EPA investigates itself over #Animas River Spill
Posted by Leslie Eastman Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 4:05pm
But…”What difference does it make?”
The leak of taxpayer dollars from Washington, D.C. continues unabated with reports that the EPA is investigating itself for the Animas River spill.
The inspector general for the Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the cause of a massive spill from an abandoned Colorado gold mine that unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into rivers that supply water to at least three states.
The inspector general’s office said the investigation also will focus on the EPA’s response to the Aug. 5 spill from the defunct Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo.
I suspect that the results will be similar to those achieved for these gems of federal investigations, which we have all come to enjoy during the Obama Administration!
•Fast and Furious: After dramatic investigations, the only fallout was that Attorney General Eric Holder became the first sitting member of the Cabinet of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress. It didn’t seem to phase him much.
•IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups: Despite clear evidence that the Internal Revenue Service transformed itself into the Internal Review Service, acting to thwart the ability of conservative groups to get tax breaks as non-profit entities, nobody has been jailed. There were only three resignations of IRS officials, including Lois Lerner, who declared Republicans “evil” and “dishonest.“
•Benghazi: After many congressional hearings, with thousands of documents revealed, we still have no answers as to why the American consulate was left vulnerable to a terrorist attack despite repeated warnings. The only consequence of this investigation seems to be Hillary Clinton’s quip, “”What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?”
If the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General wants to figure out what actually triggered the spill, then the investigators should start by interviewing the professional geologist who predicted the release a week before it occurred and ask: What did the EPA know and when did it know it?
However, I suspect the questioning will be along the lines of the softball style interview EPA administrator Gina McCarthy enjoyed with MSNBC’s Al Sharpton:
SHARPTON: You know, before we get to all of that, I want to ask you about the toxic oil spill, uh, the toxic spill into that Colorado river last week. The EPA’s inspector general has started an investigation. The cleanup continues. Are you satisfied with the response and the cleanup efforts so far?
She sure is! The Animas River is restoring itself. It’s another Obama Administration success.
I sure bet private enterprises that have accidental chemical releases wish they could self-investigate and declare that nature was taking care of the problem.
Meanwhile, the EPA is working to gain even more control over Americans. The Sharpton segment featured a favorable discussion of the agency’s carbon emission control rules, which 15 states are fighting. Just as troubling, there are new regulations poised to be enacted impacting control of all American waterways:
On August 28, EPA gains the authority to regulate all U.S. waters. “Water” is defined as anywhere it’s wet, ranging from standing rain water on private property to dry places where water might flow once in 100 years. If this looks like EPA overreach for controlling more of the nation’s private and public property, it is.
It is called WOTUS, standing for “Waters of the U.S.” Recall that EPA expanded its powers by grabbing controlling authority under the Clean Water Act. A new interpretation of that law allowed further EPA overreach by redefining “navigable waters” to include “almost any piece of land that gets wet and puddles” in the words of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
WOTUS is so toxic that 31 states have filed federal-court motions to block the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers from enforcing the law.
Based on the data so far, I conclude the EPA’s investigation will have the “What difference does it make” outcome that we have come to enjoy from the Obama Administration.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/08/epa-investigates-itself-over-animasriverspill/
