EPA Treats Its Own Environmental Catastrophe As No Big Deal

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 08/11/2015 | Staff

[IBD editorial writer]

Environment: The only thing more outrageous than the EPA's release of three million gallons of toxic waste into Colorado's Animas River has been its cavalier response to the disaster in the days since.

[Trailerpark Badass]

It’s government. What are you gonna do, fire them?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Any word from the Sierra Club or any other emvirowackjob group out there?

/crickets

[MarMema]

Exactly. Silence.

[Morpheus2009]

WTH? This agency was established to take legal action against improper waste disposal, a big issue in the early 1970s, and yet they couldn’t push for a better location?

[EQAndyBuzz]

“It’s government. What are you gonna do, fire them?”

No. But the next time Greenpeace or the Sierra Club come knocking, sue them for billions and don’t let up. Their silence just proves they are watermelons and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

[Resettozero]

It’s government. What are you gonna do, fire them?

Sure. Congress can defund the EPA and use those funds to pay for the clean-up.

Have you forgotten the part about "We the people"?

[silverleaf]

Imagine what President Trump and Interior Secretary Palin would be doing this week if this happened on their watch

Not playing golf

( disclaimer: not a Trumpeteer here but I do believe the Donald would be showing leadership and not ignoring this devastation with a half vast apology by an incompetent lackey)

[silverleaf]

Send more donations and they will elect more democrats to clean up the environment ...

[2001convSVT]

I wonder how much the fine would have been if this spill was caused by BP?

[rellimpank]

—while I am not trying to defend the EPA (I’d like to see it eliminated) and I agree that if this was a mining company ,for example that had created the spill , it would be front and center for weeks, when this has had a few months to settle down, the river will continue to flow, fish will return and the horrible heavy metals will only be detectable in parts per billion and will not make one iota of difference to anyone’s health or anything else—

[grania]

I thought that the environment in that area is very fragile and that something like this can permanently ruin the immediate ecosystem and a lot of what's downstream.

My question is if an affirmative action mentality (whether or not an actual unqualified employee) leads to a lot of what's going wrong. Is the EPA always hiring the best people, the ones who would prevent mistakes like this, or are they hiring people by other criteria?

It's a societal problem if generally the best people aren't being trained and hired to do jobs that need competent people.

[Stentor]

Is the EPA always hiring the best people, the ones who would prevent mistakes like this, or are they hiring people by other criteria?

You know the answer. They hire morons and then promote them for their ability and willingness to be pathological liars. (See Lois Lerner. She's the Platonic ideal.) Originally it was known that if you kept enough actual workers, they could maintain the rotten facade. What happens as more and more cargo cultists are hired and promoted is that they begin to believe these complex agencies ran themselves. (Whether you believe they should exist in the first place, they are complex.) Real employees are marginalized and tortured out of their jobs, thus The Yellow River by IP daily.

[MichiganCheese]

No one clamoring to shutdown Big Government for its irreversible damage to a pristine river?

The green crowd loves the words; “shutdown”, “Big” and “Pristine”.

[Pearls Before Swine]

One question I had, separate from the EPA’s arrogance about the incident and incompetence in causing and handling it, was this:

If these pools are so dangerous, and near rivers, why haven’t they been remediated through some sort of disposal or burial in place, or reinforced so that containment breach is less likely? Shouldn’t that sort of precautionary surveillance and action be part of the EPA’s job? And, a more important part than unrealistic ozone, CO2, or wood stove regulations?

[SoFloFreeper]

Like we care?!

[hal ogen]

“Only” 3 million??? It is still flowing.

[rellimpank]

--we always are told the the "environment is very fragile" and will never recover--(note Exxon Valdez "disaster" and the BP Gulf of Mexico spill)--within a few years there is no real damage --nature has cured the problem.

--as far as the second point ,most of us know full well that "competence" has nothing to do anymore with government hiring----

[grania]

Colorado's environment is very dry and the soil easily absorbs the pollution. A lot of the vegetation is very fragile and would take decades if not centuries to grow back, if ever.

Years ago, (1997 or so) I was in RedCliff for a few days, an almost-abandoned mining town, very cute houses, trendy types taking up repopulating it. It's in the mountains just off the road that goes south toward Leadville. Even now, decades after its mining history, the water is still poisonous. The half-life of the stuff that comes out of those abandoned mines is forever.

[CPT Clay]

Scumbags all.