when the student is ready the teacher appears

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

http://energeticsynergy.blogspot.com/

. When the student is ready, the teachers appear, I am ready…

Actions the universe take are quite often – bold – maybe even in your face. So interesting is it that when in that instant universe knows – ah, ha – that mask you wear is utterly destroyed torn asunder and naked, raw, exposed completely vulnerable you stand. In that same instant universe grants you when the truth from your heart words do flow a level of understanding accessible to all. Some may in fear, turn their head, some may even scoff, but they heard and those words, your words, do resonate reaching that “whisper voice” in them.

On this planet we call home – Earth – ET is truly calling home, to us, to you to me. But most of us are afraid to even pick up the phone. Most of us do not know what honoring is as in our life no one really honored us by asking us … what will it look like when it’s fixed...? The operative words being what will it look like to you, when it’s fixed…? Most of us, don’t even know where to begin. We’ve been accustomed to believing we do not have a voice, or what we say has no value, but that’s simply not true. Often when we rise to speak it’s from an angry place inside contributing to elevating the “rush” some feel when they’ve operating exercising domination and control. We rise often with equal anger, screw you, I’ll show them, they can't push me around. I won’t take it anymore, so there…? We choose in that moment to give credence to the mantra of …fighting fire with fire…need more be said…?

What will it look like when it’s fixed… and “it” can be anything any aspect of your life or mine or theirs or how you and I choose to treat each other or our environment. “It” can be the education we choose to provide and to whom and for how long. “It” can be the health care we choose to extend to the all of mankind, yea, even those we incarcerate, leave homeless on the street, those caught in the aftermath of the wars we perpetuate. “It” can be evaluating the choices we make to incarcerate in the first place, many, most in the USA for doing what, smoking or putting something freely into our body, say what…? Might the question we need ask first, is do we even have the right to control extend dominion over what man and men do with their lives. I did not say I need choose to follow that same path. I asked only what right do we have to exercise dominion or control over anyone, you or me, or them…? Yea, I hear it now, this invitation encourages only chaos, so there, and someone needs to stipulate how we all must act and even think…?

Might it truly be the chaos we actually fear resides and begins in us, you and me…? We don’t even know how or when or to whom we can turn to ask for help. Help, what’s that…? To utter such words is a sign of weakness or disease, so isolated, desolated quickly you become, labeled, branded, a mutant, a scourge on society. And all because we did not know how or when or to whom we can honestly turn to seek help, is that the message we really want to send…?

Experts note an iceberg floating on the sea reveals about 1/6 of its actual size. Beneath the sea 5/6 remains hidden from our sight. How much is actually revealed in the education we choose to provide to our children and the young, not even factoring the adult population…? How truly attentive are we, to honestly making sure that … Johnny can really, read, and subject him not to the travesty of social promotion from grade to grade…? And while we are considering his ability to read, how important have we chosen to make his ability to express, know and learn about all the emotional aspects of which he is comprised…? I believe I can with some degree of authority note, men in America know only to compress. Yea, even the computers we invent have a button suggesting we “compress” this file or that. Yup, we men are damn good at that – compress – constrict, condense, squash, apply pressure and reduce. That’s precisely how most of us have been trained in the John Wayne School of emotional revelation. What the hell is wrong with you, real men don’t cry, they don’t show any emotion, save anger or rage…? A few brave men many rise to ask how and why we got into Vietnam or Iraq, but most rather than risk being emotionally emasculated simply nod their head up and down, we’ve got a job to do, save them from communism or save their oil for us. The reality is that’s all we know … dominate … kick their ass … kill … that’s the extent of our emotional range of social interaction, acceptable or not. So what you most often see revealed is but 1/6 of who we really are and, when, not if, we explode, look out.

Were I asked to deliver this to a live audience, at this point I would be inclined to ask, by a show of hands how many men can identify with Darth Vader… ? I know at one time I really, really could. When Star Wars was first shown at the theater, and Darth Vader made his first appearance I quickly fled. Too revealing it was for me. In that moment I knew I was even more impenetrable than was he. My armor I had perfected over time and from many battles added even more. From behind what I thought was safety, you could not reach me, touch me, I need not listen, or hear anything you say, not even … I love you … it meant nothing only words no meaning did it have. How tragic and how sad the shallowness of the life most men lead.

I want to believe that men are choosing to voluntarily change and from a place of confidence express what they feel, openly and honorably in an atmosphere of mutual respect and even love. Giving into reading the corporate owned newspapers, watching CNN (Constantly Negative News) or Fox TV, what is seen serves only to re-enforce those attributes so long taught in the John Wayne School. It takes real courage on the part of men to tune this “stuff” out replacing it with thoughts and deeds which many of us were taught label us as “sissies” or even worse. Interesting as we all truly are aware that when we really want change, there is a price to pay. We willingly do it for the team, take one for the crew, even in a moment act silly in a play, especially if the reward is extra money, filthy lucre, and $tuff and thing$, making us more important than someone else, mere replications of domination and control.

Men, especially those of us now in our 60’s or a bit more, are extensions of old John Wayne movies, the hero always gets the girl, triumphs over all, settles all debts, and takes no shit from anyone. And one can make the case this is certainly not all wrong or bad. No, it’s not, but if that’s all you know, how then do we treat our wife, our kids, our employees, and those new foreigners who moved in down the street, the gardener who cuts our lawn, the pool boy or the UPS man…? Most likely we don’t even see or acknowledge them, we can not see, we do not hear nor listen. They can not offer to us nor reflect back to us the degree of importance we seek from outside our self. Not seeing nor hearing, they become absolutely meaningless and from a place of need for instant gratification we revert to attributes of our “throw-away” society and quickly discard them too.

So the question remains unanswered, what will it look like for you, when it’s fixed…? The operative word to delineate is what – “IT” – is.

energy independence and safe water

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?
Do uranium mines belong near Grand Canyon? …Mining companies stake claims on federal land adjoining the park, while opponents say drinking water will be at risk….By Mark Clayton Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ August 19, 2008 editionReporter Mark Clayton …GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, ARIZ. …On a ragged outcrop just a short walk from a Grand Canyon overlook where millions of visitors annually come to gawk at one of the world’s most stunning vistas sits the old Orphan uranium mine. Soil radiation levels around it are 450 times higher than normal. It’s encircled by a protective fence. …A sign warns: “Remain behind fence – environmental evaluation in progress.” In the canyon hundreds of feet below, another sign by gurgling Horn Creek instructs thirsty hikers not to drink its radioactive water. While another group notes in the mighty Colorado River, the old Orphan uranium mine’s radioactive dribble is diluted to insignificance. But what if a dozen new uranium mines leached uranium radioisotopes into this water source…?
“IT” will be fixed when warning signs such as those noted in the above article are no longer required and we can with honest safely ingest the water from the mighty Colorado River. Is it not ludicrous on the one hand to report water in the Colorado River is 450 times higher in radioactivity than normal, while on the other we continue to allow unrestricted mining exploration on this water body serving over 25 million American citizens…? And exactly what does … diluted to insignificance … honestly mean…?

We all know everything has a price and a cost and providing safe water is most assuredly one of them. Generations earlier, Sir Issac Newton noted that … "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" … it would seem logical then to conclude that permitting unrestricted mining of uranium near a water body like the Colorado River invites contamination and pollution of that water body as accidents in mining are part and parcel to its activity coupled with the destructive nature of mining itself.

Confining our “energy” dreams to only those activities which we have been educated to believe are the only ones only promotes stagnation and limitation. John Kennedy as President invigorated a nation impelling them with a burning desire to … put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth … When he spoke those now immortal words we did not have the technology to achieve this feat. So, we collectively went out and created it, which is exactly what we can do respecting our energy dream. All it takes is our individual and collective willingness to think outside the box.

Obtaining energy independence and safe water in the Colorado River are not mutually exclusive goals. It is not a choice of one or the other, rather it is a both, and, paradigm, achievable when we make the honest intent to manifest it. We sent a man to the moon and returned him safely to earth and we can have energy independence and safe water simultaneously.

That’s what IT looks like when it’s fixed for me, what say you …?

getting off our duff

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Chamber letter implies Tolleson sewage plant might be shut down …Emily McCannstaff writer …Tolleson residents received a letter Tuesday implying that their wastewater treatment plant is in jeopardy of being shut down. The letter was sent by the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce and is titled, "Warning: your sewer service is at risk." The chamber confirmed sending the notice, but said it only did so because Tolleson City Manager Reyes Medrano requested it. The wastewater treatment plant's permit is up for renewal and has been under review by the Maricopa County Air Quality Department for the last 18 months. A hearing was held Thursday to receive comments from the public. The plant, which has been in operation since 1968, treats wastewater from Tolleson, Sun City and Smithfield Beef Group. "We don't have control over a letter going out or not," said Holly Ward, community and media relations manager for the county's Air Quality Department. "The basis of the permit being issued is on air quality regulation and whether the requirements in the permit follow air quality regulation." The letter sent by the chamber states, "Since 2004, new subdivisions have been built near the plant and now the residents of those subdivisions (people who are not served by the plant) are attempting to cause the plant to be shut down if it does not install new equipment that would cost tens of millions of dollars, money the city of Tolleson does not have and can only obtain by passing the cost on to you."

The noted author William Shakespeare wrote … Much Ado About Nothing … which I invite us to context this letter referenced above from the Tolleson Chamber of Commerce about the possible closure of their sewage treatment plant.

What IT looks like when it’s fixed, or me, is … these forms of nonsensical melodramatic forms of hype as postured in the Tolleson letter will no longer be required and the conversation can be conducted in meaningful and honorable environment. For one moment, I invite you to consider the immediate as well as the long term implications should government actually choose to shut down the wastewater treatment plant in Tolleson….? For starters, where would this current daily flow of sewage be diverted…? Is there any other private or municipal facility currently operational with the capacity and infrastructure to handle this volume and strength of sewage…? I for one seriously doubt there is. OK, what purpose is served by this…much ado about nothing…save getting citizens excited, elevated, hyped about ??? (what)??? I am not sure. I do not see any reasonable alternative offered only condemnation. I do not have all the information necessary to make an intelligent or viable comment, save, any facility receiving influent from a meat packing plant with a “kill-floor” is challenged to deal with sewage strengths incredibly high and often contributing to odor conditions not found in other more “normal” facilities. I do not have answers or solutions, nor do I feel the “hype” being promoted by Tolleson Chamber of Commerce serves the best long term interest of the citizens of their community. I do not pretend to know what their motive may truly be…?

In the larger picture, the entire Valley of the Sun from Apache Junction to Buckeye is cobbled together with an aging crumbling infrastructure for its water as well as its wastewater. We do not have “extra” capacity to enable us to capriciously “shut-down” a wastewater facility the size of Tolleson and send that sewage elsewhere to be appropriately treated. And moreover, most cities are – broke – attempting to make do in a state economy going further South and a national economy already there.

Over my life time I have witnessed a number of reports titled … Operation Bootstrap … the essence of which incorporate ordinary people, you and me, getting off our duff and accepting the challenges we see and overcoming them. This is the undying lure of the Old West captured on film and immortalized in words. It is our legacy and we have the opportunity to be apart of this millennium Operation Bootstrap provided we are ready, willing and able. In the end, it is simply a matter of individual choice.

nonattainment

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?
EPA to Take Public Comment on Fine Particle Nonattainment Recommendations… Release date: 08/22/2008 … Contact Information: Cathy Milbourn, (202) 564-4355 / milbourn.cathy@epa.gov... The Clean Air Act and Amendments of 1990 define a "nonattainment area" as a locality where air pollution levels persistently exceed National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or that contributes to ambient air quality in a nearby area that fails to meet standards. Designating an area as nonattainment is a formal rulemaking process, and EPA normally takes this action only after air quality standards have been exceeded for several consecutive years. Nonattainment areas are given a classification based on the severity of the violation and the type of air quality standard they exceed.
Nonattainment … Is that like a reality where one plus one equals three…? I laugh because you and I actually paid someone’s salary to conjure up this governmentese word – nonattainment – exactly what the hell does it mean…?

Am I being asked to believe that nonattainment is a more “exactitude” word than merely stating that something or someone did not meet a specified standard or condition…?

Here’s my non-negotiable “nonattainment,” government on all levels has failed and continues to fail to meet my standard being clear, concise and understandable.

When “IT” is fixed, I/you/me/us will be able to readily understand without convoluted words like “nonattainment”

our water foot print

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Environmental News Network … http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37997 ...Water Footprints Make A Splash/ecosystems/article/37997 …If the full water requirements of a morning roast are calculated - farm irrigation, bean transportation, and the serving of the coffee - one cup requires 140 liters of water. This notion of a product's "water footprint" is gaining traction. Defined as the total volume of freshwater required to produce a nation's goods and services, the tool tracks domestic water demand and the impact of consumption on water resources across the globe. As world water availability begins to decline as the result of population growth, overconsumption, and climate change, more water advocates are encouraging governments and consumers to internalize the true cost of water through an account of their water footprint.
What IT would look like, for me, when it’s fixed … is individually we would be aware of our “water-footprint” honestly endeavoring to remember our impact upon all others occupying our planet. At the moment this seems like a very tall order and a notion outside the probability of many, if not most Americans.

Depending upon where one lives in the US, it really does not take much effort to be aware of the fragile nature of water in many communities around our nation, including those along mighty rivers or lakes. Our population increases coupled with our desire for new “stuff” contribute to increase demands upon our water resources. In idle moments many of us are aware, though we possess the innate ability to summarily disregard our own impact upon our collective dwindling water resource. How long we can continue to live this fairy tale is an unknown, though most assuredly a day of reckoning is dawning.

Economists have an interesting term for denoting the true cost of anything – EXTERNALITIES – which incorporates all the costs associated with everything beginning with its birth and creation ending with its final demise. Consider for a moment the externalities associated with cigarettes. Land cost, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, fuel, seed, harvesting, storage, transportation, processing into cigarettes, paper, electricity, manpower, more fuel and transportation for distribution, vending machines, cabinets to display these goods, sanitation personnel to clean up after we toss the cigarette butts on the floor or out the window, those needed to fight the fire unintentionally created by errant smoldering cigarette butts. The doctors and medical personnel, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals required to treat folks for cancer and other debilitating health conditions the result of smoking. The educational institution created to educate folks not to smoke or to stop smoking, ad-infinitum. The reality is “we” choose to pay only a fraction of the real cost of any of the “stuff” we purchase, use, consume and discard.

There is a cost to create clean, pristine, safe water for ingestion by all living things. That cost is to make the time to create honest awareness. And if one subscribes to the notion championed by Mother Teresa could be … do not wait for leaders, do it alone, one person at a time …

experiencing an epiphany

Perspective for your consideration…

Experiencing an epiphany . . .

Some time has passed since you last heard from me and for some this may have been a most welcomed reprieve. I want to take a few moments to first express to each of you my sincere thanks for gifting me with your feedback in all of its various shades and tones. Secondly, I want to note to anyone receiving any information from me that at any time you choose to stop receiving, just send me an email and I will honor your request. One note of caution, some who have in the past asked to be removed did so with an email address which I do not have or to which I am currently sending. So please be accountable for checking out that I have the email address you want deleted.

On Saturday – 16 August 08 – I concluded a seminar in the “valley” in which I experienced an epiphany of which I am still processing and integrating into my life. I have no doubt the direction my life and writing take will be appreciably different than the chapter I am closing.

For most of my life I have chosen to live behind a mask, not at all unlike that worn by Darth Vader only mine was far more impenetrable. When you are a 6 ft – 4 inch – holistic male with a highly evolved intuition attempting to function “normally” in an inherited male culture epitomized by John Wayne emotional range consisting of … show no emotion…real men don’t cry…suppress anger…you are isolated and live as the lone ranger. Couple this high intuition with a gifting of assisting others with energetic healing and now I am a mutant in American male society.

Many of you who receive my emails and blogs know me as someone who for the past many, many years has been perceived either as an avowed advocate and champion of the “little” people as having voice and being heard, an advocate for the holistic nature of water or a pain in the butt respecting ADEQ promulgation and implementation of rules and regulations affecting our state’s environment.

Allow me to say here and now, “we” and this most assuredly includes me will not achieve nor manifest the environment we perceive until we willingly commit to doing two things. One, we, and this unquestioningly includes me, choose to hear and choose to listen. Two, we, choose to make the time to obtain honest “buy-in” before we proceed to implement any rule or regulation affecting our environment. These two aspects require time and effort, which given our current commitment to instant gratification are polar extremes. So we need own we will continue to achieve and manifest and repeat, repeat and repeat the conditions of our current environment day after day, it will only change when we’ve had enough.

I have been a party to this creation, how about you…? The rules and regulations I had a hand in creating were merely band-aids covering a scab festering having been removed now exposed and raw. Repeatedly we have chosen to merely replace one band-aid with still another. The solution and resolution we know to be true may be ones that while extremely uncomfortable actually heals and may involve cauterizing, bringing extreme heat and burn. But from fear we choose to believe we can't do that, oh, yes we can and surely we will, when we’ve had enough. Though counter-intuitive to achieve the idealistic environment we seek, we need slow down. Then from this space ask the question … what does it look like when it’s fixed…? We are not able to do that when “speed” controls as it currently does.

So my goal is to offer you over time one man’s view of … what it looks like when it’s fixed…?

a legal mandate does not make it fit

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

http://energeticsynergy.blogspot.com/

.Arizona Snowbowl wins legal challenge to build Wastewater Snow …Ski Rebel Magazine…http://www.skirebel.com/magazine/archives/1758 …A long running legal battle between Arizona Snowbowl ski area and local indigenous tribes who hold the mountain sacred appears to have finally concluded in the resort’s favor. Arizona Snowbowl wants to use purified waste water to make snow above Flagstaff on the ski mountain known as Humphrey’s Peak in northern Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks.

What does it look like when it’s fixed…? For me it’s fixed when articles like this no longer appear for us to read. Clearly what we collectively demonstrated here is that might makes, right and re-enforces the belief that he who has the gold, rules. What did we accomplish, is our environment safer, stronger for our action…? Does this legal mandate make the water collected in this volcanic mountain – cleaner…?

It’s fixed when we no longer need to resort to using untrue superlatives like “purified” wastewater which to me is as an oxymoron. Pure and wastewater and snow for me do not correlate, what say you…? Maybe there will be signs placed along the ski slopes reminding us all not to eat the yellow snow.

It’s fixed when we collectively would have taken the time to build honest consensus to solution and resolution we will now, never know. Were we to have been open to possibilities allowing time for us to digest without all the name-calling and hype the buy-in we obtain would manifest a skiing paradise.

This takes time and in the speed and haste in which we live, we simply are not willing to commit to making time to hear and listen.

When both individually and collectively we choose to stop, to look, and too honestly listen … then I can say, it’s getting fixed.

holistic global water agreement

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

World needs global water agreement now …Environmental News Network... WWF
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37958

Attained under a format where everyone is granted time for their voice to be courteously heard and honored such a global water agreement, I believe, would not contain the legalese minutia filling similar documents we choose today to break even before the ink is dry.

While the document itself, I believe, would be quite short, the process utilized to obtain voluntary consensus based “buy-in” globally appears from our contemporary perspective quite arduous requiring far too much time. To grant everyone time to be expressed and honestly heard, requires in some cases more than the token 3 minutes arbitrarily and capriciously allocated especially to the “little” people.

And this process is messy and requires time. Time is a factor in everything we do, most especially when it comes to promulgating restrains in any form by which man is to live harmoniously with others upon a planet seemingly shrinking in size while its population burgeons.

There is no doubt we can should we choose to seek equitable solutions to the current inequities around water in all its forms around our globe. It requires us to leave our bias, prejudices, proprietary, national, religious, cultural beliefs at the door entering such discussions to the extent we are able with an open mind. This is not easily attained and just as easily dismissed once we leave and into our “real” world return.

There is no doubt at some time, the specific date, time and place, I do not know, that we will all choose to sit down wherever we are and from a place of serenity find the solution not only to water but about what for us “it” looks like when it’s fixed.

mandated grey water reuse

Clearly, water reuse not a gray area… Tucson Citizen... LEIGH JENSEN
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/all_headlines/94837 ...The city of Tucson is looking to take a positive step forward in water conservation by requiring gray-water harvesting. …All new homes built within city limits would be plumbed for gray-water harvesting under the proposed ordinance…. That used household water comes from washing machines, showers and bathroom sinks. It can't be used for drinking, but it can water desert landscapes. …The proposed mandate is an excellent idea for any community, but especially for Tucson, where we rely mostly on groundwater and where water always has been and always will be a precious resource… Commercial buildings already are required to harvest rainwater and stormwater runoff from surfaces such as roofs and parking lots….Also, commercial landscaping must "accomplish energy, water and other natural resource conservation."

I am addressing this request specifically to Director Steve Owens of the Arizona Dept of Environmental Quality.

Sir, I humbly ask you to give to all residents in your state clear, concise and understandable rules to permit environmentally safe installations to be installed not only in Pima County but thorough your state.

Sir, please, let me know, I am so way off base in my request…? I believe, Sir, I have a far better understanding than many of the implications in your current rule which chooses not to honestly address in any manner the environmental implications of greywater use.

I honestly support grey water use thorough our state. I do believe, Sir, you have the obligation to inform the citizens of Phoenix of the potential legal constraints they might find as their “grey-water” was sold long ago to Palo Verde Nuclear Power Generating facility about 45 miles west of town.

And, while you’re at it, Director Owen, who are YOU going to hold accountable and responsible for the short and long term operation and maintenance for all these grey water systems as right now, your dept chose to “cut and run” leaving that a total unknown. Or maybe the long term viability of our environment is not a consideration which your dept need be concerned…?

When we have for all of us a grey water reuse plan implemented state wide with honest permitting, construction and long term O&M oversight…. then “IT” will for me, be fixed…

leaving office with an environmental record of neglect

Guest Opinion: Bush leaving office with environmental track record of neglect, pretense, manipulation…Tucson Citizen... Betsy Loyless …http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/all_headlines/94948…EXCERPTED…So it came as no surprise but with great disappointment that we began to hear that Mr. Bush was preparing a number of anti-environmental measures as he limps toward the door...We recently got the first salvo….President Bush's Interior Department announced plans to gut the Endangered Species Act, the law that saved the bald eagle, the whooping crane and so many other rare and special birds from extinction….This proposal would allow agencies to decide for themselves whether projects they permit - such as mining operations or the construction of federal highways - may harm endangered species….Some have called it a "self regulating" policy, a clever euphemism for one of the most destructive actions conceived in the Interior Department ….The Bush proposal eliminates the critical checks and balances this policy provides and effectively cuts wildlife experts out of the process of making scientific decisions that are critical to the fate of imperiled species….The Bush administration's approach to the Endangered Species Act has been the very definition of bad government: special interest politics with serious policy consequences….If we are now expected to support rash and hasty rulemaking in their final months, then I for one will have to add the words "brash" and "foolhardy" to their epitaph. …Betsy Loyless is senior vice president of the National Audubon Society -(www.audubon.org).

There is I must admit a personal desire to merely add – AMEN – to Ms. Lovless’ observations and let it go at that. I am I confess not one who felt that George W. Bush was an honest friend of our earth’s environment, quite the contrary. But for me that is not the key issue. I want to blame someone and most assuredly Bush is a most handy target and a very visible one. When I make the time to look in the mirror, what I see reflected back is that individual at a foundational level who is accountable and responsible. What have I done…? Actually I have done a few things, but not nearly enough.

When I recall those wise words …Think Globally, Act Locally … reportedly coined by David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth, as the slogan for FOE when it was founded in 1969, although others have stated it was originated by Rene Dubos as an advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. Regardless of who gets the credit I find the point is I/me/you/us are invited to clean up our own backyard before we wildly point our finger at others.

In 2001, your Governor PROMISED you as a result of rules her Az Dept of Environmental Quality promulgated that your – water – would be protected. Has it been…? Is the water you ingest today safer than the water you consumed in 2001…?

Like President Bush, our Governor, our Legislators, our State and County Environmental Health Agencies implemented their own form of “self-regulation” and guess what your opinion was not even considered, nor were you allowed to comment in most instances.

It is not just Washington D.C. where “cronyism” lurks behind every corner, it is alive and well at our Arizona State Capital on Washington Street in Phoenix, Arizona and it happens every day, day after day after day.

So as we prepare to fire whatever salvo you feel is appropriate at George W. Bush in the decline light of his presidency, we might choose to look and see what actions or failure to act our own State contributed to bastardizing thereby contributing to the continue contamination and pollution of our Arizona environment beginning with its – water and its – air…?

When “IT” is fixed, that individual looking back in the mirror reflects there is be no need or desire to point any finger at anyone including you or me…?

ADWR water report, accurate, say what...?

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Az water atlas gives picture of cities’ supply, demand…B. POOLE…Tucson Citizen …Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson, Santa Cruz, Pinal … excerpted …A new volume of the Arizona Water Atlas offers a sweeping view of the water picture in the state’s most populous areas. ...The latest draft volume of the nine-volume Arizona Department of Water Resources atlas covers the five active management areas, or AMAs - Phoenix, Pinal, Prescott, Tucson and Santa Cruz - the state’s designated water planning regions. … Previous volumes covered the state’s eastern and western plateaus and upper and lower Colorado and southeast and central highlands planning areas….”The primary objectives are to present an overview of water supply and demand conditions in Arizona, to provide water resource information for planning and resource development purposes and to identify the needs of our communities,” ADWR Director Herb Gunther said in a news release….The dense technical information is a bit lofty for most in the general public, said Ralph Marra, a resource planner for Tucson Water. …”But some people might want to wade in,” he said….The Active Management Areas volume provides a good perspective for southern Arizona, he said….Each volume contains details about the state’s water picture, including supply and demand, geography, population, ground and surface water, contamination sites and climate. The latest volume will be used in creating management plans for each of the five management areas. Those five areas house about 80 percent of Arizona’s population. …The last volume - the Arizona Water Sustainability Evaluation - will attempt to show whether Arizona has enough water. ADWR has not announced a release date for the last volume. …The department is taking comments from the public on all of the Arizona Water Atlas draft volumes through Oct. 31.
“IT” would be fixed for me, when terms like AMA (active management area) are for mainstream Arizona citizens, clear, concise and understandable, not the governmentese “gobble-de-gook” it is today. And when the information we need to honestly comprehend and evaluate the long term water issues in our state are not presented as dense technical information a bit lofty for most in the general public, again it need not be this way.

This information just like all information respecting all aspects of our water can be presented in clear, concise and understandable terms, but, it requires government being willing to think and act outside the box. Given that we have designed all agencies to spend the bulk of their time and energy merely defending and perpetuating the institution, we leave precious little time for the folks in those agencies to “think” about how any information will really be received by you and me. That is not their principal function.

ADWR, Director, Herb Gunter, if you really want Arizona citizens to understand the precarious situation of our water, then I honestly invite you to consider opening the door and hearing what we have to say…? Give us the seat at these tables where the discussions are taking place and honor our input with the same degree of courtesy you extend to developers, lobbyists, water purveyors, attorneys and contractors.

Why, Director Gunter, is there NO public hearing sponsored by your dept around the state to provide the education needed to permit folks to begin to actually ask relevant questions. Where, Director Gunter, might any Arizona citizen obtain a FREE copy of this government document and given the amount of data, I find your time frame for public comments grossly insufficient, though it quite assuredly meets the letter of the law allowing you to move forward in the manner which your dept has already determined. The process, Sir, is dishonoring, but you know that,

“IT” will be fixed for me, when we put into place a process in which the public has its rightful place at the head of the table and the information is clear, concise and understandably presented.

significant nexus

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

A county exploits a crippled Clean Water Act …Published on Friday, August 22, 2008 9:02 AM PDT …The federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972 have gone from being a powerful tool created by the Nixon administration to prevent and enforce anti-pollution laws at the state and federal level to an excuse to avoid enforcement by cities and counties across the West-including Pima County. … Better known as the Clean Water Act, it boasts statutory authority to control pollution discharges regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, state and regional agencies, as well as to oversee the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' job of issuing permits to keep waters flowing. …The breakdown is a result of United States v. Rapanos, a Supreme Court decision in June 2006 that addressed the Clean Water Act's ability to protect wetlands that had uncertain connections to bodies of water. The court case addressed the corps' authority under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act to regulate wetlands. …The Rapanos decision resulted in a strange split reflective of the politics of the court. Four members of the court wanted the old authority of the act to apply; four wanted a restrictive interpretation that said that the water had to be flowing for the act to regulate. Justice Anthony Kennedy insisted that there needed to be a "significant nexus" between a streambed and "a navigable water of the United States."

What it looks like when it’s fixed for me, is …. We will choose not to permit anyone exploiting “loopholes” in measures we all had an honest hand in promulgating and implementing. It is understandable the so-called … clean water act … has been reduced to a joke as we have summarily turned our head as its precepts are trampled every day.

In our never ending search for what some label – exactitude – we allow common sense to be rendered inapplicable. We blindly allow others to affix labels such as exactitude to situations, which in fact we are aware that label promotes only vagueness allowing for the inexactitude for which they were honestly searching.

We have fallen in love with “word-smithing” wherein those skilled in the art of manipulation of language skillfully ponder how to pose any situation so as to produce or generate the emotional result intended. Once simple statements such as … she wore a red dress, become in the hands of those we label articulate, multiple page manuscripts, which upon reading we are unable to decipher that she even wore a dress, let alone the color.

We choose to cloak everything in ponderous words because “they” say it must be so. Truly, it need not be. Humans are capable of comprehending the truth of any situation, we have for eons and without the requirement things be reduced to – exactitude – as determined by others. We are truly capable of determining for ourselves what is true. True for us that is, which is, in reality, all we can expect…? Truth is determined accordance to the truth as we know it and believe it to be. The truth, then, is at best subjective.

This is what the "significant nexus” in this instance looks like for me when it’s fixed.

as bad as the law allows our state's environmental legacy

As bad as the law allows our state’s environmental legacy…

WHITE PAPER … OBSERVATION, EVALUATION & OPINION ON THE CURRENT CONDITIONS FACING ARIZONA’S RESIDENTIAL WASTEWATER . . . EUPHEMISTICALLY TERMED – “SEPTIC SYSTEM”

For me this has been a true work in progress as I began writing this upon my return from the AzOWRA seminar held in early June 2008 in Flagstaff and cautiously I reflect upon what I heard and saw It is I need to own difficult to completely remove my ego, my bias from entering into this writing I present to you. I, like a number of individuals from Arizona who attended some years ago the NOWRA conference in Albuquerque, met and contemplated the formation of what was to eventually become AzOWRA. I am a charter founding member of AzOWRA and served on its initial Board of Directors resigning as I was unable to honestly carry the message AzOWRA leadership espoused. A hero, goat or martyr that does not make of me, only one who chooses to believe and live as Abraham Lincoln so succinctly noted … “a house divided against its self can not stand” … For AzOWRA leadership to present in a unified manner its positions, its Board need honestly reflect, espouse, embrace the positions majority votes stipulate. I was honestly unable in all cases to do that.

The “prime directive” motivating the development of AzOWRA was as I understood and recall was to “be” that voice uniting all those comprising the “stakeholders” within the Arizona Residential On-Site community. Just who might those stakeholders be…? Envisioned were academia, regulators from city, county, state, engineers, residential wastewater treatment and effluent disposal system designers, installation contractors, operation and maintenance providers, real estate agents, septic pumpers, vendors, product manufacturers, suppliers and last but certainly not least John Q. Public – the citizens of Arizona.

Today some years later, Arizona remains without a united voice capable to honestly speak for the Arizona Residential On-Site community. That fault most assuredly does not solely fall upon AzOWRA inability to provide an umbrella and the leadership necessary to unite us all. For more than 30 years I have worked in the residential wastewater treatment and effluent disposal arena through out Arizona. I do not claim to have all the answers. What I do claim is have the experience to begin to ask some of the right questions. Perhaps some of you receiving this can also recall the numerous attempts others have made in a manner similar to AzOWRA to evolve into that single voice honestly and honorable resonating for the express long term benefit of all those comprising the Arizona onsite community. Unsuccessful they were, too. To amalgamate, integrate a conglomeration as diverse as that which comprises the Arizona onsite community, it seems to me to require uncanny leadership ability coupled with the wisdom Solomon is reputed to possess.

It struck me as I listened to the presenters at this seminar, in microcosm the messages presented to us represent and reflect the same disconnect I believe exists through out our nation, perhaps our world, too. In Arizona, we remain, firmly entrenched protecting our selected proprietary “turf,” unable and/or unwilling to see or embrace a larger world view. Understandably if you have been trained and daily held accountable to stipulate and believe the truth of a single point of view, those espousing another most assuredly must be wrong.

It occurred to me that several pieces of information presented at this seminar upon first blush seemed to be extremely divergent, lacking any common interface. I offer them to you as FYI and I trust later in this presentation I will be able to successfully integrate them.

Hauled Water - I must admit I was unaware to learn that over 50% of the new construction within Coconino County is on property to which the owner must haul water for all forms of consumptive use. And moreover that hauled water cost about 45 cents per gallon commercially delivered to one’s home and storage tank. Currently generated national averages note Americans use about 60 gallons of water per day per person. Does that really hold true if one hauls water…? Even if we arbitrarily choose to reduce that figure by 50%, it could easily cost $15 per day per person for water, if one relies solely upon hauled water. Year 2000, US census data, notes in Arizona a “household” consists of 3 persons. If one utilizes this census data, it would suggest we in Arizona believe a person hauling water to his site pays on the average $1,350/month for water…? Count me as a “doubting Thomas” but I have a most difficult time giving credence this extrapolation represents fact, fiction maybe…? The reality appears to me to be those hauling water for their consumptive use, use water most judiciously not only advocating, but living, the motto … “waste not” ….

Greywater – The presentation on grey water exposed for all of us, the multiplicity of layers of which on the surface appear to be isolated. As was quite effectively presented, Arizona’s current method to address grey water is to simply not deal with its long term ramifications upon our environment. ADEQ, (Arizona Dept of Environmental Quality) the state governmental agency charged with … serving & protecting …us and all aspects of our water and air, chose to take a politically expedient course of action. Designed principally to placate those living in Pima county, Tucson and surrounding environs, who have for many, many years utilized, as governmental regulators at all levels conveniently looked the other way, all kinds, types, homemade and commercially installed forms of greywater apparatus. Over the years in Pima County and the surrounding locale many, many thousands forms of greywater uses have been installed. What to do, why clearly ADEQ does not address the situation head on, they chose to obliquely bury it out of sight, camouflaging it of course.

Hoops you must jump through - A succession of presentations at this referenced seminar exposed a line in the sand as one compares the “hoops” any applicant must jump through when the vaunted standard conventional septic tank and gravity leach field can not be installed on that owner’s site. Those sites successfully meeting the subjective criteria permitting the installation of the proverbial standard conventional septic tank and gravity leach disposal system obtaining the necessary certificate to construct is like … “a walk in the park, a piece of cake” …. But pity that homeowner whose site does not meet the subjective criteria allowing installation of such a system for they quickly learn to obtain all the necessary permits enabling them to construct their “alternative” form of residential onsite wastewater treatment system moves with the speed of pouring molasses in winter. Moreover they quickly discover, or should; their “alternative” system is subjected to approx. 143 pages of governmentese language often in conflict between the referencing rule specifications. Moreover, though the governing ADEQ rules are to be incorporated and uniformly applied “state-wide” as a result of choice, ADEQ allows their Unified Permit Rule of 2001, to be implemented pursuant to 15 separate county rule interpretations, most without meeting the legal requirement of becoming part of their respective county ordinance.

At this juncture, I invite you to consider the implications on how and what the utter lack of ADEQ oversight, implementation and enforcement has on the permit process statewide…? As a direct result of ADEQ abject failure to implement, enforce and provide oversight, ADEQ subjects every applicant of an “alternative” residential onsite wastewater system to the whims of either specific county regulators or private contract personnel acting in behalf of the specific county. Though illegal and unsanctioned by state law, some counties allow their private contract oversight personnel to arbitrarily and capriciously stipulate they will only review applications which meet submittal protocols stipulated solely by them. For the homeowner and their designer/engineer caught in this “ego-game” it becomes do you have the time and money and are you willing to fight these draconian policies or do you choose the more typical course of action and meekly submit to these “Nazi” like demands to enable the homeowner to obtain as quickly as possible the necessary certificate of approval to construct. Bear in mind often meekly submitting to their demands means the “alternative” system in question will cost more money and frequently subjects the owner to the need to utilize costly long term private third party operation and maintenance (O&M). The tentacles surrounding O&M are quite sordid and deserve separate discussion. For the record, I am fully in support of O&M for ALL forms of residential wastewater treatment and effluent disposal systems from pit privies, to standard septic system, to the more elaborate forms of propriety alternative systems marketed and installed. The “key” for me is there must be accountability and responsibility of all the players, with public third party oversight.

Cleverly composed words – When used at this seminar words such as – “standard” system vs. “alternative,” sustainability, mandatory checklists, greywater, rock, soils, “perc,” O&M, watertight, homeowner accountability – clearly resonate how cleverly we choose to use and to define words such as these. Though definitions are provided at the beginning of the ADEQ rule noted in state statue, today, each of Arizona’s 15 counties choose to alter these definitions to conform to subjective definitions of their choosing. More importantly the definitions in rule were made for the convenience of government and are NOT intended to be clear concise and easily understood by you or me. I rise to especially question the choice of terms like “standard septic system” vs. “alternative systems”…? Most folks as a result of hearing these terms choose what is deemed standard as opposed to that labeled alternative. Our choice of terms is not clear, nor concise, nor understandable. And, yet, we expect all those comprising the Arizona onsite community to be not only conversant with these terms, but understand their subtleness, especially John Q. Public – the citizen of Arizona. At a most fundamental level as a result of our choice not to educate we lay the foundation and plant the seed for the ensuing chaos in our Arizona residential onsite community.

Rural water vs. metro Phoenix – Presenters at this referenced seminar made us aware of the total disconnect between rural community water policy and that currently imposed in metro Phoenix. Flagstaff residents today operate under a residential water policy wherein currently they can water every other day and one day on the weekend. Residential water costs about 7 cents per gallon from the water meter provided by the city. As summer progresses, more restrictions will be placed on water use in Flagstaff. Routinely, if not daily, the “water” police roam Flagstaff streets searching for violators. In metro Phx we turn on the water facet and tap and forget about any aspect of the lingering drought all of Arizona continues to be under. The average man in the street in metro Phoenix is completely unaware if any restrictions are in place. Are there any….? I know of none.

Increased “septage” should we be concerned – Honest uniform state-wide application and enforcement of operation and maintenance provisions for all residential onsite wastewater treatment and effluent disposal systems will very significantly increase the amount of “septage” generated. An ancillary consideration is the fact today the number of municipally operated legal and lawful “septage” receiving and disposal sites are diminishing significantly. One question becomes, what are we going to do about this factor and are we even willing to address it….?

So what might be the common interface of these information pieces…? I choose to begin that for the past 30 years that I have been aware of we have clearly been unable and/or unwilling as it requires “guts” to hold any homeowner accountable for anything. Interesting as every presenter at this conference loudly and clearly stipulates the absolute importance and requirement the homeowner is aware, complies and conforms to all those aspects of the rule affecting their onsite system, whether or not ADEQ chooses to note and/or enforce. Though we speak in seminars such as the one I recently attended of holding the homeowner accountable and responsible, we lack the “guts” to provide the level of information and education they require. And moreover we really do not want to actively bring them to the table whenever their interests are being discussed, which is every time water in any form is on anyone’s agenda.

Tentacles surrounding hauled water - It strikes me beginning with the tentacles surrounding the issues of property developed on sites clearly devoid of onsite water (individual water wells or municipal water to site) – hauled water - the demands of our rules are unjustified, without any scientific validity and draconian. Moreover, one can make the case, these are the very sites where forms of greywater use and other forms of reuse will be employed and utilized. The “hoops” we demand these folks jump through are the same as those to which one installing a “standard” septic system must jump through. Why, when clearly such a divergence stares us in the face…?

Are we stating that we are unable or unwilling to write rules understandable to everyone, eliminating the convoluted “governmentese” language and simply stipulate that if at some time in the future onsite water is made available to those now utilizing “hauled water” sites, they must immediately install residential wastewater treatment and disposal systems meeting an applicable standard determined at that time and place…? If on the other hand, we are permitting homes to be build on land which absolutely lack any practical means or methods to ever, under any circumstance, install and operate a viable form of wastewater treatment and disposal, then we ought to have the GUTS to simply inform everyone that should you choose to purchase and live on this site you will ALWAYS have to agree ALL your sewage SHALL be hauled away and verified by methods we devise. Or else do not let this land be sold for humans to dwell upon.

As one begins to peel away - the layers of the regulatory onion we quickly see how integrated these seemingly divergent aspects become. Leaving the “hauled water” aspect on the back burner for a moment, let’s turn our attention to greywater use. I need to own my personal bias is to promote the use of greywater in any reasonable fashion or form for any property anywhere in Arizona. Having said that I must then take note of the “holistic” (sustainability) implications using greywater creates. There are at least two paths which greywater can take; one is use on sites where the house is connected to a municipal sewage collection, treatment and disposal modality. The second is use of greywater when an individual residence is served by its own residential onsite wastewater treatment and effluent disposal system.

Conditions common to both greywater uses include:

§ An increase in the “strength” of the sewage reaching the treatment portion of each system

§ Requires immediate and clear evaluation of what changes in the treatment aspect of each system this increased strength requires

§ What are the implications on the effluent disposal aspects of each system

§ Who pays for the upgrades and modifications to the system greywater use creates

§ What is a realistic time line to implement the changes we by consensus generate

§ Is the process we choose to implement sustainable

Industrial & Municipal - Traditionally, change affecting the municipal and industrial portions of a sewage waste stream is easier for government regulators to implement and enforce as the sheer number of units affected is significantly reduced. And of equal if not greater importance is the regulators ability to utilize the “bully-pulpit” on other governmental agencies raising the ire of their constituents their system is alleged to be out of compliance and potentially liable to significant monetary fines. Moreover the cost to provide the changes stipulated are spread out over a large number of users thereby reducing one’s individual financial contribution. There is at the moment an unknown, unquantified cost associated with what new “widget” forms we need to add to the treatment portion of the sewage treatment to handle the significantly increased strength of the sewage received while dealing with an equally smaller amount of liquid received.

Awareness of the implications in treating residential sewage - In Arizona any regulation affecting all residential wastewater treatment and effluent disposal systems number according to ADEQ spokesperson, Edwin Swanson, today over 550,000 separate individual installations through out our State spread unequally over 15 separate counties. Moreover the cost of any change mandated would be borne by each individual homeowner irrespective of their ability to pay. Likewise increased use of greywater requires us to address the immediate as well as long term implications on the treatment portion of our residential wastewater systems. Factors complicating this analysis and evaluation, is, how on an individual homeowner basis we address and resolve the issues respecting the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and endocrine interrupters and other chemical, toxic and carcinogenic forms routinely found in our residential sewage. Increased greywater use correspondingly almost automatically increases as a percentage of volume these constituents. On an individual homeowner basis, currently we do not know if we even have the technology “widgets” capable of adequately addressing this condition. We therefore do not have even a “WAG,” as to the cost an individual homeowner could face to achieve compliance. “WAG” is a scientific term defined as wild ass guess.

Before we leave the greywater and re-use topic, it would be worthwhile to consider for a moment a portion of its political implications. Were Arizona, and specifically Phoenix, to embrace expansion of greywater use what might the implications be…? In as much as clothes washing and bathing wastewater comprise about 70% of the total amount of water consumed in the average residence, based on 2000, US Census figures of approx. 3 persons per household x 60 gallons per person per day = 180/gallons per day. Based on these figures greywater use could amount to over 125 gallons per day per dwelling. In Phoenix proper in 2000, census figures noted there were approx. 500,000 households in Phoenix x 55/gallons per day (amount remaining less greywater) will be sent to municipal sewage treatment systems, totally approx 28 million gallons per day. This represents about 1/3 of the “normal” Phoenix sewage influent and would enter these facilities at a significantly increased and elevated strength potentially creating enormous treatment challenges.

Sale of sewage effluent and Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Plant - Moreover, one needs to be aware of the existing contractual constraints some local governments are operating under as a result of their eagerness to enter into the sale of effluent to Palo Verde Nuclear Generating facility west of Phoenix during the late 1980’s. A 35-mile pipeline carries treated waste water from a City of Phoenix sewage treatment facility to Palo Verde, where the 90 million gallons of sewage effluent each day is used for cooling at both Palo Verde and Redhawk. It would appear to meet this contractual agreement ALL the sewage from the 500,000 residential units in Phoenix are continuously required on a daily basis.

End run to protect “turf” - Historically in Arizona those who comprise the “stakeholders” of the residential onsite community have consistently chosen to believe the only way change will occur is by working with and through the established regulatory process as presented to us by ADEQ. There is I believe rather incontrovertible evidence that over these last 8 years since this new millennium began and ADEQ evoked its – Unified Permit Rule in 2001 - that our collective state environment has been dealt an increasing disservice. In 2001, we permitted ADEQ to make its politically motivated “end run” to beat the upstart Unified Plumbing Code (UPC) to GRRC thereby into rule, simply to establish its claim to “turf,” though at the time this ADEQ rule had holes and problems large enough to drive a Mack truck through. Rather than stand up to the political juggernaut driving ADEQ, (i.e. mines, developers, utilities, corporate agriculture) we acquiesced primarily because we did not in opposition know what to do. Politically naïve were we then and perhaps remain still now.

Developing consensus “buy-in” - I have raised at numerous times and under different conditions the notion that only when we choose to make and grant the time necessary to honestly educate and seek input from every corner of our state from individuals everywhere will the rules and regulations by consensus promulgated there under achieve the voluntary “buy-in” necessary to accomplish the status of voluntary compliance implementation and enforcement of rules and regulations governing how we use and treat all forms of water in Arizona. In most every case where I have given this notion “voice” it is met by some with the reaction its too far out, I just don’t understand how the game is played, it can't be done this way, no one will support this approach, it’s politics and you are not in tune. If that is the paradigm to which you adhere, believe and are held accountable then most assuredly any other paradigm can only be seen as false, untrue and unattainable.

During my collegiate days in the mid-1960’s era, I recall reading about a study conducted to evaluate and potentially quantify the amount of “change” we can endure before we freak out. As I recall, I was surprised to learn this study revealed we are able to accept “changes” not exceeding ten-percent (10%), before our individual fear of the unknown raises its specter overwhelming us. Assuming there is even marginal validity to these results, this seems to suggest that for a “complete” change cycle to occur would require at the minimum ten years. In the 33 years I have been active within the Arizona onsite community, I question whether we have even achieved a one time complete change in the paradigm of our beliefs.

Anticipation of a new era vs. current reality - There was great anticipation the ADEQ – Unified Permit Rule of 2001 – was to usher in a new era eliminating the haphazardly applied guidelines of the then governing standard – Engineering Bulletin 12 (covering residential onsite systems). The most notable aspect of these newly promulgated rules was to mandate their uniform application on a state-wide basis coupled with provisions quantifying and objectifying under force of rule and law, what previously was largely guideline and a regulator’s subjective opinion. The stark reality in 2008 is these once vaunted rules which were to be uniformly applied across every nook and cranny of Arizona have “morphed” into evaluations and opinions hap hazardously applied in sovereign manner by each of Arizona’s 15 county environmental health departments. We simply re-created the once much maligned ADEQ/Engineering Bulletin 12 in a different form essentially granting “carte-blanche” to the respective regulators and/or their contract minions.

Substantive change - Still we cling to the belief that substantive change can only come about by working through ADEQ. It was notably demonstrated at this AzOWRA sponsored seminar I recently attended that only if one adheres and presents positions placating the “status-quo” will they be allowed to have “voice.” Notably absent was any actual presentation or questions raised by John Q Public – for and in behalf of Arizona citizens. I find it so very interesting the Arizona onsite community stakeholders – fear inviting, receiving and giving voice to John Q Public. Why is that…? The questions which John Q Public might and most probably will raise, we fear we can no longer idly brush aside, or give glib answers to, sweep under the rug, dance around, but the simple truth is, we don’t honestly know how to answer their concerns. In these seminars, like this AzOWRA reference, wherein “practioneers” dwell, attendees can all faithfully espouse the words and terms deliberately chosen to be foreign, convoluted and unclear to Arizona’s average man. And we continue to buy into the “crap” that rule development language demand it be so. That’s simply not true. But you and I are free to believe as we choose.

Clear & concise vs. “gobble-de-gook” - I am reminded here of a statement made by William Tiller, Ph.D., Stanford, physics who, some of you may have seen in the movie … What the Bleep … who noted at a seminar I attended about a year ago that he found until he truly understood, his explanation to others were protracted and convoluted. When he attained true knowledge, wisdom some might say, he could then articulate his explanation to others in a voice clear, concise and understandable. Might it be the “gobble-de-gook” terms we espouse are nothing more than camouflage for our failure to have made the time and/or commitment to attain the level of knowledge from where wisdom flows…? Are we so emotionally devastated and/or diminished that we are simply unable or unwilling to say … “I simply don’t know, but I’ll look into it, and get back to you”…?

Where do we want to go from here…? – One point we might consider and ponder is how to create a safe haven wherein, in the manner of an honest broker we can contemplate aspects surrounding the safety and quantity of our water available to us, to day, tomorrow. Within this realm from a place of our ‘enlightened’ self-interest we can choose to evaluate all the societal costs – externalities – our actions around water create. And from within this atmosphere contemplate the implications of rules and regulations we promulgate which clearly suggest … “as bad as the law allows and do no more” … the essence of our State’s environmental legacy today.

authorities insist anthrax scientist was lone culprit, yea right...?

Perspective for your consideration… 8-7-08

http://energeticsynergy.blogspot.com/

.Headline on page one above the fold of Thursday’s issue of Arizona Republic says

… AUTHORITIES INSIST ANTHRAX SCIENTIST WAS LONE CULPRIT …

I heard that one before when the vaunted Warren Commission pronounced that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in Dallas on that fateful day when Kennedy was killed.

I heard it too when George Bush announced that Iraq leader Saddam Hussein acted alone on 11 Sept 2001.

How many more times will “we” – that’s you and me – permit “them” to pull the wool over our eyes allowing us to feign we were unaware…?

When do “we” choose to accept accountability and responsibility for what happens in our nation and around our globe…?

the real terror is we believe this crap

.TRAVELERS’ LAPTOPS CAN BE DETAINED … so reads a headline in the 1 Aug 08, issue of the Arizona Republic.

Welcome to America’s gulag, your papers, please. Today we submit to ridiculous airport security crap, tomorrow, get ready for the capsule to be implanted in your arm.

Be afraid, be very afraid, that is their mantra, those in our government who want you to believe those nameless, faceless, unidentified people are going to get you and do bodily harm to you. What a bunch of crap. God, help you if airport security were to find any “terrorist” information on your computer, it’s rendition time for you.

The real terror is we believe this crap…

that water's not yours

Yes, there’s water flowing in those streams, creeks and rivers past your town, but it’s not for you to consume …

Our neighbors to the north and it’s not Canada to which I refer, but rather those in Flagstaff, Prescott, Sedona, Cottonwood, Camp Verde and Payson, those who along the Salt and Verde rivers dwell. Don’t even think about drinking or consuming that water in any manner, it’s all ours you know. You’ll awake one morning to find it gone, for SRP like a thief in the night will take it for us, those who dwell in the Valley of the Sun, that’s who. To hell with you, it’s ours.

We see and hear words like these almost every day and we don’t get mad, we don’t say this is unjust, we don’t even think about it, we just let it pass.

That summer cabin in the northland woods no longer any water can you consume, don’t even think about drilling a well lest SRP will have the local sheriff put you in jail. You think not…? Dare you oppose and you’ll quickly find out how swiftly the law comes down on you. Has anyone of us really taken the time to contemplate the implications behind these words..?

Water transfers, now there’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard. As if we by relocating the route water takes demonstrates we command, have power and dominion over. These water transfers like the CAP are NOT without enormous environmental, financial, not to mention political cost. Today the care, custody, control of water is base for economic power – tomorrow’s – equivalent oil revealed. Power – is a word we cleverly conceal, keep under wraps, its full measure out of sight lest we are forced to face our complicity as we so robotically look the other way whenever the subject of water comes up.

Conflicted are we of what water is and is not. For many water is a substance used to quench our thirst, to wash your feet or your car, to add moisture to grass and crops, but it surely is not alive. For many it does not live or resonate. Other men, like Bill Tiller, Ph.D., Stanford, Physics, and Professor Emoto, Japan, operating within the bowels of contemporary science have given to us, if we’re willing to be open to see, reasons to believe water does indeed resonate have life.

I suggest that each of us at some point in time must ask and answer – what is life…? The definition and answer need be relevant only to you, that’s OK. For me, all life is a form of energy, what say you…? Energy sends and receives as water so aptly does. Is that sufficient proof..? You be the judge. Both Tiller and Emoto subjected water to varying types and forms of tests which water passed with flying colors. Contemporary scientific scholars reject many if not all of their findings, every wonder why…? It’s because their protocols did not conform to that stipulated by them. Therefore, invalid, false their conclusions deemed. So too it was for Nicolaus Copernicus when he clearly stated the world was round. It’s not so, they screamed, but now we know.

Conformity is a powerful form we use to control, dominate and subjugate causing us to abdicate our truth to them, to others outside ourselves. Conformity transfers power from us to them, is that what we really want…? Interestingly as we demand – water – conform to our will, and produce hydro-electric power, but don’t overflow the artificial banks we create and be always available to us. Over time we’ve learned to channel, to transfer water from place to place, never stopping to realize that water picks up integrates all that is passes over and through. We channel water to pick up nuclear waste, overflowing sewage, garbage, fertilizer, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, you can add even more. It passes over ground where fire retardant fell creating a type of toxic soup which rain drives into our water shed and drinking water reservoirs and without pause we drink.

Though this blue-green planet we call – home – is over 70% water, less than 3% is fit for us to drink, consume, ingest. And the amount readily available to us today, if reduced to 26 gallons, amounts to less than ½ teaspoon full for all of us. That’s not a lot…! Tragically, today, those most wise about water conclude there is no unpolluted source. A commentary with implications we might choose to contemplate especially if one believes and concludes water has life and is NOT merely a chemical for us to use, abuse, consume and throw away. Choosing to believe – water – is living and resonates with life, we need take a stand and say to SRP water is part of the “commons” and belongs to all of us to share.

The work of Tiller and Emoto and others demonstrate how we resonate with water that our intentions communicate and imprint water. For some, I realize, this is still too far out, for others this is but the first small step in activating the latent energy of which man is made. How mankind chooses to evolve is yet to be written or walked though I have no doubt “energetic” man will be revealed. Once man ceases to believe he must dominate, control and chooses to integrate, interact we will become one with all. It’s solely a matter of choice, each of us must make.

Earl Nightingale and Norman Vincent Peale, scholars and authors in their own right, both chose to express what some today may term – enlightenment – that mankind can with energy alone change it all with these three words … believe and succeed … too simple for most to trust.

Interestingly there is, when viewed from an energetic perspective, safe and sufficient water for all of us. From today’s place of lack to one of unlimited “common” abundance, now that’s quite a difference in paradigm.

sewage NO threat to public health

Clogged filter causes effluent spill in Scottsdale…10:08 AM MST on Tuesday, August 5, 2008…Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP) -- A clogged filter led to a massive treated sewage spill last week in a desert area north of Scottsdale….City officials say that more than 150,000 gallons of treated effluent flowed out of the city's Hualapai Water Campus…A city spokesman says the overflow from a basin posed no threat to public health…The Arizona Republic Web site reports the problem was corrected within an hour last Thursday in the portion of the plant that treats sewage effluent for irrigation on golf courses…The city said it plans to file a report with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

You can choose to unequivocally accept an unnamed, unidentified “spokesman” for any government agency to be open, forthright, honest and transparent in any statement they make to you and me about any action which might cast an unfavorable light on their locale.

That this sewage was “treated” just what does that mean…? To what degree or level was this sewage treated…? What level of pathogens and/or other trace chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, cosmetics or endocrine interrupters were in that sewage which was spilled…?

I want to believe, however, given the legacy of the past 7 ½ years of the credibility of any statements coming from government, I choose a more cautious route and frankly say to them – prove it.

poster child for lack of transprency

Arizona Republic headlines – 17 July 08 … BUSH CLAIMS PRIVILEGE TO WITHHOLD CIA LEAK RECORD …

Mr. Bush is at it again defending the alleged rights of the few, the few to whom he is beholding to. While I have no respect for his actions, I have none either for our State and local leaders who pass the buck or in stealth mode live.

Pick any topic from A to Z and transparency you will not find from them. They too have learned and learned well how to play the new “shell game” with us, so we can't tell when their lying to us. There’s an old joke … you know when a politician is lying…? Answer, whenever he/she moves their mouth. Sad but excruciatingly true today.

Every answer they provide is calculated, tested, screened and sanitized to reveal as little as possible and certainly not the truth. How’s the local economy, they report just a bump, won’t last long, not to worry. Why can’t parents hire their own expert at the school to make damn sure their kids breathe air that’s safe…? School officials say we can't have that.

Oh, yea, that bacteria reported to be in our local pools, is found too in the water you consume, drink, bathe, and ingest. It’s supposed to be thoroughly test for, but, well you know we’re a bit short of funds, so…? Reality is, it is NOT only found in pool water, but in water you consume and therefore in wastewater too. Hey, but, soon now our leaders have assured you and me, we’ll be drinking this same safe transformed wastewater. And it’s going to be yummy, yummy for the tummy.

While Mr. Bush for me is the poster child for gross lack of transparency he has set high standard for our state and local leader to follow and adhere. And you know what they are doing it exceedingly well.

it ain't you or me, bucko

I rise to salute Laurie Roberts for her succinct article in the Saturday issue of the Arizona Republic entitled ... THIS TIME, THE TRUTH COULD UNRAVEL TAX INITIATIVE …. which separates the wheat from the chaff in a manner permitting anyone capable of reading to comprehend the implications of the “smoke screen” the proponents of TIME are attempting to perpetrate on us once again.

I am reluctant to say she nailed TIME’s hide to the wall, as I am not sure given our collective propensity not to endorse and fund … reading is fundamental … I must question how many of us, can read…?

And moreover, given that we can’t add or do math, even with the assistance of a calculator/computer ascertaining how to derive a percentage is beyond the ability of most. Ms. Roberts did the math, if you want to verify it on your own, I salute your effort.

Do the math and prove for yourself TIME want to increase your taxes by 17.8% - do the math and see for yourself.

And while you’re at it make the time to determine who is sponsoring and funding TIME, and who benefits if the TIME proposal is successful at the polls in November.

It ain’t you or me - bucko…?

Isreali export water technology for use in the desert, so why don't we at least consider it

.An article in the Arizona Republic entitled … ISRAELI FIRMS EXPORT WATER SYSTEM … ought to be rallying cry for all agriculture in the southwest in particular. The technology utilized by the Israeli’s is “the right stuff” that we ought to consider adopting and possibly mandating for agriculture in the arid southwest.

What’s stopping us…? Well how about a powerful corporate ag lobbying effort backed up with million$ to place as many artificial obstacles as possible in our effort to bring such a change about.

In the southwest ag water is artificially priced less than the same water from the Colorado River system, for example, that water sold and utilized by you and me. Why is that…? Answer…follow the $$$.

Moreover, as we have been brainwashed to believe water is a commodity as opposed to part of the “commons” we no longer see or feel any moral imperative to converse – water. Oh, yea, we’ll use “conserve” when it proves financially useful, but we really don’t want to embrace the implications of conservation.

We … talk the talk, but we don’t walk the walk …It’s all about profit … but at whose expense…? We really do not want to factor in all the externalities associated with our profit and greed oriented use of water.

grin and bear it

The Grin & Bear it cartoon in the Sunday – 8-3-08 issue of the Arizona Republic … captions Senator Snort as saying … “I believe in government in the sunshine, but with plenty of sunscreen” …

This is, at least for me, upon reflection a clarity of truth about how we allow all aspects of our government to operate as they illicitly …”serve & protect” … us – that’s you and me.

That we are so disinterested serves only to grant “them” carte-blanche to do as they damn well choose without any concern there will be any repercussions for their dishonest actions as we clearly and consistently demonstrate, we don’t give a damn.

There will come a time when the “we” clearly have a belly full and will rise up to accept and exercise our rightful power and bring about in the blinking of an eye a paradigm change where transparency and honestly prevail. That time is of our choosing.

only color within the lines

Aug. 06, 2008…Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal …Projections for Yucca revised…Estimated cost of nuclear waste dump: $96.2 billion…By STEVE TETREAULTSTEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU …WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy on Tuesday issued new cost estimates for a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository that would be bigger, would operate longer and would cost billions of dollars more than earlier planned. The department in a long-awaited report announced the price tag on the proposed Nevada waste site has grown to an estimated $96.2 billion. Counting inflation, costs increased by 67 percent over DOE's previous estimate, which was $57.5 billion in 2001. In the intervening years, the project has been delayed and redesigned. DOE officials also made a key assumption that the repository will be expanded by Congress to make room for larger volumes of spent nuclear fuel being generated by commercial power plants. Bob Loux, who spearheads Nevada's official opposition to the Yucca project as director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the Yucca cost report is of limited value." What's the point of this?" Loux asked. Loux said the DOE did not make it possible to get a clear picture of how much it would cost to build a repository limited to 70,000 metric tons of waste, which is current law. "Secondly I think most people would take the DOE number for construction and throw in another half," said Loux, who said the cost for the Yucca site could end up closer to $120 billion to $150 billion.
I vividly recall being awaken a number of times in my youth as our nation exploded yet another “atom” bomb at the Nevada Test Site located about 100 miles north of my home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Then our nation entered that period where “we” no longer exploded these “atom” bombs in the atmosphere, we chose to explode them far beneath the Nevada desert. The same desert today’s scientists choose to use to store our nation’s nuclear waste into perpetuity.

Let me see if I understand this. First we blow the ground under this nuclear storage area all to hell, creating a plethora of uncharted cracks of unknown depth into our earth. We do not choose to chart the flow of any leachate (that’s the scientific term for leak) which could become part of the water source for humans. Then we construct one single nuclear storage facility near a worldwide known town – Las Vegas – near Hoover Dam, the first dam constructed on the Colorado River the nexus of drinking water serving some 25 million people.

What am I missing…? It’s not the gargantuan sum of money we are choosing to spend and it’s not the location, it’s we remain fixed on solutions derived solely from adhering to tunnel vision. We continue to only be able to “color-inside-the-lines” any other solution is summarily dismissed. Why…?

consumer water confidence reports, say what ...?

Five Ariz. water systems receive orders from EPA…Release date: 08/05/2008…Contact Information: Margot Perez-Sullivan, Desk/415-947-4149 Cell/415.760.9161, perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov...SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently issued administrative orders to several water systems throughout Ariz. that have failed to prepare, distribute and certify their Consumer Confidence Reports, a violation of federal drinking water laws. Consumer Confidence Reports are the centerpiece of public right to know provisions under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The report is an annual snapshot of the local water quality and is required July 1st of every year. Failure to comply with the order could result in penalties of up of $32,500 per day, per violation. “Customers deserve to know what is in their drinking water so they can make informed decisions about their health,” said Alexis Strauss, Water Division director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “It is important for all public drinking water systems to prepare and distribute these reports, regardless of size.”The water systems, include:· Crosby Spring at Greer, serving 101 people in Greer, Apache County· Kachina Village MHP, serving 240 people in Flagstaff, Coconino County· Town & Country Preston, serving 900 people in Nogales, Santa Cruz County· Riverside Apartments, serving 100 people in Oro Valley, Pima County· Summit Water Company, serving 32 people in Sahuarita, Pima CountyWhile these orders do not necessarily indicate poor water quality or violations of federal drinking water standards, the agency considers these violations significant because consumers have a right to know what is in their drinking water and owners or operators are required to communicate how their system is operating. Under federal law, public drinking water systems serve over 25 people year-round. Consumer confidence reporting requirements help consumers understand where their drinking water originates, how safe their drinking water is and provides information about the system. These reports require systems to disclose all violations within the last year along with a clear, understandable explanation of any potential health effects, length of the violation, and steps taken toward correcting the violation.

What is very notable is only small water purveyors appear to be the “target” of EPA regulators, why might this be the case….? I would offer that in the past ten years all water purveyors have been over loaded with requests for new and more information and reporting to government. On the face of it, this seems quite plausible until you look at the intent. I am of the school these seemingly public service actions designed to “serve & protect” cover a more covert action to drive the small water purveyor into the hands of the giant corporate “for-profit” water providers.
You’re free to think otherwise, but you might consider for a moment, who actually benefits from these raw reports which are never revealed to the public – that’s you and me. And who designs these reports, dare it be government in concert with selected engineers, water purveyors, regulators and testing labs. A seat at that table is withheld and never offered to you or me. Having prepared a number of these vaunted consumer confidence reports, they are nothing more than “feel-good” statements. Read any of them for yourself, after you’ve quieted your mind and found reasonable grounding from the plethora of noise and minutia taking place around you. Then let’s discuss what was really revealed to you and me.
Talk about – labels – Consumer Confidence Report – say what…? I did not have a hand in the development or the evaluation of the data now reputedly being promoted as a consumer confidence report. The name is deliberately misleading and designed to lead you and me to conclude without any opportunity for verification on our part that the water we are consuming is in fact – safe. Oh, yea, trust us, we’re from the government, we’re here to protect you. Like that affirmation will induce me to see their offering as honest…?

governor urges federal funds for low-income energy bills

Perspective for your consideration…

In the Friday 1 Aug 08 issue of Arizona Republic an article entitled … GOVERNOR URGES FEDERAL FUNDS FOR LOW-INCOME ENERGY BILLS … which in light of our Governor’s action in concert with the 90 mental midgets in our State Legislature portending to “serve and protect” as you callously throw the disabled in our state under the bus denying them health benefits, is woefully disingenuous.

The ink is barely dry on the recent newspaper report on your combined actions respecting how you “pulled-the-plug” on the disabled in our state, but, then again, we – the people – are indeed reputed to have extremely short memories.

Were I able, Governor, I would invite you to take a moment to reflect on your moral compass you are utilized to lead our State as it is need of serious recalibration.

To this missive I would be less than honest were I not to add in giant capital letters that “we” – that’s you and me – share an equal responsibility for this travesty. We could have chosen to vote these rascals out or better yet not have voted to put them into office in the first place. In the final analysis, we get the government which we exactly want and intend.

the conflict is between what is false and what is true

My friend, you and I shall remain strangers unto life,
And unto one another, and each unto himself,
Until the day when you shall speak and I shall listen
Deeming your voice my own voice;
And when I shall stand before you
Thinking myself standing before a mirror

Kahlil Gibran

In Apples of Gold … a passage reads …”there is no conflict between the old and the new, the conflict is between the false and the true” … which when I read it causes me to recall the current turmoil surrounding how we choose to hold – water – in all its many forms.

The conflict truly is, we do not know what is true and what is false. Water in American society and many industrialized nations around our Earth is held in truth to be nothing more than a commodity to be exploited for the profit it can manifest for a select few. A contrary few will hold it is false to believe and hold water not to be part of the “commons.”

Bringing this discussion closer to home, in Arizona, we choose to believe and see, water as decreed by ADEQ, ADWR, our Governor and the 90 mental midgets masquerading and parading as our State Legislature all sworn to “serve & protect” us – that’s you and me. For them there is no conflict as perfectly content are they to falsely convey to “us” the current conditions of all the sources of our water. Water for them is a commodity, one they exploit in whatever manner is in the moment needed to either protect their specific agency or used by our politicians to obtain funding for re-election of course.

But is this assessment thus far justifiable, that’s a notion worthy of our consideration, is it not…? It strikes me that long before I can determine what is false and what is true, to borrow a line from Gibran … “until the day when you shall speak and I shall listen” … in the unrelenting incessant sound which surrounds us 24/7, speaking only for me, I know I do not hear or listen to your voice, what say you…? How then from this perspective can I possible know whether what you say is false or true…? And in the profusion of this noise can you hear and are you honestly able to listen to me…? I don’t think so, what say you…?

Whenever the topic of – water – is up for discussion, we are unable to leave outside the room those things we staunchly hold to be true. There is no place in the culture of our contemporary education form for us to learn how to hear and listen. We haven’t the time, there’s too much to do, places to go, people to see. And besides you say, you’ve heard it all on Fox TV News or some other corporate giant media outlet. And there we have it, quite clearly and rather simply defined, we don’t know how to hear or how to listen, we haven’t a clue. It’s not a simple as it might at first blush seem. It’s not just politely sitting down and waiting (if you can) for your turn to speak. It requires and demands conscious effort of you and me to quiet our mind, to center our self, to open, really open to hearing not only your words, but what you intend. And all this without me attaching an immediate judgment to what you say. We’re not taught how to do this, so how can I be expected to honestly listen allowing you to speak…?

In a society based on immediacy, it is expected when you hear me talk that you immediately engage in evaluating, judging what you “think” I am saying, all the while you hear me not, nor I you. Most often what you “think” I said and what I actually did and meant are lost on you as you could not hear, you did not honestly listen. Arising from such a context is it not likely we will produce and promulgate the strangulating rules and laws about our water to which we so tenaciously cling…? How can we expect that a holistic understanding about water can be reached when I hear you not nor you, me…?

Though requiring choice we each need make, it is quite possible to achieve a holistic understanding about water, though as you most likely know by now, it requires thinking outside the box we have been lo these many years so persistently educated to hold.

To achieve such mastery suggest and possibly requires we develop and attain – attentiveness – on our part. The Chinese symbol for attentiveness represents the virtue and benefit of deep listening by responding to others “whole-heartedly” and honoring the lessons (treasures gleaned) to allow meaningful transformation. This suggests we listen, then contemplate honorably the words and the intention we hear, only then applying a holistic evaluation. For most of us, this is too far out, requires way too much time, and besides government agencies and politicians want solutions that are quick and can be articulated in a 30 second sound bite form, whether false or true matters not to them. Just make whatever is said easy to repeat that’s the goal. And given the speed to which we have been educated to believe all life conforms, we politely and robotically determine from these gratuitous sound bites what is false and what is true, though we hear not the words they speak nor hear or understand their underlying intentions.

It is quite amazing when you look around at the beliefs we have been educated to form. That water from your household tap is not safe. Yet the bottled water, you readily purchase at the store at an astronomical cost, though its source is often from that same water facet, you are educated to believe is safe and pure. The question you might choose to ask yourself, is it really…? I’ll leave that answer up to you.

While you’re contemplating your answer, you might choose to consider, that water from your facet and that from which many bottlers use, was once wastewater from your local sewer plant. Treated of course, but to what extent, do you know…? I find it mind boggling to contemplate the vast quantity of chemicals man has made and formulated since the beginning of time. Most of them, our science knows absolutely nothing about their affects – short or long term – upon the health of man. Moreover, we’ve not the current technology to eliminate them from the water you consume in any form. So even today from your facet unknown microbes enter and become part of us. Scared…? You need not be, don’t give into fear. There are number of actions you can choose to take. Sorry, but part of this is to see what form of accountability and responsibility you choose to take…?

It’s time for each of us to determine what about water is false and what is true… I am but one voice, you can easily choose to delete and throw away. I do invite you to make the time to learn and to discern for you what is false and what is true about all forms of water in your life.

Though off the chart for many of you, I would invite you to consider as a place to start reading these three books:
The True Power of Water … author …Masaru Emoto
Your Body’s Many Cries For Water … author … Dr. F. Batmanghelidj
The Water Wizard … author … Viktor Schauberger

In the final analysis it is solely up to each of you to determine for yourself, what is false and what is true about everything especially – water.

I claim no infallibility about any aspect of water. I do invite should you choose for you to contact me and I am most willing to discuss how what I am aware might be a guide for you. Whatever you choose to do, do it with open honest intention of serving self and others or do it not at all. Leave any and all of any negativity outside your door.

Strive to attain true attentiveness enabling you to discern what for you is false and what is true.

You have the power within you to begin right now, that choice and decision is solely yours to make.

Respectfully,