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December 17, 2020
CONGRATULATIONS TO President-Elect Biden & Vice President-Elect Harris
RE: Cabinet Appt Nominees (Secretary of Energy? Granholm? Why her??)
Update on CommonGoodUnited and its Divisions and Discussion of Choice of former MI Gov./MI AG Jennifer Granholm for Secretary of Energy
Check out updated “One Red Ant” Story: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:8230e11b-bab1-4875-86b3-8eed98c9baef
Which includes new appendices, such as “FACTitious Corporation and Plant-by-Plant Summary: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:240fbad2-e5bc-478a-ac0e-b3e4c4455db0
And FACTitious Contacts (corporation, divisions, plants, vendors, etc.): https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:3de959de-df70-4b3a-8999-63869411c3b4
CommonGoodUnited.org (=CGU), and its divisions (youREAPwhatyousow.org, PACATO.org, etc.) have not said much on its websites during the past year, but now that the Biden-Harris Democrat team has won, some things need to be said. The origins of CGU came from its first website, youREAPwhatyousow.org (=REAP), which was founded, some years after a Whistleblower (WB) disclosure was made to the Michigan AG against a corporation who was knowingly and illegally polluting the environment from two or more of its CRIMe plants (Chemically Real Intensive Manufacturing establishments) located in West Michigan. The Michigan AG at the time was Jennifer Granholm, who subsequently became a two-term Michigan Governor. Despite all the personal and professional risk and damage endured by the WB, AG Granholm ignored and did not act upon this disclosure. Environmental laws and regulations (RCRA 1976) requiring that these plants have certain safeguards have been in existence for nearly a half century, but have been ignored due to lack of enforcement and loose and false interpretation of these rules by the CRIMe plants and their attorneys, who have not been brought into check by the regulators who answer to the lax state and federal environmental directors, as appointed by politically-driven elected officials working on their next election campaign. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the hazardous waste (HW) regulations contained therein, govern how hazardous wastewater (HWW) is to be Treated, Stored and Disposed of (TSD) at these CRIMe plants. These HW rules are in effect for the regional EPA certified TSD facilities (TSDFs) that exist to take liquid and solid HW from industrial HW generators throughout the US. The standards that TSDFs must meet are very stringent, requiring doubled lined tanks and pipe (= secondary containment = tank inside of a tank, pipe inside of a pipe), continuous leak detection monitoring between secondary and primary tanks and pipes, continuous liquid level monitoring and pressure monitoring in tanks and pipes with automatic alarm systems and shutoffs that are triggered when critical liquid levels or pressures have been reached to prevent overflows/releases, sampling and testing of monitor wells (and stormwater retention ponds) surrounding the site to give early detection if contaminants have been released from TSDF and are about to be spread to adjacent properties; plus extensive US EPA reporting requirements. What needs to be clearly recognized is that most of the regional TSD Facilities that take HW and HWW from thousands of industrial plants, DO NOT process as much HWW as many of these CRIMe plants, who in a lot of cases, are leaking like sieves and are going unnoticed (unless they contaminate nearby domestic wells) because they are located in areas that have centralized municipal water systems, so nobody is monitoring them, and nobody knows the difference even though they are polluting, both near and afar, the surrounding soils, streams, lakes and public water supply sources. Prime examples of CRIMe plants are metal finishers/electroplating facilities, leather tanneries, paper/pulp processing plants and stainless steel manufacturing. Toxic chemicals from these plants include hexavalent chromium and PFAS chemicals, which are very toxic at extremely low concentrations, especially to the most vulnerable population, like infants, toddlers and pregnant women. Hexavalent chromium is becoming more and more prevalent in water supply source intakes on the Great Lakes near urbanized and industrialized areas, which is becoming a major concern. The insidious water pollution that has been occurring to our water supply sources for a half a century or more due to unchecked pollution from these CRIMe plants can be compared to the insidious air pollution that is occurring to our atmosphere from fossil fuels which has brought about climate change. The contaminants from the CRIMe plants are slowly and gradually traveling through the soils, groundwater, ditches, streams and lakes and accumulating in our freshwater public water supply sources, and if left unheeded, it will continually degrade the quality of our drinking water.
Those CRIMe plants that have been loosely interpreting the RCRA HW regulations so they can freely pollute the environment have been falsely and illegally doing so by misinterpreting the domestic sewage exclusion as given in CFR 261.4(a)(1)(ii). This exclusion states that any mixture of domestic sewage and other wastes that passes through a sewer system to a publicly-owned treatment works (POTW) is excluded from RCRA HW rules. There is a fairly recent footnote now for this exclusion that states: “This exclusion applies only to the actual point source discharge [i.e., discharge to the POTW sewage collection system]. It does not exclude industrial wastewaters while they are being collected, stored or treated before discharge, nor does it exclude sludges that are generated by industrial wastewater treatment.” The main reasons for this exclusion, was so that POTWs could accept this industrial wastewater from industrial plants after it was treated and combined with the industry’s sanitary wastewater to meet their pretreatment standards in compliance with the CWA (Clean Water Act) through the POTW’s NPDES Permit (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System); and so the POTW did not have to meet special RCRA HW requirements. The CRIMe plants have been illegally using this RCRA domestic sewage exclusion, by falsely stating that they were mixing the sanitary and HWW together at the plant through the treatment process, which is never done, because putting urine and feces in your industrial wastewater treatment process is totally absurd, a big LIE, and doesn’t happen.
As a result of this loose interpretation of the RCRA HW rules over the last half century, essentially any given CRIMe plant “LACKS” what is considered adequate environmental safeguards as previously mentioned (secondary containment, containment system leak detection monitoring, continuous and automatic HWW tank liquid level and pipe pressure monitoring with automatic shutoff to prevent spill overflows/pipe leaks, onsite monitoring of groundwater and stormwater for early detection of site contamination before it migrates on adjacent properties, special regulatory reporting, etc.).
So my point here is that it is about time we solved this problem with the leaky CRIMe plants, and make them comply with the strict RCRA HW rules? California has, but most, if not all, of the other states have not. This needs to be a federal enforcement initiative to get all the states to comply, and begin cracking down on leaky CRIMe plants. And if former MI AG/MI Governor Granholm was willing and able to ignore this disclosure made twenty years ago, do we really want her to be the Secretary of Energy?
PACATO.org (Principled American Citizens and Allies Together Orchestrating) began to form alliances that could collectively take initiatives to orchestrate sampling and testing around these CRIMe plants (because the government has not yet, and likely will never do it on their own) to obtain the needed data to go to government officials and demand that they do something to stop this illegal pollution; and if they didn’t act, then go to the courts and demand that these publicly elected and appointed officials be held accountable to live up to their oath of protecting the wellbeing and health & safety of the public. The latter is the premise for PEWHASOP.org (Protect Environment, Wellbeing, and Health And Safety Of Public). If the courts don’t hold the public officials accountable, of course, We the People should vote them out. The other divisions of CGU besides those already mentioned are GoPP.global (People’s Party platform) and UGLY.network. As you can see, relying on politicians alone (i.e., our elected public officials), even though they are from the most viable (winnable) party that most closely represents your ideals in our US democracy, does not mean they will do what is right all the time, because oftentimes their main driver is the desire and MO (Modus Operandi) to get re-elected, and We the People, may oftentimes come up short in that contest. And that is why we should always point out what is UGLY, so we have a gauge and a reference point, to call out those politicians when it comes election time on the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY. UGLY.network was formed originally in 2019, incorporating the presidential primary leading up to the 2016 election and the Trump Presidency in 2017-18. Since that time, there has been a real bonanza for more Trumpian UGLY material yet to be incorporated. The Trump era was a prime time for defining UGLY. If a politician consistently does the opposite of Trump, that politician won’t be all that bad.
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November 13, 2019
Undate on parent organization, CommonGoodUnited.org (CGU):
We are pleased to report that CGU became incorporated (FL) in July 2019 (COMMONGOODUNITED INC) and in October 2019 we received from U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) our nonprofit tax exempt status approval (effective date is date of incorporation: July 09, 2019) under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3). We are further classified by IRS under IRC as a 509(a)(2) Public Charity.
Donations we now receive are tax deductible for donors for 2019 taxable calendar year beginning for donations made on or after the July 09, 2019 effective date. Besides receiving tax deductible donations, CGU is also now qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers, or gifts under IRC Sections 2055, 2106, or 2555.
We at CGU are committed to our mission:
“Exclusively formed for charitably and education purposes of information, education, sampling & testing to increase knowledge on environmental, health & safety issues so public may make informed decisions on related public policy.”
To learn more about CGU please read further into all the information provided on COMMONGOODUNITED.org and its related websites/divisions:
PACATO.org (Principled American Citizens & Allies Together Orchestrating)
PEWHASOP.org (Protect Environment and general Welfare & Health And Safety of Public)
youREAPwhatyousow.org (Reality Environmental Action Proponents)
GoPP.global (People’s Party)
UGLY.network (Highlights activities/programs that are UGLY/MEAN and contrary to the betterment of the Common Good of Humanity & Planet.
Please send us your comments and suggestions, and if you have any further interest in serving as a volunteer or on the board of directors, please let us know.
All of the CGU Org divisions are founded on the primary principle of having a society and governing body that acts for the “Common Good” of humanity and the planet. Another common principle of CGU Org is that of informing and educating the public on is the U.S. Constitution, which calls for a “people’s government that is of, by and for the people”, (Primary basis for People’s Party) and not “of, by and for the corporations and their loyal partners of elected and appointed public officials and high paid lobbyists” (lobbyists typically were previously public officials or owners/operators of the corporations; therefore, IT IS PRESENTLY, and has been for a long time, A POWERFUL CIRCLE WITH NO WEAK LINKS).
REAP’s current, and primary “seed” cause, is to identify and hold accountable leaky CRIMe plants located across the nation (Chemically Real Intensive Manufacturing establishments), and in particular, in the Midwest/Rust Belt/Great Lakes Region where chemical contamination is the worst and the stakes are the highest – i.e., continued toxic carcinogenic chemical contamination of the greatest and most treasured freshwater body on the entire planet. For multiple decades, and a half a century or more, CRIMe plants have been continuously contaminating our natural water resources (each and every one of these plants lacks proper environmental safeguards), including our public drinking water supply sources. Sadly, and pathetically, because these leaky CRIMe plants have not been held accountable by government public officials (elected and appointed) and agencies, REAP is informing and educating people that it is their right and civic duty to take matters into their own hands (join with their neighbors and allies per the primary emphasis of PACATO.org) and sample and test around these leaky CRIMe plants themselves. REAP will then give further instructions to the aggrieved public to proceed with presenting their contamination investigation report to public officials and demand that act in accordance with their OATH of PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT AND GENERAL WELFARE AND HEALTH & SAFETY OF THE PUBLIC (primary emphasis of PEWHASOP.org) or otherwise be held accountable themselves for the ILLEGAL ACT OF BREACH OF PUBLIC DUTY (rarely occurs, but must be done or otherwise these officials will continue as they have in the past of giving a blind eye and deaf ear to this problem). Professionals, like doctors, attorneys, engineers, etc., are required to abide by this PUBLIC PROTECTIVE OATH, and certainly elected and appointed public officials are also, and the public needs to hold them accountable to the oath.
Through the People’s Party PIE Platform (Public Informational and Educational), CGU and PPP (People’s Party Platform) plans to inform and educate the public on how they can achieve the above in lieu of waiting another half of century or more for the government or plaintiff attorneys to come to their rescue. For various reasons, the plaintiff attorneys rarely come running to take these cases because: (a) the leaky CRIMe plants are often in areas served by centralized public water, so there aren’t enough citizens directly ingesting chemically contaminated water; (b) many times the leaky CRIMe plants are either not located in a residential area, or if they are, it usually is in a low income demographic area where devaluation of these properties due to chemical contamination of the associated land is only pocket change to these high paid attorneys; (c) the plaintiff attorneys often reside and practice law in the same jurisdictional area (local, State, Region), and they don’t want to do battle with a company (and general industry) that is closely allied with many of the attorney’s allies (government officials, lobbyists, chamber of commerce, etc.); and (d) nobody has figured out yet, or is willing to admit, that the environmental pollution coming from the leaky CRIMe plants is actually insidiously and gradually polluting our public drinking water supply sources in an industry-wide, watershed-wide, collective manner. There are laws on the books with civil and criminal penalties that will hold these negligent government officials (who turn a blind eye and deaf ear to obvious problem) and owners/operators of CRIMe plants accountable in a court of law.
There are many more public policy issues that the people need to become more informed, educated and active on, such as the advancing of the private sector taking over (privatization) public infrastructure systems and public lands, including the giving up of mineral rights to the private sector on public lands for little or no costs with few or no restrictions on private sector activities on these lands (they abuse Native American lands, sucking groundwater aquifers dry making bottled water, etc.). Another topic that PPP intends to inform, educate and encourage action on relates to public policy action requiring that government protect the general welfare and civil rights of the public, including the duty of government to fulfill its obligation to protect the basic human rights (equality, etc.) and needs of its citizens (providing: habitable places to live, shelter, food, clean & safe water and air, etc.). Besides informing and educating on what is good and what is right for the common good of humanity and the planet, CGU Org also has a platform (UGLY.network) to describe what is bad and just plain UGLY for society, and contrary to the fundamental foundation of the USA and its Constitution and many other principles that good respectful people with morals, ethics and character live by, such as being respectful of your fellow human beings and the planet (flora, fauna, natural resources, etc.), living by the Golden Rule (treat others as you would want them to treat you), etc.
