuant to section 9002 of RCRA and the effect on small businesses and other owners and operators.

 

 

 

 

 

Section 7. Whenever it appears that there is a violation of any provision of this chapter or any regulation, rule, order, permit or approval adopted or issued pursuant to this chapter, the department or head of the fire department may issue to a person causing or contributing, or likely to cause or contribute, to such violation or potential violation an order requiring the production or analysis of samples, or the production of records, or imposing such restraints on or requiring such action by said person, as the department or the head of the fire department reasonably deems necessary or desirable to abate or to prevent such violation or potential violation. Issuance of an order under this section shall not preclude, and shall not be deemed an election to forego, any other remedy authorized by law.

 

Barnstable Airport Manager/Airport Commission; Mack and Myer for Hire…

 

 

 

Klimm took the money and ran to greener pastures, but  the army of boobs he left behind, like Bud Breault, Daniel Santos and the rest of the Barnstable Airport Commission must be separated from service before all $6.5 million of the airport enterprise funds cash reserves evaporates.

Yesterday we learned that, in addition to a litany of gaffes that cost the airport a million dollars just last week, the same gang is responsible for losing another million or so when they underestimated the amount of asbestos in the old terminal scheduled for demolition Friday, January 27, 2012.

 

 

Asbestos is a hazardous material because of its friability, or its nature to become pulverized into microscopic pieces that float around in the air waiting for people to inhale them and become lodged in the lungs or other body parts and stuck forever disrupting the natural order of body functions ultimately resulting in some form of cancer. 

 

For that reason the material from start to finish must be disposed of with special handling.

 

 

My critics will say I'm overstating the facts but a simple look at the Airport Commission's January 17th Hearing Agenda clearly demonstrates the total incompetence of the panel;

 

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE..

Agenda Item #0112-05 seeks approval to give the Mad Platter the contract to operate the $1 million restaurant in the new terminal.

The contractor will pay the airport $1,300 a month for the brand new restaurant fixtures, light, heat, water, sewer, and air conditioning for the privilege of the exclusive to sell coffee and donuts made on the premises, and the pre-packaged meals that sell from $12 to $15 each.

 

The Mad Platter will get to use 1,133 square feet of cafe area, kitchen and storage space as well as $50,000 in start-up money for five years which means his total monthly expenses for the space, utilities, heat, and air conditioning will be $467 a month.

 

 

Restaurant business in the old terminal was so bad last year the food service contractor, Ron Semprini, asked for a $200-a-month reduction in his contracted monthly vigorish to operate the restaurant.

A quick look at the FAA Form 127 statement of airport income and expenses shows airport receipts for the restaurant dropped 71% from $36,425 in 1999 to $10,375.

 

If restaurant receipts had just kept pace with inflation the contractor should be paying the airport $4,092 a month in the old terminal.

 

The Mad Platter will pay $1,300 that includes heat, air conditioning, lights, electricity, and space in the $45 million new terminal which is $300 a month less than the monthly interest costs at 2% for the $1 million it cost the town to build the restaurant.

 

 

 

Agenda Item #0112-06 asks the Airport Commission to add $375,000 to Appropriation Order 2012-060 to remove additional asbestos from the old control tower over and above the amount originally budgeted and paid for by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

 

 

Within the body of the $375,000 request is a motion to appropriate and additional $545,000 for the purposes of acquiring new and temporary emergency generators for the new terminal, an expense over and above the amount asked for from the DOT.

 

Just like it costs a lot of money to pay electric costs of garish home Christmas lighting displays, the new terminal's four-times more wattage for lighting will not only cost Barnstable taxpayers a ton of money in electric power costs, but also the $545,000 new half-million-dollar back-up generator to keep the brummagen display lit up during periods of extended power outages.

Bud Breault (Mack) removed an illegal undergroud diesel fuel storage tank (illegal because it was never registred with MADEP) without obtaining an UST FP 290-R permit from the Hyannis Fire District, that yesterday told me Breault claimed was an above-ground tank.

 

Breault told the town council the tank was an underground storage tank (UST) which means he lied to someone.

 

Unless Bud Breault can prove airport design/construction contractors screwed up by not factoring the lack of wattage in the old generator to power the hundreds of new lights to light up the new terminal, and the vast amount of asbestos behind the walls of the old control tower and airport tower,

 

the virtual $1 million in additional expenses will be paid for from the airport’s $6.5 free cash account.

 

 

Agenda Item 0112-07 asked the airport commission to approve a reduction in the parking lot concession contractor’s annual payment from $$504,000 to $483,177 to cover 50% of the contractor’s $43,000 deficit.

 

In 1983 I bid a government contract to pick up rubbish at Castle AFB in Merced, CA and I had to live under the terms of the contract up or down.

 

Last week Republic Parking, the airport's parking lot contractor, complained that his receipts were down and got $21 grand from Mack and Meyer to make up for the deficit he should have eaten in its entirety.

 

The Mad Platter should take notice because when sales aren't what he expected he merely needs to ask Mack and Meyer for a few grand to cover his losses.

 

After all they did the same for Ron Semprini and Republic Parking when their businesses went sour.

 

 

The airport's financials won’t get better because of a 58% drop in enplanements over the last decade.

 

 

To make it even worse the $3 million in FAA grant receipts handed over to the airport in F/Y2010 will drop significantly because the FAA bases its grant receipts program on enmplanements.

 

In the last two years the Barnstable Airport's enplanements dropped 26% from 124,000 to 92,000.

 

 

 

Klimm’s big mistake was in sending former DPW Assistant Superintendant, Bud Breault over to replace Airport Manager, Doc Mosby to give new life to the new terminal that had been given its last rites.

Klimm managed to run an airport that went from a $3.1 million dollar profit to one that lost -$876,695 in F/Y2010.

Last year Breault and his boys adopted a $2 Passenger Facility Charge on each ticket out of the airport sold and grossed $61,350 from March 1 through June 30, 2011 for an average of 255 tickets sold each day.

When Klimm became town manager the airport averaged 613 tickets sold on a daily basis. 

 

 

Barnstable is rife with retired businessmen and company executives, and employs a Comprehensive Financial Advisary Committee (CFAC) to advise the council on fiscal matters.

 

My question is what's the name of the idiot who told the council that the best way to get people back to flying to Nantucket is to spend $45 million to build a new terminal?

 

You can watch Mac and Meyer in living color on January 17, 2012 acting on the agenda items in this post.

 

 

 

 

Is the Barnstable Airport Manager recklessly gambling away the integrity of Mid-Cape and Lower Cape's water supply by using illegal 50-year-old diesel fuel Underground Storage Tanks?

 

Once again the Airport and the town council acted on money concerns, and completely ignored their responsibilities to protect the health and welfare of constituents and the Hyannis, Yarmouth, Dennis, Brewster, Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, and Eastham water supplies.

 

Listen to Bud Breault fiddle and diddle while he lied to the council last week.

 

Pay particular attention to his admission that he

"removed an underground storage tank two weeks ago",

 

and again when he says

 

"He plans to move the old generator to another section of the airport to replace an even older generator and underground storage tank some time in the future."

 

 

 

   Airport Commission story;

   

 

The terms water table, groundwater and aquifer are used to describe the Cape's sole source water supply.

 

The water table is the level below which soil and rocks are permanently wet (or ‘saturated’).

 

The water below the water table is referred to as groundwater.

 

An aquifer is the name given to a distinct layer of rock or sediment that holds abundant groundwater in its pores, joints and fissures.

 

 

Cape Cod's Sole-Source Aquifer can be characterized as a vast, natural, underground water-storage reservoir.

 

 

 

An Underground Storage Tank (UST) is used a smaller reservoir to store petroleum.

 

 

UST's and aquifers can only coexist through strict regulations by the EPA, local fire departments, the DEP, and the State Department of Public Safety.

 

 

USTs installed before 1980 were single wall bare steel tanks that corroded over time resulting in significant leakage.

 

Breault said his UST's are vinatage 1960.

 

 

In 1984, in the United States, the Congress developed laws to minimize and prevent environmental damage, by charging owners with the task of verifying, maintaining, and, if necessary, cleaning up sites damaged by petroleum contamination.

 

 

Legislation requiring owners to locate, remove, upgrade, or replace underground storage tanks became effective December 24, 1989.

 

All this yet we have a lard-ass Airport Manager whose primary concern is keeping the lights on after a hurricane, while his half-century-old underground storage tanks are leaking diesel fuel into the aquifer.

 

USTs made over the last thirty years have corrosion control (cathodic protection), overfill protection (to prevent overfills of the tank during tank filling operations), spill containment (to catch spills when filling), and leak detection for both the tank and piping.

In Massachusetts over the last fifteen years thousands of old underground tanks were replaced with newer tanks made of corrosion resistant materials (such as fiberglass) and constructed as double walled tanks to catch leaks from the inner tanks and to give an interstitial space to accommodate leak detection sensors.

 

 

Piping was replaced during the same period with much of the new piping being double-wall construction and made of fiberglass or plastic materials.

 

 

Tank monitoring systems capable of detecting leaks as small as 0.1 gallons-per-hour were installed and other methods were adopted to alert the tank operator of leaks and potential leaks.

 

 

At the January 17^th, 2012 Airport Commission meeting Airport Manager, Bud Breault dropped a bomb when he asked the panel to approve a $565,000 appropriation to purchase and install a new emergency generator to provide power for all airport activities in case on an extended power outage.

 

 

Breault explained that somehow the costs of the new generator slipped through the cracks during the design and constructions of both the new control tower and airport terminals.

 

 

The Commission approved Breault’s emergency request and two days later he moved the same road show to the council that also approved the expenditure.

 

Let's face it Breault is talking about the equivalent of a spare tire...something that is only to be used in an emergency. 

 

 

WHAT'S THE EMERGENCY HERE?

 

THE GENERATOR HAS BEEN THE AIRPORT'S BACK UP FOR DECADES

 

 

Both the airport commission and the town council ignored Breault’s admission that he unilaterally dug up the old generator’s UST “two weeks ago”.

Why would he permanently disable the back-up power supply before he had the Airport Commission and town council’s approval?

 

Breault admitted the tank and generator were installed around 1960, or fifty years ago.

 

Breault also said the old generator is located in the terminal area

 

which is less than 100 yards, or within the Zone I, of two Hyannis water supply pumps.

 

 

527 CMR 9:00 postulates that when any Underground Storage Tank (UST) is permanently "closed" (removed or closed-in-place), the presence of contamination in the environment must be assessed. 

 

 

The CMR also mandates that before a UST is removed Form UST FP 290-R must be completed.

 

I'm still looking for a copy of Breault's FP 290-R form to remove the airport UST earlier this month.

 

In summary;

 

(1)  Breault had a fifty-year old underground steel tank that held diesel fuel to power an emergency generator that operates only during power failures.

(2) The tanks single walls are subject to corrosion from water both inside and outside which tells me that after fifty years the tanks are leaking big time.

(3)  When the tank at the terminal was pulled from its resting place hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel had to spill into the soil.

(4)  Bud Breault didn't think to fill out Form UST FP 290-R Notice for Removal of a UST with the Hyannis Fire District and send copies to the DEP in Boston, and the State Public Safety Office BEFORE HE REMOVED THE UST.

(5)  Breault filled in the hole before a licensed person looked for leakage.

(6) The old fuel tank must have a death certificate before it can become scrap which means there should be someone out there who can attest to the fact there were no holes in the tank, AND THERE ARE ONLY TWO LICENSED SCRAP DEALERS IN MASSACHUSETTS THAT CAN ACCEPT OLD UST's.

 

Want to know what I really think?

 

 

Traces of diesel fuel were detected in the Hyannis water supply during routine water quality tests, and Breault was notified because the pumps are on the airport.

 

After a cursory investigation that could have included “sticking” the fuel tank, Breault learned the emergency generator UST was leaking big time, so he drained it and removed it immediately, and then invented the undersized generator fib.

 

 

This morning I called Hyannis Fire District that promised to have one of its Fire Prevention Inspectors give me a call when and if he finds a copy of the airport’s FP 290-R report.

 

 

I called the Barnstable Board of Health and got virtually the same story.

I called the DEP in Lakeville that does not have a copy of the FP 290-R report presumably because no fuel leaked onto the ground. (Lakeville only gets involved when hazardous materials are actually spilled).

 

I also called the DEP, and the Department of Public Safety in Boston and got answering machines.

 

 

I don't plan to call the airport because the people there are notorious liars.

 

 

JUST SO YOU'LL KNOW...

 

The airport's former and existing underground storage tanks used to fuel back up generators were not recorded in the DEP UST data base that has information dating back to 1970.

 

The airport tanks were and are OUTLAWS.

 

The only underground storage tanks in Barnstable are at the Barnstable Marine Service @ 92 Freezer Road in Barnstable village and were inspected in 2009.

 

 

There are other UST's listed in the data base, but have all been removed;

 

John Klimm takes the Town Administrator job in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Baja Fall River, former Paul Gauvin country...

 

Barnstable's gain, is

 

Portsmouth's loss...

 

 

John Klimm is the Albert Haynsworth of municipal government.

 

The Patriots were 5 and 3 before Haynsworth was sent to Tampa Bay.

 

After he left the Patriots won 10 straight games while Tampa Bay lost 8 in a row.

 

Portsmouth, population 17,000+, is on Route 24 south of Fall River half-way between the city and Newport in Bristol County, Rhode Island.

 

The seven-member town council does not schedule public comment period which should elate Klimm who likes to operate in a vacuum.

 

President of the Klimm-bolster club, Mr. Tucker, from Hyannis should be cautioned before he drives all the way over to Rhode Island that speakers at council or any meetings of the Town’s boards or committees must contact the Town Clerk’s Office at 401 683-2101 at least three (3) business days prior to the meeting.

 

Watch as Tucker gets thrown out with Klimm's bathwater...

 

Sorry Mr. Tucker, but John Klimm won't be walking through those doors again except to speak after you at public comment...

 

 

 

 

 

Portsmouth's elected and appointed officials eschew Barnstable's Russian Roulette politics and require speakers to let them in on what's on their minds before they speak enabling them to respond intelligently immediately after questions are raised.

 

I provided a link to a Portsmouth, RI town council hearing so you'll be able to see that they run a tight ship where Klimm will be on a short leash.

 

 

 

 

 

Portsmouth is known as the home of former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, and former Boston College and Kansas City Chiefs (1999-2002), New England Patriots (2003), New York Giants (2004),
New England Patriots (2005), New York Giants (2005) running back, Mike Cloud.

 

In the early 1980's Portsmouth, RI made world news when it was discoved that Betty Hutton, who had never gone beyond the ninth grade, enrolled at Salve Regina, a Catholic college for women in Newport, R.I.

 

She earned a master’s degree in psychology; the college had decided that her life experience entitled her to a bachelor’s degree.

 

By the late 1980s, she was teaching comedy and oral interpretation at Emerson College in Boston.

 

Betty Hutton's guru and savior, Father McGuire, hired her to work as a cook and housekeeper in his Portsmouth, RI, rectory where she stayed until   McGuire's death.

 

Not suprisingly the always-wired Hutton became a drug addict who pissed through her $10 million savings account, until McGuire rescued her in New York.

 

 

Klimm could commute from Hyannis as Portsmouth is a little more than an hour's drive.

 

Portsmouth is also less than thirty minutes from Foxwoods.

 

As of yet the town hasn't published Klimm's salary but it will be icing on the cake for his $143,000 buyout that he'll get paid over the next two years.

 

 

Klimm recently said that he "loves" Barnstable, and why shouldn't he love the local yokel saps who gave him $286,000 more than the $72,000 six-month's salary buyout he agreed to in his contract?

 

 

 

 Special note to June Daley, Klimm's friend for 33 years; Portsmouth is looking for an animal control officer, but you'll have to deal with the town council.

 

 

If you'd like to take a look at the Portsmouth Town Council in action;  I'll guarantee you Klimm will get a crash course on manners, especially the rule about "speak only when spoken to".

 

Do you think Klimm hired a private detective to find out if the seven on the council get along?

 

http://www.recordri.com/portsmouth.record/TownCouncil/ptc.1.23.12.Flash.htm

 

Klimmboob $3 BILLION sewer expansion policy; self-refuting absurd liberal ideology... WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

 

The essence of Obama’s State of the Union address last night, "the rich are getting much, much richer, while the shrinking middle class is getting awfully tired treading water," could be stretched to even greater heights on Cape Cod because from $8 to $15 billion of what little collective income folks have today could be confiscated by the feds to pay for sewer expansion.

 

 

Last week’s news the EPA plans to settle the CLF/Buzzards Bay Coalition (the only buzzards in the body of water) law suit means the First U.S. District Court will essentially rewrite the Clean Water Act by eliminating the non-point-source exemption currently in effect.

 

Two years ago when Brown campaigned on Main Street in his run against Martha Coakley, COGgers, Tina Carey and John Julius, gave his daughter a COG post that claimed a pro-CLF decision would be an expense local governments could not afford thereby triggering the 1995 Unfunded Mandate Act, that requires Congress to pay the costs sewer expansion on Cape Cod. 

 

We informed Brown that he needn't concern himself then, but could be asked to later.

 

 

With the impending settlement in May, we need Senator Brown to ask the Congressional Budget Office Director to rule as to whether the newly amended Clean Water Act is an Unfunded Mandate before the compromise is made, and cash in our chips from two years ago.

 

 

The CLF lawsuit asks the federal court to make an informed and deliberate decision to displace local community’s ability to provide essential municipal services to finance $15 billion costs to sewer the Cape.

 

If the EPA/CLF agree, the town-owned sewer plant on Bearse’s Way will be “the problem,” not the solution, because it, like Title V septic systems, dumps the same level of nitrogen-laden effluent into the same aquifer.

 

CLICK ON CAPE COD COMMISSION'S MAP OF SEWER PLANT'S EFFLUENT MIGRATION TO ENLARGE

 

 

My wife and I, along with 18,000 other home, apartment and condo denizens, may dump 150 gallons per bedroom a day of waste water that is denitrified after leeching through 20 or more feet of sandy soil spread out over 64 square miles, while the problematic sewer plant dumps

 

4.2 million gallons

 

that travels through clogged up sand,

 

over 60 acres

 

before travelling out to Lewis Bay, Hyannis Harbor, Stewarts Creek, and the Centerville River.

 

 

The Barnstable general fund can’t afford to spend $2 billion to build a new waste water treatment plant and install sewer mains throughout town,

 

and property owners don’t have the wherewithal to spend another $2 billion destroying their Title V septic tanks and connecting their residences to the sewer pipes.

 

 

Senator Scott Brown will be in Hyannis this Saturday in the 500 block of Main Street, Hyannis at 10:30AM.

 

Because the CLF/EPA compromise is due by May, he needs to get on the stick and ask the Congressional Budget Office Director to rule whether the new and unimproved version of the Clean Water Act is a mandate the costs of which are to be paid by Congress under the conditions of the Unfunded Mandate Act.

 

http://www.scottbrown.com/contact-us/

 

Brown should also be asked why he didn’t sign on to the following letter written by four Midwestern and Southern senators to EPA Director, Lisa Lewis demanding that she fight the CLF/Friends of Nantucket Sound lawsuit.

 

Posted below is a copied and pasted version of the letter.

 

 

Congress of the United States

Washington, DC 20515

January 19, 2012

The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson

Administrator

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

Recently, there have been reports in the press that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is negotiating a settlement agreement with the Conservation Law Foundation and the Buzzards Bay Coalition to resolve two lawsuits. One lawsuit alleges EPA has a non-discretionary duty under the Clean Water Act to regulate pollution of groundwater. The other lawsuit alleges EPA has a non-discretionary duty to mandate states regulate nonpoint source pollution. Since neither allegation is true, we were very surprised to learn that EPA is choosing to settle these cases, rather than to honor the limits of its authority under the Clean Water Act and vigorously defend these cases.

We are concerned that EPA has demonstrated a disturbing trend recently, whereby EPA has been entering into settlement agreements that purport to expand Federal regulatory authority far beyond the reach of the Clean Water Act and has then been citing these settlement agreements as a source of regulatory authority in other matters of a similar nature.

One example of this practice is EPA's out-of-court settlement agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in May 2010. EPA has referred to that settlement as a basis for its establishment of a Federal total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the entire 64,000 square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed and EPA's usurpation of state authority to implement TMDLs in that watershed. EPA also has referred to that settlement as a basis for its plan to regulate stomnwater from developed and redeveloped sites, which exceeds the EPA's statutory authority.

 

Another example is EPA's out-of-court settlement agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council, also in May 2010, under which it agreed to impose regulatory reporting requirements on entities that are not regulated by the Clean Water Act.

 

As an Executive Branch agency, EPA must carry out the laws passed by Congress. EPA cannot exceed the authority granted to it by Congress. Indeed, the Executive Branch has a clear duty to vigorously defend, to the highest level, lawsuits that seek to compel action by any agency that is not authorized by law. Further, we are sure we do not need to remind you the expenditure of Federal funds to carry out unauthorized actions may be a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which imposes personal liability on Federal officers.

 

We are not asking for any details of your settlement discussions. However, to allow us, other members of Congress, and the public to hilly understand the breadth of the Federal regulatory authority that EPA believes it can assert, please provide responses to the following questions within two weeks of the date of this letter:

 

1. Does EPA consider a ground water aquifer to be water of the United States under the Clean Water Act?

Please explain.

 

2. Does EPA consider a ground water aquifer to be a point source?

Please explain.

 

3. Does EPA believe it has the authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate leaching of pollution into ground water?

Please explain.

 

4. Does EPA believe it has the authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate the direct discharge of pollutants into ground water?

Please explain.

 

5. According to a recent press article, an EPA spokeswoman has said section 208 of the Clean Water Act does not authorize EPA to exercise any Federal regulatory authority over nonpoint sources. Please confirm for us that the Clean Water Act does not provide EPA with any authority to craft section 208 area wide plans or to exercise any Federal regulatory authority over nonpoint sources under section 208 or any other section of the Clean Water Act, and that section 208 is consistent with the rest of the Clean Water Act that leaves the management of nonpoint sources to the states.

Please explain.

 

6. Does EPA believe it has the authority under the US? Constitution and under the Clean Water Act to commandeer a state legislature and require a state to enact an enforceable regulatory program for nonpoint sources?

Please explain.

 

7, Does EPA believe it has the authority to withhold Federal funding from a state that is in compliance with an area wide waste treatment management plan that has been approved under section 208?

Please explain.

 

8. Does EPA believe that a requirement in section 603(0 of the Clean Water Act that a state fund projects that are consistent with a state's plan developed under section 208 of the Act constitutes authority to require a state to enact an enforceable regulatory program for nonpoint sources?

Please explain.

 

9. Does EPA believe that a requirement under 603(0 of the Clean Water Act that a state fund projects that are consistent with a state's plan developed under section 208 of the statute constitutes authority to withhold Federal funding from a state whose area wide waste treatment management plan does not include an enforceable regulatory program for nonpoint sources?

Please explain.

 

Thank  you for  your  prompt attention to this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

John L Mica    

Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure       

                                    

James M Inhofe

Ranking Member Committee on Environmental and Public Works

 

 

 

 

Bob Gibbs

Chairman

Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment                  

 

Jeff Sessions

Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife

 

CAPE COD IS "BROWN COUNTRY"

 

2000 – 2006 Barnstable/Yarmouth Cancer Incidences by Type and Village…

 

 

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) reports that 50 percent to 75 percent of U.S. cancer deaths are caused by three harmful behaviors: tobacco use, lack of exercise and poor diet.

They're lifestyle habits most people can control.

If these behaviors are changed or eliminated, a person's risk of developing cancer drops dramatically.

 

People can also help protect themselves from cancer by avoiding excessive exposure to the sun, certain infections, and moving to another community far away from the Barnstable Airport.

 

Since the carcinogens in cigarette smoke are the same manufactured by partially-burned aviation gasoline used by the two airlines that fly in and out of the Hyannis airport 250 times each day,

 

 

folks living in Yarmouthport, South Yarmouth, Barnstable village, and sections of Hyannis cannot dodge cancer rained down on them, their children, properties, pets, sidewalks, streets, and water supplies each and every day of the year for decades..

 

Jet fuel does not produce carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) and lead.

 

 

The Bureau of Environmental Health and the Massachusetts Cancer Registry publish cancer statistics for all 351 Massachusetts communities for the purpose of alerting community leaders of potenital environmental pollution.

 

The BEH wants you to know that its statistics should not be used to ascertain cancer causes.

 

 

The BEH used Standard Incidence Ratios (SIR's) to determine the expected numbers of cancer incidences in each community based on demographics.

 

 

For example because 59% of Yarmouth, and 54% of Barnstable's population is over the age of 45 compared to Plymouth (43%), and the state average (42%) Cape Cod communities' SIR's are higher.

 

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

 

As you can see Yarmouth has a disproportionate number of Dead Pecker Club members than Plymouth, the state, and even Barnstable.

 

The presumption is older people are more prone to develop cancer so the BEH assigns higher expected SIR's to Yarmouth and Barnstable, like duffers on the golf course have higher handicaps.

 

 

For example; Plymouth’s expected breast cancer incidence from 2000 – 2006 was 206. compared to Barnstable’s 247.

 

 

The BEH subtracts each community's expected cancer incidences from those observed by diagnosing physicians, and subracts observed from expected to develop each community's Standard Incident Ratio for 33 types of cancer.

100 is the expected average, so lesser SIR’s indicate fewer cancer incidences, while greater SIR's are represent aberrant spikes.

 

 

The BEH also reports community SIR’s by Census Tracts to help community leaders to pinpoint problem areas.

Barnstable has eleven census tracts, one of which is the airport that has no data.

 

 

Hyannis has three census tracts (West Main Street, the Harbor, and Route 132) which I incorporated as one making a total of eight village areas.

 

Yarmouth has three census tracts which I characterize as Yarmouthport, South Yarmouth, and West Yarmouth.

 

The charts indicate SIR’s, not raw cancer incidences.

As you can see Centerville North of Route 28, Hyannis, and Osterville have slightly higher SIR's while all other villages are below average.

 

 

Cotuit and Marstons Mills reported one or two cases of pancreatic cancer while all other villages had higher than average numbers with Barnstable/West Barnstable and Wequaquet Lake had aberrant numbers.

 

Marstons Mills and the two Centerville areas had below normal melanoma incidences while Osterville and Barnstable/West Barnstable had aberrant rates.

 

 

Note that Barnstable/West Barnstable's leukemia rate was 125% greater than expected.

 

 

 

 

Below is a chart of average cancer incidences by village which means if you want to reduce your odds of developing cancer stay away from Barnstable village which, together with Yarmouthport, are in the lift-off paths of most Cessna 402 flights leaving the Hyannis airport.

 

 

 

 

YARMOUTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ask yourself....

 

How can such a small town as Yarmouth have such aberrant cancer incidences within a few miles of each other if not for the airport?

 

 

 

The COG Report on Prostate Cancer Incidences in Barnstable and Yarmouth from 2000 – 2006…

 

This post compiles the bodies, living and dead, from Cancer Dust (lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAH’s]) the airport is responsible for spreading over Barnstable and Yarmouth.

 

95% of the 1,500 milligrams of lead in every gallon of 100LL aviation gasoline, and 75% of every gallon of partially-burned aviation gasoline is discharged into the air over Barnstable and Yarmouth and is repeated hundreds of times each day.

 

The tiny atomized particles of lead and PAH’s discharged from the exahausts of the twin-engine Cessna 402's hang in the air gradually falling to earth.

Residents then inhale, ingest, and wash these carcinogens into their lungs, blood, and organs.

 

 

While most of the solid pollutants are passed out of the body as urine, some remain lodged in organs interrupting the natural processes and mutate into cancers.

 

Much of the lead and PAH compounds settle on the surface of the 650-acre airport and washed up into Upper Gates and Lewis Ponds carried there by four large storm water pipes (48”, 36”, and 18” in diameter), and drop off into the Hyannis water supply.

 

Today's data comes from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Cancer Registry for the years 2000 – 2006.

 

I copied and pasted the material onto spreadsheets and subsequently made charts of prostate, breast cancer, and melanoma (skin cancer) incidences in communities that range from one-and-a-half to five times the populations of Barnstable and Yarmouth.

 

 

Notice that Barnstable had more prostate cancer incidences than Framingham, Brockton, Lynn, Lowell, Quincy, Fall River and New Bedford, while Yarmouth, that is half the size of Barnstable, was ranked in the hunt with communities with five times the population,

 

Thanks to Debra Dagwan, Janet Joakim, Janice Barton, Fred Chirigotis, Tom Rugo, John Klimm, Bud Breault, et al, Barnstable had as many incidences of prostate cancer than the cities of

 

Everett, Marlborough, and Attleboro COMBINED.

 

 

 

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

 

Note; the red numbers in the bars are the population of the community

NEXT;

 

EQUALLY ALARMING INCIDENCES OF

 

BREAST CANCER

 

AND

 

MELANOMA

 

 FOR THE SAME PERIOD..

A Case Study in Environmental Medicine; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR); Toxicity of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

 

 

 

Over the last two decades Barnstable residents, especially those from Hyannis and Barnstable Village, have had tens of thousands of pounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) and lead rained down on them from exhausts of Cessna 402’s flown by the two Hyannis Airport airlines.

 

The pollutants in the air subsequently fell and continue to fall onto people, pets, rooftops, lawns, sidewalks, toys, patio furniture, automobiles, and every conceivable outdoor item. and subsequently tracked into homes for 24/7 contamination.

 

 

It is important for you to know that asbestos, PAH’s and lead are insoluble in water.

 

They pose a danger to humans because the poisons are friable, or can be reduced small enough to enable them to become respirable (able to enter human lungs).

 

Tetraethyl lead in gasoline has been banned in every country in the world including the USA, that somehow managed to exempt leaded aviation gasoline. 

 

On takeoffs piston engines are only 25% efficient, which means three liters of gasoline is partially burned and spit out the exhausts in a gaseous form.

There are 1,500 milligrams (the size of a large fish oil capsule) of lead in every gallon of 100 LL Avgas, the most common grade consumed at the Hyannis airport.

 

The EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for lead in drinking water is ZERO.

PAHs are a class of organic compounds produced from the incomplete combustion of gasoline.

 

A level of 4,700 mg/kg of benzo(a)pyrene, a potent carcinogen,  was detected in the sediment at the bottom of Upper Gates Pond at the airport in 2001.

 

 

The EPA’s MCL for benzo(a) pyrene in drinking water is seven-tenths of one billionth of a gram per liter.

 

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

 

Once emitted to the atmosphere, weight influences the fate of the gaseous PAH mixtures.

 

The more common PAHs include

• benzo(a)anthracene,

• benzo(a)pyrene,

• benzo(e)pyrene,

• benzo(k)fluoranthene,

• chrysene,

• dibenz(a,h)anthracene, and

• pyrene.

 

 

Each year vast quantities of these PAH’s settle on the surfaces of the 650-acre airport and are washed up via the four storm water runoff pipes that terminate in Upper Gates and Lewis Ponds at the airport. (I won't mention these same carcinogens spread over Hyannis, Barnstable Village, West Barnstable, and Yarmouth)

 

Immediately below these ponds are vortexes of two of the highest producing wells for the Hyannis water supply.

 

Since PAH’s are insoluble in water they amass on the bottoms of the ponds and slip into the ground water ultimately ending up in the Hyannis water supply.

 

 

PAH’s emitted into the air tend to remain gaseous until forced to the ground via precipitation.  In the mean time folks around the airport get to inhale the PAH's.

 

 

PAH concentrations in water tend to be around 100 ng/L (or 150 times greater than the MCL) due to their weak solubility.

 

The weak solubility leads to accumulation in sediments and aquatic organisms.

 

 

PAHs are absorbed by plants and accumulate in soil.

 

Cigarette smoke contains many PAHs; therefore are additional sources of PAHs.

 

 

Routes of PAH exposure through air, water, soil, and food sources include ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact.

 

 

Some exposures may involve more than one route simultaneously, affecting the total absorbed dose (such as dermal and inhalation exposures from contaminated air and water like the double-dose when Hyannis folks take a shower).

 

PAH concentrations in air can vary from less than 5 to 200,000 nanograms/cubic meter (ng/m3)

 

 

Smoking one cigarette can yield an intake of 20–40 ng of benzo (a) pyrene.

Smoking one pack of unfiltered cigarettes per day yields 0.7 μg/day benzo(a)pyrene exposure.

 

 

Smoking a pack of filtered cigarettes per day yields 0.4 μg/day. 

 

 

What all this means is non-smokers living in Hyannis or Barnstable Village inhale the PAH equivalent of two-packs of cigarettes a day courtesy of airport pollution. 

 

 

Not all airports are alike.

 

The preponderance of irplanes flying out of most airports are jets that burn kerosine that do not spew PAH's or lead while 95% of the aircraft flying in and out of Hyannis are twin piston engine eight-passenger Cessna 402's that burn leaded aviation gasoline.

 

 

Side-stream smoke (smoke emitted from a burning cigarette between puffs) contains PAHs and other cytotoxic substances in quantities much higher than those found in mainstream smoke (exhaled smoke of smoker).

 

 

PAHs can leach from soil into water.

 

 

Soil contains measurable amounts of PAHs, primarily from airborne fallout.

 

 

Documented levels of PAHs in soil near oil refineries and airports have been as high as 200,000 micrograms per kilogram (μg/kg) of dried soil.

 

 

Charring meat or barbecuing food over a charcoal, wood, or other type of fire greatly increases the concentration of PAHs.

 

 

For example, the PAH level for charring meat can be as high as 10–20 μg/kg.

 

 

Charbroiled and smoked meats and fish contain more PAHs than do uncooked products, with up to 2.0 μg/kg of benzo(a)pyrene detected in smoked fish.

 

 

In 1775 Percival Pott, an English surgeon, was the first to report a connection between soot and cancer when he described an unusually high incidence of scrotal cancer among London chimney sweeps and suggested this was due to their exposure to soot and ash.

 

 

Since then, other coal tar-related cancers have been induced in laboratory animals and found in humans.

 

 

For example, the PAH benzo(a)pyrene, which was isolated from coal tar in the 1930s, was determined to be carcinogenic when applied to the skin of test animals.

 

 

In 1947, the relationship between lung cancer and working conditions of gas industry workers and those working with coal tar was established.

 

 

In 1965 an increased incidence of cancers, particularly of the lung, was shown in epidemiologic studies of gas workers.

 

 

In 1972 several epidemiologic studies showed increased cancer mortality in workers exposed to PAH mixtures.

 

 

HOW PAH's RESULT IN CANCERS

 

1) PAH-induced carcinogenesis result when a PAH-DNA adduct forms at a site critical to the regulation of cell differentiation or growth.

2) A mutation occurs during cell replication if the aberration remains unrepaired.

Cells affected most significantly by acute PAH exposure appear to be those with rapid replicative turnover, such as those in bone marrow, skin, and lung tissue.

 

Tissues with slower turnover rates, such as liver tissue, are less susceptible.

 

 

Benzo(a)pyrene diol epoxide adducts bind covalently to several guanine positions of the bronchial epithelial cell DNA p53 gene, where cancer mutations are known to occur from exposure to cigarette smoke.

 

This is one possible genotoxic mechanism of cancer causation by tobacco.

COG is not alone in sounding the environmental health risk alarm for aviation air pollution.

 

 

Jack Saporito, President of the US Citizens Aviation Watch Association (CAW) - a coalition of concerned municipalities, environmental and grassroots groups, aligned with 27 like-organizations around the world - points to studies that have linked airport pollution to cancer, asthma, liver damage, lung disease, lymphoma, depression, myeloid leukemia and tumors.

 

 

"We have the sources; we have the pollutants in great amounts; we have the sick and dead people," says Saporito. "We just haven't linked it all together yet in an epidemiological study." 

 

 

After five years of sounding the alarm to deaf ears in Barnstable....a ray of hope.

 

From: michaelphersey@comcast.net [mailto:michaelphersey@comcast.net]

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 12:37 PM

To: John Julius

Subject: Re: Thank you

John

Thanks for the note, sorry it took a week to respond I was out of town and did not have WIFI.  As you know, my main focus during the campaign was the water, I have been to the board meeting and expect a liaison to be appointed and I hope that liaison will be me. We (myself and the other councilors with Hyannis water users) fully intend to get some answers regarding water and water quality, and will push to have the wells relocated if that is what needs to happen. I think with some leadership, the Hyannis councilors can get some meaningful changes.

As you may know, my house is right next to the Straightway well, which is actually the worst in town. I have a vested interest to see some improvements made.

Thanks again. See you Thursday night.

Mike Hersey

 

 

With this news it's time for me to give the issue a rest and let others take up the offense.