My term paper for Vieques and

[arianna]

other information is now posted on my web site. ßß!

http://www.geocities.com/ariannapr1/PuertoRico/table_of_contents.htm

[AnnW]

Congrats on finishing it!!!!! :thumb:
When do you get the grade back?

[KarlaB]

I bet it feels great to be done! Way to go!! :thumb:

[angie r]

Good for you!! I hope it doesn't all go over my head!! ;)

[Lynda/WA]

Well done, Ari! I understood most of it but parts went right over my head. I'm trying to get DH to read it since he actually worked on the range. Part of what he did was cleaning up debrie. Some of the technical terms may have more meaning for him.

I couple of time it reminded me of something related. My parent's own some land right now that is slated to have a power line run across it. They are required to give up the easement and won't be able to do what they want within a certain distance of the power line. The kicker is that they still need to pay property taxes on land they are forbidden to use themselves! If it was a forced sale to anyone else they would have gotten the *fair market value* you mentioned. That would be based on the last three sales in that area. Could that be where the 20-30 dollar figure was arrived at? DH and his siblings own a ranch in OR. There is a rail track that runs through the land. When the track became obsolete and no longer in use the land was supposed to be returned to the land owners. Instead enviromentalists began a program called Rails to Trails. Instead of the land being returned it was turned over to this program. It worries DH's family because that is considered public use land (part of the park system) yet they are legally liable for anyone stepping off the tracks and getting injured. They questioned who would be responsible if someone was actually hurt ON the tracks but no-one would answer them! Government taking advantage of landowners is still going on to a degree. BTW - At the same time as the government was buying part of Vieques (granted dirt cheap), lands were being confiscated from Japanese-Americans and German-Americans. In that context it maybe wasn't such a bad deal?.

The part about cement. Does that mean making a concrete cement containment field? I'd think the area would be WAY to large to lay concrete down. Even if it could stand up to the bombing! Did I misunderstand that part? If we had a barrel of motor oil we needed to have it double contained. That meant in addition to the oil being in a sealed container, the container itself needed to be in a container large enough to hold all of it. In other words a 50 gallon drum needed to have a 50 gallon spill container under them. If you had a couple of quarts (like in my garage!) you could put them in a five gallon bucket. That's what I mean by containment field. Are they talking about a huge cement containment field?

The part about cleaning the soil sounds like what we did if oil would spill on the ground. The ground was all bucketted up and sent off to a company that removed the oil. The funny part is that they would do that by BURNING the ground. Always sounded a little counter productive to me! If it's less then a gallon of oil spilled you need to do that. We had to if it was less than that but visible. I've heard that in oil drilling areas the limit is 2 tablespoons but can't verify that.

I think you'd be surprised at how many rules the military now needs to follow for enviromental reasons. Some of the things you mentioned sounded like things we were doing as far back as 89. In CA DH and I both worked around deisel engines. His civilian company didn't need to follow half the rules we did. Shoot - we had an enviromentalist person working in the shop and that isn't counting the entire enviromentalist section on base! DHs company (a worldwide company at that time), had a single person. I suspect most of the impact is residual from the last 60 years and little is current. If you're worried about current impact on those you know that should be reassuring.

Overall I thought it was very good. Gave both perspectives. I'm not really sure I understood why the hurricane was included. Was that to show that the enviroment has had as big of an impact on itself as the military? You did alot of research - Kudos! (and I don't mean the granola kind!)

[arianna]

MM! I received my grades in the mail Tuesday. I had to have aced the final and this paper to earn an A. I'm really glad it's over. It was my first class in Spanish. I never had to read or write in Spanish for anything but a Spanish Class. Thank Goddess this professora allowed me to write in English. I was allowed to use a Spanish/English dictionary during the exams. That helped.

About the cement stabilization- I believe that is a technic used when a confinement area is smaller. For example, If with the bombing range, they locate a small deposit of Uranium within a lead-filled area. Or perhaps, in a situation where a large scale clean up isn't necessary.

My real concern isn't the Military to be completely honest.
My concern is that the general population of the island, will continue to be uneducated, unemployed, and non productive members of society. JMHO

It kills me to hear people talk about how bad the American Government is. The people I've heard talking are Jose Puertorican, uneducated, unemployed and living off of welfare. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. OUCH!

Since I'm at home again, I've been really watching and studying the dance our government does not just for us, but for all the world. It's despickable what Gary Condit DIDN"T do when he foundout Chandra Levy was missing. The democrats should speak to him privately and encourage him to do the right thing and go out with a little dignity. He's behavior has effected so man lives.

OOPs ! Well no I'm really off the topic. I'll stop drinking cappachino now. ßß!

[AnnW]

Congrats on your grades!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TXmom]

Looks great Arianna - I'm going to read it more closely soon.

I walked out of a test for the first time yesterday! I skipped class Wednesday so when I walked into class on Thursday I was totally surprised to find out we were having our first test that day. I thought I could wing my way through it, but it was completely essay. So, I folded up my blue book, and asked the instructor if I could talk to her in the hall. I told her I was in no way prepared for the test, and I didn't even know what my options were at that point, but I didn't want to waste her time because I really had no good answers for the test. She said I could come in Monday am and take the test, but this weekend is ds's birthday and we have company all weekend. So, I'm not exactly sure when I'll study this weekend, but I've got to find time.

[RCT]

congradulations Ari....your amazing, read most of it, and yes I actually understood it...LOL....I bet your thrilled it over and done with, with such accomplishements under your belt......again way to go....:biggrin: