Dam Yankees

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (PA-11) questioned the need for a Congressional hearing on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and the whole Roger Clemens circus.

I didn’t particularly like a Congressional hearing getting involved in something like this,” Kanjorski said, “It sounded more like an inquisition than a hearing...I concluded, listening to both sides, that it was going to be he said, she said,” Kanjorski said after the hearing. “All we were doing is giving a stage for one guy to make claims against another person. We were misusing the purpose of a Congressional hearing.” Kanjorski said his involvement in the steroid hearing produced more calls to his office from reporters and constituents than any of the other “extraordinarily important issues” on his agenda.

As to important issues, one of his pet projects has been finally shot down and he's not to happy about it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has scrapped plans to construct an inflatable dam in Wilkes-Barre

I've always thought this was a bad idea but I will give credit to Kanjo for coming up with big ideas if not always practical ones like the monorail thing he was pushing a few years ago. And what is going on with Wall Street West?

“I have always felt that when people had the opportunity to use the river through boating, they would develop a greater appreciation for the need to clean it up,” Kanjorski said. “I saw the creation of a seasonal lake as a stimulus for creating broader public support to transform the river into the jewel of the Wyoming Valley, as the original settlers of the region once saw it. “

From what I understand the key to cleaning up the river is to stop pouring raw sewage and acid mine water into the river. When it rains the storm water runoff overwhelms the treatment plants because they are tied to the same drainage systems. Some action has been taken to isolate the systems but it will take a long time and much money. And Kanjo got $20 million last year to reconstruct sewer systems to do that. I don't know how you stop the acid mine water from flowing into the river.

In his press release he said he will take the bureaucrats to task for enforcing the Clean Water Act.

Tomorrow expect Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta to blame the pollution of the river on the illegal immigrants who went to work in the mines in the early part of the last century.