Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Where’s industry’s conscience?


This is enough to make anyone gag.

Because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting the Environmental Protection Agency, as many as 117 million Americans now drink water from sources that could be unprotected by the Clean Water Act and opened up to industrial pollution. The high court ruled that "navigable waters" regulated by the EPA do not include waterways entirely inside a state and lakes not connected to larger water systems.

Thus, EPA estimates that 45 percent of the nation's major waterways may be out of its regulatory reach.

Instead of being embarrassed by their ability to flush toxic waste into nearby waters, industry groups are lobbying against congressional efforts to remedy the law's "navigable waters" loophole and thus remain free to subject millions of Americans to poisonous pollution.

The horrific possible consequences are obvious: Millions of men, women and children could become vulnerable to diseases and sickness created by chemicals, animal waste and other industrial bilge.

Is there no limit to the willingness of industry and business groups to defy the public good? Flushed with their ability to muscle Congress, health insurers have spared no expense nor ignored any trick and deception to derail health care reform that would finally cover millions of people now without access to care.

If the same cold-hearted and callous strategies are used to hamstring EPA's enforcement of water standards, then some industry groups stand to enlarge their image as irresponsibly indifferent to the health of their countrymen.




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