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EPA thinks Santa Cruz river is 'navagable'??
Remember those dumb German POWs who escaped from the WWII prison camp in Papago Park and tried to float down the Salt River to Mexico, only to discover the Salt River doesn't have water in it??? The dumb morons at the EPA think the same thing about the Santa Cruz river down in Tucson. Home Builders can't legally challenge EPA decision that Santa Cruz river is 'navagable' Posted: Friday, December 23, 2011 5:24 pm By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services | 0 comments A federal appeals court has slapped down efforts by home builders to overturn a decision that two stretches of the Santa Cruz River are legally “navigable.” In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sidestepped the question of whether the Environmental Protection Agency made a proper legal determination. Instead, they concluded that the National Association of Home Builders and its two Arizona affiliates lack legal standing to challenge EPA’s action. Judge Karen Henderson said it would be one thing if the lawsuit had been brought by a specific landowner who had to jump through additional regulatory hoops on a project because of the designation. But at this point, she said, that does not exist. David Godlewski, president of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, said his organization is looking at what to do now. “We obviously didn’t lose on the merits, he said. Godlewski said a new lawsuit may be filed, one designed to get around the problems the appellate court found. The fight surrounds two areas of the Santa Cruz designated by the EPA as navigable. One involves a 20-mile stretch running from Tubac to Continental. The other starts at Pima County’s Roger Road sewage treatment plant and runs north to the Pinal County line. The designation is legally important because once a stream is determined “navigable,” it falls within the scope of the federal Clean Water Act. And that law imposes restrictions on any discharges into water that eventually winds up in those streams, covering everything from pollutants to rocks and sand. In their lawsuit, the three home builder groups said the designation defies logic. Attorneys for the associations say that the river has never been a continuous stream, “normally flowing only in response to significant precipitation and discharges of sewage effluent.” They said the ordinary flow is insufficient for the river to be used for commerce by boat. “At best (the two reaches) are capable of supporting a canoe during exceptional periods of high water,” the lawsuit states. And even those flows, the lawyers said, are of “extremely limited duration.” And they said the flow further north is essentially all sewage, with no “natural flow” for most of the year. They also pointed out that the state’s own Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission has concluded the Santa Cruz does not fit the definition. That commission, however, is looking at the issue solely to determine land ownership issues, as property within navigable streams belongs to the state. In the ruling, Henderson said the U.S. Supreme Court has not reached any consensus on exactly what constitutes a navigable steam. But she said her court did not need to decide that because the home builder groups have no right to bring the challenge. “To establish organizational standing, National Association of Home Builders must allege such a personal state in the outcome of the controversy as to warrant the invocation of federal court jurisdiction,” she wrote. “It must demonstrate that it has suffered injury in fact,” Henderson continued. That must show a “concrete and demonstrable injury” to the group’s activities along with a drain on its resources, “more than simply a setback to the organization’s abstract social interests.” She said that has not happened here. Henderson said it is irrelevant that the home builders have spent money on legal fees over the scope of the reach of the Clean Water Act as well as testifying before Congress and submitting comments to agencies. She said there is nothing showing those expenses are beyond what the organization would normally spend in its advocacy role. And Henderson said the organizations have no legal right to sue on behalf of its members. She said until there has been some determination that the restrictions apply to a specific property, or that a landowner is charged with discharging without a permit, no one has been injured. “In the meantime, National Association of Home Builders members face only the possibility of regulation,” Henderson wrote. And she said that was a possibility that existed even before the action of the EPA. It was always understood that stretches of the Santa Cruz could be designated as navigable.
The mighty Salt foils a U-boat commander by Clay Thompson - Dec. 23, 2011 05:26 PM The Arizona Republic OK, class will come to order. It's time for your monthly Arizona history lesson taught by kindly, wise old Clay. This is the tale of the great escape by 25 German prisoners of war from their impoundment at Papago Park. It was the largest prison break by Axis POWs in American history. It happened Dec. 23, 1944. About 1,700 German enlisted men and officers, most of them from the submarine service, were held there. As prison camps go, it was not such a bad place. It had a movie theater with two shows a week, a choir and opportunities to volunteer for labor, such as picking citrus and cotton. The POWs even had their own newspaper, the Papago Rundschau (Papago Review). Prisoners called the place Camp Schlaraffenland -- the land of milk and honey. Nonetheless, a POW's duty is to attempt to escape. To that end, some of the prisoners dug a tunnel 176 feet long, 3 feet high and 2 feet wide. It ranged from 8 to 14 feet underground. It must have been claustrophobic in there. The spot the POWs chose for the entrance was out of sight of the guard towers. The prisoners got the Army to let them make a volleyball court and used it to dispose of the dirt they slowly brought out of the tunnel. They flushed some of the dirt down toilets. They disguised the entrance with a box planted with weeds. And they called their creation der Faustball Tunnel -- the Volleyball Tunnel. On Dec. 23, 1944, under the cover of a noisy party they had arranged for other prisoners to celebrate German victories in the Battle of the Bulge, 25 POWs crawled to freedom. They were led by Capt. Jurgen Wattenberg, a decorated U-boat commander. From the start, things didn't go well. Three men brought with them the components of a boat. They planned to reconstruct it and float down the Salt River to the Gila and Colorado rivers to reach Mexico and freedom. On paper, this must have sounded like a good idea. What they didn't know was there wasn't any water in the Salt. That put a damper, so to speak, on their plans. So the escapees scattered around the area. It was a cold and rainy night. The first guy to give up was a 22-year-old enlisted man, Herbert Fuchs. He quickly realized that he would miss the camp's Christmas dinner and the warmth and relative comfort of his prison hut. So he hitchhiked to the sheriff's office in downtown Phoenix and turned himself in. The police started getting calls from people who had found German prisoners at their doors, asking to be returned to the camp. The police called the camp to report all this -- which came as a surprise to camp authorities, who didn't know anybody was missing. Most of the escapees were rounded up within a few days. Two, Heinrich Palmer and Reinhard Mark, made it on foot to within 10 miles of the Mexican border before they were caught. Three others, led by Wattenberg, were at large for nearly a month. They lived off citrus and supplies they had hoarded at camp before the escape. They hid out in a cave north of Phoenix. Wattenberg's two companions eventually were nabbed during foraging trips into town for supplies and newspapers. Now on his own, Wattenberg decided that it was time to get out of town. He hiked to downtown Phoenix, asked about trains and spent the night in the lobby of the Adams Hotel. On Jan. 28, 1945, he headed for the rail depot but was stopped by Phoenix police Sgt. Gilbert Brady. The officer had been alerted by a hotel bellboy who was suspicious of the stranger dozing in lobby. Brady asked for ID. Wattenberg tried to bluff his way out, but Brady didn't buy it and took him into custody. Wattenberg had been free for 36 days. Back at the camp, Wattenberg was given a good dinner and then placed on bread and water for two weeks. The escapees became minor celebrities. People drove to the camp to look at them. A disabled boy asked to play chess with them. Palmer later recalled, "They brought in this little crippled boy. He didn't know anyone who could play chess with him, and he wanted to know if we knew how to play. "I told Reinhard in German to let the kid win because I thought we might win favor with our captors. And this kid didn't look like he had long to live, so why not let him beat the great captured war prisoners? He could tell his friends about it later." Nothing remains of the camp's buildings today, but you can see some pictures at brazilbrazil.com/powcamp.html. Reach Thompson at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8612. |