These funds, which are supposedly for “Superfund” purposes, never seem to cure or alleviate any of the string of problems that either are caused or exacerbated by negligence and malfeasance on the part of EPA. The agency has become a study in mismanagement and failure to address the expressed concerns of those parts of the public. A glaring recent example: the drinking water situation in Flint, Michigan.
For what they WASTE in patchwork “fixes”, they could excavate, lay new non-contaminating water mains all over the city, and do a flush on most of the distribution points, and patch the streets afterward. But that would be a quick, comparatively short-term activity, and would not assure continued employment of a number of relative incompetents to remain on the payroll for years.
Water supply districts have been notorious as a place to place patronage employees by the city government machines since they did away with local neighborhood wells. Sure, cholera and dysentery have ceased to be a continuing problem, but poisoning of the water supply by mineral contaminants (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium and any number of organic compounds) seems to be much more prevalent.
Makes one long for good old red ocher in the well water.
And then there’s this:
EPA slammed after refusing to cover Colorado county’s costs from toxic spill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3425654/posts
You’d think with $6B in slush funds, they could manage to fix what they messed up. If a corporation or private individual did this, the EPA would bankrupt them for the cost, at a minimum.
You have to keep in mind who sets the thresholds for what is considered to be excessive levels of contamination.
Those targets change, generally getting more stringent (lower) due to research on the harmful effects of the contaminants. I’m not sure who funds the studies on which contaminants are harmful at what level, but it would be interesting if the EPA had a hand in funding the research that it used to rewrite the standards that it used to determine what was and was not a Superfund site...
It would be the closest thing to perpetual motion (or a “Mexican fur farm” operation) yet.