Phew. I have submitted the Petitioner’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law to the Service List, with time to spare even. Then in what can only be described as “totally anticlimactic”, I immediately received auto-responder email from Heather Parent informing me that she’s on vacation this week and won’t return to work until July 15th. Then I thought, far be it for me to begrudge Ms. Parent a vacation: she’ll arrive back at work next week, ready to munch tigers, I’m sure!

So this is a big milestone! Submitting of findings represents the final step in the petition process, at least from our point of view. No more submissions, no more motions, no more responses. The Department is done collecting evidence. It’s now up to them to do the voodoo they do so well: deliberate, then draft the water level order and slap it on the Clary Lake dam. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.

A little explanation is in order so you’ll understand what you’re reading: “Findings” are basically a recitation or summary of the facts of the case with the conclusions you’d like the Judge (or in this case, Heather Parent) to draw from them. They’re actually written from the point of view of the judge; you want them to like your findings and conclusions so much that they adopt them as their own. So anyways, here are my findings:

• Petitioner’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

I can’t wait to see what Paul Kelley comes up with for “closing arguments” because frankly, he just doesn’t have any. I don’t mean he doesn’t have good arguments, I mean he doesn’t have ANY arguments. In his testimony at the public hearing last August, he didn’t offer any specific water level in regard the 8 allowable categories for testimony “A through H” or for that matter, any relevant testimony at all. What testimony he did provide was irrelevant and ill-informed. He’s got nothing. Deadline for submission is 5 PM. The clock is ticking…