Cedar Rapids Group Plans 'Tea' Party
27/02/2009 04:55
A Cedar Rapids group
will do a symbolic tea dumping into the Cedar
River on Saturday because state officials won’t
let them use the real
thing.An anti-tax group wanted to pitch in real tea like the Bostonian revolutionaries opposed to England’s tea taxes.
Tea, although natural and quite tasty, is considered a pollutant that can’t go into a body of water without a permit, said Mike Wade, a senior environmental specialist at the DNR’s Manchester field office.
“Discoloration is considered a violation,” Wade said.
Although not as steeped in history, the Cedar Rapids Tea Party will dump dechlorinated tap water or riverwater from buckets labeled “tea,” said Tim Pugh, the group’s founder.
“We don’t want to hurt the river,” said Pugh, 32, of Cedar Rapids.
Pugh named his group after the Boston Tea Party because he saw similarities between the Cedar Rapids City Council and England’s King George III, who levied a series of taxes against the American colonies in the 1760s and 1770s, he said.
Brew some tea here.
SINC SAYS:
Maybe this is a solution for the St. Albert Taxpayers Association to protest high taxes. They could dump clean water in the Sturgeon and clean it up at the same time.