Category Archives: Environmentalism

I will be submitting a letter to California’s State Water Resources Control Board, since the “workshop” went way beyond time and it began to look like I would not get to speak until midnight, if at all. My name is Norm Benson. I am a retired Cal-Fire forester, and until our water plant was purchasedContinue reading “Forcing Conservation to be Californian’s Way of Life”

Dear members of the California Water Resources Control Board, Everything I ever needed to know about rules, I learned in kindergarten: don’t hurt other people and don’t take stuff that doesn’t belong to you. Based on these simple principles, I want to convince you that your proposed conservation law, which will be another thorn inContinue reading “Making Conservation a California Way of Life – Part Deux”

In a Los Angeles Times article in early September came this non-sequitur of a sentence, “The proposed regulation, dubbed “Making Conservation a California Way of Life,” would establish tailored goals for each urban retail water supplier in the state, providing them with more flexibility to account for local conditions, according to the State Water ResourcesContinue reading “Making Conservation a California Way of Life – Part Un”

Good afternoon. 1)   The public assumes your regulations are based in science, not supposition.[1] 2)   I believe regulations must be a last resort and fashioned using facts, not fables.[2] a)   Erin Brockovich is a Hollywood movie, a fable, not a factual documentary. [3] i)     Masry & Vittitoe’s law clerk, Erin Brockovich sued the sockets offContinue reading “What I told California’s Water Resources Control Board at their Chromium 6 Hearing”

Yes, the State Water Resources Control Board has “proposed emergency adoption of section 996, subdivision (b), prohibits the irrigation, with potable water, of non-functional turf in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors statewide…” I, of course, thinks this is a gloriously dumb idea and told them so. Here is my letter to them.  May 21,Continue reading “California Wants to Ban ‘Decorative Grass Watering in commercial, industrial, and institutional areas’”

Welcome to the Hunger Games, ideas! And may the odds be ever in your favor. Science is under attack. Not breaking news, we can see for ourselves that it is. Right? You have heard, “We don’t have time. The science is settled. We must act now!” yes? If it’s settled, what is it and howContinue reading “How Science Guess Becomes Science Fact”

An interesting review of what maintenance of “natural” habitat requires. It’s almost as if the more ‘natural’ we want a place to be, the more human management it needs.