Is it illegal to remove paint from benchmark?

[+Team Paubon]

This one find has 2 benchmarks, the second one had been painted over by red paint for no parking. It was all in terrible shape and we scraped off enough red paint to be able to read it. I was wondering if we did something illegal?

Benchmark DX4778

In ORANGE county, CA http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=DX4778

 

[This message was edited by BSM-MSN and Paul on April 06, 2003 at 04:49 PM.]

 

[This message was edited by BSM-MSN and Paul on April 06, 2003 at 04:53 PM.]

[+DBleess]

I'm no authority, but common sense says you did nothing wrong. You're not defacing anything, nor are you taking paint off of anything that needs the paint for protection. I'd say the municipality that painted it was more in the wrong than you were for not masking before painting over an important legal location marking device.

Removing just the paint on the marker doesn't significantly reduce the visibility or change the meaning of the rest of the paint on that curb.

 

SA / PP-ASEL-I

[+Team Paubon]

Thank you very much for answering.

[rusty0101]

You may want to search for tips on benchmark cleaning, as there are some general rules you may want to pay attention to.

 

Generally you should attempt to avoid using any caustic chemicals, or anything that will scratch the finish of the benchmark. Benchmarks nautrally develop a patina that actually protects the rest of the metal in the mark.

 

Examples of things to avoid doing include using Braso (or other brass polishing coumpounds) to make the mark shiny, using sand paper to remove thin layers of paint, or chisles wire brushes or knives to dig through multiple layers of paint.

 

When I find a mark that is painted over, I personally avoid trying to remove the paint. If the mark is otherwise as described, and I can see enough of the features of the mark to confirm the ID, I will use that information. Otherwise I would not log it.

 

If the paint is already flaking off, I may use a fingernail or soft brush to remove as much of the paint as possible. Otherwise if it won't come off with the water I carry in a squirt bottle, it's not worth damaging.

 

Looking over your pictures, all I can see that you have improved is that you can now read the word "surveyor", everything else was already readable. It looks like either doors, or bumpers have scraped off most of the information that would be of use already, so it does not appear that you have further damaged the mark.

 

-Rusty

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

In short, you did nothing illegal by removing the paint from the benchmark. Nor was it illegal for someone to paint it in the first place. The benchmarks are usually made of brass or aluminum and can be out in the elements for years with no damage or corrosion. They don't need to be painted, although paint won't hurt them, and neither will scraping the paint off of them (providing the scraping is not done aggressively).

 

Curb mounted caps get painted often by local municipalities. When a surveyor finds one like this, he'll just clean it up. Paint just happens sometimes, just like they get covered by dirt, or a car, or a new layer of concrete. Surveyors and other concerned individuals, (such as benchmark hunters and geocachers) oftentimes help to perpetuate the existence of those nearly lost monuments by uncovering, cleaning up, and bringing attention to those monuments.

 

(BTW - One could argue that the municipality should protect the caps prior to painting the curb, but it should be said that the curb, which is usually owned and maintained by that municipality, was there before the cap was set, and that the agency which set the cap, takes the risk that it might get painted by setting it there. Every surveyor takes a certain degree of risk that any point or mark that he or she sets may get damaged or destroyed. The municipality is under no obligation to protect the monument, even though it is probably in its own best interest to do so. Also, the setting agency, even if it is a federal agency, cannot expect the municipality to protect the mark, and has no jurisdiction to force them to do so.)

 

Keep on Caching!

- Kewaneh

 

[This message was edited by Kewaneh & Shark on April 09, 2003 at 04:15 PM.]

[+chaosmanor]

One other thing to note about painting; sometimes it's the NGS that does it. They will often paint a circle around the BM, and sometimes that BM numbers nearby; I've found several of these in and near Camarillo and Oxnard. These have usually been marks on things like freeway pillars and sidewalks. In most cases, the paint gets on the disk itself. NAturally, in these cases, I would leave the paint alone, as it will almost never cover any of the designations.

 

Naturally, this does now apply to the case you sited, but I mention it because you might see this in the future. As for cleaning off the paint, if you can do so without damaging it, I see no harm in this. You *could* try telling the local agency that painted over it that they were in error, but you will probably get nothing but mental pain for your efforts, bureaucracies being what they are

 

So many caches; so few pairs of decent shoes