Editor,
Mr. [Eric] Temple at Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad and his associates would like the public to believe that the issue in Chelatchie Prairie is about whether there was a stream or no stream, dead fish or no fish, logging road or new road, wetlands or whatever he wants it to be today. While plenty of evidence is in place to substantiate the truth from the Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, etc., this is not what this issue is about. This issue is about whether we as Clark County citizens believe in the rule of law or not, whether we believe what applies to the average person applies equally to railroad bosses. I can build a house, 100% to code, but if I fail to obtain a permit, if I fail to have the work engineered, the house is illegally built, and the repercussions of that action is expected. That is the law. Nobody except silver-spoon millionaires living in million-dollar mansions believe otherwise. This is what the argument is about. Even National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service has pronounced he has no god powers that provide him an exemption to permits. It is not about rail or no rail, it is about law or lawlessness, accountability or the Wild West. Luckily, we live in the 21st century not the 18th.
John Nanney
Amboy
