National Reconnaissance of Emerging Contaminants

Don't you just love that title. They must have a special department to create obscure ones. In any case this is also from the USGS and seems of interest to those concerned about water quality.

"Emerging Water Quality Issues Investigations

Recent decades have brought increasing concerns for potential contamination of water resources that could result inadvertently during production, use, and disposal of the numerous chemicals offering improvements in industry, agriculture, medical treatment, and even common household conveniences. Increasing knowledge of the environmental occurrence or toxicological behavior of contaminants has resulted in increased concern for potential adverse environmental and human health effects. For many contaminants, public health experts have incomplete understandings of their toxicological significance (particularly effects of long-term exposures at low-levels)."

Hydrogeology of the Tully Trough in Southern Onondaga County and Northern Cortland County, New York

NEW September 2003 Covers both Tully and the norther half of Preble

[Full Report, Acrobat PDF (4.5M)]

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Published Aquifer Maps: "Unconsolidated Aquifers in Upstate New York 1:24,000 scale maps: Miller, T.S., Brooks, T.D., Stelz, W.G., and others, 1981, Geohydrology of the valley-fill aquifer in the Cortland-Homer-Preble area, Cortland and Onondaga Counties, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-1022, 7 sheets, scale 1:24,000."

(I suppose you get this from the USGS, but it doesn't say one way or the other on the site.)

NEW COUNTY ATTORNEY TO BE SELECTED

With the control of the county legislature now in Republican hands the positions of county attorney and clerk of the legislature are up for change. The current county attorney is Knickerbocker, a democrat, who ran and lost big for the position of county judge. It would be stupid for the reps to keep a dem in this position. After all the dems didn't put a rep in this position did they? In addition to that I have a bad opinion of Knickerbocker. He deliberately violated the law when he refused to obey the NY State FOIL laws and forced us to spend a lot of money and time. We won that lawsuit but it didn't change Knickerbockers "my way or the highway" arrogant attitude. I was surprised when I read in yesterdays Cortland Standard page 3 article that Republican Bill Cinquanti wanted to keep Knickerbocker for "continuity". What a load of crap! If the reps want to have continuity they can appoint Fran Casullo, a rep who has been assistant county attorney and an honorable man. While I've beat up on Casullo in the past I still think highly of him. But continuity should not be a reason to keep anyone on board. The reps have a period of time called "transition" where the old go out and the new come in. If they decide to keep Knickerbocker I will be very disappointed because it will be a sign that they intend to do the same old crap that the dems did and that is not a good sign.

ZBA VOTES SONG MOUNTAIN OUT OF BUSINESS!

Well, not exactly, but the end result is the same. What they did do was vote to allow Song Mountain to use the well WITHOUT the protections we require so that our wells will not go dry. I'll bet at this point that you can't quite understand what the hell I'm talking about. Here are links to the pages from 2001 about this issue:

Song Mountain Huge Snow making well 12/3/2001: "OK I'm pissed, but why?"
Song Mountain Huge Snow making well 12/3/2001: "Song Mountain Documents 12/3/01"
Dean Smith's Planning Board FAILS to provide citizen's wells protection! 5/1/2: "OUT OF BUSINESS"

Here is the list from the above page:

The following list is what we require and demand for Song Mountain's use of our water.

1. The permit for the well should note that it is for backup purposes only.
2. Monitoring equipment available to any Preble resident or surrogate at any time during normal business hours that the mountain is open.
3. Monitoring on a daily basis when the well is in use.
4. Copy of the well's NiMo bill and all monitoring reports sent to the town hall for public view each month that the well is used. Town clerk will keep these records as part of the town's permanent records and make them available to citizens.
5. Song's potable (drinking) well pump raised as per USGS's Bill Kappel's recommendation so that Songs potable well will be the first to fail if they over use their big well. Access to the potable well at any time to verify that this has been done and has not been altered.
6. Well calibration needs to be done when water is at it's lowest. Jan/Feb.
7. All impacted wells property owners need to be notified and included in this process and records need to be shared with home owners and county health dept. for Songs drinking well
8. 90 percent recovery needs to be met between well withdrawals. We need to have an independent source watching. 90 percent from original depth line or else you have a step down effect and every time you start up you are closer to the cut off but without clear wording. Song would be just moving the 2 foot safety margin and you could draw wells down
9. We have to have the shut off process clearly defined for the big well. Currently it is not done at all. We have to define who is called. When are they called and the conditions needed and who turns it back on.
10. The monitoring has to continue for 10 years as outlined by the USGS and not just the 3 years required by the SRBC The SRBC is going to make money on this while the USGS will not. Also the USGS has a local office while the SRBC is in Pa. Bill Kappel of the USGS says we need 10 years to get a handle on the long term impact, if any. I trust the USGS far more than the SRBC.

Now it's up to Song Mountain. If they do these simple things then they can use the water. If not then we will protect our water even if that means that Song goes out of business.

Restating the Case for War - Waiting for Saddam to change is what got us into this mess in the first place. By Christopher Hitchens

Restating the Case for War - Waiting for Saddam to change is what got us into this mess in the first place. By Christopher Hitchens

I really like to watch and listen to Christopher Hitchens on talk shows. He is neither left nor right but mostly seems pissed off at being put upon by the ignoramuses whom he has to endure to be on their shows. Perhaps it's the English accent, the disheveled look or the irritated barbs he flings at his questioners. Whatever it is, Christopher Hitchens is a joy to listen too or read. Here is his latest in Slate.

Cortland County (NY) Republican Party

Cortland County (NY) Republican Party

Here you can read position papers and see a list of their 2003 candidates.

11/6/03 3PM Their site has already been updated to show the list of winners. Here is the links that used to be on their front page:

The Truth About Taxes and more...
Chicken Little was right
Cortland, here's our ACTION PLAN!
2003 County Legislature candidates

Cortland County Democratic Party

Cortland County Democratic Party

Here you can learn more about the Cortland Democrat candidates--- for 2001!

Look, I'm not a dem as many of you know, and I don't want to give them advise... BUT, If I was a dem I would be pretty pissed off that my party was so incompetent that they couldn't update their site to show the current candidates. They would have been better off taking this site down rather that doing this and looking stupid.

ZBA MEETING 7:30 PM TOWN HALL

Subject has to do with ??? BUT a lot of people are planning to go, so am I. See you there.

Post Election Observation

The democrats loss in Cortland is becoming a bit clearer. Today, November 5th, I received a flyer from the Cortland Democrats asking me to vote for them yesterday November 4th. (Perhaps they aren't aware that time travel is still not possible.) In addition to that the dems flyer was small and used small type plus it was black and white on cheap paper. The reps flyer was full color, full page, double sided, on slick paper and all the candidates were smiling. Of the 4 dems pictured only the two on the left were smiling while the two on the right had that "who farted" look on their faces.

Little things count in elections and campaigning after the election never works.

Healing Iraq

Healing Iraq: "Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq"

Written by a doctor in Iraq this blog talks about things from their perspective and is something most of our media will not show. Must reading.

Cortland County 2003 Election

Cortland County 2003 Election Results for Preble

It looks like a Republican sweep of Cortland County!

Republicans Campbell, Ferris, Larkin, Riccardi and Sharp all winners on the first half of the ballot. Plus 14 of 19 Legislature seats for a total 19 out of 24! There are few wins for Democrats. Only 4 legislators. One of the good news items is Knickerbocker losing to Campbell but the bad news is he's currently County Attorney. Perhaps with a Republican legislature they will find a Republican to be County Attorney.

Mind you I haven't looked at all of the county races and I don't plan too. I'll leave that for the Cortland Standard. While massive shifts like this only happen when there are serious problems, and while it is nice to win you usually end up with a mess to deal with and cleanup is always a dirty task.

While the dems did poorly county wide they did great in Preble. Supervisor, clerk, justice and 2 town board positions. The reps only have the other 2 town board positions and highway supervisor. This is pitiful considering the reps outnumber the dems two to one in the town. Of course it helps that the dems control the Republican Committee who put dems on the ticket over their own party candidates. But I'll go into the local issues later, when I have more time.

Meantime you can check the county BOE site ate the top for all the numbers.

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FLASH Republicans take over legislature 14 seats to 5. A couple are very close so that may change but the legislature is now firmly in Republican hands. This means the dems lost 2 incumbent seats and the reps got those plus the 5 open seats. Amazing!

Knickerbocker loses big time 60% to 40%. Perhaps next time when we ask for health information...

More details and my take on it later.

The Hunt for Iraq's Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

The Hunt for Iraq's Weapons (washingtonpost.com): "Your story gives the false impression that conclusions can already be drawn.

-- David Kay "

Just Another Soldier

Just Another Soldier: "A journal of a National Guardsman's deployment to Iraq."

This is very well written and shows a side we don't usually see.

LOOK WHO'S REARING THEIR UGLY HEADS…

It was just below the fold on Saturdays paper (11/1/03 Cortland Standard) The headline read, New Legislature voting procedure is challenged so I started reading. The issue has been going on since it was first reported in a page one headline on October 23rd where they talked about an absent legislator automatically casts a 'yes' vote. Sounds screwy and it is. For example: They could propose giving themselves a 100% pay raise and then nobody shows up and voila, they give themselves the raise without being held accountable. So it was with some interest when I saw Saturday's headline. Turns out that this new rule was hidden on the bottom of the 4th page in a 25-page resolution passed June 11th. "An absent member shall have his vote recorded in the affirmative." Kind of sexist the way it's worded but then again, maybe it only applies to male members and not female legislators, but I digress. The resolution came from Joe Dwyer (D-Cuyler, Solon and Truxton) and with just two days to review it, got overlooked. I'm guessing the two day thing was on purpose. The article talks about Republicans fighting the new rule. I continue reading onto page two. The paper can't get hold of Larry Knickbocker who is running for judge and is currently the County Attorney. I've had some indirect dealings with Knickerbocker. He delayed a FOIL demand, illegally, in my opinion and I believe he is behind the delays in getting the nitrate health information now. Now he seems to be hiding from the paper, same old same old. Yep, he'll make a hell of a judge… NOT! Anyway, I digress… again. I continue reading and now the article is quoting Scott Steve (R) who says the rule is illegal and not ethical. Then the article talks about fixing it and quotes from other legislators covering their asses or so it seems. Then something strikes me… I ponder what I've just read and think I overlooked something so I go back to the beginning and scan it again…

There it is on page one near the bottom of the second column… "was drawn out and centered around a presentation by the county Business Development Corp./Industrial Development Agency".

DAMN! this whole thing is the brainchild of those lying crooks Paul Slowey and Linda Hartsock who screwed us in the Flying J fight. Those BASTARDS! Now they dreamed up this scheme to take away the rights of voters by casting votes for legislators who aren't there. NOW IT MAKES SENSE! This is just another way for Slowey/Hartsock/Knickerbocker to cheat everybody again. AND Knickerbocker was involved back when we had the last problem. It sure looks like they are working together to pull another fast one, but this time it's county wide. It'll be even worse if Knickerbocker gets elected a judge, can you imagine that? What a bunch of lying crooks. Amazing!

I have to credit the Cortland Standard for being on top of this one… GOOD JOB!

Is candidate for judge Knickerbocker holding up nitrate information about Preble?

Knickerbocker illegally held up FOIL information for years and only gave it up after he lost the lawsuit. Is he behind the current hold up of important health information for the people of Preble? Does ignoring the law make him a good candidate for a judge? If he can't obey the law, how can he judge others fairly? And according to the Cortland Standard it looks like he has something to do with the screwup at the county legislature that is also claimed to be illegal.

Perhaps he shouldn't be awarded this million dollar job.

Perhaps we shouldn't vote for him.