I read the proposals for the Storm Water Master Plan (SWMP), as well as the text of the ordinances meant to codify it. If you look them over, you quickly discover what seems like an obsessive concern for the "environment". It didn't seem to be so much concerned with rain water removal. Rainwater removal seems to be only a secondary consideration.
Norman has some problems with recurring minor floods along a few streets due to an inadequate drainage system along them. I don't know why there are problems on those streets, but the flooding seems to always be confined to the street, and no houses are damaged. One of the main thoroughfares of the city is named Flood, in honor of the age old problem that is truly an inconvenience until the rain stops and the water runs off.
Then there was the mention of all that free land the City of Norman would get to use for entertainment and recreational use. It would be designed by the "Greenbelt" commission, a commission's whose previous recommendation had been to buy such rights instead of stealing them.
There was mention of an "impervious surface" tax on property to pay for all the stuff they covet, which sounded to me like a tax on children and automobiles. Its a tax on children because you need bedrooms to house them, more bedrooms the more you have, and a bedroom needs an impervious roof. Its a tax on automobiles because the city requires you park your car on a driveway, which is now called an impervious surface*.
And there was a mention of an overlay zoning proposal covering half the city or more that would restrict the use of land the City didn't outright steal.
The title of the plan seemed to be a misnomer. In my experience, misnomers by governments have almost always turned out to be lies specially crafted to deceive the people and deprive them of their liberty, liberty the government is sworn to protect.
The complete SWMP is a 336 megabyte file containing more than 1300 pages. Just to get rain water out of the city. Yeah, right.
I started an Internet search on the environmental terms I found. "Sustainability". "Municipal Environmental Protection". I don't remember exactly what I searched on, but I ended up at the site of ICLEI.org, "Local Governments for Sustainability". I quickly discovered that the ICLEI claims Norman, Oklahoma as a member. I discovered membership requires acceptance of the ICLEI's charter and by-laws. You assume members of the organization support most if not all of the initiatives and goals of the organization, especially if they change little in intent year by year.
I discovered that a bunch of their stuff read suspiciously like Norman's SWMP as well as Norman's Land Use 2025 plan. The themes were all the same. The strategies to indoctrinate people were the same. The implementation was all the same. The end result was all the same. They are both so very concerned about resource management, which can be translated "government control" or "government ownership" in case you are uninformed. You translate it that way because the ICLEI is an arm of the United Nations, an organization widely despised for its hatred of liberty, its hatred of private ownership of anything, its hatred of the United States , and its hatred of Christianity.
I searched the Internet for references to the ICLEI. I discovered many US city governments had fallen under the spell of the ICLEI. I found that a neighboring community (Edmond, Oklahoma) was dealing with its own infiltration by the doctrines and commandments of the ICLEI.
I wrote my own letter to the editor of the Norman Transcript.
* Just think of all that impervious surface potential walking around Babies R Us! Or waiting on lots at the big car dealer by the highway! You might be able to borrow against it with some financial instrument! Oh, you probably have!
Maybe you'll give me a tax credit for every rain barrel I own, or that you give to me, because I'm catching that evil rainwater before it hits the streets! For the four inch rain we got last week, and for your 2000 square foot house, you'd have needed only 84 of those 60 gallon barrels to catch the runoff from your house. And you'd have needed a few more for your driveway, porches, and sidewalks (say 1000 sq. ft.) - maybe another 30. If the impervious barrels are 24 inches in diameter, and sit on your lawn, they'll contribute themselves to the imperviousness of your lot (327 sq. ft.), and you'd have needed another 14 barrels to handle the runoff from the barrels. You'd have then needed 2 more barrels to handle the runoff from the additional 14 impervious barrels. You've now got 120 rain barrels in your yard, filled with 7200 gallons of water. And they'll take up only a 22 x 22 foot section of your .17 acre lot!
That's good news for the barrel industry! I wonder if code enforcement will allow it! I'm sure I'll need to buy a permit, and have the plan approved by the city engineer. Can I put them in my front yard so I can show off to everyone how green I am? What should I do if it rains before I can sprinkle all that water on the remainder of my yard??
Maybe the city should mandate rain barrels, which means force me to do it. Just think of all those CO2 emissions and global resources that will be saved in the construction of my 120 plastic rain barrel comprehensive system of storm water management! I can't wait to have 120 of these lined up in my front yard:
I wonder how much labor and how many thousands of dollars it'll cost to put the contraption together. Maybe the city should require just 3 of these instead, as it might be more cost effective:
