Yesterday the Burlington Free Press ran a story about how the state shut down the Burlington Intervale composting operation due to “pollution concerns” and “recently mandated permits.” Today on Green Mountain Daily, a flurry of comments has appeared following blog moderator John Odum’s post on the subject. Odum writes…
the problem was that [Governor Douglas and ANR Secretary George Crombie] were dealing with environmentalists, and unlike their GOP business buddies who might mutter and fume about having to cowtow to the tree-huggers, the folks at the Intervale were fully and humbly prepared to comply - providing, in the process, an example to others.
That would never do for Douglas. So what does he have Crombie do? Revoke the Intervale’s classification as a farm, retroactively making it subject to all the Act 250 provisions it had never built into its business plan. The new, unexpected burdens - particularly ones relating to concerns about possible siting on archeological sites - suddenly dumped never-accounted for costs that, with an unfriendly agency, would clearly go well into six figures.
If you’re still entertaining the notion that this wasn’t a political hit job, consider the rumor in circulation that I was able to confirm with a source close enough to know. In a conversation with the Intervale Director, Crombie openly gloated that he had the Intervale “in a noose” and wasn’t about to let go.
That’s right. He actually said “in a noose.”
There’s an active discussion raging in the comments section of this post, including this comment from author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben…
Shouldn’t this be a big campaign issue? Shouldn’t Anthony Pollina be holding a press conference out on top of the intervale compost pile today? (or, for that matter, Peter Galbraith?). Isn’t this a chance to knock the nice-guy moniker off jim douglas? And to remind folks what an anti-environmentalist he’s proved to be? Shouldn’t there be bumperstickers that say: ’save the intervale–fire douglas’. Shouldn’t everyone be pointing out how this threatens 7 or 8 % of burlington’s fresh food supply? Can’t we have some pictures of what the intervale used to look like (i.e., informal dumping ground)? Can’t we have pictures contrasting the intervale with the kind of development douglas thinks is environmentally sensible (the st. albans walmart). can’t someone organize around this?
This is a freedom-to-farm issue, a local agriculture issue, a revitalized cities issue, a healthy food issue, an abuse-of-power issue. It’s a dirty trick that will impact lots of people. Don’t campaigns pray for this kind of opportunity?
Click here to read the full post and all of the comments.
See also this post by Burlington blogger Charity Tensel and this Vermont Tiger piece by Geoff Norman (which also has a good comments section brewing).