EPA Out to Prove Why It Needs Demolishing

Talk about a travesty of justice!  At least the Sackett Family will get its day in court.

Read the whole article here.  Be sure to watch the video at the bottom.

Here's the first part of this Human Events article:

The machinery of Big Government grinds an Idaho couple into the mud.

by  John Hayward

09/28/2011

Property Rights For Sale, Inquire With the EPA

In 2005, Mike and Chantell Sackett bought a piece of land in Idaho, and set about building a modest home on their $23,000 lot. The dreadful flaming eye of the Environmental Protection Agency soon turned upon them, and they were told their little half-acre parcel of land, which is located about five hundred feet away from a lake, was a federally protected wetland.

If you’re familiar with the EPA, you can guess what happened next. As Bloomberg Businessweekreported in April 2011:

The Sacketts say they were stunned. The owners of an excavation company, they had secured all the necessary local permits. And Chantell Sackett says that before work began, she drove two hours to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to consult with an Army Corps of Engineers official. She says the official told her orally, though not in writing, that she didn’t need a federal permit. “We did all the right things,” she says.

The EPA issued an order requiring the Sacketts to put the land back the way it was, removing the piles of fill material and replanting the vegetation they had cleared away. The property was to be fenced off and the Sacketts would be required to submit annual reports about its condition to the EPA. The agency threatened to fine them up to $32,500 a day until they complied.