 |
Midwest EPA Admin Fired For Telling Dow To Clean Up Their Dioxin Mess (And other Tales from the Senate EPA Hearing) |
 |
When Mary Gade was appointed the Midwest EPA Administrator in September, 2006 she did something that the Bush Administration obviously didn't expect — She took her job seriously. After decades of Dow Chemical dumping its toxic products into rivers nearby its Midland, Michigan plant, including Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. Dow has been avoiding its responsibility in cleaning up dioxin-poisoned soil and sediment in the 50 miles surrounding its plant for years, and after wrangling with Dow, and getting nowhere, Gade invoked "emergency powers" last summer so that she could order Dow to cleanup three of the worst dioxin "hotspots" affected by the dumping. How bad was it? Well the reporting in the Chicago Tribune explains:
…all along the two wide streams that cut through this old industrial town, signs warn people to keep off dioxin-contaminated riverbanks and to avoid eating fish pulled from the fast-moving waters. Officials have taken the swings down in one riverside park to discourage kids from playing there. Men in rubber boots and thick gloves occasionally knock on doors, asking residents whether they can dig up a little soil in the yard.
In January, when Dow was trying to cut a weak deal, Gade broke off negotiations. So Dow did what any well-connected, irresponsible corporation would do — appeal to their friends in Washington. According to letters obtained by the Chicago Tribune in a FOIA request (though the letters were highly redacted):
Gade drew fire from officials in Washington after she sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels. The levels in one Saginaw yard were nearly six times higher than the federal cleanup standard, and 65 times higher than what Michigan considers acceptable.
How toxic is dioxin? It is measured in the trillionths of a gram because it is so potent. It "causes cancer and disrupts the immune system, even at very low levels." And Dow knew in the 1960s just how dangerous it was, and yet kept dumping it all the way to the mid-1980s. So what is the justification Dow has used for avoiding a cleanup? Somehow they assert the contamination is not a health threat to people or wildlife.
"There is all of this mystique about dioxin," said John Musser, a Dow spokesman. "Just because it's there doesn't mean there is an imminent health threat."
Amazing how health threats are not imminent when Dow would have to pay for the consequences of its own actions.
So after doing her job and trying to get Dow to actually follow the law and take responsibility, Gade had her administrative powers taken away by the national EPA and told that she should resign by June 1st or be fired. She resigned immediately. Why was Gade hired in the first place if she wasn't expected to actually enforce the law? Well in her previous life she was a corporate attorney representing companies like Dow. Both Dow and Washington were surprised when she decided to actually aggressively pursue the cleanup.
"We have a responsibility to make sure people are living in a healthy and safe environment," Gade said. "This problem has been out there for more than 30 years, and it's unconscionable that action hasn't been taken."
So what would happen when a Senate Committee questioned the EPA at a hearing this week? Nothing. First, the EPA only sent the "Assistant Administrator for Research and Development," George Gray to the hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee, the EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson declined to testify. Then Gray, when asked about the incident declined to say anything about it. On the House of Representatives side of the Hill, Energy and Commerce Chairman, John Dingell, has ordered his staff to investigate Gade's ouster — which makes sense especially since Dingell is from Michigan. More on this story as it develops.
At the Senate hearing, which was titled "Oversight Hearing on Science and Environmental Regulatory Decisions," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse took the Bush Administration to task for its politicization of the scientific research and decision-making at the EPA. He asked Gray about the decision of the EPA to override their scientists and institute weaker smog standards (I posted about this a couple months ago). Gray explained that their choices had to do with the "uncertainty in science."
Gray said the EPA’s ozone standard was “a very good example of the way in which uncertainty in science plays an important role in decisions.”
“You’re telling me, and you expect me to believe, that two unanimous decisions by panels that EPA chose creates scientific uncertainty in the mind of EPA?” Whitehouse said.
“They certainly do,” Gray responded.
Get that? Despite the unanimity of the panels and the scientists on those panels that the EPA chose, it made sense to Gray on the other Bush appointees to ignore the scientific conclusions and apply weaker standards. I am impressed that Gray, Johnson and the other EPA politicos can find uncertainty in unanimous recommendations.
The hearing itself was called in response to a Union of Concerned Scientists investigation that revealed that as many as 60% of scientists at the EPA have felt or been witness to political pressure when it comes to their scientific research and findings. (Again, I posted about the study earlier.) The two examples cited above, and Gray's pathetic responses show that the EPA is not just politicized, but it is now a tool of corporate polluters.
Bush isn't stupid or bumbling, he's single-minded in his pursuit of a corporatist agenda.