The DEQ’s hotline for reporting illegal trash burning exists for the DEQ to pretend they are doing something. In reality, it is used as a honeypot where they take so long to come out, the people responsible drag their burn barrel back inside, get tipped off and pissed off at the reporter, the DEQ goes “We didn’t find any evidence”. And it just repeats. Except trying to get help actually makes things worse and worse. I think that’s the entire design and intention of the system. Find out how simply trying to not be poisoned by trash smoke resulted in AR15s and an $8000 septic system I never needed.
Bur then Alex Kennedy tells you to call the hotline because allegedly it’s 24 hours in that they actually come out anytime if there’s a report, so after YEARS of having work, sleep, LIFE interrupted by sickening trash smoke, you think “oh, maybe they will actually do their alleged job”.
Spoiler: Absolute bullshit.
The first DEQ person I ever spoke with about the issues, TAUNTED ME, using a whiny sarcastic voice to imply I was being a big baby about ‘having to smell some smoke this morning’, when I’ve been forced to breathe clouds of plastic trash smoke engulfing my property while having to work on building my house and necessary tasks to survive. They’re not the ones who’ve had endless days over YEARS rearranged because of seeking refuge from thick smoke and ashes. They’re not the ones finding themselves rearranging their lives to the schedule of polluters, only to find still their clothing, laundry, entire property almost always smells like burnt plastic shit. They’re not the ones wearing respirators on hot days doing hard labor.
The people who burn trash have been forcing me and my family when here to breathe toxic trash smoke for years. Even with air purifiers, etc etc, it gets into my home because they ENGULF me in it on a regular basis. Just 4 days ago I had to work outside for several hours retching and coughing from what anyone can tell is trash smoke. This is a regular ongoing occurrence for years now. Constantly rearranging to avoid and still being sickened.
Alex Kennedy of the DEQ is the first person to actually ever respond. For a long time I believed oh, some stuff must just fall through the cracks, as to why I’d never heard anything back about any report except the ones I called back about to follow up myself. It’s clear now it’s all intentional obfuscation and gaslighting. When she first called me she implied OH I hadn’t gotten actual follow up from my reports before because I must have done it anonymously. NOPE. Never got any response at all until her calling.
During that call, one of the many times I evacuated my home rather than be sickened, she told me to use the hotline instead because, allegedly, they would come out anytime, 24 hours. Bullshit. It’s utter bullshit.
FROM THAT DAY, before I ever called the hotline, I ASKED her point blank, what if you all don’t get out here fast enough and it’s just a continued ‘we didn’t find anything’, like the online reports and then it becomes just a reason to say there’s nothing happening? She ignored and made it sound like naaaaaa the hotline is the way to go. “if you smell that smell ,call the hotline”.
Saying it’s an emergency currently happening, doesn’t make any difference. They wait DAYS to come out, and then go “we didn’t find anything”. I ASKED Alex about this, BEFORE ever calling, bringing up how my neighbors are violent and threaten me in various ways as well as burn even more the couple of times I’ve reported them…. I don’t want to call this number if you all aren’t going to get out there fast enough and so it just adds to ‘we didn’t find anything’, because it actually makes things worse, and endangers my safety. “Oh, we’ll go out there 24/7! I mean we’re an HOUR AWAY, but we’ll send out a team in the night”.
Bullshit.
So time after time after time NO ONE comes out anytime when I’m being poisoned and stopped from work, stopped from finishing building my home. Then they finally make their way over days later just to report nothing was found. Alex has the gaul to call and leave me a voicemail with a TONE like “SIGHHHHH, I’ve been out there and everytime I don’t find anything. He’s not burning anything.”
Anyone with a fucking brain knows if you don’t actually show up anytime near when burning is happening, and they pull their burn barrel inside you’re not going to find anything. YOU NOT BOTHERING TO LOOK IN A TIMELY MANNER DOESN’T MEAN THEY’RE NOT BURNING.
It’s the INTENTIONAL ‘can’t be bothered’ way the DEQ FAKELY says “oh give us a call anytime you smell that”, then drop every single ball possible all along the way, and make it out like you’re the crazy one.
For example, they also seem to look for ANY way to make it out like there’s other things going on and you’re just confused. EVERY YEAR there’s a ‘controlled’ burn by assholes south of me. I’m not a fucking idiot. I visually verify every time who is burning before I say so or call anyone. This latest round of trying to use the hotline to finally get faster response so they can be caught in the act, resulted in non-stop burning of ever more plastic by the people. So the recent ‘controlled’ burn is now what Alex Kennedy of the DEQ is assuming I’m thinking is my neighbors burning trash. ANY EXCUSE to make the reporter feel crazy or to discredit them, THAT’S what the DEQ decides. ANY actual validating evidence, THAT is what the DEQ will conveniently lose, downplay, overlook. Time and again.
I have a right to breathe air and to live my life or be in my home without being poisoned. But the DEQ doesn’t agree and doesn’t give a fuck, so be warned if you’re in a similar position
In fact all their systems are designed to make life worse for anyone who tries to report life endangering pollution. People should be able to buy land and build a home without being poisoned to death. It’s utterly NOT BELIEVEABLE that anyone has tried even the barest amount to find the evidence I’m forced to breath mostly but certainly not only after dark on a regular basis.
No matter if someone has put every dollar from over 12 years of work, over 10 years of effort into building a home, which now is unlivable and so completely upsetting and disturbing to even be at they’re forced to give up everything. Should I literally be poisoned, regular running burning eyes, asthma, retching, or wear a gasmask all the time even inside my house? Oh well. Oklahoma doesn’t care if you die from trash smoke. Don’t give one rat’s testicle if you choke to death in your own home. In fact, the police will come out and joke with you about do you have a picture that exact night of the burning that night, in the dark, to prove it’s even happening.
So don’t think you can get help from the DEQ. They genuinely only exist to LET corporations ruin the environment, and clearly that same agenda runs right on down to individuals being poisoned by trash smoke. They exist to let people pollute. Period. None of these people are humane or do their jobs. Their jobs appear to be only about gaslighting and misleading citizens in need. And if you have asshole neighbors who are violent thugs that harass and threaten with violence, the DEQ will essentially tip them off rather than help you. They will basically piss off your neighbors and show up as much later as possible so there’s no possible way they’ll have any work to do like file a report of illegal trash burning, and they both win: the DEQ gets to say “you know, we’ve been out there multiple times and they’re not burning anything” and your neighbor gets to triple down on retaliatory poisoning by trash smoke, feeling vindicated for you having tried to ‘get them in trouble’. They burn even more plastic trash then. And who cares about our health.
EVERY SINGLE TIME before I’ve called anyone I visually verify who is doing the burning, exactly where it’s coming from. I’ve had cops called more on ME for standing up about trash burning and other forms of harassment, than I’ve called them. The fire department says call the DEQ, the police say it’s a legal problem get a lawyer (as they get to drive away out of the smoke again, as though they wouldn’t stop someone pouring poison in water tanks, but constant toxic chemicals …that’s fine), no lawyer wants to help or says injunctions are tens of thousands of dollars. So IF YOU MOVE TO OKLAHOMA, and get a neighbor who burns trash and makes you sick after years of constant exposure, you can expect the state to say FUCK YOU, WE DON’T CARE. (my next website will focus on Oklahoma tourism and outranking their tourism board sites to warn and draw attention to why no one should move to a state that encourages violent lawlessness and lets people poison each other).
The DEQ is the end of the line in these cases unless you want to spend years of time and income in legal battles. And so the DEQ is where all requests for help GO TO DIE. TO be gaslit and beaten into submission.
It doesn’t matter if you provide endless evidence, all the evidence someone can get without physically trespassing and getting your own samples, and testing them (which would also be denied because the DEQ didn’t do it themselves),, amounts to nothing. They conveniently LOSE the reports with the most evidential information, skip over whatever parts are obviously validating of your claims. Where that doesn’t work they talk down to you, or now with Alex Kennedy, it’s the smiling gladhand version of the same abuses of power. I’ve supplied them with photos with time stamps matching air quality meter readings with time stamps, with background proving location, ETC ETC ETC. It doesn’t matter. In fact, Alex went so far as to make me feel bad for the guy poisoning me on a regular basis, saying oh he just had surgery he doesn’t seem like he could do much, such as burning. Zero care for MY health and how it’s deteriorating from his actions.
Alex Kennedy misled me, and intentionally said they would come out quickly, only to turn around and use a smarmy cant be bothered tone of gaslighting, saying there isn’t anything happening. Fuck you too, Alex. Right back at you. It’s clear that none of you have ever intended to help, only to give shelter to those who pollute. Pollution is a GAME to the DEQ. Everything points to this, and there’s no iota of logic or humanity or compassion in their actions, just that their gladhanding is meant to shut you up. If it doesn’t, then expect mysterious huge fees/citations, endless gaslighting that will make you feel even crazier than breathing plastic all the time, and then more harassment. There’s nothing special about me; this is how they treat anyone/ everyone. I’ve been nothing but courteous and kind to my neighbors and straightforward with the DEQ and the only one winning are the thugs and polluters, while I’m forced to find a new home and give up the one I built with my own hands. So if you report trash burning, the only chance you MIGHT have is to get every single factor exactly perfect, and with luck on the very first try they bother to show up when it’s happening, or… this is what you can expect.
Alex Kennedy, it’s one thing for the DEQ to not make it out during being poisoned until DAYS later (I’ve sat and watched for over 12 hours after I’ve called and no one shows up within that time), but it’s entirely a different matter when the personnel USE SMARMY CAN’T BE BOTHERED TONES to try and imply nothing is happening when they themselves KNOW they are not making it out ANYTIME near the reported burning. IF YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO GET THERE IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME, YOU DON’T HAVE A RIGHT TO SAY IT’S NOT HAPPENING. It just gives the polluters EVEN MORE CAUSE TO CONTINUE POISONING PEOPLE. The last time we called we were treated to over 14 hours of their joke of putting EVEN MORE plastic on their fire, to show us. Just ZERO common sense or logic OR compassion with these people. If there was THIRD GRADE LEVEL logic they wouldn’t show up DAYS LATER and then defiantly try to claim every other possible explanation is what’s REALLY happening. Truly horrible, unserious, dangerous people who make pollution worse. Who sign off on our being literally poisoned.
- The DEQ CHOOSES to not find evidence
- The DEQ CHOOSES to wait until long after even emergency calls are made
- The DEQ CHOOSES not to listen
- The DEQ CHOOSES to intentionally let people be poisoned
- The DEQ aids and abets polluters, giving them all the cover and permission they need to not stop, not reduce, but INTENSIFY their poisoning of us over years.