EPA Vows Better Enforcement Of Clean Water Act

nytimes.com:

The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would overhaul enforcement of the Clean Water Act, as lawmakers sharply criticized the agency's decade-long lapses in punishing polluters.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[quidam56]

Welcome to scenic Wise County, Virginia. Please set you watch back four decades. See link for more info: http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 Our raw water is toxic with heavy metals and disease. It's 3rd world Appalachia.

[TJCole]

Our government and new administration is about to destroy the Catskills our wells and historic beauty and NY Cities drinking water allowing "Fracking Shale" for Natural Gas up here in the Watershed region....of NY State around Woodstock and Shokan, Olive, Shandaken

[ClarcKing]

Water harvesting systems ought to be a priority. The United States wastes rainwater, although we are blessed with torrential rains, that unfortunately, destroy land, property and drown people. We have the collective brainpower to correct/engineer a solution that will serve the population for generations to come. This project is a great economy booster.

[hellboundtrain]

Where was the EPA while the precious streams went from pristine to rancid?

Why were fracking chemicals EVER left out of the CWA?

Millions and billions, maybe trillions, of gallons of nasty VOC's pumped into our earth since 1954! Did anyone ever do any research to see if non-toxic chemical could accomplish the same purported task?

[RTIII]

And the answer is: Reagan gutted the EPA and other protection agencies and installed government-can't-work-here-we'll-prove-it shills and these actions have never been reversed. The Ds have only had control for 4 of the last 30 years, and what time they have had has been consumed over -ahem- other matters...
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[BettyMcDonalds]

there you go again, animal agriculture is causing climate change and.....polluting our water! :P Be vegan

[ParacelsusTheophrastus]

wow. These are good days in many ways.

[OkieMon]

bush/cheney fully exempted the oil companies for any sort of water contamination from all their toxic drilling....gee who could have seen that one coming??

[mamacat]

The title of the article should have been, "EPA Vows to Fix Eight Years of Bushwackery."

[RTIII]

More like 26 years (Reagan first defunded and repurposed the EPA), but who's counting?
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[Alethea]

Look the choice is simple: either you protect the public's health or you protect polluter's profits.

Republicans, for some very odd immoral reason, always seem to side with profits no matter the cost to innocent people. Just one more reason to never vote Republican.

[Jannsmoor]

I hope they start with the Snake River in Idaho. When I was young the water was actually clear. Now, not only can't you see more than a foot into the water, you are afraid to swim in it. I would call it either a monumental failure to adequately enforce the Clean Water Act - or a monumental success of the right wing to put business over people since Ronald Reagan took office.

[middleofthemiddle]

Another government agency promising something that it will never be able to fullfill.

[MorgaineChya]

They may not be able to fulfill it in the next few years, but they will be able to make progress on it.

A new study (mega-analysis) shows that outlawing smoking in public places produced a significant decrease in overall heart attacks, even among those who did not smoke.

Sometimes a regulation adopted will not only achieve the anticipated changes, but will produce other beneficial results as well.

[Jannsmoor]

It will be able to fulfill its promise if you will hold up your end by actually electing people who believe in government, rather than radical right wingers who want to dismantle government, and very nearly succeeded under George Bush.

[RTIII]

Second.
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[bluguy8]

and the EPA said after 9/11 that NY air quality was fine. They lied then and I don't believe a damn thing they have to say .They are anti-American , and should be disbanded

[Jannsmoor]

Please remember that was during the Bush administration and that Bush did not believe in regulation. It makes a difference who we elect to represent us. Rather than disband the EPA why not elect people to government who actually believe in government. People who believe government should be effective and can make a difference in people's lives.

[RTIII]

The Bushie who made that outrageous statement should be put up on criminal charges.

However, when the Public puts forward a president who believes government _can_ work and who therefore puts in public servants worthy of the name, our EPA and other agencies can work well and be believed. ...But it all starts at the top; bad Pres, bad agencies. The reverse is not quite as certain: A good Pres does not necessarily mean effective agencies, but it greatly improves the odds!
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[skymuffin]

Are they going to "strongly denounce" it?