Agencies Won't Talk About Poszgai's Restoration

The baseball playoffs are in full swing, and those of us who are fans are reminded by today’s games of the colorful history of baseball. Leo "The Lip" Durocher was one of those "colorful" baseball characters. He was an intense manager and coach for a couple of teams and is best remembered (by us, anyway) as the manager that choked away the division title in the National League East when managing the Chicago Cubs in 1969 (the year of the "Miracle Mets"). He also had a saying, and a biography, entitled: "Nice Guys Finish Last."

A couple of weeks ago we published a PU about a wetland restoration that should have been completed sometime ago, if, for no other reason, it was ordered by a Federal Court [link]. The US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service sure seemed to be really interested when John Poszgai was filling wetlands in Bucks County, PA. Since the Federal Court ordered restoration, however, things have moved somewhat slowly–it was 10 years in August that the government and Poszgai agreed to a map that delineated the wetlands on his property. It looked to us that little restoration has gone on there since.

Our PU of August 15, pointed out the slowness (there’s a kind word) of the restoration at the Poszgai site. All in all, given PU’s history, we let the agencies off pretty easily, partially because we really wanted to know what they had done, and also because we found bigger (and easier) game: the House of Representative "Committee on Government Oversight" for continuing to keep the Poszgai "horror story" alive. They brought his daughter in to DC to testify, as if his story was typical (he was videotaped filling wetlands even after a Federal Court ordered him to stop, and actually went to prison. We found out later that the Chair of the Committee, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), actually held some kind of "reception" for Mr. John Poszgai, convicted criminal). All we did to the three Federal agencies was send them a polite request to supply us with information regarding the restoration effort, and promised to publish the responses.

Well, in this case, Durocher was right. Nice guys not only finish last, but they get no mail. We have received no reply from any of the agencies. Durocher would be blasting us, for wasting our time going after bad pitches. Had we filed a legal, formal, Freedom of Information Act request, we would have probably received something, or at least by now had legal grounds to get the information.

Let this be a lesson to other conservation groups: File the FOIA request and get the clock ticking. Agencies don’t seem to notice (let alone appreciate) polite requests. They must be out back, trying to hit the curve ball. On second thought, they are more likely to be making decorations and party favors for Rep. Burton’s next "reception" for Mr. John Poszgai.

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