I've been in the back yard cutting up branches and twigs including from the
last apple tree for yard waste disposal. I thought through the present 
Nantucket situation. I will write out what I have been thinking. If you asked
me how I would proceed, I would tell you.

Mr. Whelan's offer to permit us who are not licensed plumbers to remove the 
plumbing, risks his plumbing license, because the plumbing code explicitly 
prohibits non-plumbers also from removing plumbing, and all references in the 
legal proceedings cite "removal by a licensed plumber."

With respect to plastic versus soldered copper supply plumbing, Mr. Whelan
confuses what the code permits and what the code requires. In consequence of
the large increase in the price of copper in the past decade, there has been
a strong incentive to use alternative materials, plastic most obviously. No
one knows how it will wear, how long it will last. Soldered copper tubing,
which lasts indefinitely, remains the gold standard of supply plumbing. 
Mr. Whelans rationalization about code prohibition of copper plumbing is
a reflection of his embarrassment at replacing what he tears out with
material which is inferior, in order to keep down costs.

In the introduction to the book "Building with Nantucket in Mind" which 
serves as a supplementary building code for Nantucket, there is cited with
approval the case of a home owner who was forced by a mob to tear down a 
house the appearance of which displeased the public. After I appealed 
Mr. Roggeveen's denial of a certificate of appropriateness from the HDC,
Mr. Roggeveen, according to my diary, said to me, "I don't know why you
are doing this. They will never give you a building permit." I believe
the plumbing issue is only a pretext to prevent completion of the house,
and that the harrassment will continue in one form or another until you
(or I) are financially and emotionally exhausted.

What I have learned in the eight years of litigation, is that appeals from
the decisions of the plumbing inspector are not feasible: consider 25000
licensed plumbers, 250 working days per year, every repair a plumber makes 
nominally requires a permit. More than 6 million permits per year in MA;
yet only one or two appeals to the plumbing board of an inspectors decision.
No appeals to the Superior Court. Given the plumbing inspector's obvious 
malice, it would be inconsistent if he did not give Mr. Whelan "a hard time"
by making unreasonable demands, requiring for example, as Mr. Ciarmataro 
proposed, evaluation of the plumbing plans by an engineer! which would add
hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars to the plumbing costs. In the end,
the Plumbing Inspector could refuse to approve the plumbing for no reason
at all, a decision from which there is no practical appeal. If Mr. Whelan
asserts your interests, he will displease the Inspector who has the power
to destroy Mr. Whelan's business simply by withholding plumbing permits, as
did Ciarmataro in the case of Gordon; otherwise by making unreasonable
demands at inspections and arbitrarily refusing to approve Whelan's work.

There is no predicting Mr. Whelan's costs in his efforts, successful or
otherwise, to install the 3 Red Barn Road plumbing. If he is unwise enough
to take the risk, it may bankrupt him and cause him to lose his license.
If you take the risk, the Town of Nantucket may cause you to spend thousands
of dollars without in the end, getting the plumbing approved.