Monday, August 31, 2015

Donald Rubenstein : Portrait of an Enviro

[This post is lengthy but it is necessarily so. It is loaded with evidence that proves our claims. All information included in this article was procured either by internet search or FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. All information and images are either freely available online or are part of Public Record. Images and extracts that may be subject to copyright are displayed here under FAIR USE. Please click on the images to enlarge.]

You may not know the name Donald Rubenstein as yet. But you will. Mr. Rubenstein is going to be the subject of much debate over the coming weeks. His name will probably be appearing on local media outlets.

Donald Rubenstein is the Hearings Officer for Jackson County, an unelected official who sits in judgment of residents and citizens of the county, subverting due process, since it is not a court of law and Mr. Rubenstein has sworn no oath to uphold the Constitution. Much of what Mr. Rubenstein does is make decisions on Land Use applications, like the one submitted to him for the removal of Fielder Dam on Evans Creek. The dam was removed in early August.
As a public official, even an appointed one, he is required to disclose any and all information that could be construed as a Conflict of Interest – this is a veritable sport in Jackson and Josephine counties. In his RFP (Request for Proposal) for the position of Hearings Officer for JaxCo, he made the following statement –

 


We heartily disagree with that statement.  We know of many, many conflicts of interest that may interfere with his ability to be an effective Hearings Officer.
 
At a public hearing in opposition the the dam removal, called for by the family representative of the alleged owners of the land upon which Fielder Dam sat, Mr Rubenstein made a declaration before commencing proceedings. He stated –

With respect to my, uh, personal participation I would like to disclose I know two people who are involved in one way or another in this application. Brian Barr, who is the applicant is a gentleman I have met on two, perhaps three occasions. I would hardly say we have a close personal relationship, but he is somebody who I have met and had a conversation or two with, from time to time. And secondly, the second applicant, the Geos Institute has on its board Ken Margolis who is a personal friend, and, uh, uh, whom I have known for a number of years. I can assure everyone I have had no contact with either of these people with respect to this issue, I never will have contact with either of these people with respect to this issue. That, I believe, would be improper. I agree I would have to disclose it if I had. But I have not had contact, I will not have contact with them about this matter.”

That isn't really the whole story of Mr. Rubenstein's relationship with Geos Institute, Brian Barr or a very important person he omitted to mention, Bob Hunter from WaterWatch of Oregon. Mr. Hunter is the catalyst for many dam removals in recent years, including this one.

Upon being asked by Rod Crume, the representative of the alleged dam owners about his relationship with Bob Hunter, Mr. Rubenstein was outraged and stated –

Mr. Crume, I have made disclosures that are both required by law, and are honest and complete. Whatever contact I may have had with Mr. Hunter isn't relevant to this matter, because he is not a party to this matter. He is not the applicant, and does not appear on any of the filings. He may very well have participated in the work, uh, to remove this dam, but he is not a party, he's not an applicant. Now having said that, I will tell you, and I have no obligation to tell you – and you have failed in your decision, in your, uh, purpose in not offending me. I will tell you that I do know Mr. Hunter. Occasionally, perhaps four times. I am not a personal friend of his, and he, uh, this relationship bears absolutely no bearing on my decision.”

Mr. Rubenstein was visibly flustered by the question; this is obvious in his somewhat rambling choice of words. His statement, we believe, is entirely false. To say that Bob Hunter “isn't relevant” to the Fielder Dam removal project is preposterous. He is the heart and soul of the project, and was the applicant to procure grant funding from Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) in Phase 1 of the project.
 

  
 

So, just how far does Mr. Rubenstein's relationship with these radical enviro groups go?
 
Very far, indeed. Quite disturbingly far, actually.

 
POINT ONE –

Mr. Rubenstein is the current Secretary of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy (SOLC) and has been a member of this group since 2008. The SOLC office is at 84 4th Street, Ashland - the same address as Geos Institute (a climate change alarmist corporation who rake in millions per year to brainwash the innocent and the ignorant.) Geos Institute owns the building according to Jackson County Assessor's Office records.

 
 
IMAGE LINK



LINK : Jackson County Assessor's Office Property Data



NOTE: Right now, this address is not searchable – it won't come up no matter which permutation of the address we try. The only way it comes up now is to leave the street blank, type in 84 where it says HOUSE # and hit SEARCH. Click on page 3 of the results. You will see the evidence of the image above.



POINT TWO –

Mr. Rubenstein is the founder of several environmental groups, including but not limited to The Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and the Land Trust Exchange (now named the Land Trust Alliance with 1,700 chapters across the US.) He also founded the Environmental Law Society at the University of San Francisco. He has also been employed by enviro groups, the Land Conservancy and the California Coastal Conservancy. (Confirmation of all these can be found on his LinkedIn page.)



 
POINT THREE –

Bob Hunter of WaterWatch of Oregon (WaterWatch.org,) an overly-litigious and very aggressive environmentalist group operating in Oregon and California, is a thirty-plus year member of the SOLC and is a past board member (1980s.) Mr Hunter, along with Brian Barr of the Geos Institute, host nature hikes and birding trips (sometimes jointly,) for the SOLC.
 

IMAGE LINK - Bob Hunter Birding Outing for SOLC



IMAGE LINK - Bob Hunter & Brian Barr Birding Outing for SOLC
 
 
 
Mr. Hunter also received a conservation award from the SOLC in 2015 and attended the 30th anniversary of their first board meeting. Mr. Hunter donates money to the SOLC on a regular basis.


PDF LINK - Newsletter featuring both Bob Hunter Honored and Rogue River Preserve articles



   

 
 

SOLC currently runs a project called Rogue River Preserve. On the “steering committee” of this project are Mr. Rubenstein and Mr. Barr. Mr. Hunter is listed as an “adviser” to this committee.



 

POINT FOUR –

In an attempt to obscure the close relationship between Brian Barr, the Geos Institute, and Donald Rubenstein and the SOLC, a false address was listed for the Geos Institute in the announcement for the public meeting regarding the Fielder Dam removal. This meeting was requested by Rodney Crume, representing the owners of the land on which the dam allegedly sat.

The address, 89 Alder St, Central Point is actually the address for the Jackson Soil & Water Conservation District, [JSWCD] [a branch of State Department of Agriculture,] and listed by Google as a County Government Office. This address also houses the USDA Farm Services Agency, Rural Development, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Also housed is the Rogue River Watershed Council, a Non-Profit organization of which Brian Barr is the Executive Director. This is not the address of the Geos Institute, which is, as stated above, 84 4th Street, Ashland. We believe this address was used in an attempt to willfully obscure the fact that Brian Barr's Geos Institute and Donald Rubenstein's SOLC reside in the same building. It should be noted that the 84 4th Street address is not an office building, but a converted, one-story house, owned by the Geos Institute.

 
 
 

 

 
 
NOTE : It should be noted that Geos Institute is the new name for the notorious radical enviro group, Headwaters, Inc, also formerly known as  NCCSP (National Center for Conservation Science & Policy.) The HISTORY of this group is truly detestable. These are some of the very people responsible for the destruction of our counties and our natural resources jobs. 

Those mentioned in this article are culpable in the poisoning of Evans Creek.

There is no excuse for the lack of EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) prior to removing the dam.

There is no excuse for threatening land owners with ruin should they not comply.

There is no excuse for illegally removing Wimer Dam BEFORE the permits were in place.

There is no excuse for creating the environmental disaster that has been deliberately thrust upon Evans Creek and its residents, both human and animal. 

WaterWatch, Geos Institute, Bob Hunter, Brian Barr and Donald Rubenstein – there is no excuse for what you have done, not in the name of ANYTHING or ANYONE, let alone fish.
 
  
 
SOURCES :
What Would Jefferson Do? (Much thanks to WWJD? for sharing the FOIA info)
 

Friday, August 28, 2015

Got Arsenic? Fielder Dam Removal - UPDATE - Lab Test Results

Got arsenic?  You do now!

It gives us no pleasure whatsoever to be proven right on this and we regret we have to report some very troubling findings as this story develops.

The initial lab results are in for the testing of samples from the former site of Fielder Dam on Evans Creek, a major tributary of the Rogue River.

The dam, demolished in a joint project by WaterWatch of Oregon and Geos Institute and their partners in crime River Design Group, Staton Construction, and various government agencies are all liable for the poisoning of the creek which has just resulted from the removal.

The preliminary lab results are -

ALUMINUM : 17,065 ppm  [EPA recommended level 20 ppm]
ARSENIC : 21.1 ppm [EPA recommended level 7 ppb]
 
ALUMINUM, of which high levels in drinking water are indicated in Alzheimers and other cognitive impairment disorders, is recommended by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) not to exceed 20 parts per million.  The Fielder Dam sample tested at 17,605 parts per million.
 
ARSENIC, recommended by the EPA not to exceed 7 parts per BILLION, tested at 21.1 parts per MILLION!  That means the result was "three magnitudes higher" than recommended for safe levels, according to Eric Schaafsma, Technical Director of Grants Pass Water Laboratory.  That means 3000 times higher
 
3 THOUSAND TIMES HIGHER.  Let that sink in for a moment.
 
And that sample was just water, not sediment, where concentrations of heavy metals will be higher due to their weight.  And that was only on the day demolition work began.  At that time, only 2 feet of the dam had been removed.
 
There is 3/4 - 1 mile of sediment now sitting in the spot where Fielder Dam once stood.  We estimate the sediment is at least 15 feet deep, perhaps deeper. As yet, we do not know how badly contaminated the sediments are, but those sediments, over time, will be working their way down the Rouge River and end up in Josephine County and Grants Pass water supplies. 
 
Although Mr. Schaafsma didn't state the actual level of CHROMIUM tested, he said that he did not speciate, just tested entire Chromium level and it was "a concern."
 
People, this is serious.  That contaminated water may have already reached our water supply.  The even more contaminated sediments will follow over the course of months or years, depending on the water levels and flow in Evans Creek, presuming it will have water again at some point.
 
Mr. Schaafsma also reported that after the entire demolition was completed, the water at the former dam site was red and a "sheen."  This tested as iron bacteria.  The red color of the remaining water was caused by a huge release of iron build up behind the dam.  He also reported traces of radioactive uranium.
 
They did this to improve 'salmon habitat.' What about our habitat?  What about our rights to exist? Do WaterWatch and Geos Institute - the people responsible for this disaster - despise people so much that they wish us harm?  Do they care so much about fish that they are willing to poison and sicken people, us, me, you, with deadly toxins?  It should be noted that all the dams that have been removed and are DOWNSTREAM of where most of these self-righteous fish worshipers live - Ashland.
 
Please watch the entire video below to hear Mr. Schaafsma's worrying account of his test results, as given to the Josephine County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, 27th August, 2015.
 
 
 
Sources :
Jo Co Commissioners Meeting Video by Dale Matthews, BadCounty.com
(Mr. Schaafsma's comments and the lab results were transcribed from this video.)
 
Sample Testing from Fielder Dam : Grants Pass Water Laboratory
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, August 24, 2015

Fielder Dam Removal : Did Waterwatch Just Cause an Environmental Disaster on Evans Creek?

 "...for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
                                                                            - Galatians 6:7
 
 
Local 'clean water' advocates, (oh, the irony,) Waterwatch of Oregon, Inc, have just caused what may be an ecological disaster on Evans Creek, a major tributary of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon.

In the following video clips, shot at the location where Fielder Dam stood until last week, you will see that the creek is now almost completely dry, filled with tons of sediment piles, and what little water remains is filled with what is more than likely toxic run-off from upstream. Samples have been taken and will be analyzed directly.


CLICK HERE to see all 7 short clips from the Waterwatch / Geos Institute Fielder Dam removal site.

If one compares these clips with the recent catastrophe in Colorado caused by the EPA, (Environmental Protection Agency, an inaptly named oxymoronic agency if there ever was one,) you will see that the color of the run-off is identical and may be the same, or a similar substance.


The dam, one of two taken out in the last month – the other was Wimer Dam near by – had long been the target of local extremist environmental groups Waterwatch, and the Geos Institute. Bob Hunter, attorney for Waterwatch, and Brian Barr of Geos Institute, the applicant for the removal of the dam, have both been at the forefront of this project for five years. These are the men responsible for whatever has been released into the watershed. Once it has been confirmed what the toxic run-off actually is, these men will be brought to justice for their ecological crime.

When a dam is removed – or any structure which has accumulated sediment behind it in a waterway – an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement,) is required before some of the permits are granted. No EIS was done, as far as we can tell. Wimer Dam was taken our without all the required permits in place. 
 
The preliminary sediment studies done were a joke. If you really want to find out if there are heavy metals, like mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, etc, they are heavy, they sink – you have to dig deep, way down to the bedrock where these substances will settle. If you don't want to find them, take sediment samples off the top or a few inches down and you will find what River Design Group found – nothing. Which, we must assume, is just what they wanted to find. River Design Group were contracted to oversee the permit process, sample testing and the logistics of the dam removal.

Also currently under investigation are KS Wild and the ubiquitous Waterwatch, the main advocates for the removal of the Savage Rapids Dam, the Gold Ray Dam, and the Gold Hill Diversion Dam in 2009 and 2010, and the subsequent probable poisoning of Grants Pass City water. Stay tuned. 

Check out this video from a public meeting regarding the removal of dams on the Klamath River. The meeting, from 2013, was attended by Waterwatch Project Manager, the smirking, superior Jim McCarthy.  Also present was local activist Alan Ehr, who is EPA credentialed, and has been trying for years to get the authorities to listen to him about the toxicity potential of dam removal, and about the possible cancer cluster in Grants Pass from the removal of Savage Rapids and Gold Ray dams.


 

Enviros, cohorts, co-conspirators, hear this – your time of running rampant in our region with impunity is over. A day of reckoning is coming and all of you who have been involved in poisoning our water and killing our children will be brought to justice – by using the laws, regulations and legislation YOU crafted and lobbied for to bludgeon us all with.
 
We, the people...are really pissed.