As much as I gripe about the Feds

 they have done a few good things worth mentioning.

As I have stated before I move oil and lots of it by water. Like the rest of the guys in my trade I am exceptionally careful to keep it out of the water. Oil belongs in tanks and hoses.

Back when I started in about '90 the old timers would tell me about emptying hoses into the river and nobody caring. For example the Schuylkill River was a mess. It's not anymore, of course.
The 'not give a damn' attitude that industry had was to blame and by doing so they finally shot themselves in the foot.

Sometime in the late 60s or early 70s a river in Ohio actually caught fire and the American public decided that enough was enough. Laws were passed and existing laws were enforced and industries were forced to either clean up their acts or close. I guess a few closed but most of them cleaned themselves up.

As a guy in the oil business I do my damnedest to keep a clean operation and have worked at it. I suppose I would have even if there were not laws on the books. After all, is money in disguise and money dumped into the river is money thrown away. Also I do have a respect for the planet and its ecosystems. I do like to fish.

Still, the cleanup of American industry was a forced thing and it was the Feds that forced the issue.

I hate to admit it but I'm glad they did.

Last year I passed over the river that caught fire in Ohio and I saw boaters and people fishing in it. The Schuylkill seems pretty clean these days as does the Delaware. I see people boating, water skiing and fishing in them all the time.

I'd rather see a river being used that way than as a free sewer for a chemical company any day.

Still, I think the Feds have gone too far in some ways and I think they can get a little ridiculous. It's illegal to draw a pail of water from a river and dump it back in. It is supposed to be treated first. 

That's a little much. Still, I have never heard of anyone getting into trouble for doing that, though.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY