From: mpucket@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Margaret Puckette)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: This toxic waste controversy
Summary: legal political activity using an airplane
Keywords: DEQ, USFS, lobbying
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:54:06 GMT
Followup-To: rec.aviation
Organization: Computer Science Outreach Services - Oregon State University



I never intended to be so controversial!

My article describing the aerial appearance of suspect illegal toxic
waste dumps was based on my experience working on contract to the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  I was hired to
fly one of their agents and two representatives of the City of Portland
around the Portland metro area to observe and photograph various sites
that they had identified beforehand.  In our preflight briefing, they
described what we would be looking for--that was what I related in my
posting.  Those agents also shared with me some details of violations
they had already prosecuted...and these were quite serious.

Let's see if I can sift through the various points made about reporting
suspected illegally dumped toxic waste from an airplane.  The issues
seem to distill down to: 

    * My tip - reporting a suspect site I'd discovered in a nearby forest

    * A question of invasion of privacy  .vs.  Looking out for public good

    * Those nasty 55-gallon drums


There are so many violations of dumping regs, the Feds do not have time
(or perhaps funding) to investigate the smaller accidental or "small time"
intentional ones.  They go after the Big Guys.  I had inside information
about the forest site for about 8 months, and had observed it on numerous
occasions.  It sits in the watershed we use for our city water supply.
From what I knew, this operation was much more than some messy piece of
property with a few empty drums lying around, it was a long term industrial
operation not beholden to federal, state, or local regulations.

Was it an invasion of privacy?  I didn't think so then and don't now.  
I do not go looking for these things, and this was my one and only
such report.  My eco flights are all conducted at or above 1000 AGL
(because I feel it is unsafe to go lower), and they are planned for
a very different purpose:  revealing the Big Picture to policymakers,
scientists, officials, and others involved in forest issues.  The DEQ
work was my job; the other pilots at the FBO where I work were more than
happy to let me take it, knowing I was interested (and experienced) in
this area.  

Mr. DeArmond sounded upset that someone would fly over his collection of
55-gallon drums and report him to the authorities.  Look down next time
you fly; just about everybody in rural areas has drums around their
property.  If someone was to report each and every one, the "authorities"
would soon turn a deaf ear.  But folks involved in *criminally* intentional
dumping will have 100's of these; they'll be stored in some far off place
away from dwellings and out of view of roads.  Trust me, it's OBVIOUS
when you see one of these.  They are not empty.  Someone has made a few
$ by offering to dispose of someone else's waste products (and you can
be sure the "storage facility" will not withstand the ravages of time).

As to the political nature of what I am on these eco-flights, an aerial
*lobbyist*:  I am one of many individuals here in the Pacific northwest
working to persuade our federal representatives to follow more ecologically
based policies regarding the use of *PUBLIC* lands.  We have little to
no legal recourse against the uses of private lands.  What I do is all
legal, above board, and remains within the established legal process...
I apologize if I seem to propogandize in this newsgroup, that is not
my intention.  For the descriptive purposes of my stories, I am trying
to provide background and visual information to augment the parts 
about flying.

Currently, I am working with the office of Rep. Les AuCoin (D-OR) to
schedule a flight with this senatorial candidate interested in forest
preservation.  I am also providing aerial photographs to the US Forest
Service (at their request) of public lands they manage--they will be
used to aid the USFS in it's new goal of managing for habitat and
watershed rather than timber harvest :-).  I'm also scheduled to fly
for LightHawk in Belize next March.  

Flying *and* politics, what a combination!  My role has strictly been
as a pilot, using the airplane to reveal the landscape; when I get
good enough at this to not NEED an airplane, I may just find a new
vocation...

*********************************************************************
Margaret "no babbling twinket, she" Puckette

LightHawk pilot
future Boardmember, Oregon Natural Resources Council

AOPA Archer N1939G
Newsgroups: rec.aviation