31 January 2019: Board of Environmental Protection Rejects Kelley and Smith Filings

Just last week I posted about several filings made by Richard Smith and Paul Kelley in response to an appeal of the DEP’s Order transferring the Clary Lake Water Level Order to the Clary Lake Association (see: “Kelley, Smith, Duncan File Comments on AQF Appeal“). The appeal was originally filed by Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF) on December 26th (see: Aquafortis Appeals CLA License Transfer). The Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) wasted no time in responding to those filings and in a move that should surprise no one, they were determined to be not admissible to the record and have been summarily rejected. The BEP has not responded to Butch Duncan’s request for a public hearing on the license transfer and I think it’s safe to say that’s just not going to happen.

The BEP’s rejection letters make for fascinating reading. Kelley’s 79 page filing was deemed an appeal and was rejected because he filed it too late. Priceless 🙂 Smith’s filing on the other hand was rejected primarily because the appellant isn’t allowed to comment on their own appeal, a fact which was clearly stated in the original Notice of Appeal. To the extent Smith’s filing might be considered a supplement to his appeal, it too was filed too late. Also priceless 🙂

There is of course more to the story- there always is. A couple of days ago, in response to a whole lot of unwanted attention from various parties including the bankruptcy trustee handling Kelley’s bankruptcy and Kelley’s own bankruptcy attorney, Mr. Kelley, feeling the heat, decided to send a letter to the BEP in an attempt to clarify one of many outrageous statements he’d made in his original filing. Sadly, and in classic Kelley fashion, his letter did nothing to clarify anything, nor did it have any effect the BEP’s decision to toss his 79 page filing in the digital waste bin:

When I posted about the original filings, I broke with my general “full disclosure” policy and did not post the actual filings themselves. I had my reasons at the time but now, with the issuance of these rejection letters from the BEP I see no reason not to post the original filings as well. After all, you never know who’s going to find them interesting reading 🙂

I’ve taken the liberty of stripping off the numerous exhibits and have only posted the actual response letters:

Given the continuing harassment of the CLA by Kelley and Smith as evidenced by these latest malicious filings, one thing should be abundantly clear: they are very angry that the Clary Lake Association bought the Clary Lake dam and they’re unwilling or unable to accept the reality of that fact. I’m not going to discuss the specific allegations contained in these filings except to say that they are all without exception baseless and wholly without merit. These guys need to move on with their lives.

The BEP will hold a hearing on the appeal and I’m sure it’ll be very interesting! The meetings are held in Augusta and if you can’t get to the meeting you can live-stream it (I’ll post information about this at the appropriate time) so there’s no reason to miss it. There are two meetings scheduled in February but I wouldn’t be surprised if, given the circumstances, that the BEP doesn’t address this matter until later this spring. When we hear something, you’ll hear something.