BLM to Review Chocotacos, if BM Lifts Their Safety Game [Updates]

marty-two-bulls-pow-wow-eagle

Yesterday Burning Man bigwigs and BLM bigwigs got together to discuss Chocotacogate. According to the information leaked (by BMOrg?) to Jenny Kane at the RGJ: the BLM wanted $1 million+ in extra funding to build them the Blue Pit, an off-site VIP compound with 8 double rooms for visiting dignitaries; and this is all coming from one person, BLM special agent Dan Love.

Image: Burn.Life

Image: Burn.Life

This information – blasted widely around the world – was later quietly corrected by Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham in a radio interview on NPR, who said that actually, the BLM were just asking to increase the Infrastructure part of the budget from $600,000 to $1 million. This includes walkie talkies and other safety equipment. Part of this increase was to pay for expanded medical facilities, and only some was to provide VIP accommodation. The VIP component was coming from the highest levels of the Department of Interior, who naturally wanted to visit the event after all the media and lobbying campaigns by BMOrg. The request for food was the same as last year’s, which was met without complaint by BMOrg.

Still, the global media ran with the RGJ story, putting egg on the faces of the BLM. Some politicians were stirred to pile onto the story, including Harry Reid and Mark Amodei.

Yesterday, on the day of the meeting BLM’s Nevada Director Neil Kornze wrote a column for the RGJ, saying:

Many have read stories in recent days about a proposed lavish encampment for Bureau of Land Management employees working at the Burning Man festival that is held annually on public lands in the Nevada desert. These reports painted a troubling portrait of government employees seeking VIP accommodations and outlandish provisions. Like you, I was surprised and upset by much of what I read.

I have directed my team to take a top-to-bottom look at exactly what is needed to properly support BLM employees that have oversight responsibility for this enormous public event in a remote corner of Nevada. Our revised proposal will include only what is essential for our core operational needs for providing appropriate health, safety, and environmental safeguards on the playa. That is our commitment.

And while we undertake that review, we are also working to address critical safety and health issues at Burning Man. Over the past five years, the Burning Man event has nearly doubled in size. What was once a loosely organized gathering of a few thousand like-minded individuals is now an instant metropolis hosting 75,000 attendees, volunteers, and staff in one of the most remote corners of the American west. At its peak, Burning Man is the sixth largest city in Nevada, complete with a busy airport. Attendees come to the playa from around the world with their own ideas of what Burning Man is and ought to be.

This rapid evolution has dramatically increased the complexity of the BLM’s and Black Rock City LLC’s management responsibilities, and in recent years a series of incidents have made it clear that improvements need to be made. Last year, a total of 2,880 patients were treated for medical issues, including 71 drug overdoses, 67 trauma incidents, and 30 cases of alcohol poisoning. Tragically, a woman was killed last year when she was run over by an art car. Incidents of burglary, battery, and sexual assault have risen as the event has grown, and the BLM has also responded to flooding, aviation accidents, and out-of-control fires in recent years.

In March, the BLM raised twenty critical health, safety, and environmental issues with event organizers, including ensuring that on-site medical services are adequate to serve the vast population of Black Rock City. To date, Black Rock City LLC has only acknowledged seven of these important issues and has provided adequate plans and updates for just two.

In the coming days, the BLM will make an important course correction regarding what is needed to support our teams that are on the ground during the Burning Man event. It will also be necessary for the organizers of Burning Man to come to the table as serious partners in addressing the concerns that were identified for them months ago. We look forward to further dialogue on these issues. Our priority is to make sure that all burners come home safe and healthy.

[Source: RGJ]

Yesterday’s meeting was the first time BMOrg had met with BLM’s acting State Director John Ruhs.

From the Reno Gazette Journal:

Present at the meeting Wednesday from Burning Man were founder Larry Harvey; Marnee Benson, political affairs manager; Rosalie Barnes, agency relations and regulatory affairs manager; Ray Allen, attorney; and Goodell…For BLM, Ruhs was present along with Winnemucca district manager Gene Seidlitz, Nevada-Utah special agent in charge Dan Love and acting assistant state director Ann DeBlasi from Washington, D.C.

…the meeting centered on safety and security concerns, which have been repeatedly brought up in BLM statements to media. 

Rather than review the points of contention in documents obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal in June, Burning Man and BLM officials discussed some of the failures and successes of working together in years past.

It sounds like the meeting ended on a positive note, but didn’t go quite the way BMorg were expecting.

“There’s a lot of heat on everyone at the moment,” Goodell said after the 90-minute meeting. “The intention of the meeting probably changed in the past 24 hours.”

“We agreed to collaborate on what we can accomplish this year, and we looked back. We looked at the present and the past,” Goodell said. “We pointed out that there’s been a 40 percent increase in the event population and a 244 percent increase in cost for the permit,”

“This was a good meeting and an opportunity to discuss our mutual interests in coming up with a plan to support Burning Man, which is a truly unique cultural event on Public Lands. We are working to come up with a plan that is cost efficient and ensures public health and safety,” Ruhs said. “We are going to do all we can to make this year’s event a success. I am confident that BLM and BRC will be able to work together to address safety and environmental concerns.”

[Source: RGJ]

The meeting discussed 20 medical and safety issues. Only 2 have been resolved, and only 7 have even been acknowledged by BMOrg. The gates open in 50 days.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal‘s Washington DC bureau:

WASHINGTON – A month and a half before the scheduled start of this year’s desert festival, organizers of the annual Burning Man in Northern Nevada have yet to resolve more than 15 health and safety issues stemming from last year’s event, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Officials from the BLM and the Burning Man organization were meeting Wednesday in Reno to discuss outstanding issues in advance of the Aug. 30-Sept. 7 festival in the Black Rock Desert.

The federal agency has yet to issue a permit for the event. John Ruhs, the BLM acting Nevada state director, said all conditions raised in a post-event review last year must be addressed for the BLM to allow this year’s event to proceed.

Ruhs stopped short of saying the BLM might shut down Burning Man, expressing confidence an agreement could be worked out.

“We have a long ways to go yet but I’m pretty confident we will as always be able to address issues together and get to a good place with them,” Ruhs said in an interview.

But the agency took the unusual step of making public a letter listing the outstanding health and safety issues. Of 20 compiled following the 2014 festival, the BLM said 18 remain to be resolved including improvements to its medical program, transportation management and security surrounding the festival’s signature burn events.

“Last year, a total of 2,880 patients were treated for medical issues, including 71 drug overdoses, 67 trauma incidents and 30 cases of alcohol poisoning,” Ruhs said in the letter to the government affairs director of Black Rock City, LLC, the nonprofit that runs the festival. In addition, a woman from Wyoming was killed when she fell beneath a moving bus…

BLM officials on Wednesday denied they were in a tit-for-tat with Burning Man. The agency’s letter though makes a connection…

“We are now taking a top to bottom look at exactly what is needed,” Ruhs said, adding “While the BLM revises its statement of work, dialogue must also continue on a wide array of health, safety and environmental concerns raised by the BLM earlier this year.”

[Source: Las Vegas Review Journal]

Read the original letter from the BLM to BMOrg, outlining the concerns after last year’s event.

The 20 Safety, Health and Security Issues and Concerns are:

  1. BRC Medical Program
  2. BRC Fire, Rescue, Hazmat Programs
  3. Fatality Medical Response and On-Scene Management
  4. Transportation Management
  5. Art Project Management
  6. Security and Safety Plan for Scheduled Burn Events
  7. Sanitation Management
  8. Early Arrival Program
  9. D-Lot Design and Management
  10. Fuel Storage Management
  11. Deployment of Medical Resources
  12. Placement of Emergency Vehicles at the Airport
  13. Highway 34 Road Conditions
  14. Population Tracking and Reporting Program
  15. BRC Event Table of Organization
  16. BRC Event Management Program Description
  17. Participant Evacuation Contingency Plan
  18. Significant Incident Reporting
  19. Art Car operations
  20. Illicit narcotics

Time precludes me from going into much detail on this letter now, it warrants a post in itself as it reveals interesting details on a number of events last year, such as the art car fatality and Embrace burn. One thing in particular really jumped out:

Screenshot 2015-07-09 11.58.38

The letter makes frequent references to the 2014 HGH After Action Report (AAR). If anyone has a copy of that report, please send it in. It seems that HGH raised some concerns, these concerns went to the BLM who then raised them with BMOrg – who then fired HGH.

Did BMOrg try to scapegoat HGH here? Did they think that just ditching HGH would resolve the issues, since HGH are mentioned in many of them? Perhaps they didn’t like HGH giving the Feds a list of headaches problems to fix.

The number of patients being thrown around, 2,880, is very different from what has been reported in previous years. BMOrg’s own 2014 Afterburn report said there were 6,100 medical patients last year – more than double the number the government are using. The difference may be in this magic word “treated” – this year, there will be much less treatment provided on-site by CrowdRX.

This morning I have received an Anonymous tip-off, from someone with inside information about the medical discussions. Treat this as an unconfirmed rumor, but I trust the source.

It seems that, as usual, there is much more to the story than what we’re being told.

To recap, BMOrg ditched local providers Humboldt General, who have supported the event for the last 5 years; they replaced them with festival specialist CrowdRX, who have never done a remote location event except for one Phish concert in the 90’s. The official unofficial message seems to be “nothing will change, CrowdRX will just hire all the same people as last year”.

One thing the source revealed is that BMOrg have recently filed a public information request for Pat Songer’s records of HGH’s care at the previous years Burns. It doesn’t look like there’s going to be much continuity between medical services at Burning Man between 2014 and 2015, it’s a brave new world now.

The bombshell revelation from this source is to do with off-Playa medical treatment.

In previous years, your Burning Man ticket purchased you Medical Insurance at the event. If anything happened to you at Burning Man, even if you didn’t have insurance yourself, theirs would take care of your treatment.

In the past with HGH, all care was covered, on-Playa and transport off. If anything happened to you at Burning Man and you needed to be taken to a hospital, an HGH ambulance would take you to the nearest hospital (Reno). Humboldt’s plan was to treat everything they possibly could on-site at Black Rock City.

Image: American Med Flight

Image: American Med Flight

Now, if anything happens, you’ll have to be taken outside the event to a Default world hospital – most likely, still Reno/Sparks. By air. There will be no medical ground transportation for medical emergencies, the plan is air transport only. Fixed wing, no helicopters.

The price for an airlift with American Med Flight is $30,000.

The rumor is that certain members of the Org are getting a better rate if they become injured and need transport. This seems to approach the idea of “kickbacks”. There may also be issues of local county permitting, in relation to this business.

Screenshot 2015-07-09 12.24.26

This comment is from Anonymous Burner. We have no specific information on this arrangement.

Of course none of this should be a problem, since Obamacare means every person in the United States now has medical insurance. Someone else will pay! Oh, but what about the 20% of Burners from other countries? Hopefully they got travel insurance.

American Med Flight are offering a Burning Man insurance package. For only $25, if you do need their services, you won’t pay more than $7,500.

Towards the end of 2013, a former DPW manager blew the whistle on safety issues, then BMOrg lost their respected Emergency Services Director, Joseph Pred. Chaos seems to have ensued, with 18 major issues unresolved less than 2 months before the gates open. Let’s hope BMOrg can sort this out – in the circumstances, perhaps sticking with their existing partner HGH should be re-considered.


 

[Update 7/9/15 1:25pm]

Thanks to A Balanced Perspective for alerting us to the latest RGJ story, in which BMOrg say they have already responded to many of the BLMs concerns and there are a lot of falsehoods in the report. Keep reading for my comments.

[Update 7/9/15 4:47pm]

Someone Who Knows has given us this update:

HGH transported to Reno, just like REMSA did, not to Winnemucca. Careflight has been offering low cost membership that helps cover the whirly bird ride for years. That being said, fixed wing is actually a safer, more reliable option than helicopter in the black rock playa conditions and I highly doubt CrowdRX will not have ambulances

They sound like they do know. And I agree – surely there will be ambulances. Surely there will be helicopters. Coming soon.

[Update 7/9/15 5:30pm]

Francisco Ceballos from Humboldt General Hospital created a pro-active presentation last year, on what could be done to prevent injuries at Burning Man. One of their suggestions was to communicate with Burners via Burners.Me! Perhaps that may have led to their downfall…

Screenshot 2015-07-09 17.29.35

Francisco was right: we would be happy to share any information that could improve the safety and wellbeing of Burners.

[Update 7/9/15 6:30pm]

BMOrg have claimed that they sent a response to BLM addressing all 20 concerns in April. We call on them to share their documentation with all Burners, not just chosen journalists at the RGJ. Why are the “After Action Reports” not part of the “After Burn Reports”?

In April, Burning Man submitted a 40-page working document that addressed “every single point” that the BLM made, according to Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell…

Burning Man’s own assessment, which is put together in collaboration with various county, state and federal agencies, including the BLM, contradicts many of the BLM’s findings. According to the Burning Man’s series of “after action reports,” the BLM’s assessment has a number of inaccuracies, including:

All appropriate HAZMAT procedures were followed during the handling of bodily fluids following the fatal accident.

Emergency medical services vehicles were available at all times during the event, though Humboldt General Hospital did report a sustained 11 minutes during which time five of eight vehicles were dispatched and three were “idle.” Burning Man organizers are uncertain as to why the idle vehicles were not available for use during those 11 minutes.

Vehicles were not stranded during the delay, but instead were parked on the side of the road. Burning Man organizers at the time told participants that they had the option of going home, though most decided to wait until the weather and conditions improved.

Pyrotechnic effects, which usually include fireworks or explosive displays, are not allowed on art cars, though Burning Man does allow flame effects, which are automated fire features.

Burning Man also took issue with Kornze’s statement Wednesday that the San Francisco-based nonprofit had not addressed enough of the agency’s concerns, saying Burning Man staff have been working with a number of agencies to improve its operations.

Burning Man created a new emergency operations chief position, according to Graham, and hired a new medical services management provider, replacing Humboldt General Hospital.

[Source: RGJ]

Here’s what Acting Nevada State Director John Ruhs told them:

Screenshot 2015-07-09 18.28.12
13 items are still open. Item #20 is quite probably irresolvable, the BLM might as well drop it. BMOrg should cave to everything else, if they can sell 10,000 more tickets.
The BLM note in their letter that 13,545 people entered the event before it started with Early Access passes. Before the event opened, there were many people bicycling around sight-seeing and partying. Tut-tut!

 

50 comments on “BLM to Review Chocotacos, if BM Lifts Their Safety Game [Updates]

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  15. am reading back dates to present, so previous posts were probably a little uninformed, but wow!!! It will be interesting!!! I do have to say that the parking lot D situation last year and the will call was really a disaster or potential disaster. I had to ride my bike out there Sunday night, monday morning to get a friend/campmate and help her jump her rental car after she had stood in line for 6 or 7 hours to get her ticket. It was total chaos, with a lot of people stuck out there. People were fainting in line and could not leave the line to go to their cars for water. Then later they closed the gate down altogether, when it rained, and people were told to leave!!! People were checking me like i had just crossed the border from Mexico. Seriously?!?! I’m amazed there was not more fall out from that situation. It is mentioned in the supposed BLM discussion of problems, but that level of chaos really was not safe, and should have never happened.

    • This is solely speculation, but, the BLM might have bigger issues, at present, it might be most appropriate for Scribe, or Ms Kane, to pursue. The gun that the priorly deported Mexican utilized to kill Kathryn Steinle at Pier 14 on 1 July was stolen from a BLM Ranger, in San Francisco for official business, perchance on Friday, 26 June, the day Ms Kane reported ChocoTacoGate within the Reno Gazette Journal. With solely near to 300 BLM Rangers and Agents within the U.S., the number needs verified, what was the official business of the BLM Ranger in San Francisco, and might the gun have been stolen from his, or her, auto near to Alabama Street? This site might have details in regards of the theft.

        • Yosemite is the National Park Service, not the BLM. Might this speculation be the rationale, it is a national news story, the bigger Fox News might most enjoy it. The BLM refuses to state the business of the Ranger.

        • Perchance, might the lakes of Hetch Hetchy water, near to SFO, be on BLM land? This speculation needs verified prior to a post, I do not know how to verify.

          • Here is a link re the Hetch Hetchy. Looks like BLM probably aren’t involved.

            I’ve chased down a few different reports of the incident. This one from the San Jose Mercury News has the most details.

            “the federal agency…administers 15.2 million acres of public land in California. The agent immediately reported the theft to San Francisco police, she said…

            “The officer made a stop while he was en route to an assignment in another location. … BLM policy regarding weapons is that the officer is responsible for ensuring that their firearms are secure,” Wilson said.”

            police received a report of a car burglary from the BLM officer in downtown San Francisco

            FBI Agent James Wedick said that weapons should be stored in the trunk of a car, in a locked box.

            A properly stored firearm would be extremely difficult to steal from a car, he said.

            “It’s got to be locked in the trunk, locked inside a box,” Wedick said, adding that the interior box would likely be built into the vehicle’s frame.

            “To steal it, you’ve got to steal the car,” he said.

            He said that leaving a weapon exposed inside a vehicle’s passenger compartment would be “an incredibly negligent act.”

            Wedick said that he has never heard of an officer charged with a crime in connection to the theft of his or her weapons. He also said that stealing the ranger’s gun was “theft of (federal) government property” that would automatically be referred to the FBI.

          • No vehicle break in thefts were near to Alabama St on 26 to 27 June, but there were near to 20 vehicle break in thefts near to downtown San Francisco each day. Crimemappingcom is the appropriate site, linked from the SFPD site. There is no information which might state in regards to which of the 20 vehicle break in thefts was the BLM vehicle.

            Newspaper reports, other than the Mercury News, stated the BLM Ranger was in SF on official business, but, might there be any more information, the information would need to be from a person.

    • Other speculation might be in regards of Jade Helm 15, from 15 July to 15 September. Much of the land, in Utah, is BLM land, and Agent Love is coordinating with these gun-toting, jack-booted, thugs labouring with military intelligence and the NSA these awesome U.S. Special
      Forces, in regards of their big operations within his ‘hostile’ Utah. With point 1, of the 20, stating the Unified Command was not obeyed during the rain closure, and Agent Love, by appearances, being of the belief of the Unified Command is above the BMOrg for managing the event during an emergency, in the manner of rain, and him, and the BLM, in a usual military police state manner, being in control of the Unified Command, and point 16 being his demand for a playa org chart purposed so he might contact each supervisor, without utilizing the usual BMOrg contacts, might some of his VIP guests be Jade Helm 15 officers viewing him, perchance, impose his martial law control upon the dirty hippies hostiles ‘compliant participants’, as point 1 terms them, might an excuse present itself, in the manner of a forecast of much rain, permitting him to utilize the Evacuation Plan, of point , for Black Rock City?

      The Bundy Ranch supporters might have much fun in regards of this item, but, the BMOrg CoolAid drinkers will cry utter speculation in a most hostile manner. The BMOrg is most correct in regards of being in opposition of these rubbish BLM demands, the police state must never be managing a city, the BLM, and their police, must solely be in BRC for administering the permit, not to be in their desired control.

      Might this occur, Burners must video these gun-toting, jack-booted, thugs the BLM police and their U.S. Special Forces mates impose their martial law Unified Command evacuation plan upon the dirty hippies hostiles ‘compliant participants’, and transmit their video to Fox News of the playa.

  16. Not everyone has health care in the USA. AHA is not free, still have to pay and the subsidies only take into account income. Not your bills and as you know in the USA it is far more important to pay your loans and credit cards before worrying about health costs. Not to mention the states that refused free expansion of Medicaid.

    Also the gross amount paid to the BLM each year is one thing. I would like to know what percentage of the cost of a ticket goes to those blood suckers.

  17. Do I need to follow the BLM-BOrg brinksmanship as the gate date approaches, or can I just follow the Greek-Euro, or US-Iran stories for updates? BTW, does anyone have Merkle’s phone number?

      • I think we should launch a campaign to protest BLM’s demands on the poor innocent BOrg. We should tell the BLM to go shove their list of things. We get the permit denied and when people show up anyway and flood the playa = best burn evar!

        • Excellent idea.

          And in the new spirit of greed, have PPV access to realtime drone feeds of the melee.

      • Since I won’t be there (or will I?), all I ask is that people stop by these places, and make some spot observations of CrowdRx, so we can have some facts when the burners hit the fan in 10 weeks after the dust settles. Should be quite entertaining.

  18. HGH transported to Reno, just like REMSA did, not to Winnemucca. Careflight has been offering low cost membership that helps cover the whirly bird ride for years. That being said, fixed wing is actually a safer, more reliable option than helicopter in the black rock playa conditions and I highly doubt CrowdRX will not have ambulances.

    • Yes, CrowdRX must have ambulances purposed to transport injured Burners to Rampart, on the playa. But, the BLM is concerned in regards of there are not the proper number of ambulances on the playa, and the trip to Reno, and back, is near to six hours. Might CrowdRX obtain a proper number of ambulances, what might CrowdRX charge for the ambulance to Reno, $10,000? Camps must have a plan to transport their mates, whom are able to do the trip, from Rampart, to the hospital in Reno.

      • From the previous years’ documentation, it sounds like at one point 5 ambulances were being used at once. Another stat I saw somewhere in reading through it all, was an ambulance being used every 20 minutes. Perhaps the issue is ambulances staying on the Playa, versus leaving to go to Reno.

        • Yes, within the HGH conversations, it was commented that HGH stated they were of the need for five more ambulances, and a manner of obtaining more ambulances, on the playa, is for camps to transport their camp mates, whom are able to do the trip, to the hospital in Reno. Camps must plan for this.

          • They already had 8, so they wanted to up that to 13. Wow. Dublin, Ireland – a city of 1 million people – gets by with 11.

            If I were the 6 founders, I’d be buying a private ambulance each and renting it back to Burning Man. And maybe a helicopter.

  19. Kudos to Ms Kane for her awesome reporting.

    The update to her reporting of BLM’s 20 worries on Burning Man emergencies, sanitation is most shocking.

    ‘In April, Burning Man submitted a 40-page working document that addressed “every single point” that the BLM made, according to Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell.’, with details, within the newspaper article, of the responses. By appearances, Mr Seidlitz, the BLM Winnemucca Burning Man manager, or whomever stated 13 of the 20 points were not addressed, was not truthful to the BLM Director, and to the newspapers.

    Might I do this to an employer, I would be most deserving of being fired.

    • Thanks I’ve updated the story with this

      …and again. I have listed the BLM document which shows the 13 open items – and most of the other 7 still need discussion. If you read BMOrg’s response, it’s stuff like:

      BLM: 10. Fuel Storage Management.
      In 2014, roaming art cars were observed with large amounts of onboard stored fuel.
      Additionally, some art cars include pyrotechnic effects in close proximity to stored fuel. Camps
      throughout the city were observed with large amounts of stored fuel for use in generators and
      other equipment. In some cases, the fuel was observed in unapproved containers. These issues
      increase the risk for a major fire incident, and pose a serious threat to public safety.

      BMOrg: Pyrotechnic effects, which usually include fireworks or explosive displays, are not allowed on art cars, though Burning Man does allow flame effects, which are automated fire features.

      Pedantically arguing about the meaning of words does not resolve any safety issues – although it is textbook BMOrg. It would be great to see the full documentation that RGJ are selectively reporting from, as well as the 2014 Humboldt General Hospital After Action Report.

      • Awesome post. I do not agree in regards to ‘BMOrg should cave to everything else’, in due of many of the BLM items are rubbish. To list the BLM items that are rubbish, and the most proper BMOrg response in due of the items, of which, the response is within ’40-page working document that addressed “every single point” that the BLM made’, might be a post of itself.

        • I would encourage you to write that! 😉

          I would also encourage Jenny Kane, anyone else at the RGJ, or anyone at BMOrg, to share that 40-page document with us. Don’t make us speculate on what the contents were, that’s not going to help anyone.

          • The people whom need the 40 page working document, that addressed every single point the BLM made, are the adults within the BLM, and within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Making attempts to delay the conversations on the 40 page working document is solely rubbish bureaucracy making attempts to pretend the $5 million of costs, raised from $4 million of costs within 2014, is proper. In addendum of making attempts, towards BLM management, and towards the newspapers, to pretend of that the 40 page working document did not address the 20 points in a proper manner, is shocking. The most proper costs are solely near to $800,000 for the 3 per cent levy purposed for utilization by the BLM, a similar number purposed for the costs of the BLM police and bureaucracy, and near to $400,000purposed for food, and shelter, at the event. That is solely $2 million, it is not $5 million.

            Kudos, again, to Ms Kane, for her awesome reporting.

          • ‘I would encourage you to write that!’

            I was penning a post in regards of the rubbish 20 points of the BLM, but the news that the BMOrg is screwing Opulent Temple, and others, whom have made the BMOrg millions of dollars, I do not desire to pen anything in support of the BMOrg. How shitty of people must Larry, Marian, and Crimson be to deny placement to groups whom have spent millions of dollars to entertain others, with $0 from the $30.5 million of Burning Man ticket sales paid towards supporting the sound camps and towards the mutant vehicle owners, they do not even obtain free tickets to support their gifts to the community. This is in addendum of the most shitty manner the BMOrg has treated the artists, and paying solely 25 per cent of the costs of the temple from ticket sales is not what honorable people do.

            In the same manner as the adults within the BLM, and within the Department of the Interior, must step in, the adults on the Burning Man Project board must step in, in regards of this rubbish.

      • In regards of items of the manner of ‘BLM:10. Fuel Storage Management.’, the BLM statements were near to a copy, and paste, from prior burns. The BMOrg has published rules, of which are obeyed, the mutant vehicles do not have large amounts of onboard stored fuel, and the flame effects are not in close proximity to stored fuel, the DMV inspects in regards of this. In addendum, the BMOrg has published rules in regards of camps are permitted solely the fuel they need for generators, and fuel must be within approved containers. Camps do not have fuel they are not of the need of on the playa, and might fuel be within an unapproved container, the most proper response is to request of the person to utilize an approved container for the next burn.

        The BMOrg actions in due of this are most appropriate. Many of the other rubbish BLM items are most similar.

        • I can’t say what specific incidents the BLM were talking about, without seeing the source documents. It does seem that BMOrg are trying to lecture them “pyrotechnics are banned” when obviously the concern is fire safety, not the classification of the effect.

        • Balanced Perspective, appreciate you sharing your point of view. However, maybe you should clean up your posts a little before clicking “post”? They are confusing and hard to read. Perhaps English is your second language, in which case I apologize.

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