Dirt Leads to Mud at Water Authority

The Democrat & Chronicle had a lead local story regarding the Monroe Co. Water Authority and its practice of hauling fill dirt to employee's homes.

The D&C broke the story last week, reporting that dirt from a Water Authority work site was dumped and spread over an employee's private property. Edward Marianetti, the Executive Director of the Water Authority, indicated that the Authority always sought to dump fill from its projects at private locations, rather than paying to dump it at landfills.

As would be expected, Monroe County Legislature Democrats, spearheaded by Travis Heider of Brighton, are outraged. They have questions! They want answers! After all, the Water Authority is second only to COMIDA in the eyes of Democrats, as a target of political opportunity.

The simple fact is that, like many businesses, the Water Authority gives its employees things that have value but which would cost the business more to "discard" than to give away. As an example, my office gives older computer hard drives and monitors to our employees for private use, because the cost of proper disposal is higher than the value of the items. More pertinent to this situation, I have heard that the State DOT often dumps construction fill on private property near its work sites, due to the same cost considerations that the Water Authority cited.

This strikes me as another "tempest in a teapot". Don't we have enough real problems to deal with that we shouldn't need partisans to gin up non-issues into faux controversies?