Thank you, IDNR

After having worked over the course of my 29 years of practice in Iowa with issues involving IDNR on behalf of municipal and private clients, I sometimes came away thinking that they were a bit of a pain. Picky and rule-bound, I sometimes concluded they were hardly worth the pain and that they were paper-plying bureaucrats. The engineers that I worked with seemed to have a more jaundiced view. 

I recant. 

My viewpoint changed one day when I stepped outside our front door and smelled a foul-smelling smoke. This was not a unique occurrence. I decided to investigate. I exited our gate and began walking down the narrow lane toward the creek and the place where I could see a fire burning. Upon arriving at the creek, looking to my left, directed by my nose, I spied an open pipe with a pool around it. By the odor, the pipe was used (even if not intended) as a sewer pipe. Ugh! 

A short distance beyond that point, which I passed quickly, I got a better look at the open fire burning trash. What trash? The trash that often lines the lane and that can be found further up the lane about 50 yards in what we might call a dump. Plastic bags, wrapping, and who knows what else were going up in flames and converted into a noxious smoke. (I must say that nothing plant or animal was likely to have been burned, as the pigs and goats normally address these items.) 

If the whiff of rather noxious smoke wasn't a regular morning and evening occurrence, which suggests to me that some are burning open fires for cooking, I'd be less alarmed. I'd also have less concern if we didn't see fires in dumpsters at random points throughout the city, which perhaps reveals that trash collection is irregular and that users are trying to make more room or pay less. 

While the trash lining many of the streets of Jaipur is ugly and annoying, this is worse. For those who complain about environmental regulations (you Republicans know who you are!), I invite you to come to where there are no environmental laws or regulations enforced (or at least they don't address some very serious issues). It ain't pretty. Think about that next time you prepare the bitch about any environmental regulation. I now do.