Regarding the Feb. 5-18 issue’s story “Proposed Coastal Marinas Permit Could Hit Local Marinas Hard” (about a new State Water Resources Control Board proposal to require California marinas, yacht clubs and municipalities with 10 or more slips or moorings to obtain a new permit and begin industry-style pollution monitoring and control procedures):
There are several problems with the Water Resources Control Board (and, for that matter, the California Air Resources Board) going far beyond their mandates to raise money to fund themselves.
First, the stated purpose and cause of the rules, regulations and penalties to be imposed is not the same as the actual purpose and cause. (For instance, the board’s stated purpose is to reduce and monitor pollution of waterways; however, some would argue that the real goal of new regulations is to raise millions of dollars.)
Second, this board (and other similar boards) creates the law (regulations everyone must follow and fees everyone must pay), interprets the law, enforces the law and decides punishment, through administrative order. This is contrary to the way our government was designed to operate.
In fact, only the legislature can create law. Only the judiciary can interpret the law. Only the police authorities can enforce the law. These powers, collectively, may not be delegated to unelected boards.
The board’s actions violate the separation of powers doctrine, due process and equal protection. They amount to a taking of the authority of duly elected representatives, and they abridge the privilege and immunities of the citizens of California.
A system of selective rules and regulations has been established that, in fact, violates portions of the U.S. Constitution.
The solution? The State Water Resources Control Board — and all like boards and commissions — must be dissolved, and all its decisions voided. If that is not currently possible, all such mandates (by the Water Resources Control Board, and other similar unelected boards) should be ignored by all California cities and counties.
“This year we are going to try to do government better,” Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry has said. My suggestion: Have the city attorney send a letter to these various boards, just say “No, thanks” to their edicts and let the battle for these boards’ survival begin.
That would be doing government better.
It is better to die fighting than to live under “the pagan religion of environmentalism.”
Lightfoot Letters
Published Mar. 19, 2010 - The Log - California Boating News
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