Updates on Laurel (and other stuff): December 2008

I have to tell you about my week at work...

Actually, it started right before Thanksgiving. The thing is, as a regional agency we receive notices of (among other things) permitting and repermitting actions for sewage treatment plants. The notices don't come with any information about the compliance records of the plants, and about a year ago, our Commission asked me to start getting the monitoring records and reviewing them. Up to this point, it's been a pretty boring job - a violation here and there, but nothing to write home about. In October, I got a real doozy, though - a facility that violates water quality standards about a third of the time and has received 24 warning letters and notices of violation in the last five years. I duly reported this to our Commission, along with a summary of public comments from the first comment period (there were so many asking for a public hearing that comments were reopened and a public hearing was held). Part of the reason this plant is contentious (besides the obvious) is that it's upstream of a national historic district. The Commission directed to me to write a letter saying that they didn't think that the plant should be repermitted until the issues were taken care of. The thing is that the member locality with the plant didn't have a representative at the meeting (this is pretty common for them). Nor did either of their representatives read the meeting packet that was mailed out that had all of this information in it. When they found out that the letter was written, they were hopping mad - and I've been hearing about it ever since. I've been subject to several calls calling me (among other things) unintelligent, a poor researcher, and unprofessional. I was told that the locality was planning to leave the Commission and it was basically my fault. I was told that I was in cahoots with evil extreme leftist greenies (which is how the county views the folks in the historic district). I was told that I had to rescind the letter - the thing being, that the letter was authorized by a public body at a meeting that was open to the public, and it would be a Freedom of Information Act violation for it to be rescinded by a private action.

Yesterday was the culmination of the thing. The State Water Control Board met to approve the permit - which they did, unanimously, despite the fact that the Department of the Interior had flown someone in from Boston to speak against it, and all the supposed weight of the letter our Commission sent (*snort*). I attended the meeting (which involved my having to get up at 5 AM and drive to Richmond) and read a statement that I was asked to read that in light of concerns voiced by the county, the Commission would be reconsidering the permit at their meeting that evening (i.e. last night). I then drove back and spent my afternoon compiling exactly what I'd seen in the discharge monitoring reports and state correspondence, because the county had written a letter calling me a flat-out liar and said that they only had six violations since January 2005. That was probably the smartest piece of CYA I've ever done, because several people from the county showed up to the meeting last night and went through what they'd said in the letter. They asked for a point-by-point repudiation of the letter, but our Commission refused, because of the information that I'd provided to them showing that there were in fact 12 violations of water quality standards during that period, not six (although honestly, I think even six would be kind of a lot...more than I've seen anywhere else). I think the semantic difference here may be the number of official notices of violation they received - it was clear from the presentation made by the state's staff at the Water Control Board meeting that they often address violations informally, not formally.

Anyway, in the end the Commission did agree to apologize to the county for taking action without notifying them, and agreed to write another letter to the state saying that after conversations with county representatives, they felt comfortable with the permit approval. (Some explanations were offered for some of the violations, and some of the other issues that were raised were addressed.) I'm really happy to say that they had my back the whole way and took complete responsibility for the sending of the letter. I got hugs from a couple of the women Commissioners, who were clearly concerned with how I was doing. In the end, I'm feeling really proud of myself for holding it together and doing what I needed to do. But I was at work until 10 PM last night and I'm still tired and headachey. I decided to just take today off - it's not like I don't have my hours in! (I only work 30 hours/week - and I worked half that yesterday) - and I would only have been in to work for a couple of hours anyway, because Laurel has Brownies this afternoon. I'm so happy to be done with work for the week! I have to say, I think it was my worst week at work ever...

The perils of having a non-verbal child...

We've had a looong day here. Laurel was somewhere between whining and screaming for a lot of it. I think it was about 5 PM when Bob finally figured out that it was because her pants were uncomfortable (we think it was the snaps on the back pockets). The leading theory up to that point had been gas, which she'd been having a lot of too, but then again, when she cries a lot, she gets a lot of gas. But we'd tried Motrin anyway and had gotten thisclose to Valium (which we always have on hand as both a muscle relaxant and an emergency seizure med). So she spent a few happy hours, during which we unwrapped most of her presents (we'd done a few earlier during the calmest of the moments). She is especially fascinated by the switch-adapted remote she got (finally, Laurel can have some control of the TV when her parents aren't playing 20 Questions to find out what she wants to watch. Bob set up a limited list of channels for her to pick from). Then we put her in her wheelchair while we ate dinner. She started really crying at the end; we thought she was just getting tired of sitting in the chair and hungry. Turned out her foot was stuck. Then Bob sat down with her and we started to watch a Christmas special. She wouldn't stop howling and we thought she was still hurting, but that time, we managed to figure out that the big problem was that Laurel didn't have control of the TV (we've created a monster...). The thing is, we used to be able to tell her pain cries from her mad cries, but lately she's been a real drama queen and cries like everything is the end of the world. Anyway, top this off with parents who stayed up way too late wrapping (my chiropractor is right - I need a deadline!) and, like I said, a looong day.

Hoping our vacation picks up - so far I can't say it's seemed much like one. I really miss going somewhere...yeah, it's a lot crazier leading up to it, but then you're there and you have breathing space and family. I feel bad for saying it, but I'm really struggling with the ol' Christmas spirit thing this year. I've just been tired and stressed (the thing at work didn't help) and when it comes down to it, I think I'd rather go to Minnesota than get presents (not that that was an either/or choice - it would have cost us far more to go to Minnesota than all of the presents we bought put together). Better luck next year, I guess...