Man faces $75G a day in EPA fines for building pond -- on his property

[green73]

All Andy Johnson wanted to do was build a stock pond on his sprawling eight-acre Wyoming farm. He and his wife Katie spent hours constructing it, filling it with crystal-clear water, and bringing in brook and brown trout, ducks and geese. It was a place where his horses could drink and graze, and a private playground for his three children.

But instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, the Wyoming welder says he was harangued by the federal government, stuck in what he calls a petty power play by the Environmental Protection Agency. He claims the agency is now threatening him with civil and criminal penalties – including the threat of a $75,000-a-day fine.

“I have not paid them a dime nor will I,” a defiant Johnson told FoxNews.com. “I will go bankrupt if I have to fighting it. My wife and I built [the pond] together. We put our blood, sweat and tears into it. It was our dream.”

But Johnson may be in for a rude awakening.

cont.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...s-fine-for-building-pond-on-his-own-property/

 

[Anti Federalist]

But Johnson may be in for a rude awakening.

SWAT raid inbound in 3...2...1...

 

[Lindsey]

Defund the EPA!

He had approval from his state, shouldn't it be a state's right?

 

[kcchiefs6465]

Defund the EPA!

He had approval from his state, shouldn't it be a state's right?

Even approval from the state, acknowledgement on maps that your land is not a wetlands, testing by multiple specialists confirming as much, and being double digits away from the nearest creek, the EPA can come and say on their authority alone, absent any Due Process, that you need to return the land to its former state, and plant a list of plants they give you, at your own expense. Failure to do so is a fine of $75,000 per day and some have been imprisoned (for the crime of moving fresh fill from one side of their property to the other).

A half-century ago, John Pozsgai emigrated to America from Hungary. Twenty-five years later, he bought a hunk of land in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, that had been used as an illegal dumping ground for used tires and old car parts. Pozsgai wanted to build a garage on the land. So he hauled away the old tires—7,000 of them—and the rusty scrap metal, and hauled in clean fill dirt and topsoil.

No good deed goes unpunished, and Pozsgai’s wasn’t. Sometimes when it rained, the tires caused water to build up on the property. In the eyes of the federal government, that made it a wetland. Federal agents used surveillance cameras to record Pozsgai’s cleanup activity and had him arrested for “discharging pollutants”—i.e., the fill dirt and topsoil—“into the waters of the United States.” Convicted, he got a three-year prison sentence and a $200,000 fine.

http://reason.com/archives/2012/06/20/everybodys-a-potential-criminal-in-the-e

Many others as well.

 

[Anti Federalist]

No good deed goes unpunished, and Pozsgai’s wasn’t. Sometimes when it rained, the tires caused water to build up on the property. In the eyes of the federal government, that made it a wetland. Federal agents used surveillance cameras to record Pozsgai’s cleanup activity and had him arrested for “discharging pollutants”—i.e., the fill dirt and topsoil—“into the waters of the United States.” Convicted, he got a three-year prison sentence and a $200,000 fine.

Three Felonies a Day.

Just a matter of putting enough surveillance on everybody.

 

[enoch150]

These people are not going to stop unless they have some skin in the game.

 

[Carson]

You used to be able to file for some sort of cash payment from the government for building ponds.

 

[Czolgosz]

These people are not going to stop unless they have some skin in the game.

Simple as that. They all live and work somewhere, and just like the other chimps, fear and coercion affect their choices.

 

[tommyrp12]

Real Property: An Introductory Explanation of the Law Relating to Land
By Alfred Frank Topham

 

[tommyrp12]

..... sorry triple post. lol. please mods delete the extra's.

 

[tommyrp12]

......

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Even approval from the state, acknowledgement on maps that your land is not a wetlands, testing by multiple specialists confirming as much, and being double digits away from the nearest creek, the EPA can come and say on their authority alone, absent any Due Process, that you need to return the land to its former state, and plant a list of plants they give you, at your own expense. Failure to do so is a fine of $75,000 per day and some have been imprisoned (for the crime of moving fresh fill from one side of their property to the other).



http://reason.com/archives/2012/06/20/everybodys-a-potential-criminal-in-the-e

Many others as well.

"Murika!" burp

 

[Spikender]

Nothing is truly yours in this country.

That's not your house; oh sure, you paid it off, but if you stop paying those property taxes, say goodbye to it.

Oh, what do you mean you're going to drive your car down to the capital to protest? Sorry, not your car either; stop paying the property tax on that, and say goodbye to it.

The dirt on your land? Ha ha! Good one, buddy. Not yours, sorry. I mean, sure, you paid your property tax, but if you so much as move a single blade of grass, we'll sick our thugs on your and demand you put that grass back or face tens of thousands in fines and imprisonment.

You know what? Fuck it; a strip mall would look hella good on your property, so we'll just give you a paltry sum and take it.

You can thank us for improving the local economy later, comrade.

 

[muh_roads]

Land of the free.

 

[Barrex]

Did anyone ever kill any of those employees in EPA because of things like this? I mean I read about this kind of stuff all the time and it simply is hard to believe that no one ever did anything violent.

 

[Dr.3D]

Did anyone ever kill any of those employees in EPA because of things like this? I mean I read about this kind of stuff all the time and it simply is hard to believe that no one ever did anything violent.

I'm pretty sure they stay in their safe little offices, writing extortion notices and not venture out into the dangerous world of enforcement.

 

[phill4paul]

I'm pretty sure they stay in their safe little offices, writing extortion notices and not venture out into the dangerous world of enforcement.

Even theye have their own SWAT teams.......http://www.vice.com/read/even-the-epa-is-using-swat-teams-now

Last month, miners who were digging for gold in the remote wilderness near Chicken, Alaska, (population 17) were alarmed by the sudden arrival of a group of armed men. The eight dudes in body armor were from the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force, which is led by the Environmental Protection Agency and was there to check 30 or so small mining claims for violations of the Clean Water Act and other environmental no-nos. That doesn’t seem like it would require the use of much force, but the squad who showed up in Chicken included armed FBI and Department of Defense agents and even a plane for “air support.”

 

[Dr.3D]

Even theye have their own SWAT teams.......http://www.vice.com/read/even-the-epa-is-using-swat-teams-now

So we have a standing army in our midst.

 

[donnay]

Agenda 21

Carl Drega

 

[phill4paul]

So we have a standing army in our midst.

I'm gonna say...yeah.