BRIAN MCGRORY is a very good columnist. But his Jan. 27 Metro column “Structural failing’’ is unfair, and it frustrates and demoralizes good government employees and environmental advocates.
McGrory suggests that the Department of Environmental Protection and the state energy and environmental secretary, Ian Bowles, relentlessly ordered a family to tear down a simple gazebo, built without permits on the Westport River. The column turns this into a personal tragedy, noting that the man who owned the property died of cancer, and that he was harassed by the state. The state is made to be the hard-hearted villain. During this time of fiscal crisis and budget cuts, McGrory argues, the state should have better things to do than outlaw gazebos.
Here’s a different version of the story. The law is the law, whether we like it or not, and enforcement agencies cannot pick and choose. Someone complained to the DEP. Waterways, by law, are public spaces open to all and cannot be arbitrarily obstructed by a private property owner. It’s precisely because the state has so few resources that its agencies cannot make house calls.
If the DEP were to make enforcement decisions based on personal circumstances, where would you draw the line? Wouldn’t the media run an exposé about arbitrary actions and favoritism?
The property owner’s death is very sad. But to lay it at the feet of the DEP and Bowles is offensive. Budget cuts have dramatically scaled down government, and government has one primary obligation - to enforce the letter of the law even-handedly, without fear or favor.
George Bachrach
President Environmental League of Massachusetts Boston 
