Copied from DOUG Markham's facebook.
Doug Note: One of the hardest working folks to help keep our waters open above and below our dams in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky has been Rick Duty. Rick does a lot of posting on T.K. Walker's excellent bulletin board/fish forum
www.fishingtn.com.
Rick is very bothered, as am I and others who have been at this battle with the Corps of Engineers since last fall, that our State Attorney General's office has not intervened in this matter. Yes, we have the help of our U.S. Senators (especially Lamar Alexander) and there is an effort to stop the USACE's barricades with national legislation. But, national legislation takes time and it is a real concern that the Corps is working as fast as it has been allowed to barricade our waters. We learned just days ago that the current Nashville District Commander's goodbye ceremony is June 28th.
The work that so many of you have done has at least slowed this ill advised seizure of our waters--if it had not been for all of you most of them would probably have boat buster style buoys intact. Right now, there are NONE. But, if you read the Tennessean late last week you could see the Corps is not stopping despite the overwhelming opposition to its plans and the fact that its own employes are being furloughed for lack of money.
All that said, read the sample letter that Rick Duty wrote this weekend that YOU CAN USE to help us get our state attorney general motivated to help us. Rick believes we need to contact our local state legislators---the ones that represent you---and ask them to solicit help from our attorney general's office. In Kentucky, County Executives Wade White and Chris Lasher have actually gotten a meeting set up with the governor's office to seek the same outcome.
I am proud to say that the Tennessee General Assembly--the Senate and the House--unanimously passed resolutions asking the Nashville District to cease and desist its actions that none of us want. This is something our state attorney general should understand and respond to. So should the governor.
With only 60 days left in his tenure here before he gets to leave behind the mess he created hear, the current commander in the Nashville District might be putting pedal to the metal and we don't need his legacy of federally seized waters.
Sample Letter Written by Rick Duty for all to use (with the proper names of your Senate or House leader):
Honorable Legislators Name
Tennessee Senate/House of Representatives
Dear Senator/Representative Name
Thank you and your colleagues in both houses for the overwhelming support of SJR 132, in opposition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) plan to barricade sections of the Cumberland River. The House now has the resolution on the expedient path of Consent Agenda. When the Great Seal of the State of Tennessee is finally applied, it will with resounding resolve, validate the public position on this matter. That validation is now likely to be a necessary point-of-law, as litigation seems to be the only solution in stopping the USACE project.
The leadership at the very highest level of the USACE knows full well the value the people of this state place on the commerce, sport, ecology and heritage associated with the tail-waters of the Cumberland. Yet in spite of an April 12, 2013 letter to the Assistant Secretary of the Army – Public Works, signed by all 4 United States Senators and 6 U.S. Congressmen representing Tennessee and Kentucky; and also knowing there is pending legislation in both houses to stop the USACE plan, they apparently are moving forward with the construction of the barricades.
Our federal legislators have our undying support, and we are most appreciative of their efforts, in introducing S. 421, and H.R. 826; both named, The Freedom to Fish Act. But the fact is that the progression of both bills is predictably slowed by committee referral and the necessities of current national priorities. Meanwhile, the USACE disregards overwhelming public opinion, ignores the letters from our legislators appealing for legally required discussion and compromise, and acts oblivious to the legislation in progress. The hard reality is, the USACE will succeed in blocking us from public owned assets, if we do not act quickly to argue the tenets of Public Trust Doctrine, Tennessee Code (69-1-117), the Eminent Domain clause of the 5th Amendment, The Code of Federal Regulations 33-327.1 (and more), a rich history of case law, and Supreme Court decisions dating back over 100 years. And, let’s not forget our Tennessee State Constitution; Article 1, Section 2.
The Cumberland River in Tennessee belongs to the public, held in trust by the State; not the U.S. Army. The State has the affirmative obligation to protect that trust. We implore the General Assembly, or individual representatives therein, to call upon Attorney General Cooper for a Temporary Restraining Order, preventing the USACE from installing one more hazardous cable or buoy, before lawfully engaging the representatives of the State of Tennessee in the hearings prescribed by law.
Most sincerely,
Your name