Sara S
05-28-2008, 07:53 PM
From the current Forestville Gazette:
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<!-- start main story --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="491"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td width="5">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif</td> <td width="486"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="228"> <tbody><tr> <td width="218">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/wcg200805_manureman.jpg</td> <td width="10">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Tom "Manure Man" Lynch
The True Story of a River Folk Hero
By Brad L. Smith
"Action from principle - the perception and the performance of right - changes things and relations; ... For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever." Henry David Thoreau, 1849 Essay on Civil Disobedience.
22 years ago Tom Lynch, in an act of civil disobedience, invited the world to see what can happen when local government has no answer for population growth. It was after the 1985 "Big Spill", a time when 750 million gallons of effluent accidentally spilled into the Russian River. Our fragile tourist-based economy was in shambles with hundreds of thousands of people thinking the River was no longer safe to swim in. The City of Santa Rosa could only say they were sorry. Nevertheless, they continued dumping 90% of their secondary treated wastewater into the Russian River with no solution in sight. They appeared unable and unwilling to stop using the River like a toilet. There was no environmentally sound plan! The River and the economy of West Sonoma County were poised to sustain serious damage.
Tom Lynch, a 28-year-old builder from Guerneville, wanted people in Santa Rosa to understand how people felt about illegal discharges of wastewater into the Russian River. He wanted to encourage people to fight for the River. So he rented a tractor and a broadcast manure spreader from Warren Dutton at Sebastopol Tractor and drove through downtown Santa Rosa in the middle of the night covering four city blocks with cow manure. His intention was to be arrested and make a statement.
"It was a starry night," Tom said recently. "I couldn't believe I wasn't pulled over within minutes! There I was, happily chugging down Occidental Road from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa with the music from Jaws in the background. A shooting star appeared, and I made a wish. The tractor lights were out, so I drove through the night with the flashing yellow lights on the tractor guiding my way to Mendocino Avenue. I turned on the "power take off" of the manure spreader by the Press Democrat Building and ran out of manure before I got to City Hall (darn it), circled around and headed back to Sebastopol to turn in my rented tractor and spreader about five in the morning. What a night!"
Can you believe it? The police didn't stop him! No one put on their flashing red lights and walked up to his tractor with a "Hey buddy, what the heck are you doing here at 3:00 A.M. dumping manure on a city street?" Yes, it is true; it really did happen.
Tom Lynch, a.k.a. Manure Man, protector of the River, came to life in the imaginations of people concerned with their children's health, clean water, uncontrolled growth, and wastewater. News stations and magazines all over America told the story. Some unidentified man had covered four blocks of a city of 120,000 people with cow manure without arrest! France and Australia picked it up. CNN called for an interview. It was a grand act. The search was on! Who is Manure Man? The City of Santa Rosa certainly wanted to know. After all, using manure as a metaphor and not getting caught is a big deal! City management must have been thinking something like this: Didn't anybody see whoever did it do it?
Tom Manure Man Lynch inspired people to fight for a solution that ultimately saved West Sonoma County from ongoing wastewater spills and discharges into the Russian River. Tom, along with countless others, over a twenty year battle, helped get Santa Rosa's wastewater out of the River. Today, more than 90% of Santa Rosa's tertiary wastewater is re-used through agricultural irrigation and the wastewater pipeline to the Geysers that creates electricity. Ironically, these efforts saved the City of Santa Rosa from itself. Santa Rosa's prosperity is now indelibly linked to people like Tom Lynch, and other Save The River activists in their quest for a sound environmental plan for everyone.
Through humor, he was able to stir the public debate in a way no one before him was able to do. "Nuts!" to wastewater in the Russian River, the lifeblood of the County's water system and home to salmon and steelhead.
Tom Lynch had the courage to stand up and be counted. He put his money where his mouth is. That's a fact people. Today, he's running for 5th district supervisor without his Groucho Marx disguise. Like Thoreau said, "No matter how small the beginning... what is once well done is done forever."
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<!-- start main story banner --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="491"> <tbody><tr> <td class="banner" bgcolor="#2d713c" width="100">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif
« Go Back (javascript:history.back())</td><td class="banner" bgcolor="#40a456" width="391">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif</td></tr></tbody></table> <!-- end main story banner --> https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif
<!-- start main story --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="491"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td width="5">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif</td> <td width="486"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="228"> <tbody><tr> <td width="218">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/wcg200805_manureman.jpg</td> <td width="10">https://www.westcountygazette.com/images/shim.gif</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Tom "Manure Man" Lynch
The True Story of a River Folk Hero
By Brad L. Smith
"Action from principle - the perception and the performance of right - changes things and relations; ... For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever." Henry David Thoreau, 1849 Essay on Civil Disobedience.
22 years ago Tom Lynch, in an act of civil disobedience, invited the world to see what can happen when local government has no answer for population growth. It was after the 1985 "Big Spill", a time when 750 million gallons of effluent accidentally spilled into the Russian River. Our fragile tourist-based economy was in shambles with hundreds of thousands of people thinking the River was no longer safe to swim in. The City of Santa Rosa could only say they were sorry. Nevertheless, they continued dumping 90% of their secondary treated wastewater into the Russian River with no solution in sight. They appeared unable and unwilling to stop using the River like a toilet. There was no environmentally sound plan! The River and the economy of West Sonoma County were poised to sustain serious damage.
Tom Lynch, a 28-year-old builder from Guerneville, wanted people in Santa Rosa to understand how people felt about illegal discharges of wastewater into the Russian River. He wanted to encourage people to fight for the River. So he rented a tractor and a broadcast manure spreader from Warren Dutton at Sebastopol Tractor and drove through downtown Santa Rosa in the middle of the night covering four city blocks with cow manure. His intention was to be arrested and make a statement.
"It was a starry night," Tom said recently. "I couldn't believe I wasn't pulled over within minutes! There I was, happily chugging down Occidental Road from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa with the music from Jaws in the background. A shooting star appeared, and I made a wish. The tractor lights were out, so I drove through the night with the flashing yellow lights on the tractor guiding my way to Mendocino Avenue. I turned on the "power take off" of the manure spreader by the Press Democrat Building and ran out of manure before I got to City Hall (darn it), circled around and headed back to Sebastopol to turn in my rented tractor and spreader about five in the morning. What a night!"
Can you believe it? The police didn't stop him! No one put on their flashing red lights and walked up to his tractor with a "Hey buddy, what the heck are you doing here at 3:00 A.M. dumping manure on a city street?" Yes, it is true; it really did happen.
Tom Lynch, a.k.a. Manure Man, protector of the River, came to life in the imaginations of people concerned with their children's health, clean water, uncontrolled growth, and wastewater. News stations and magazines all over America told the story. Some unidentified man had covered four blocks of a city of 120,000 people with cow manure without arrest! France and Australia picked it up. CNN called for an interview. It was a grand act. The search was on! Who is Manure Man? The City of Santa Rosa certainly wanted to know. After all, using manure as a metaphor and not getting caught is a big deal! City management must have been thinking something like this: Didn't anybody see whoever did it do it?
Tom Manure Man Lynch inspired people to fight for a solution that ultimately saved West Sonoma County from ongoing wastewater spills and discharges into the Russian River. Tom, along with countless others, over a twenty year battle, helped get Santa Rosa's wastewater out of the River. Today, more than 90% of Santa Rosa's tertiary wastewater is re-used through agricultural irrigation and the wastewater pipeline to the Geysers that creates electricity. Ironically, these efforts saved the City of Santa Rosa from itself. Santa Rosa's prosperity is now indelibly linked to people like Tom Lynch, and other Save The River activists in their quest for a sound environmental plan for everyone.
Through humor, he was able to stir the public debate in a way no one before him was able to do. "Nuts!" to wastewater in the Russian River, the lifeblood of the County's water system and home to salmon and steelhead.
Tom Lynch had the courage to stand up and be counted. He put his money where his mouth is. That's a fact people. Today, he's running for 5th district supervisor without his Groucho Marx disguise. Like Thoreau said, "No matter how small the beginning... what is once well done is done forever."
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