Tag: Water Sustainability Commission

“You Have To Ask Me Nicely”

September 26, 2018May 23, 2013

Ms. Pillsbury, Please advise where I may obtain electronic or hard copies of each of the “handouts” detailed in Attachment 1 of the 2010 Interim Report of the Commission to Study Water Infrastructure Sustainability Funding, created by SB 60, Chapter 245:1, Law of 2009, as well as all commission meeting minutes and notes. For ease … Read more

GrokTV: Rochester City Council Public input on “Sustainable Communities Initiative”- Ken Eyring

September 26, 2018August 24, 2012

by Skip

Ken’s mission at the Rochester City Council meeting( as it sought Public Input on its signing onto the NH version of the Federal Government’s Sustainable Communities Initiative (“SCI”), also known locally as The Granite State Future Plan) was to start connecting the dots between all of the groups that are pushing, advocating, and agitating for the passage of the Granite State Future Plan (to supplant local control of zoning ordinances with those mandated by the Federal Govt’s HUD, EPA, and DOT).

To wit: the Conservation Law Foundation (a partner in the Granite State Future Program) also runs the New Great Bay Coalition that is advocating for a new regional water treatment plant (which is going to cost Rochester mega buckeroonies) under the Water Sustainability Commission, whose final report will be incorporated into the Granite State Future Plan (Otherwise known as: a circular taxpayer firing squad hosted by NGOs and bureaucrats!).

Ken related a comment made during one of the Water Sustainability Commissions:

“Water and sewer rates are too cheap in the State” and at that point, a few of the Commissioners alluded to the Great Bay sewerage treatment project and chuckled that…

“The residents in those towns in that project would soon learn that water and sewer is not cheap.”

He also brought up the fact that the Planner for Rochester, Kenn Ortmann, has a conflict; he is also the Vice Chair of the NH Housing Finance Agency and has a fiduciary responsibility that supersedes that of his responsibility to the City of Rochester. Any further testimony by Ortmann needs to be challenged.

How Convenient…and Annoying

September 26, 2018August 15, 2012

NH WSC

Have you ever noticed that the Water Sustainability Commission, and most of the other “sustainability” groups, all hold their “public meetings” during the business day?

This one, in particular, really irks me…

GrokWATCH: Right To Know Request – Water Sustainability Commission – Update 2

September 26, 2018August 14, 2012

by Skip

As I said yesterday, I had requested a contract between the State of NH and Water Sustainability Commission / Synchrony Advisors, LLC, but was informed that there was none. So, on August 2, I asked for additional information from Synchrony Advisors, LLC as to the WSC’s activities, especially their financial ones. Note the time stamp (emphasis mine):

From: Skip Murphy [mailto:Skip@GraniteGrok.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 5:13 PM
To: John A. Gilbert; William O’Brien
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Request – NH Water Sustainability

Chair Gilbert,

I will accept you at your word for this [That there is no contract -Skip]. Thus, I will pull my RTK request for the contract back, as well as the other one concerning the correspondence of the contract.

However, while you all may be volunteers, your activities still were under the auspices of a Governmental Executive Order, thus still subject to RSA 91-A requests. Please consider the following as such:

GrokWATCH: Right To Know Request – Water Sustainability Commission – Update 3

September 26, 2018August 14, 2012

by Skip

I ended the last dispatch with this:

“Guess how long it took to get a response???”

Answer: 10 days simply to have an email recognized and returned (emphasis mine):

On 8/12/2012 11:11 PM, John A. Gilbert wrote:

Mr. Murphy

With this email I am acknowledging receipt of your August 2, 2012 Right to Know request. Given the scope of your request, it is anticipated that it will take as much as 30 days from the date of your request to identify whether such documents exist, and if they do, to gather and review them. There may be a cost for reproducing them for you, but we will let you know more precisely what the cost might be once we have a better understanding of the scope and number of these documents. If you do not wish to incur theses costs, it may be possible for you to review them without incurring the cost of reproduction. Again, we will let you know that too.

Best regards,

John

John A. Gilbert
President
Synchrony Advisors, LLC
10 Myrtle Street
Exeter, NH 03833
Tel. 603-219-6538
Email john@synchronyadvisors.com
www.synchronyadvisors.com

Well, THAT didn’t go over too well:

GrokWATCH: Right To Know Request – Water Sustainability Commission – Update 1

September 26, 2018August 13, 2012

by Skip

Back on August 2, we launched an RTK (Right To Know) request against Gov. Lynch’s parting gift, the Water Sustainability Commission. Specifically, we wanted copies of all of the surveys that the public had filled in that the WSC presented via SurveyMonkey.

I am happy to report that John Gilbert did respond positively and sent a PDF containing those results within two days of the request. And yes, I was / am behind on posting this up.

But, from there, I decided to ask for more – the contract between the State of New Hampshire and his firm, Synchrony Advisors, LLC, to no avail:

From: Skip Murphy
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 4:28 PM
To: John A. Gilbert
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Request – NH Water Sustainability

Chairman Gilbert,

I have received your email and will be reviewing all of those surveys; we do appreciate your willingness to quickly comply with our request.

An additional request: again, under the auspices of RSA 91-A, we are requesting a copy of the signed contract between your company and the State of New Hampshire. Further, as you are acting as an agent of the State, we are also requesting electronic copies of all the correspondence (e.g., such as, but not limited to email, paper mailings, recorded phone conversations and video conferences, websites) pertaining to that contract.

Kindest regards,

-Skip

A Jail Sentence For Drinking Water

September 26, 2018August 10, 2012

by Rick Olson

“All oppression creates a state of war.” —Simone de Beauvoir

Gary Harrington Goes to Jail for Collecting Rain Water

On Wednesday, July 25 Skip featured a Guest Post from Ken Eyring. The central thesis of Mr. Eyring’s post was that the NH Water Sustainability Commission gave a low-profile public notice seeking input from the public regarding management of Granite State water resources over the next 25 year period.

On Sunday July 29, Skip followed up with a response from House Democrat Representative Judith Spang to Ken Eyring. As shown, Spang made several, “The state owns the water, not you,” implied assertions.”

GrokWATCH: Right To Know Request – Water Sustainability Commission public surveys

September 26, 2018August 2, 2012

by Skip

Two days ago, we launched our newest Right To Know series concerning Gov. Lynch’s Water Sustainability Commission – that which was ordered into existence by Executive Order:

Good afternoon,

Having just taken your survey, I have a question: will you be publishing all of the surveys taken so as to validate the summary result? Like any good scientific OR Governmental process, it is always best, for openness and transparency, to publish all raw data.

If not, please consider this a Right To Know request under RSA 91-A for all of the filled out surveys that were received from SurveyMonkey (or by other means) on that survey, as shown by your page (http://www.nh.gov/water-sustainability/).

Water Sustainability Commission (a subset of the Granite State Future Plan, aka Sustainable Communities Initiative) – their own words. First Rep. Spang in her own words

September 26, 2018August 1, 2012

by Skip

UPDATE before publishing: Apparently, Judith has responded to Ken and invoking both International Law and the World Court? That’s only by email, but THIS I have to see!

*********************

Our mission here at the ‘Grok is to promote and to protect Individual Freedom, Liberty, and Rights. Period. Sure, we do other things as well, but that is our main focus and raison d’etre. I’ve been focusing on that my last few posts as the Federal mandate of the Sustainable Communities Initiative by the Federal Government (HUD / EPA / DOT) has, all of a sudden, climbed its way up the ladder from the muck in which it was derived. And muck it is, and it has spread.

As Ken Eyring has pointed out, the Granite State Future Plan is being spearheaded by the NH Legislature spawned 10 Regional Planning Commissions with the intent, now funded with Obama money, to override local control here in NH by pushing for new zoning laws (back up with threats of lawsuits). These are a fourth level of Government, creatures totally created by legislative statute that have no connection to the NH Constitution. It is staffed by locally appointed members (for instance, my DPW department head is my town’s representative on the Lakes Region Planning Commission) with some paid staff. They get State funding and also go around grubbing for town taxpayer monies by “billing” on population (e.g., “you have X number of people on town; based on $XX.XX / person, you should give us a total of….”). Starting off as simply a way to “coordinate” transportation usage, they now do all kinds of things (when did road management make them experts in broadband deployment?) that stray far from their original mission (like all good bureaucracies do!).

One of the things the zoning changes are going to do is push for higher density “center of town” living; whether or not it makes sense, these Federal clowns want “livable centers” where you can walk from your home above places of business, walk to work, and walk to work. Need to go somewhere else? IF you take the time, you will find out that you will be “nudged” to use public transportation. Mass transit isn’t even ‘sustainable’ in cities already – how would that work out here in rural NH – Oh yeah, they have a solution for that, too, but that’s for another post.

And it will be done, bit by bit. In a later post, I go through and use some of what the Water Sustainability Commission and others have said, in their own words, to “shape the battlefield“. In the mean time, let’s start with what has already been posted. Even Judith Spang, in her response to Ken, starts with the individual but then immediately goes to the Town level, as if the individual Right never existed:

1. Groundwater Law in NH is based on Common Law, not statutory law. The common law (dating back to English Common Law) says unequivically that a riparian landowner has the right to “reasonable use” of water flowing under or abutting his land. “Reasonable use” is a limitation: you cannot take so much water that you are depriving someone else who has riparian rights to the same groundwater or surface water. Neither you nor a foreign water bottling company who may own the land next to you has the right to take so much water out of your (or their) well that it dries up abuttors’ wells.

2. When the Commission talks about the need for a water policy that respects the inter-municipal nature of water supplies, it is based upon the above legal principle.

And then explicitly denies the Individual their property Rights:

NH Rep Judith Spang replies to Ken Eyring – defends the taking of water rights from property owners. Ken rebuts

September 26, 2018July 29, 2012

by Skip

Earlier this week, I had put up a Letter by Ken Eyring concerning Gov. Lynch’s Water Sustainability Commission that without any authorizing legislation or statute, is in the process of taking away your water rights. I wrote the following preamble to that Letter:

Did you know that there is an executive commission that was set by Gov. Lynch to talk about water? No big deal you say – yes it is. Many homes in NH, if not most, depend on the water on their land for wells – or to be more technically correct, under your land. Common law has been that what resides under your land belongs to you. Period. How do you think all those “shale millionaires” are now rich? Wildcatters and energy companies are paying big bucks to explore and to frack the natural gas that lays under their land – and because they own it.

This “Lynch’s Last Gift” (“LLG”) wishes to administratively change this. No House debate. No Senate debate. Just poorly noticed “listening session” (mostly during the day when ordinary people are working – but certainly attended by those that have NO problem in determining that your water belongs to them, er, all of us – the Collective. THEY may not own the water, but they, sure as shootin’, are going to be the ones that will make the rules on how you can (or cannot) use that water.

That is under your property. That you paid for when you bought your property (know it or not).

Well, Ken got a return letter back from the Commission: NH Representative Judith Spang (Democrat from Durham in Strafford District 7, NH Rep since 1998) and presents the basic argument of “it’s for the common good” (another one of the basic Liberal philosophies, like “You don’t need that” and “But it’s good for you”):

Dear Ken,

I believe you are misconstruing the statements made by the Commission, which are pretty broad and not aimed at your private well, by and large.

I have been the Chair of the 6-year legislative Groundwater Commission that looked at many of the same issues. We found that:

Are we all about to start losing our private property rights? A parting gift from Gov. Lynch? Guest Post by Ken Eyring

September 26, 2018July 25, 2012

by Skip

That is under your property. That you paid for when you bought your property (know it or not). Ken Eyring has been tracking this situation for a little while and saw that they are looking for comments, so this is what he wrote (emphasis mine):

My Reply to the NH Water Sustainability Commission’s Request For Public Comment

The Water Sustainability Commission is seeking input from the public regarding management of NH’s water over the next 25 years — but unfortunately, they are not consistent with their collection methods. They have published an online survey using Survey Monkey, and the questions are written in a way that can be easily skewed to support almost any conclusion. There is no way to ensure the integrity of the results, since anyone can log on and take the survey multiple times. In addition, from the beginning of July until July 19th, they accepted Public Comments without requiring identification.

Because of the importance of water to so many aspects of our lives, including life itself, my concerns were elevated as it became clear that the commission perceives all NH water as property of the state — disregarding our riparian water rights to the water in the wells on our personal property.

With all that in mind, I wanted to make sure I provided my concerns to the misguided direction the commission has taken since its inception — and to encourage everyone else to do the same by using this email address: watersustainabilitycommission@gmail.com, or via US Mail to the address below. The deadline to provide feedback is July 31st.

Here is the letter that I sent to them:

Water Sustainability Commission
c/o Synchrony Advisors, LLC
10 Myrtle Street
Exeter, NH 03833

July 18, 2012

Dear Commissioners,

You have asked for public comment regarding “managing the water challenges faced by New Hampshire over the next 25 years.”

I’ll begin by expressing my belief that everything you eventually propose to the Governor should be based upon respect for our Constitutional Rights. In one of your recent meetings, one of your commissioners raised a concern for Constitutionality… and I was stunned to hear another commissioner dismiss those concerns by stating they will let the courts decide. That is a reckless disregard of the responsibilities that you have been entrusted with.

Your commissioners have also made statements that disregard our riparian rights to the well water on our personal property. Some examples include: