[tastyfreeze]

Hopefully, voters can NEVER influence how private land owners choose to use their land holdings.

Do we live in the same country? Do you actually want other people to tell you what you have to do with your private property? I suspect that if you were a land holder being told what you had to do with your land you would be rather miffed.

I just don't understand how a citizen of the US living under the US Constitution comes to the conclusion that they should have authority to tell other people what they can do with their property.

[ForHackernews]

For starters, I don't think you should be allowed to dump toxic chemicals on your "private" property, because it could poison the natural environment and/or groundwater sources that others share.

[tastyfreeze]

People dump toxic chemicals on their property every day. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers are all toxic. Hell, we even pay farmers to do this.

There are other ways to mitigate this problem than giving voters the authority to dictate how a property owner uses their land.

[c0nducktr]

> People dump toxic chemicals on their property every day. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers are all toxic. Hell, we even pay farmers to do this.

It seems obvious that ForHackernews wasn't talking about things like the chemicals you've described.

[tastyfreeze]

The point I so coarsely was trying to make is, the impact is the same whether it is nondescript industrial sludge or sanctioned chemicals. Permitting one while demonizing the other for the sake of some control over property owners is asinine at best and a power grab at worst. We already have laws and penalties specific to the dumping of some chemicals that are effective regardless of who the property owner is. We would not need additional laws that apply specifically to property owners.