EPA -- turning the Animas orange.
In January 2014, Freedom Industries accidentally released 10,000 gallons of an industry alcohol into the Elk River making it and the Kanawha River downstream smell like licorice for a week. For a week we were without water.
The EPA fined the company $11,000 for the 10,000-gallon spill.
Is EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy going to pay a similar $1.10-per-gallon fine for accidentally releasing 3,500,000 gallons of toxic goo into the Animas river in Colorado?
At $1.10 a gallon, that would be a fine of $3,850,000. The difference being the alcohol eventually evaporated. This goo, who knows?
From an outraged Newsweek in June 2014:
Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill Fined Only $11,000
In January, 10,000 gallons of industrial chemicals leaked out of an old Freedom Industries tank, one mile upriver from a West Virginia treatment plant that supplies water to hundreds of thousands of people. Now, the federal government is fining Freedom Industries the princely sum of $11,000 for improper storage and infrastructure violations, the Associated Press reports. That's less than four cents for each person inconvenienced.
Little was known about the leaked chemical, crude-MCHM, and lax regulations meant medical professionals and government officials were entirely unprepared to assess the health risk. The EPA has only tested and published data on approximately 200 of the 83,000 chemicals in its inventory, according to a California Senate review from 2010. Crude-MCHM is not one of the few that have been tested.
The 300,000 people whose water was contaminated by the spill went without running water for ten days, after which time a ban on tap water was lifted but health officials still could not agree on the water’s safety. Hospitals in the area scrambled to cope with questionable sanitary conditions, and a smell of licorice, from the crude-MCHM, lingered in people’s sinks for weeks.The water smelled bad.
This time, the water is bad. Arsenic and other heavy metals will kill you.
Of course, the Democratic party's operatives in government will pay no penaalty, face no fine and not only keep their jobs but get a bonus for the stress they are under.
The EPA is not about protecting the environment; it is about controlling industry. Why do you think Earth Day is on Lenin's birthday?
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/retired-geologist-predicted-epa-spill-week-prior-says-it-was-intentional-money
ReplyDeleteFrom the article:
A letter to the editor of The Silverton Standard and The Miner by a retired geologist predicted the disastrous toxic spill in Colorado at the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency exactly one week prior to the accident. Taking it one step further, the author added that they will do this on purpose in order to secure more funding.
On July 30, 2015, Dave Taylor wrote to the editor warning that the EPA is planning a "Superfund biltzkrieg" for the Gold King mine in Silverton, Colorado. If the site were to be granted Superfund status as the EPA has long desired (25 years), they would be entitled to federal monies up-front for any cleanups.
The EPA fining itself is an interesting thought. But of course any fine comes out of the pockets of taxpayers, not administrators. Criminal charges with penalties assessed against the administrators personally may have some impact. Unless Obama pardons them of course.
ReplyDeleteThe EPA should eat all the cost of cleanup, and not pay employees. Or rather, administrative staff, foregoing all raises and bonuses, new office furniture, new offices...
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