Yes, once again, It’s time to present this week’s statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!
Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week’s nominees were all particularly slimy and despicable, but the votes are in and we have our winner… the envelope please…
Obama’s Soviet-Style EPA!
JoshuaPundit: When they’re not killing jobs and raising energy prices by killing coal or driving businesses overseas because of insane, arcane regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency does a pretty good job of polluting… and breaking the law by trying to cover it up.
The Animas River in Southwestern Colorado in not only a major source of water and the aquifer in the area, but a wonderful recreation area and a prime environment for fish and wild life. Now, thanks to the EPA, its a polluted mess.
Obama’s environmental commissars were nosing around and ‘accidentally’ – it’s been difficult to get a straight answer on exactly what happened – broke into an abandoned mine and released a huge amount of chemical-laced water… that flowed right into the Animas River.
It appears that someone, believe it or not, used a backhoe to move some debris out of the way rather than removing it more carefully, since it was known there was water in the abandoned gold mine.
Even worse was that the EPA attempted to cover it up, at first saying it was just a minor spill and then finally admitting it amounted to over 3 million gallons. There have also been no answers about why the EPA took so long to repair the breech.
Fortunately the local authorities were able to keep the polluted mess, which contains arsenic, lead and other metals out of the city of Durango’s main reservoir, but wells and groundwater will definitely be affected. The polluted water has traveled down to New Mexico and to the Navajo Nation’s reservation.
Durango and La Plata County have declared states of emergency and there’s now a potential water shortage.
The Weaselness comes from the EPA’s attempt to cover-up what happened and shift the blame to the owner of the long abandoned mine for a catastrophe the EPA caused. Particularly odious was the E.P.A.’s regional director, Shaun McGrath, who led the charge, but he was just a Good German following orders. We all know that had a private company done something like this, the Obama Regime would be calling for their heads.
Yes, the EPA under Obama remind me a lot of Soviet apparatchniks. Causing a major toxic waste spill through clumsy use of a backhoe, trying to cover it up and blame others for it and lying about the extent of it… it all reeks of Big Government run amok. There’s even a story out there about how one of the EPA spokespeople lied to the local ranchers and farmers about a large shipment of clean water coming their way that never arrived… except in the case of one rancher who had a personal connection with Colorado Senator Michael Bennett and had the brains to call him about it. He ended up with a 1,600-gallon tank and clean water for it. So far, few other deliveries have surfaced.
And the EPA, in an effort to avoid their responsibility are now claiming that most of the metals and chemicals are either safely buried in river sediment (!) or washed away, something the locals aren’t buying at all. The City of Durango and and La Plata County are doing their own testing and continuing to insist the EPA clean up after itself.
The real Weaselness comes from the cover-up and from what the EPA would do to a private company whom behaved in this fashion… not to mention the headlines in the ObamaMedia.
Well, there it is.
Check back next Tuesday to see who next week’s nominees for Weasel of the Week are!
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