Is the EPA serving corporate interests over our rights to clean water and air?

[cali]

Environmental Justice Groups Sue EPA for Failure to Enforce Clean Air Act

Despite several studies suggesting toxic emissions from refineries are underestimated, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continually failed to review and revise emissions factors for health and life-threatening pollutants.

Now, five environmental justice groups are suing the agency for failure to comply with the Clean Air Act. The groups, the Environmental Integrity Project, Air Alliance Houston, Texas Environmental Advocacy Services (TEJAS), Community In-power and Development Association, Inc. (CIDA), and Louisiana Bucket Brigade, assert that EPA failures are leading to undue health and safety risks for the Gulf Area population.

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http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/14/environmental-justice-groups-sue-epa-failure-enforce-clean-air-act

The E.P.A. Backs Off on Factory Farms

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Last year, the agency meekly withdrew two proposed rules. One would have gathered basic information from all factory farms. The other proposed rule would have expanded the number of such farms required to have a national pollution discharge permit. Fewer than 60 percent do now.

Then, last week, in yet another retreat, the agency announced that promised new regulations governing feedlot discharges nationally would not be forthcoming.

According to the E.P.A.’s own studies, agricultural runoff is the leading cause of impaired water quality. The amount of manure produced by factory farms is staggering. The agency estimates that those operations create between 500 million and 1 billion tons of manure, three times as much waste as humans produce in the United States. The task of keeping those hundreds of millions of tons of animal waste out of rivers, lakes and estuaries is enormous, clearly requiring a strong set of revised regulations for the handling of factory-farm waste, including provisions for tracking waste when it’s been moved offsite.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/the-epa-backs-off-on-factory-farms.html

EPA abandons study that linked fracking, Wyoming water pollution

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/306961-epa-wont-confirm-fracking-link-to-wyoming-water-pollution-#ixzz2X9D7yUWz

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

From decades of personal experience, I can say that most of the EPA employees are good people who are sincere in wanting to enforce the law. This includes the engineers and lawyers. But they are handcuffed by the political appointees, who are appointed to positions where they can serve industry.

[Scuba]

2. Only a terrorist would ask such a question.

[Mnemosyne]

3. K&R nt