AZ Gonna Be A Showdown at the O.K Corral

[Travace]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/us/tombstone-water-fight/index.html?hpt=us_c1

this made me laugh my ass off...

The case is getting the attention of conservative bloggers, and Rush Limbaugh recently featured the water fight on his radio show, blaming everything on the Obama administration.

but seriously these fucking tree huggers are out of line.

In the wilderness, Tombstone can dig with shovels, not bulldozers. The new pipe can come up the mountain on horses, not in trucks.

Several weeks ago, the Forest Service stopped Tombstone from bringing in a wheelbarrow for the repairs.
Why on earth?
Rangers say the Wilderness Act prohibits "motorized" or "mechanized" equipment because it might damage the wilderness and disturb endangered species. The conversation showed how far apart the city and the rangers had grown, and how frustrated the city felt in following federal rules.
The rangers insisted the wheelbarrow was "mechanized" because it had a wheel. But Tombstone managed to persuade the Forest Service to ease the restriction and prohibit just "motorized" equipment.
That kind of bureaucracy sounds all too familiar to many Westerners. Forty years ago it fueled the Sagebrush Rebellion over federal control of millions of acres of land in a dozen states. Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of the Republican Party, told voters at a 1980 campaign stop in Utah that he was a proud Sagebrush Rebel.
The rebellion faded but never really died. Riding in the political dust stirred up by the tea party, the Sagebrush Rebellion is re-emerging this election year. Bills to seize control of federal land are burbling in Wyoming and Utah, and they're talking about it in other states, including Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

this is a disease and its only going to get worse so dont think "ohh im glad i dont live in that state"

for the last part tho

 

[cleonard]

I've not read the CNN piece, but this story is a lot more complicated than most news stories can cover. There are a lot of players and not every non Forest Service party is behind the town. The root of the problem came when the wilderness was designated. Why the land that had the water works on it was included makes no sense. How exactly is it wilderness if pipelines have been laid through it? Untrammeled by man. Check.

The wheelbarrow thing is a classic. Maybe the definition should be expanded. Horse shoes are metal. What about saddles. Could boots be considered a machine?

While I'm not normally overly sympathetic to the Forest Service, they are really screwed on this one. If they let them in to do the work they get sued. If they don't they get sued.

If I had the time and $$$ I'd be part of the shovel brigade protest.

 

[Travace]

yea you have to take any media for face value and thats it. this is a interesting read tho and brings the attention to people who might not know about it. as always if you are really interested in something you should do research and research more then one source

 

[James]

This could be their saving grace:

Tombstone bought the water line after the company went broke in 1947. Along the way, there were a series of court decisions in Tombstone's favor. Sosa has copies of them all.
She has rebuilt a 130-year-old paper trail. If the maps helped Tombstone find its springs buried under rocks and debris, the other documents are helping the city prove its unbroken chain of ownership.

Tombstone says its pipeline was there first -- before Arizona became a state, before there was a U.S. Forest Service, before the Coronado National Forest was established, and certainly long before the federal Wilderness Act.