Endless supply of stupid threatens Charlotte NC areas drinking water

[G_j]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article148340759.html

THE OBSERVER EDITORIAL BOARD


Thirty-one of Jeff Tarte’s fellow Republican senators voted last week to remove buffers from the Catawba River. What does Tarte think about that?

“There’s an endless supply of stupid in state government,” he told the Observer editorial board.

Tarte is more familiar with buffers on the Catawba than almost all of his colleagues. After all, he has one in his backyard in Cornelius. Tarte lives on Lake Norman, and for years he has seen how the undisturbed strip of land along the shores protects Charlotte’s drinking supply and provides a habitat for wildlife that is “mind bogglingly awesome.”

The Senate, led by Sen. Andy Wells of Hickory, voted last week to stop protecting that strip of land throughout the Catawba and to allow property owners to develop it as they please right up to the water’s edge. Some individual counties have approved additional buffer protections. Senate Bill 434 would obliterate those as well. The bill was sent to the House.

Supporters say they see it as a property-rights issue. The government, they say, shouldn’t be able to tell owners what they can and can’t do with their land. Except government does so all the time in the form of easements, utility lines and other uses. And buyers of land on the Catawba know the restrictions when they buy.


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article148340759.html#storylink=cpy

[benld74]

1. Box of chocolates