Friday, September 16, 2011

The EPA and Sackett Saga




Are you thinking about building your dream home? Did you get the proper permits required by law? But more importantly did you consult the EPA? If you didn’t, you had better take heed and hear the tale of the fabled Sackett saga:

Four years ago the Sacketts were filling in their lot with dirt and rock, preparing to build a simple three-bedroom home in a neighborhood where other houses have stood for years. Then three federal officials showed up and demanded they stop construction. The agency claimed the .63-acre lot was a wetland, protected under the Clean Water Act.

The Sacketts say they were stunned. The owners of an excavation company, they had secured all the necessary local permits. And Chantell Sackett says that before work began, she drove two hours to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to consult with an Army Corps of Engineers official. She says the official told her orally, though not in writing, that she didn’t need a federal permit. “We did all the right things,” she says.

The EPA issued an order requiring the Sacketts to put the land back the way it was, removing the piles of fill material and replanting the vegetation they had cleared away. The property was to be fenced off and the Sacketts would be required to submit annual reports about its condition to the EPA. The agency threatened to fine them up to $32,500 a day until they complied.

If you didn’t think that federal bureaucrats looked down upon you as the “little people”, than you haven’t shrunk enough.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/mike-and-chantell-sackett-vs-the-epa-08112011.html

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