Venice is my favorite place in Italy, and I had the unforgettable experience of gliding through the canals on the city’s most famous form of transport
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The story of the Intracoastal and other thoughts on water, waterways, land, and ecology
Venice is my favorite place in Italy, and I had the unforgettable experience of gliding through the canals on the city’s most famous form of transport
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Whenever a dispute arises between or among the States of the United States of America, the U. S. Constitution provides that original jurisdiction lies in the Supreme Court. In simple terms, whenever a dispute arises between or among the States, a State must file its lawsuit exclusively in the Supreme Court and not in any of the inferior federal courts or in any state court. art. III, section 2, Constitution.
In the early years of the Republic, many of the disputes were questions over the boundary lines separating one state from another. State of Florida v. State of Georgia, 58 U.S. 478 (1855). Such disputes begin with one State requesting permission to bring a lawsuit before the high court, together with a memorandum arguing the basis for bringing the lawsuit against another state or states. The Court then appoints an attorney licensed to practice before the Court but residing in another State not involved in or affected by the lawsuit to serve as a special magistrate.
The order appointing the special magistrate generally empowers him or her to take and receive evidence from the parties, issue subpoenas on request of the parties, conduct hearings as required, and to submit to the Court a report or reports and recommendations. The parties may then file exceptions or objections to a report. The Supreme Court makes the final decision from which there is no further appeal.
In later years, the population of the United States has grown to more than three hundred million. Population growth in both Florida and Georgia has placed great demands on what is inevitably a limited water supply. Disputes between and among the States over this limited water supply have become intractable as demands on water supplies increase. Complaining States seek intervention of the Court when at least one State believes that another State has used more water than equity allows.
In 2014, the State of Florida sued the State of Georgia, contending that Georgia has by overuse and impounding of water not yet needed deprived the Apalachicola Bay of sufficient water to sustain Florida’s oyster resource industry. Florida alleges that an entire way of life dependent on oyster cultivation and an entire ecosystem supported by the Bay are already in jeopardy and may ultimately be destroyed. See, 1992 cases State of Florida v. State of Alabama v. State of Georgia and, most recently, State of Florida v. State of Georgia, 2014.
Poland’s inland waterways are underexploited and underdeveloped. They barely account for 0.2% of the country’s total inland transport. In comparison, the proportion is 17% in Germany. The global trend is to promote water transport. Meanwhile, only 10% of Polish waterways have the operability parameters required by the 2002 resolution on the classification of inland waterways. Although the authorities admit that Poland needs to do a great deal in this area, two ministries seem to be acting at cross-purposes. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Development intends to allocate PLN 4 billion to enhance the navigability of Polish rivers. The plans may, however, be thwarted by the Environment Ministry whose draft water bill envisages a considerable rise in charges for water transport of goods and passengers as well as for the use of sluices. As a result, river transport might prove significantly more expensive than that by motorway. The ministry…
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The Masters. 16th hole. I couldn’t resist republishing this beautiful Azalea. Watercolor? I leave that decision to my readers.
Federal law requires the Secretary of the Army to make a physical inspection of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at least annually and report his or her findings to Congress.
The author has attended at least six inspections of the Florida portion of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. One of the more esoteric briefings was the replacement of mangrove shoots in the fast-moving current of the Jupiter Inlet at Jupiter, Florida, in Palm Beach County. Engineers had devised a method of inserting hundreds of young mangrove shoots encased in PVC piping in the Inlet. Several years later, we observed that these shoots had taken hold in the inlet and that they appeared to be thriving.
Other briefings have included plans on restoring the original flows of the Everglades south to the tip of the Florida peninsula, as well as the installation of recreational areas, including a natural aquatic pool for the observation of marine life on Peanut Island at Lake Worth (Palm Beach) Inlet in the Waterway and cleanup of the bottom land of the Miami River utilizing performance specifications requiring the bidder to provide both the price and the method to be used in cleanup.