Isn’t ANR Challenged Enough Already?

junkyardIn a timely manner, the Sunday Free Press carried the story of ANR's largely ineffectual efforts to regulate and clean-up illegal junkyards all over the state. I went to a presentation about this last fall at the Toxic's Action Workshop in Randolph; and I really felt for ANR's John Brabant, the guy charged with this Augean stable clean-up task. It was clear that even though the state was girding its loins to finally take action, those loins were a little too lean to adopt a really hopeful stance. This is not about the good intentions of people like him over at ANR; it is about the conspicuous lack of resources and a sense that upper management may be a little out of touch with the mission. Following the presentation, I sighed a little and whispered an invocation for the 2010 gubernatorial election. Clearly, most of those junkyards weren't in danger of clean-up anytime soon. For Douglas and his minions to propose gathering all permit and regulatory control under the jurisdiction of ANR is like rescuing a drowning man by tossing him an anvil. They must be goofy.

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.