Monthly Archives: August 2008

Mayor Bob’s call for a river summit

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Still making my way through the messages from last week, I run across this one from Mayor Bob that relates to my previous post about the Saluda Latrine, I mean, River:

Based on the news reports of the last day about the sewer spill in Saluda River, I think it may be time to call for a Saluda, Broad, and Congaree Rivers Summit. I know that there are a lot of environmental groups, DHEC and other governments working to reduce discharges into the rivers. City Council approved a partnership with DHEC earlier this month on July 9th to address the high levels of fecal coliform in the Congaree River. We met with David Wilson, Water Bureau Chief; David Baize, and Charles Gorman of DHEC on July 1st to get a game plan. The causes of the high level of bacteria include run-off, septic tank leakage, sewer spills and pet waste. City staff has or will shortly send a letter to DHEC requesting a partnership with DHEC for the Total Maximum Daily Loading Plan for the Congaree River.

I think the spill this week caused by a malfunction with Alpine Utilities is a good reason for the City to ask everyone working on this issue to brief City Council on what we are doing and how the City can help. I know there is a plan that DHEC is working on as well as The Lower Saluda River Corridor Plan. I would ask staff to set this meeting up as soon as practical. I will ask Julie to coordinate with the City Manager and John Dooley. Also, I have asked former Commissioner Doug Bryant for his advice and am copying him.

Obviously, with the recreational and residential boom along the rivers, sewer and bacteria warnings and accidents can be devastating to our efforts as well as the environment. Just for background, I am attaching below exactly what we are asking DHEC to do based on our July 9th action. Thanks

CITY OF COLUMBIA:

* Requested DHEC accelerate the schedule for the development of fecal coliform Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) in local water bodies. This effort should encompass the impaired water bodies (lower Saluda, lower Broad downstream from Columbia Canal, and Gills Creek watershed areas) within and near the City.

* Expressed interest in working collaboratively with DHEC and other entities in developing such a TMDL(s) that will serve as a comprehensive tool and a road map to improve and restore impaired water bodies in and near the City.

* Offered assistance to DHEC for this effort as deemed necessary and appropriate by DHEC.

NOW you tell me…

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Several people have now pointed out to me the fact that the NRDC backed down on its previous assertion about S.C. beaches being so dirty.

Yeah, I know. I saw the news story. It ran the day I was packing up to leave the beach. So thanks a lot for the heads-up there, you environmental hammerheads. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

And to add insult, in that very day’s paper, as I’m heading back home to the Midlands, I’m greeted by this news:

With temperatures approaching 100 degrees today and Sunday, hundreds of
people would normally flock to the Saluda rapids at Riverbanks Zoo to
cool off.

Bad idea this weekend.

A
combination of high runoff pollution and a sewage leak from an upstream
treatment plant have caused state health officials to continue urging
people against swimming, wading or tubing at “the rocks,” as the area
is known.

“Stay out of the water at that area,” said Adam Myrick,
spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“And keep your pets out of the water and keep them from drinking the
water.”

Great. All of this goes to back up that the best thing to do on vacation is sit in the house and read a good book. I spent a great deal of my time last week finishing this book and starting this one. It seems appropriate at this point to consider the opening passage of the latter:

Standing at the frigate’s taffrail, and indeed leaning upon it, Jack
Aubrey considered her wake, stretching away neither very far nor
emphatically over the smooth pure green-blue sea: a creditable furrow,
however, in these light airs. She had just come about, with her
larboard tacks aboard, and as he expected her wake showed that curious
nick where, when the sheets were hauled aft, tallied and belayed, she
made a little wanton gripe whatever the helmsman might do….

Fortunately for Capt. Aubrey, he didn’t have to worry about the ocean being to polluted to sail through — at least, not unless she were becalmed, and floating in her own waste…

Obama as Mr. Darcy

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Darcy

For tomorrow’s op-ed page I chose a Maureen Dowd column because I appreciated her insight that Barack Obama, in terms of his relationship with many American voters (particularly diehard female supporters of Hillary) is very much like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

This is dead-on, and it speaks to a truth that certainly should be universally acknowledged: Despite all the chatter about the deep meaning of Obama as the "first black candidate," there is nothing black about his image or persona. Can you think of a black man in literature or popular culture of whom Obama reminds you? Maybe Sidney Poitier in "To Sir With Love," if you stretch the point.

But when Ms. Dowd invokes the archetypically white, Anglo, rich, Establishment Fitzwilliam Darcy, I think, "Exactly."

Mind you, I like Mr. Darcy. When I saw the series that Bridget Jones went gaga over, I identified with him — with his negative aspects that is: his social awkwardness, his aversion to dancing, his refusal to be pleased, etc. (I am, I assure you, no Mr. Bingley.) My daughters identify me — far more accurately, in terms of the way they see me — with a different character altogether: Mr. Bennet. Perhaps if, like that gentleman, I had a study to retreat to, I would be unaware of both Mr. Darcy and Miss Jones. As it is, with so many daughters (and now, granddaughters) in the house, my life is richer. My DVD shelf includes both the definitive 1995 "Pride" and the inimitable 1968 "Where Eagles Dare," with the entire canon of "Firefly" thrown in to bridge the gap. How more well-rounded can a gentleman be, indeed?

But when Maureen tried to stretch the point and cast John McCain in "Pride" terms, her analogy broke down. She compared him to Mr. Wickham, which is not only a gross insult but has no ring of truth whatsoever. Mr. Wickham was what military men of his day would have called a "scrub." He would have garnered no respect in the gunroom of any ship in the Royal Navy in those days, for instance — yet that is precisely the sort of place where Mr. McCain would be most at home back then.

Basically, I don’t think you can find a McCain analogy in Jane Austen. The closest you could come would be the main male character in "Persuasion." At least he was a naval officer.

For that reason among others, I predict Obama will win the Chick Lit vote, hands-down.

Obamaweb

Maybe because he really, REALLY is?

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Working on catching up on e-mail — just getting started, really; I probably won’t get it done today — I ran across this one:

Dear Mr. Warthen,
    I thought you might be interested in a piece I’ve written for Governing Magazine’s blog, pondering why Gov. Sanford is so frequently described as a libertarian: http://ballotbox.governing.com/2008/08/south-carolinas.html .
All the best,
Josh Goodman

Before following the link and reading the post, I hazarded a guess as to the answer: "Because he IS?"

I suppose Josh has a point in noting that more and more people are calling him that these days. I remember when I was the only one I knew of. That’s because I got an early start. One day in his first months as governor, I was visiting him in his office, and after we had touched on various topics that seemed to have a recurring theme, I blurted out, with the tone of one who just realized he’d been a chump, "You ran as a ‘conservative Republican, and you still call yourself that. But you’re not. You’re a libertarian." As I recall, he nodded soberly — I guess "soberly" is how you describe the expression in my mind’s eye. In any case, he didn’t argue about it.

As for people using it as a "pejorative" — perhaps they do. I know I wasn’t thinking happy thoughts when I realized the sort of governor we had. You see, a libertarian is not a good thing to has as governor of one of the most undergoverned states in the union. Maybe it would be a good thing to be in Massachusetts. But in a state that lacks so much in the way of basics that citizens of other states take for granted, the anti-government stance is at best superfluous, and at worst positively malevolent.

Of course, some purists may do what Josh does and quibble that not all of his views are purely libertarian. But you can say that about Ron Paul, too; that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s America’s best-known libertarian.