Tornado in Oklahoma Exposes Corporate Crime
Recent tornadoes in Oklahoma exposed corporate crime that occurred in the last century.
AP reported: "The Environmental Protection Agency planned to check for high lead levels Monday after a deadly tornado blew through a heavily polluted former mining town where lead-filled waste is piled into giant mounds.
"In Picher, the devastation was complicated by the town's status as one of the most polluted Superfund sites in the nation.
"Long-term exposure to lead dust poses a health risk, particularly to young children.
" 'You can look at the chat piles and see that a lot of the material has blown off,' said John Sparkman, head of the Picher housing authority.
"The lead and zinc mines that made Picher a booming town of about 20,000 in the mid-20th century closed decades ago; leftover waste has turned the area into an environmental disaster."
Why is this toxic waste still there after so many years?
As Greenwatch Today via BeSafeNet reported in 2004: "The Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is misleading the public about its commitment to clean up toxic waste sites, according to a report released late last week by U.S. PIRG and the Sierra Club.
" 'The Bush administration is cleaning up fewer toxic waste sites, underfunding the Superfund program, and forcing taxpayers to pay for more orphan toxic cleanups. EPA, however, has manipulated [the] numbers to tell a different story -- one that is misleading and often false--that the Bush administration is committed to making polluters pay to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites,' the report states.
"Congress passed the Superfund law in 1980, in response to the discovery that the New York town of Love Canal had been built upon a massive, abandoned toxic waste site. Under the law, EPA was empowered to order polluters to clean up contamination resulting from their business activities or other ventures.
"The Superfund also created a trust, funded by industry fees, for EPA to clean up "orphan sites"--sites where polluters refused to clean up, where the company was no longer in existence, or where a polluter could not afford to pay for the clean-up. Together these mandates formed the "polluter pays principle."
- While EPA claims it continues to aggressively clean up sites and put new sites on the National Priority List, the rate of completed clean-ups has fallen by over 50% under the Bush administration, from an average of 87 during 1997-2000, to an average of 40. Site listings have also slowed; the Bush administration has added an average of 23 sites per year compared with an average of 30 from 1993-2000, a decline of 23%.
- EPA has stated that funding for the Superfund program has not decreased. In reality, Superfund funding has dropped by 25% from 2001-2004 compared to 1992-2000. An EPA Inspector General's report last October said that 29 cleanup projects in 17 states were insufficiently funded last year.
- EPA has asserted that it remains committed to the polluter pays principle. It states that polluters continue to pay for clean-ups at 70% of sites for which responsible parties have been found (this was the case before 2000 as well). However, 30% of cleanups at orphan sites are now paid for entirely by taxpayers, rather than the Superfund trust fund. This is nearly double the 18% footed by taxpayers prior to the depletion of the fund. The Bush administration opposes reinstatement of the industry fees that would restore it."
Another example of the Bush administration's protect the corporate polluters and the hell with the common good.
AP reported: "The Environmental Protection Agency planned to check for high lead levels Monday after a deadly tornado blew through a heavily polluted former mining town where lead-filled waste is piled into giant mounds.
"In Picher, the devastation was complicated by the town's status as one of the most polluted Superfund sites in the nation.
"Long-term exposure to lead dust poses a health risk, particularly to young children.
" 'You can look at the chat piles and see that a lot of the material has blown off,' said John Sparkman, head of the Picher housing authority.
"The lead and zinc mines that made Picher a booming town of about 20,000 in the mid-20th century closed decades ago; leftover waste has turned the area into an environmental disaster."
Why is this toxic waste still there after so many years?
As Greenwatch Today via BeSafeNet reported in 2004: "The Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is misleading the public about its commitment to clean up toxic waste sites, according to a report released late last week by U.S. PIRG and the Sierra Club.
" 'The Bush administration is cleaning up fewer toxic waste sites, underfunding the Superfund program, and forcing taxpayers to pay for more orphan toxic cleanups. EPA, however, has manipulated [the] numbers to tell a different story -- one that is misleading and often false--that the Bush administration is committed to making polluters pay to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites,' the report states.
"Congress passed the Superfund law in 1980, in response to the discovery that the New York town of Love Canal had been built upon a massive, abandoned toxic waste site. Under the law, EPA was empowered to order polluters to clean up contamination resulting from their business activities or other ventures.
"The Superfund also created a trust, funded by industry fees, for EPA to clean up "orphan sites"--sites where polluters refused to clean up, where the company was no longer in existence, or where a polluter could not afford to pay for the clean-up. Together these mandates formed the "polluter pays principle."
- While EPA claims it continues to aggressively clean up sites and put new sites on the National Priority List, the rate of completed clean-ups has fallen by over 50% under the Bush administration, from an average of 87 during 1997-2000, to an average of 40. Site listings have also slowed; the Bush administration has added an average of 23 sites per year compared with an average of 30 from 1993-2000, a decline of 23%.
- EPA has stated that funding for the Superfund program has not decreased. In reality, Superfund funding has dropped by 25% from 2001-2004 compared to 1992-2000. An EPA Inspector General's report last October said that 29 cleanup projects in 17 states were insufficiently funded last year.
- EPA has asserted that it remains committed to the polluter pays principle. It states that polluters continue to pay for clean-ups at 70% of sites for which responsible parties have been found (this was the case before 2000 as well). However, 30% of cleanups at orphan sites are now paid for entirely by taxpayers, rather than the Superfund trust fund. This is nearly double the 18% footed by taxpayers prior to the depletion of the fund. The Bush administration opposes reinstatement of the industry fees that would restore it."
Another example of the Bush administration's protect the corporate polluters and the hell with the common good.
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