Following nearly a decade of successful karst-protective environmental and political activism, KEEP (Karst Environmental Education & Protection Inc) obtained a small grant from the NSS (National Speleological Society) to support the development of a "Karst Rapid Response Handbook" to help cavers and the public protect our caves, karst landscapes, and subterranean water resources.
A conference was held in Lexington KY in 2008; the handbook was drafted during 2009-2010 and made available to the NSS in draft form in 2010. Then ensued the inevitable delays that accompany volunteer labor.
In the following posts you will find the 2010 draft chapters and appendices - still incomplete, but open for your use, comments, improvements, additional examples and resources. Meanwhile we are working offstage to fill in the blank spots and to do a total overhaul of the tools available for karst protection activists: this type of campaigning has gone through a revolution in the past two years due to the global reach of social networking tools. It is difficult to fathom that when we began fighting to protect the Sloans Valley Cave system from the Pulaski County Landfill in the early '90s, the fax machine was our most powerful tool for invading the protected innermost offices of the state environmental agency!
However, while the tools available to us have improved at the same time that the laws protecting our natural resources have been weakened, the issues remain unchanged: Caves, cave rivers, cave springs, and karst landscape features such as karst windows, sinkholes and sinking creeks remain invisible to the public eye and extremely vulnerable to pollution and destruction.
This draft Karst Rapid Response Handbook -- aided we hope by YOUR suggestions along with our own improvements -- will point you in the right direction for taking effective action quickly when a developer decides to dump sewage into your beloved cave, build a parking lot or highway over it, or wipe out irreplaceable karst treasures via many other sad scenarios we know all too well.
Keller Shaft, Mammoth Cave National Park
Keller Shaft, Mammoth Cave National Park, Photo by Roger Brucker
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Karst Rapid Response Handbook DRAFT All contents copyright KEEP, Inc.
KARST RAPID
RESPONSE HANDBOOK
Responding
Quickly, Safely and Effectively
When
Cave and Karst Threats Arise
WORKING DRAFT – comments invited
photos to come
The $1 million Dishman
Lane
photos to come
Cavers
commemorating closure of the Pulaski County Landfill, Sloans Valley KY.
Pulaski Week,
July 1995.
Roger Brucker,
Hilary Lambert, George Phillips,
Leslie Barras,
Tom Barr, and Thomas Poulson
Karst
Environmental Education and Protection, Inc.
Eight
Rivers Safe Development, Inc.
with
the support of
The
National Speleological Society
KARST
RAPID RESPONSE HANDBOOK
WORKING DRAFT
– comments invited
Address comments, queries to the comments section of each chapter here on our blogspot site, or email to:
hilary_lambert@yahoo.com
© 2011 Karst
Environmental Education and Protection, Inc.
keepkarst.blogspot.com
There is no such
thing as compromise, when it comes to
protecting caves
and karst.
Once a cave is
impacted – its biota, its water flow and quality, its habitat capacity – it
will not be back to health any time soon.
Don’t compromise,
and don’t negotiate for “win-win.”
There’s no such
thing in cave and karst conservation and protection.
Roger Brucker
puts it this way: “There’s no right way
to do the wrong
thing.”
Outline and Contents
Outline
and Contents
This outline of recommended elements and principles is
useful for quickly forming and training cave saving teams, and for upgrading
environmental and caving groups to help them become expert first
responders. Consult this outline when
you need to respond to karst threats on short notice.
The final draft will
have a detailed outline – we are staying with major headers for this draft.
Suggestions welcome!
Preface: The need for this handbook
4
Introduction: Responding quickly and effectively to a karst
crisis 7
I. Discovery: Finding out what’s going on 15
II. Marketing:
Getting your message out there
25
III. One-way
informing: Tools to use
27
IV. Two-way
communication, or negotiating
35
V. Preparing for
challenges over the long haul
37
Afterword 37
Appendices:
Resources for cave and karst rapid response 38
Preface: The need for this handbook
Preface:
The
need for this handbook
In the Unites States, 20% of the land surface is karst, and
40% of groundwater is stored in karst aquifers (Karst Waters Institute, 2010). Usually underlain by limestone bedrock, karst
landscapes are characterized by interior drainage. Rain falls to the ground and
immediately disappears into sinkholes and caves. Surface streams are rare in karst landscapes.
In karst areas, this groundwater flows through natural
limestone cracks and conduits that range in diameter from a few millimeters to
vast tunnels containing underground rivers. These waters discharge through
springs to the surface. The term karst comes from the region in Slovenia
Karst land is generally less suitable for development for
the same reason that prudent developers avoid building in wetlands, on steep
slopes, or in earthquake-prone areas – it is unstable land. As any farmer who
grows crops on karst will tell you, a farm field on karst has a constantly
changing surface. New sinkholes can open up suddenly under the wheels of a
tractor or truck. The common practice of filling in sinkholes with debris does
not last long. In a year or two, the continual flow of water into the drain at
the bottom of most sinkholes will carry away baling wire, fenceposts, tree tops
and trunks, or discarded machinery. In wet years, karst land can flood, water
welling up out of the overfilled conduits below the surface.
Less desirable land often carries a bargain price tag. Therefore, some developers think that building
on karst is an opportunity to “buy low and sell high.” Some developers may be ignorant of karst
problems, but others hope that buyers will not become aware of the problems and
hazards of karst before the developer has received his money and moved on.
Too often developments on karst turn out to be costly, bad
investments. Building foundations, streets,
and utility lines can crack and sink due to collapse and subsidence. Yards and
basements can flood, and groundwater wells can become contaminated. Public safety can be at risk. Too often, such “unforeseen”
problems are termed “an Act of God.”
They are not. They are the result
of the sad truth: Ignore Karst, Build
Now, Fix Later.
This handbook has been prepared to assist citizens who want
to prevent a karst disaster in their
community. It outlines a tested
step-by-step procedure for moving quickly to educate public officials, zoning
and planning approval authorities, investors and lenders, buyers and taxpayers before they come up against expensive
surprises. Real-world case studies are cited.
Why is a rapid response required? Unscrupulous developers know that if they
slide their plans through unknowing approval authorities and political
officials with claims of “Jobs and Progress,” they often may gain construction approval
before ordinary citizens are any wiser.
When concerned citizens do eventually learn the truth they are told, “It’s
a done deal! You’re too late.” Clearly a
rapid rescue response is needed. Preparedness is gold!
Emergency rescue organizations of the type described in this
handbook have proliferated in the past years for several reasons. The task of
raising the public’s awareness of emergencies has shifted “first responder”
capabilities from traditional police and fire units to specially trained and
equipped rescue squads. Emergencies such
as injury accidents require urgent medical care. In all such situations, effective emergency
response includes dealing with formidable environmental challenges plus speed and
expert removal and transport skills.
Less urgently than emergency responders, but perhaps equally
important, is the need for a fast response “cave saving” task force, embodying specialized
expertise in science, politics, legal challenges, and public relations. Recent experiences in Kentucky ,
Tennessee , and West Virginia Tennessee ,
the threat was to Rumbling
Falls Cave
Farther north, the Kentucky Transpark used complex questionable
political maneuvers to claim exemption from Environmental Impact Study
preparation in a federalized project and to silence discussion on an industrial
park karst site above an underground river, near Bowling
Green and Mammoth
Cave National
Park
Also in Kentucky , state politicians
and officials proposed building I-66 across several important karst areas in Kentucky
In West Virginia
These are all recent examples of situations where a karst
rapid response team was needed, to ensure protection of land value, community
life, and water quality from unthinking, unheeding development on risky
terrain.
Also, opportunities
to save caves may come about over a number of years, and some may arise
suddenly. Sometimes a farm with
notable caves comes to market due to an owner’s death. Developers may seize such opportunities to
lock up cave properties before dedicated cave conservation groups can respond
with effective protection measures.
Clearly, a rapid multi-faceted, effective emergency response to cave
threats or cave opportunities is needed.
The authors hope you will find immediately useful
information in this handbook. Remember, every situation is unique, so we offer
general principles rather than hard and fast rules. Tailor your actions to your situation and
circumstances. And by all means, contact
the Karst Rapid Response Network the minute you learn of a cave and karst
threat. We will put you in touch with
expert assistance.
Roger Brucker, Hilary Lambert, George Phillips,
Leslie Barras, Tom Barr, and Tom Poulson.
Introduction & Case Studies of rapid response to a karst crisis
Introduction:
Responding
quickly and effectively to a karst crisis
Case Study #1 in Karst Rapid Response
A “Done Deal” in West
Virginia
People sometimes give up right away when they learn that a
new road is going to take their land, a strip mine is going to fill in a nearby
creek, or a cornfield with a cave river under it is going to have an airport
runway built on it. They hear the rumors and they say, “It’s a done deal.
Nothing can be done.”
In fact, there is no such thing as a “done deal.” This
handbook is full of examples that show the done deal myth comes true only if
people close their eyes and put their heads in the sand. If instead they create
an organization, get legal and expert help, and make some noise, that done deal
vanishes like the mirage it truly is. The hard part? Saving caves and karst
from development takes a lot of work, sometimes over a very long period of time, and requires constant vigilance.
Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says, “They
cannot win if you do not quit.” If your group is facing a threat to caves,
karstlands, or to any other part of the environment you care about, you will
have to take the long, wide, tall view: You will not ever be able to quit, so organize a comprehensive, long-term
campaign to protect your cave/karst site, involving many moving parts, in
coordination with numerous groups, experts and allies.
A recent example of a cave-saving organization’s quick,
comprehensive response to a cave and karst threat illustrates real-world
implementation of this handbook’s basic principles. It points the way for adaptation to other
cave and karst conservation challenges, and for karst problem prevention.
The WVCC (West Virginia Cave Conservancy), founded in 1997,
is an organization of caver volunteers established to protect significant caves
in the state. When plans were disclosed
to construct a $20 million sewage treatment plant at Slatyfork WV
Testimony and evidence from the caving community and karst
experts was ignored, and there was total acceptance of the unqualified reports,
prepared by the developer’s own consultants, that the plant posed no
environmental risks. The judge
prohibited the introduction of factual evidence. At this point the Task Force’s
leaders saw that legal action might be the only way to stop the project. WVCC’s constraints on the Task Force included
that no action could be taken without full board approval of the WVCC. The possibility for quick response was
limited by policy, and by the reluctance of some board members to engage in an
expensive legal fight that might jeopardize the parent group’s main
conservation emphasis.
KarstEEP (Karst Environmental Education and Protection,
Inc.), a Kentucky-based organization with experience in fighting karst and cave
threats, advised the task force to seek independence from its parent
organization. The task force was
separated under friendly terms and encouraged to go its own way. Thus was born a brand new organization, Eight
Rivers Safe Development, Inc., a 501(c) 3 nonprofit West Virginia Pocahontas
County
A key idea behind the strategy was an observation by cave
geologist Dr. Art Palmer: “Challenges to save caves and karst must be won on
economic and political grounds. Appeals
to cave conservation values have little effect on the general public.” Eight Rivers Safe Development has positioned
itself as a champion of SAFE development on karst, and an enemy of unsafe
development.
Eight
Rivers Safe Development Inc. was formed to advocate for the conservation and
protection of karst, caves, and karst landscapes, and to promote safe
development on karst terrains. The organization is centered in Pocahontas
County , West Virginia — home to
some of the most beautiful wild cave and coldwater stream resources in the
eastern United States
Eight
Rivers welcomed support from all who value safe development as a key to our
economic health, and is part of a growing coalition of cavers, anglers,
property owners, recreation groups, and conservation organizations who are
opposed to a regional sewage treatment plant project for this area, due to the
risk of irreversible harm this project and other development initiatives pose
to the Upper Elk River watershed.
Within 30 days of its founding, the new corporation had
accomplished the following:
- Obtained
a mailing address in
- Sent out comprehensive white papers to several caving organizations.
- Composed and sent news releases to several caver news magazines.
- Raised $6500 for legal challenges.
- Opened a bank account in the name of the new corporation.
- Investigated and retained an attorney to challenge the due diligence of officials.
- Written and published a brochure describing the situation for cavers and the public.
- Made a major presentation for funds and support to the NSS Board of Governors.
- Written a comprehensive story for the national NSS News.
- Created a comprehensive Web site: www.EightRiversSafeDevelopment.com
- Conducted a site visit for the organization’s attorney and a geology class.
- Compiled photos and prepared a PowerPoint presentation.
- Contacted affinity organizations for financial and other support, such as trout fishermen and river protection groups.
- Filed an official FOIA request for all relevant records in the case from a state agency.
- Established formal and informal agreements with technical consultants.
- Written Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws for the new organization.
- Attended
an all-day watershed groups capacity-building workshop in
Over time, the group pressed ahead with all of the
strategies listed in this handbook outline including fundraising, network
building, coalition building, education, and public relations. Here are two
examples of their efforts.
Education: This handbook emphasizes the role of effective
education in changing the minds of decision authorities and the public. Such education has a goal of building
understanding of the risks of ignoring karst threats and ignoring the law. In West Virginia
As a part of the West Virginia
Organization incorporation and coalition building: Eight
Rivers Safe Development was incorporated rapidly to gain standing, file a
challenge, and raise money. The
president of the organization put together a coalition of organizations who
supported a common purpose of saving the Elk River
and the cave systems from an undesirable multimillion dollar sewage treatment
plant. Developers may be quick to brand any opposition as the work of
“out-of-towners,” “tree-huggers,” or “environmental wackos.” That is why a strong local base of concern
and organization is necessary to be able to talk about OUR community, OUR water
supply, and OUR taxes.
Several articles in
trout fishing magazines brought strong support from fly fishers, and their
organizations joined the coalition. A
strong coalition of respectable organizations answers the question by the
developers: “Who says we are doing the
wrong thing?” To enlist other organizations, a presentation to their Board of
Directors is usually essential. The
Eight Rivers road show was staged for all the coalition partners before they
agreed to support the cause.
In the years since Eight Rivers was established, a
combination of unrelenting vigilance, attending all public hearings, making
public presentations, and having an alert, responsive attorney all add up to
the fact that to date, the sewer plant has not been built on the karst
floodplain.
Cave and karst hydrogeologist Dr. Ralph Ewers has said, “You
can build anything on karst, IF money is no object.” One could build a sewage plant on the moon if
money were no object. The Eight Rivers
group regards the plan to build an expensive sewage treatment plan on a karst
floodplain as impractical as building one on the moon.
George Phillips Scott Depot, West Virginia
Roger Brucker Beavercreek ,
Ohio
Case Study #2 in Karst Rapid Response
Saving Rumbling Falls Cave
in Tennessee
In
the first few months of this century, a movement arose in the little town of Spencer , Tennessee , to
construct a sewage disposal plant and dump the effluent into a sinkhole that
led directly into the underground river in the newly discovered Rumbling Falls Cave
It
began because a developer wanted to build resort “cabins” overlooking the gorge
of Cane Creek, which drains most of Fall
Creek Falls
State Park Rumbling
Falls Cave
Unfortunately,
cave explorers wanted to keep secret their discoveries of a huge room and three
miles of immense river passage. Secrecy nearly led to disastrous pollution of
the cave system. But the details were publicized in time by a group of
caver-activists led by the Nashville Grotto (a chapter of the National
Speleological Society), partnered with the Tennessee Environmental Council and
the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy
Chris
Anderson from Kentucky US Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville
The story
continues, in the words of Tom Barr:
The
Nashville Grotto and its partners worked together to fight this sewage plant.
For a year we fought the Water Pollution Control Board. We had to operate in
so-called “Administrative Law,” which resembled the trial of the Knave of
Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in
Wonderland. After losing repeatedly before the Water Pollution Control
Board, which we felt was politically biased, we finally earned the right to go
before Chancery Court in Davidson County (Tennessee’s capital county of
Nashville), where we won hands down.
The
State was ordered to reformulate its rules for degrading top tier (unpolluted
or slightly polluted) streams, and Spencer was ordered to come up with a plan
for disposing of the effluent other than letting it run into a sinkhole
draining into the huge cave system. The eventual conclusion has been that the
Spencer sewage effluent is now pumped across the road and sprayed out in a “land
application.” This is what the
conservation groups had recommended in the first place. Four years after the
court order, an agreement was signed between the city of Spencer
As
in any environmental struggle, raising money and hiring a good lawyer were
essential in the Rumbling
Falls Cave Nashville
1)
We succeeded in creating a big splash in the state capital’s newspaper, the Nashville Tennessean, where the
spectacular picture of the Rumble Room made front page news. All the state
legislators saw it, so did the Governor’s office, and of course, the public.
The followup with photos of the blind cave fauna showed rare creatures that
would be killed by having the sewage effluent dumped into the cave. The cave
contains the largest known populations of cave crayfish and blind cavefish in Tennessee
2)
Funds from The Nature Conservancy were used to hire a nationally-known cave
expert to perform a detailed bioinventory of the cave system. The total number
of obligate subterranean species exceeded 30, which places this cave system in
the top category of “hot spots” worldwide of subterranean diversity.
The
expert’s report, along with the statement that I filed with the court, both
described the manner and biological effects by which the effluent would destroy
the delicate cave ecosystem. The Tennessee
In
summary, raise money and hire a good lawyer; make a big splash with publicity
to explain your cause to the general public, state or local politicians, and
Federal government; and if the cave harbors a significant fauna of obligate
creatures, develop and play up information on them. Once destroyed, they are
gone forever; the cave itself could recover. If you have an endangered species
inhabiting the cave, you can invoke Federal law to help you. Get help from a
cave biologist to point out the significance of the fauna you are trying to
protect.
Thomas C. Barr Nashville , Tennessee
Case Study #3 in Karst Rapid Response
Quarry Threatens Waters that Nourish Endangered Species
Boyds Knob near Munfordville ,
KY is a beautiful hill that rises in a rural farming
area adjacent to the Green River . Several families live nearby and have long enjoyed
the scenic knob landscape, including a 100-plus year-old cemetery where some of
the original pioneers are buried. A neighbor, owner of the knob, was approached
by a large quarry operator who already mined a quarry near Bowling Green , KY
One nearby neighbor, alarmed at the prospect of 24-hour
noise, dust, and heavy traffic, contacted KEEP.
The neighbor was advised to form a nonprofit organization so
contributions could be solicited and accepted, and to issue news releases. Friends of Green River
was officially established, though not incorporated. Donations were accepted by arrangement with a
supportive 501 c 3 corporation. Reviewing the permit application documents and
consulting old caving maps of the area, KEEP recognized that an eight-mile cave
containing a river had been surveyed nearby and that several karst springs
emptied into the Green River . The spring discharge point was just upstream
of a gravel bar containing federally-designated endangered species of mussels.
The new organization raised funds via emails, letters, and
personal requests, and hired an expert hydrogeologist. As the official representative of the
citizens group, he was allowed oversight over and review of dye trace research
and results produced by the quarry’s consultant. The scientific study concluded that an active
quarry’s limestone dust, grease and other toxic chemicals would drain via
sinkholes into underground streams and emerge in the Green
River . The mussels, dependent
on filtering clean water, would be in danger of being killed by any bad quarry discharge.
Faced with a clear threat as defined by the Endangered
Species Act and the Clean Water Act, and the expensive mitigation measures that
would have been required to protect the mussels, the operator withdrew his
offer to buy the knob. Accompanying swift
actions by the new organization included publishing a newsletter describing the
situation, sending letters to the local newspaper editor, providing information
to reporters for their stories, mounting downtown window displays, sending
direct mail to neighbors likely to be affected, and carrying out a survey of
water levels in sinkholes and ponds on adjacent properties, in case of damage
caused by blasting. Officers of the new organization interviewed several nearby
quarry operators and learned there was no truth to the developer’s assertion
that quarry materials were in short supply and therefore the proposed quarry
was vital for “jobs and progress.” The new quarry did not open.
Roger Brucker Beavercreek ,
Ohio
Hilary Lambert Ithaca
The three case studies described on the preceding pages are
examples of the many challenges facing surface karst landscapes and the subterranean
rivers and cave systems that lie below:
- A sewage treatment plant – proposed for a karst flood plain underlain by caves and a subterranean river, it would also drain into a high-quality upland surface river;
- A sewage treatment plant – proposed to drain into a subterranean river within a newly-discovered major cave system;
- A limestone quarry – proposed for a rural residential and farming area, it would drain via karst conduits to a major regional surface river upstream of endangered species and a national park.
The recommendations provided for karst rapid response in the
following pages are based on the responses developed to cope with these and
other real-life situations in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. This Handbook can help cave and karst
conservation organizations and their allies to determine the type of threat they
face and how best to manage and defuse it, for both rapid response to a crisis and
for longer-term karst and cave protection.
Chapter I: Finding out what's going on
I.
Discovery: Finding out what’s going on
A. Defining the problem
Karst and cave problems fall into two main classes: 1. Somebody plans to do something that
will adversely affect a cave, such as dump trash into a sinkhole and kill
endangered cave species, or build a structure on top of a cave that will cut
off the natural drainage and risk collapse of the cave roof; or 2. Somebody is planning a development atop
a cave that is regarded by the developer simply as an impediment to the
project, because it might lead to flooding during heavy rains, possible
structural instability, and the potential for expensive repairs.
These problems, while connected by the natural
characteristics of caves and sinkholes, require different strategies of the
first karst responders. Where the cave itself is threatened, responders should support
environmental conservation. Where the
development itself is at risk, karst responders should support safe development
and avoidance of economic loss.
In the first case, the message to those threatening the cave
is, “You are going to wreck the cave”; in the second, “The cave is going to
wreck your project.” In some cases both
may be true.
It is important from the outset to be sure which kind of
problem confronts the concerned public and the developer. Cave defenders who do not understand the
fundamental difference between these approaches may waste resources fighting
the wrong battle.
1. Who has the problem? To craft an
effective response to a proposal for development on karst, canny cavers should
start by asking, “Who has problems with this proposal and what are they?” For
instance, XYZ Builders wants to locate a housing subdivision on the old Sinking
Creek Farm south of town. The
multifamily condos will be laid out attractively with curved streets and the
maximum density local zoning allows. XYZ
Builders has already invested in the plan, and held discussions with the bank. The
only public notice may be an agenda item for the Planning Board. Cavers and their allies know that Sinking
Creek Farm is a karst area with many sinkholes and a significant cave and river
beneath it. Who has problems with this
development? What are they?
The cavers know they have a problem – their cave and its
river are under threat from pollution and disturbance. Others also have a
problem: the developer, planning officials, state and federal water protection
agencies, the bank, insurance company, and future home buyers. What is their
problem? They have purchased land that is going to collapse, be prone to
flooding, and will require expensive mitigation to avoid environmental impacts
offsite.
However, this second group is probably unaware that they
have a problem! Usually, caves, their rivers and their sinkhole links to the
surface are unknown to everyone except cavers. Only rarely are ordinances in
place to protect karst and control development (see Appendix for information
about karst ordinances). Since the cavers know they have a problem, they must
investigate to find answers to important questions about the proposed
development.
2. What is the project timetable? Learn the
urgency for decision or action. Is the
timetable one that will allow for prudent examination of the plan and
site? Or is the project on a fast
track? A slow and deliberate timetable
may allow for education of all concerned.
A fast track project or “done deal” may sound the alarm for rapid
response to buy time for careful consideration.
3. Who has the decision-making authority? Identify
the chain of decisions and approvals for the proposed project. That will lead
you to the decision-making authority in each case. Some decisions will be made sequentially, one
following another. Other decisions will
be made in parallel.
For example, a conceptual plan including a site plan is
needed for most projects. These
documents are submitted to a city or county planning agency for review
and approval. Six or eight sets of plans
may be dispersed to various government departments, such as the zoning board,
engineer, building inspector, utilities, bikeway committee, state or federal agencies
– many approvals will be needed for
some projects. These same documents may
be circulated to lending institutions and investors for their approval.
When these plans reach the first public approval authority,
you have a right to examine them. If you are denied access to the plans, this may
be grounds for a legal challenge later, so document any refusals you encounter.
Whatever the project, investigate to understand and chart the
detailed approval steps and to learn about the authorities who will issue rulings
to move forward or to delay. As a taxpayer you have a right to repeatedly
contact any and all public officials involved and ask for meetings or phone
calls to clarify what’s going on, and to have them explain the process to you.
4. What are their motives? Time is money.
Most developers are motivated to move forward as quickly as possible and are
well organized to approach approval authorities with most of the details
completed. Developers hate surprises,
and most are resourceful enough to quickly overcome obstacles, such as approval
delays. Caver inquiries may be dismissed with quick answers. Example:
Concerned caver: “What will you do about the sinkholes on
the site?”
Developer: “There are no sinkholes on the site, just mushy
spots that we already filled in with rocks.”
Planning boards, zoning officials, permit reviewers, and
engineers are motivated to see that the project will conform to land use and zoning
ordinances, environmental regulations, and building codes. Elected officials sometimes are motivated to
assist any developer, and may be willing to cut corners. Getting re-elected can
be a motive of some politicians. Bankers look for financial soundness,
competence, and a track record. They
want to be sure their loans will be repaid.
The public has its own concerns: maintaining an assured
clean water supply, not subsidizing commercial speculation with tax money, and
desiring attractive surroundings. Individuals want public safety and
uninterrupted services – police, fire, low taxes, snow removal, environmental
stewardship, parks, and recreation.
Fairness and justice are motives for some segments of the public.
Money often trumps environmental quality and protection as a
motive, so cave-saving appeals based on saving money and preventing economic
loss most often gain more traction than conservation appeals.
5. What are the
objectives of the differing parties? A project’s supporters want to get the
work completed, be paid as quickly as possible and go to the next job. Any
delay is seen as contrary to their objective and a potential loss of profit.
This means that developers have a vested interest in getting rid of cave and
karst related issues as swiftly as possible.
Cavers who seek further research or project changes are a developer’s
enemies, and are often labeled as environmental extremists.
Government officials want to uphold the laws and procedures
and to protect our air and water from degradation. However, developers know how
to lobby these agencies with phone calls and courtesy visits. Over time, public
agencies can fall into the trap of working with developers and excluding the
public. This is not necessarily bad or immoral or illegal – it is the
inevitable result of hard work by developers to make friends in the
governmental departments that affect their projects.
The solution is simple, though a challenge for cavers and
allies whose work is on a volunteer basis: Make your own courtesy visits and
phone calls. Let the agencies know who you are and what your concerns are. Of
course you may have to get tough, if a government agency seems to be working in
cahoots with a developer. Bureaucrats may sometimes voice private
off-the-record sympathy with friends of caves and karst, but for the record say,
“Sorry, our hands are tied.”
When this happens, do not be drawn into secretive
negotiations for quiet, behind-the-scenes deals – you will always end up compromised and silenced. Take the issue to the
public, even if hurt feelings and broken friendships are the result. Public
airing of government action/inaction is necessary to keep them honest, when the
developer seems to be getting all the breaks.
6. What obstacles must be overcome to achieve
the goals of cave and karst protectors? Strategizing in cave and karst
conservation means identifying all the obstacles to achieving the rapid
response team’s goals, then planning to overcome each obstacle. Formal obstacles can include missed procedural deadlines, a resulting lack of
legal standing for your group, or a systematic public relations offensive by
the development proponents. Informal
obstacles can include lack of funds to pay expenses, no local volunteers,
apathy and inertia by local cavers and the community you thought would support
your cause, and bias or wrongdoing by approval boards and agencies.
Each obstacle should be listed in a table followed by a column
describing the resources, people, and legal assistance necessary to overcome
it. Where combinations of resources are
required, list those. When completed,
the table will be useful for recruiting volunteers and professionals such as
lawyers, scientists, and speakers.
7. FOIA and Open
Records Requests – Obtaining the information you are entitled to: The records
of public agencies such as federal, state, and municipal bodies are subject to
disclosure to the public upon written request, submitted by mail, email, fax,
or hand delivery. Citizens do not need
to explain why they want the information.
Under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), federal agencies,
like the Federal Highway Administration and Environmental Protection Agency,
are required to produce requested public records within 20 business days.
Every federal agency website has a link explaining how and
where to submit FOIA requests. Every
state has its own version of FOIA (variously called “Open Records Act” or “Public
Disclosure Act” or comparable names) with different periods of time to respond
(some, like Kentucky, are as short as 3 days).
State laws apply to not only state agencies, but also cities, counties,
special government districts (e.g., water, sewer), and some quasi-governmental
organizations (e.g., economic development).
Most State Attorney General websites have good explanations for citizens
on how to use their state “FOIA” process and how to appeal rejections or delays
in responding.
Under federal and state open records laws, the definition of
“record” is extremely broad and includes hard copy and digital records in the
possession of the government agency such as zoning and permit applications,
permits, building plans, maps, letters, email, telephone logs, and meeting
minutes. A “reasonable fee” can be
charged for records; citizens can tell agencies how much they are willing to
spend without being consulted beforehand when they file their request. Certain
records can be withheld, such as drafts and the details of archaeological
sites. The exemption for “draft” records has often been misused to withhold
reports in controversial cases.
For example, you may become aware that the developer has had
several conversations with the city engineer about his/her project. You may
request notes, meeting reports, memoranda, and other records of those
discussions. If the agency claims such communications and records are “private”
or “sensitive,” you may have a right to appeal to the state and then consider a
legal case of wrongdoing. The purpose of
open records laws and sunshine laws is so that public business is truly the
public’s business.
Sometimes public officials will deny access to the records
or place onerous restrictions -- $1 per page copying fees – on the
request. Such stalling tactics are
patently illegal but may be part of the intimidation used to get project
opponents to go away discouraged. This
is why all opposing groups should retain an attorney or find one willing to
provide pro bono services to
represent them and advise them of their rights.
There are no magic words to open records requests. You do not need to cite the law. You have to be fairly clear about the type
of records you want (e.g., memos, emails, applications) but you do not need to
specify titles or dates of reports, etc.
You cannot, however, ask questions.
One of the more important items is to learn beforehand exactly whom to
send it to, either by calling the agency or researching its website. (A FOIA template is provided in the Appendices, item number 4.)
Like open records laws, there is a comparable open meetings
law for the federal government and every state. A deplorable practice of some
developers and government co-conspirators is holding secret meetings that are
not advertised and documented, at which decisions are made. Such illegal
meetings are what give rise to the phrase “done deal.” When you encounter this practice it means the
developers have declared war on their opponents and may not respond to
reasonable arguments or appeals to legality. A call to the state Attorney
General office and, as needed, legal challenges may be the only option for
effective response when opponents are excluded from meetings and discussions.
8. Congressional inquiries, going to the top:
A lesser-known way to obtain authoritative information about federal cases is
to write a letter of inquiry to your Congressperson or Senator. (Faxing a letter to your Congressperson’s
office in Washington , D.C.
will get there more quickly than U.S.
For example, you wish to know if the U.S. EPA has issued a
FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) for XYZ Project, and if not, when do
they expect to issue this document? Your
letter of inquiry should look like this:
Hon. Steve
Austria
Dear
Representative Austria:
I wish to
know if the U.S. EPA has issued a FONSI for the XYZ project, Hardin County , KY.
Sincerely,
John Q.
Citizen
B. Constraints to taking swift remedial action
Constraints on your group’s ability to take effective action
quickly are facts of life and cannot be ignored. Some of these are listed below and may form
very real limits on what remedies are possible, whether mitigation is
practical, or whether a contemplated challenge is legal. All constraints should be listed at the
outset so that volunteers and professionals will have a realistic understanding
of what is possible and what is not.
1. Legal constraints: You will not be able
to mount an effective legal action without having an aggressive, capable attorney
willing to file motions, trigger hearings, and object to questionable behavior.
See details below on when you need an attorney, and how to find one, under IV.
Two-way communications.
2. Educational
constraints: Generally your cause will have an educational constraint,
meaning that to arouse public sympathy and concern, you must educate the public
on karst terminology and processes, why caves and underground rivers are of
value, and why the proposed development is harmful. Ignorance is a constraint: confused or
ignorant people accept authoritative pronouncements unless educated. The
opponents will do their best to brainwash.
Cave and karst advocates must educate or abandon hope of winning.
A hypothetical example follows, loosely drawn from the Kentucky
Transpark project. Note the pro-project points made by the county-level elected
official, and the several different levels of response provided by the KEEP
representative.
KarstEEP SPOKESMAN: “The proposed project is an effort to
use public funds to build a private industrial park on sensitive karst
terrain. On economical grounds alone the
project is a bad idea because there are already 700 acres of vacant zoned
industrial land in Bowling Green ,
KY.
“Karst landscapes
have three major problems: Structures collapse when caves and sinkholes open
suddenly, areas flood because the so-called natural drainage through sinkholes
is restricted and it backs up in heavy rains.
Furthermore karst land is easily contaminated when parking lots and
accidental spills enter the ground water through sinkholes.
“The developers will tell you they plan to avoid, prevent,
or mitigate all karst hazards. The past
record of Bowling Green
“There is even a threat to the Tier III
groundwater basin in nearby Mammoth
Cave National
Park
The arguments and information summarized above were
developed over a two-year time span, in opposition to the proposed development
of an airport, trucking center and heavy industry park above karst rivers. This
example shows that, as part of educational readiness, karst responders must be
prepared to counter gross distortions of fact made by opponents with a robust
information and outreach campaign. While
we often wish that the simple scientific truth were adequate to offset the
distortions, sometimes stronger, blunt truth must be part of the educational
package.
In another example, supporters of locating the regional
sewage plant on a karst floodplain asserted the following:
SUPPORTERS: “The site is above the U.S. Corps of Engineers official
100 year floodplain, so it won’t ever be flooded.”
OPPONENTS: “Fact: The location floods every year or two and
here are photos and video to prove it. The U.S. Corps of Engineers never
inspected the site. Rather, they traced
around an arbitrary contour line on the topographic map while sitting at a
computer in a distant office. Flooding is likely to upset the plant and send
the contents of raw sewage into the Elk River .
All sewage treatment plants overflow from time to time. Threats to wildlife are
real and cannot be prevented.”
Karst rapid responders must always explain the consequences
of the risks they cite, not leave it up to the imagination. Seize every
opportunity to educate fully. For example, don’t say this:
“The cave contains endangered Indiana
Instead, say this:
“The caves contain federally endangered Indiana
Finally, continuous education is required for an effective
karst threat response. You can’t just put out a press release or hold a public
forum and assume that folks are now fully informed. Most people are not paying
attention most of the time, and need to be repeatedly told and reminded of your
basic message and facts. It will be useful to place all educational materials
on your Web site so reporters and citizens can be referred there for further
information.
Always remember: The audience is a passing parade, not an
auditorium full of people. You must continue to educate long after you are
tired of teaching the facts and truth.
Second, always provide facts in layers so that those who want to know
more can drill down to find detailed information. Developers will seldom if ever provide information
beyond their initial public relations releases.
3. Hydrogeologic constraints: Karst lands and caves have certain
irrefutable constraints on their safe use that karst protectors need to
understand and publicize.
First, karst is an erosional feature. Karst landscapes are undergoing
disintegration, they can be slightly to extremely unstable, and they are full
of unexpected surprises such as rapid flooding or area-wide groundwater
contamination. Lakes in Florida and Kentucky
Second, groundwater can be traced successfully through karst
conduits under some circumstances but not under all circumstances. Systematic
dye tracing methods are employed by hydrogeologists to learn the destination of
spring flows. Harmless dye agents are
placed in sinkholes or sinking creeks and charcoal traps are placed in all
likely groundwater discharge points.
Traces of the dye many be found through laboratory analysis indicating a
subterranean connection and possibly some indication of the transit time. In Missouri
Karst low water drainage basins can be determined by
systematic hydrology studies. However,
in times of heavy rains, runoff water may overwhelm the underground conduits
and cause them to overflow into adjacent groundwater basins. Cross-basin
spillover or leakage is common in karst areas, since the underground river
system is continually adjusting itself downward and sometimes abandoning upper
level drainage conduits (caves). In
times of flood, water rises in the underground system and flows through these
little-used
conduits, remobilizing sediments that sometimes contain contaminants such as
gasoline and other chemicals. These toxins can be carried downstream, emerging
into springs and wells used for drinking water, farming, and recreation.
In your efforts to respond to karst threats you may need to
enlist the aid of a hydrogeologist to establish the facts of karst drainage in
the area under consideration. Scientists are better at authoritative explaining
than non-scientists. When scientists are ignored, real problems may soon
result. (In the Appendices, see item number 5, “The Scientific Method: Model
for clear thinking under pressure from opponents”)
4. Physical constraints: Several cities have proposed to place
airports on karst sinkhole plains.
Contractors often claim it is easy to fill sinkholes with a truckload or
two of rocks. However, sinkholes
continually open up, swallowing the rocks and requiring expensive “remediation.”
Ignore Karst, Build Now, Fix Later.
In Bowling Green
Kentucky
Perhaps the most expensive physical problems result from failure
by a developer to perform adequate subsurface investigations ahead of time. Federal building contracts require core
drilling to avoid foundation problems with the site. A contractor’s shortcut is to drill to “auger
refusal,” a technical term that means when rock is struck the drilling
stops. In karst areas it is a large
mistake to accept simple auger refusal studies, because rocks in karst areas
are often floating erosional remnants, not bedrock.
These remnants may be surrounded by cavernous voids,
creating an unstable base for construction that can lead to subsidence or
collapse. Technical terms like “cutters”
and “grikes” describe karst limestone features that may lurk beneath the
surface and masquerade as bedrock. The University of Kentucky
5. Topographical
constraints: In a karst area, you cannot assume that the underground
drainage and structure are mirrored by the surface topography. Caves may extend under hills, beside hills,
under valleys, and beside valleys.
Developers may argue that their karst site is far from the river and
therefore immune to flooding. They may
be catastrophically wrong. Flooding is a
frequent problem in karst areas because, although caves enlarge and adjust to
average drainage conditions through geologic time, maximum rainfall events can
overwhelm an “average” drainage system. When this happens, excess water pours
up and out of sinkholes across the surface and can flood a neighborhood quickly
and stay a long time, as happened in a karst area in northern Ohio
6. Resource constraints. A primary constraint will be money. An organization will need funds to set up a
Web site, publish brochures, hold meetings, and hire experts such as lawyers or
environmental consultants.
Fundraising for rapid response
The outline below will
be fully developed in the next draft. Suggestions welcome.
1. Realize up front
that you will need money, and start planning for a war chest from the very
first. You can’t rely for long on free expert advice and pro bono legal help.
2. Short term
- Typical initial costs that will arise and how to cover them:
- Find a patron for the first $1000, that will get you a Web site, a 501-c-3, a PowerPoint, and form letter mailed out, asking for contributions (8 Rivers sent the form letter and a long news release to 15 or 20 grottoes -- and got donations from most).
- Partnering with a larger organization while you get your act together:
- Incorporating within your state as a first step:
- First steps to developing a small, core membership/donor base:
- Send the form letter for a second year. Keep asking as you have news to report. Set up a secure contribution page on your Web site.
- Ask affinity organizations to publicize your cause. (Eight Rivers talked to several fishing clubs and got a feature article written by one writer and a big donation from a second organization.)
- Prepare and present programs, and always ask for contributions – Eight Rivers has a basic PowerPoint plus a beauty PowerPoint. We have used it many times in many places, and sometimes received contributions.
3. Medium term:
- Obtain fundraising/strategic planning training - River Network, KEEP, other groups.
- The myth of the native son or daughter as celebrity donor.
- Respectfully seeking other, more realistic, local deep pockets.
4. Long term:
- Pros and cons of becoming
a 501 c 3 nonprofit charitable organization.
Chapter 2: Getting your message out there
II. Marketing: Getting your message out there
A. Why a marketing
approach works
Marketing is making offers to people to do something
valuable in exchange for something valuable. Originally developed to meet the
needs of industrial and domestic producers and consumers, marketing is now a
basic tool in use by savvy environmentalists. After all, the other side is
trying to sway opinion, so why not use marketing methods to introduce and
reinforce the facts?
Here is one simple example of why marketing is of value to
your cause. In retail marketing I offer to sell you a loaf of bread in exchange
for $2.99. In karst rapid response marketing, I ask authorities to modify or
abandon a development that can either wreck a cave or inflict economic hardship
on others, in exchange for their upholding the law or serving the public
interest.
There are three basic marketing strategies for karst
defenders to consider when developing a rapid response plan:
1. Market Segmentation Strategy: Marketers sort consumers into groups, termed “segments,”
that will benefit from an offered product or service. Each segment may be
targeted with appeals that are specific to that segment.
Karst rapid responders can use this strategy with specific appeals
supporting constructive behavior from each group involved. For instance, the
government segment is offered an opportunity to fulfill its duty by upholding
the law, in exchange for making a decision that a developer will find
unpopular: “Do the right and legal thing, even though the cost is an unhappy
developer.”
At the same time, the taxpayer segment is offered an appeal
supporting an economical outcome: “No taxes to pay for karst collapse or
flooding,” as a better choice than the developer’s unsupported promise to bring
jobs and progress to the community.
2. Offer Differentiation Strategy: The offer
consists of the product, service, or decision itself PLUS all the benefits
accompanying decision. Both the tangible and intangible values are beneficially
different from the decision the developer wants. As an example, we propose that the developer
post a bond that certain foundation investigations will be performed instead of
relying on a promise that can be reneged upon without recourse later.
3. Competitive Positioning Strategy: Positioning
is how the deciders view all competitors on each important buying factor. In karst rapid response marketing, the
decider may be a government agency such as a planning board. The competitors are the developer and his
plans on one hand, and those who oppose or advocate modifications to the
developer’s plans on the other hand. Important
buying factors can be technical facts (is the formal application complete and
accurate?), perception of the technical competence of the competitors, and
understanding of the legality of the proposals. Many government body decisions
are made on the perceived reputation of the competitors and the political
consequences of angering the competitors.
Effective marketing uses a combination of all three
marketing strategies, emphasizing one or two.
Keep in mind that, while you can sell anything if you can increase
perceived value over perceived cost in the minds of deciders, sticking with the
facts is the best strategy. Let the other side exaggerate and prevaricate:
always stay on the high road.
Tactical tools of marketing include one-way informing and two-way
negotiating. We will explore each of
these in turn as they relate to rapid response karst and cave advocacy.
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