In a message dated 10/27/2006 12:51:50 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Like any  policy, a blanket discard policy can be abused. A more complicated 
one may  prevent discard where it is not justifiable but may not be used 
because it  is too confusing. Or misused with the best of intentions. But 
ignoring the  problem just accelerates the inevitable. And this isn't just 
about  historic artifacts although they get all the heat. How many tens of  
thousands pieces of lithic debitage do we need to keep? Or all that fire  
cracked rock?



Just last year, I had a fiery discussion with a member of the City of San  
Diego, Historical Resources Board about their proposed discard policy from  
collections recovered to mitigate the impact of tearing down have the business  
district to build Petco Park for a major league baseball stadium (which  
bankrupted the City of San Diego). His position was that every flake was  "unique" 
and had to be preserved, but bottle glass, construction material, and  all 
things not interesting to him (ceramics were not considered) could be tossed  in 
the dumpster. To justify his position, he (totally non-sequitor) cited an  
archaeologist who preserved old refrigerators and broken stoves from the  
monitoring. I then sent a letter to the City Attorney and the entire issue has  been on 
hold since then. 
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.