Posted on 05/16/2012 7:21:36 AM PDT by AZHSer
TOMBSTONE, AZ (CBS5) - Officials in Tombstone, AZ, are appealing a U.S. District Court's ruling which denies the city use of mechanical equipment to restore its water system.
City officials said the the 130-year-old water system was destroyed by massive flooding from torrential rains and the destruction of surrounding forests in the Monument Fire.
The court ruled Monday that the city did not exhaust efforts to obtain federal permits to use equipment. But city officials claim they've spent the past nine months trying to secure the U.S. Forest Service's cooperation.
The Goldwater Institute, which is representing the City of Tombstone, has filed an emergency appeal of the decision.
The Goldwater Institute said it's asking the court to recognize that state and local governments have sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to "freely respond to natural disasters without being forced to cut through federal red tape, and also to enforce property rights enjoyed by both citizens and local governments on federal lands."
Stay with cbs5az.com and CBS 5 News for more on this developing story.
Copyright 2012 CBS 5 (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
When did States just hand-away their sovereignty to the Feds?
When the Feds started to offer money in exchange for control.
“When did States just hand-away their sovereignty to the Feds?”
I believe that was one of his highness’s executive orders.
Where the hell is Gov Brewer on this one? She should step in and send the Arizona National Guard in to help restore the water supply after declaring the town of Tombstone a “State Emergency” when the feds whine she should tell them to go pound some sand.
The federal government sure has the states and local municipalities trained well, they are fixed and domesticated.
The federal govt is anything but your friend
The city should simply start the work, and have plenty of law enforcement on hand to arrest any fed that attempts to interefere.
This was a Tombstone water source BEFORE there even was a national forest. Like any othet bullies, the feds count on their edicts being fearfully followed. And will shrink back when confronted by a well organized group with such a strong claim.
The last thing in the world they want is direct confrontation.
Exactly.
Do it anyway, and have the sheriff standing by with deputies to arrest any feds that try to interfere.
“Where the hell is Gov Brewer on this one? She should step in and send the Arizona National Guard in to help restore the water supply”
Exactly
Feds, not the fed courts IIRC, denied assistance to VA last year when some areas sustained serious damage from an earthquake.
That's the idea for the people of Tombstone. Gather your tools and needed parts and march up to the damaged water lines and start making repairs. Make the Fed's use force to keep water from you.
This ain’t India. Take rifles and machinery. Start no violence. But if anyone uses or threatens to use violence to stop you,, bloody their nose.
Your argument only makes sense if you assert the feds have the final word. Read up on this. This was the Tombstone water supply a few decades before there even was a national forest. Hell,, it was Tombstones water before Arizona was a state.
The last one to the party does not get to assert the rule there. They must honor water rights, period. And asserting that you can only use hand tools is a “taking”.
They can stamp their feet all they want, but the feds will lose this one. This is childish to worry about one pipeline repair when a whole city has lost it’s water.
The Huachacua Mtns are not arid desert. It wouldn’t harm squat to use heavy equipment to remove tons of debris.
“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 rangers insisted the wheelbarrow was “mechanized” because it had a wheel.”
Good article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/us/tombstone-water-fight/index.html
The water pipes were installed in 1881 - and no, this is NOT a real wilderness area. In places in Arizona, paved roads were removed so that the government could pretend a place qualified as ‘wilderness’. This is the arrogance of the USFS - an organization I worked for 30 years ago, back before it became a haven for radical environmentalists.
“The city now insists it owns all 25 springs outright, and has the right to maintain five acres around each one, as well as 25 feet on either side of the pipeline. The city says it doesn’t need anybody’s permission to work on its own property.
“We had to fight to buy that water line in 1947, and we won,” Sosa said. “We own that water line. In 1977, we had a similar fire, and we went in and made the repairs. In 1983, more fires again, and we’re still here.” Miller Peak became a federally protected wilderness in 1984.” - CNN
Just get the necessary state and local permits and do it. Ignore any federal orders to stop. Back up your rights with the local sherif if you have to.
The sad thing is the Feds use machinery up there all the time to maintain the trails and roads and the BP and Forestry guys use ATVs off road to chase illegals. If its good for the goose...The wash outs won’t be any worse than what was caused after the fires and just maybe they can help restore the areas.
[ The sad thing is the Feds use machinery up there all the time to maintain the trails and roads and the BP and Forestry guys use ATVs off road to chase illegals. If its good for the goose...The wash outs won’t be any worse than what was caused after the fires and just maybe they can help restore the areas. ]
The Feds use the excuse of machinery when they want to stop border patrol from doing their work. They have done so numerous times. The feds can say whatever and justify whatever action they want while the state and cities and blocked defacto. This is tyranny.
This was the water supply when the OK Corral shootout happened. The Feds are flat wrong here. Power must be asserted or it is lost. Tombstone needs to turn up the heat,,, and if the water supply in California is a model,, massive publicity might not be enough.
It will probably take a raw assertion of power,, backed up by a willingness to use self defense.
Brewer should send the guard to do it.
If this were some contrived race issue Al Sharpton would be there raising hell and would eventually get his way. I hate to say it but “where is our Al Sharpton?” Where is our group of people going around the country to fix actual injustices compared to the “perceived injustices” of the left?
Maybe we need a group like the “minutemen” who go across the country and performing acts of “federal civil disobedience” by fixing the water lines and stepping in on behalf of states and communities everytime some stuipid federal power grab usurps the states.
Sadly this won’t happen because when the left performs acts of civil disobedience and get arrested they have nothing to lose because bums rarely have anythign to lose. We are to scared to do this because we worked hard to earn things and a decent living and rarely risk that for something that doesn’t directly affect us.
It is easy to risk everything when one aspires to have nothing.
That and “federal civil disobedience” is a hell of a lot riskier than “local/state civil disobedience”
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