It Doesn't Even Matter?
On Friday the 27th I attended a lunch meeting that was supposed to inform citizens about a program from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) about how to become a “CLEAN Community." CLEAN stands for Comprehensive Local Environmental Action Network. IDEM and several other state departments are partners on this project.The acronym IDEM is sometimes half-jokingly translated as “It Doesn't Even Matter,” by those who think the state agency doesn't give a darn about the environment nor about managing it.
I won't bore any reader who has taken the trouble to come here with the details of the CLEAN City designation, especially since I took very few notes at the presentation. What I can tell you is that the program appears to be one of those nice-sounding, but essentially meaningless designations such as being an “All-American City.” My hometown happens to be an All-American City, and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what it means. Maybe being an All-American City means that every entrance into town is defined by chain stores, strip malls, and the dingy fringes of the business district. Perhaps it means that the downtown will be full of boarded-up store fronts. Or maybe “All-American” means that the Historic National Road that runs from one end of town to the other doesn't look particularly historic, save for the Madonna of the Trail that people zoom by without noticing every day. Whatever being an “All-American City” means, if my hometown made it, then it is nothing to brag about.
Normally, this blog doesn't get into political or local issues too much. I really didn't want anyone other than friends and family to know exactly where I was nor my feelings on political issues of the day. I didn't want to be a wingnut or a moonbat. I just wanted to make occasional commentary on movies, TV, books, the weather, etc. But Kemplog (darn him!) has got me thinking lately about CAFO's and other issues that have come to the fore since the new Gov. took office a year ago. Not only is all of Indiana going to go on Dumblight Stupid Time on April 2nd, but the bright shining future that going on said Dumblight Stupid Time is supposed to bring means that those of us living outside large metro areas (read: Indianapolis) will be surrounded by the stench and contamination—not to mention appalling animal husbandry—of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Indiana's future economic development looks and smells like hog manure.
Suppose for a moment that you are a young professional or college grad trying to decide where you want to live and work. Would you want to locate in a state where the governor and a little over half of the state legislators think that it is so “confusing” and “difficult” to add and subtract one that the whole state has to go on Daylight Shifting Time, even when most citizens probably don't want to? How about a state where the governor and a little over half of the legislators don't understand the laws of astronomy and the apparent motion of the sun across the sky? Okay, maybe the time issue is a little esoteric or you don't care about DST. Fine.
Would you want to live in a state where the governor and his buddies created a Department of Agriculture not to promote family farms, organic farms, or earth-friendly modern agriculture but to blanket rural areas of the state with CAFO's? Would you want to live in a lovely home on a quiet country lane with the hope of raising your family in a nice, quiet, clean environment, only to discover that the state Department of Agriculture, IDEM, and Department of Natural Resources are working in cahoots with the factory farms to bring a CAFO or two to your nice little country community? Maybe you'll move near a nature preserve or a state park? Surely no one would dare locate a CAFO near one of those pristine environments. Think again. So now, having realized where Indiana is headed, do you really want to move here?
What does the proliferation of CAFO's have to do with my hometown wanting to become a “CLEAN Community”? Well, IDEM is one of the agencies in charge of the CLEAN Community program. IDEM also grants permits for CAFO's. A municipality can earn the CLEAN Community designation by doing little more than choosing five environmental issues it wants to work on and carrying them through with new policies and practices for their day to day work. Examples that were given at the luncheon meeting included a city having curbside recycling for its residents but realizing it is not doing any recycling at the municipal building. In other words, if you can leave your pop cans in a recycle bin for the city to pick up, the city will make sure that it also has recycle bins available for its employees to use while they are on the job. Other examples included replacing gas-guzzling city vehicles with more economical models, making sure that city trucks that run on diesel don't sit around and idle, and selling surplus fuel that is a spill hazard. Those things are all well and good, and every little bit counts, I suppose. But will designating CLEAN Cities because of practices such as employees dropping their pop cans into recycle bins dramatically improve the quality of life in Indiana? How can it, when much of the countryside will be covered with CAFO's, if Kid Napoleon and his friends have their way? Take your pick: Would you rather have clean water, fresh air, and sustainable agriculture that doesn't increase the risk of foodborne illness and become an incubator for the ever evolving bird-flu virus? Or would you rather go to bed at night knowing that city employees have a recycling bin to throw their pop cans into?
By the way, I asked the IDEM representative whether the CLEAN Community designation was limited to cities and towns or if it could include an entire county. (Understand, the website linked to above does state that counties could be participants.) Both the IDEM rep and the woman from Purdue were a little taken aback by the question, as if they had not considered it. They said that it would be difficult to have an entire county participate due to the size, but of course, an entire county would not be prohibited from seeking the CLEAN Community designation. The Mayor was at the meeting and said that she had asked the county commissioners to back the project. They said they weren't interested. (Surprise!)
I have to wonder about the future and the purpose of IDEM. Is it going to become, or has it already become, an agency spending its time on feel-good, virtually meaningless programs while turning its back on a huge environmental issue that could have a long-lasting negative impact on Indiana? I have worked with some people from IDEM in the past. There are good, smart, well-meaning people there. I fear that those good, smart, well-meaning people are not actually running the agency anymore—if they ever did. I read (on Kemplog, naturally) that a concerned citizen in another county recently asked an IDEM representative whether the agency had ever denied a permit to a CAFO. It hasn't. If there were a formula on how to outrage current residents and deter others from wanting to move here, our gov'nor and his agribusiness buddies have found it. Oh well, maybe it is too late for Indiana to recover from its economic malaise anyway. Maybe It Doesn't Even Matter.