Gina McCarthy and the EPA (part 2): No use crying over spilled wastewater

Read My Lips: The U.S. Government did NOT try to dupe the Indians, again - You can trust me!

More from Gina McCarthy, the administrator for the U.S. Environmental Pollution Protection Agency (EPA)

I posted previously about her role in the Flint Water crisis.  Apparently that was not her only rodeo.

The Gold King Mine spill:

On August 5, 2015, an EPA-led crew uncorked 1 MILLION* gallons of contaminated orange wastewater during a mine clean-up project.  The contamination spread from Cement Creek and into the Animas River in Colorado, then poured into the San Juan River in New Mexico, which runs through the Navajo Nation, and also runs toward Lake Powell in Utah.  Three state governors declared a state of emergency.

Aw, f**k!  Not again!

A congressional hearing was called by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, but McCarthy refused to provide witnesses for the hearing.  This prompted the committee to issue her a subpoena.

According to the article, “The committee members blasted the EPA for its lack of cooperation in aiding the panel in its oversight role on the Aug. 5 spill”.

The committee chairman, John Barrasso stated:
“I am troubled further that the EPA would disregard such failures and attempt to avoid the responsibility by refusing to appear before the committee and answer questions; this sort of behavior is unbecoming of any federal official and won’t be tolerated.”

Although McCarthy says her office continues to cooperate with the committees, the committee members have said the EPA has been unresponsive to their requests for information.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Navajo Nation has accused the EPA of pressuring the Native Americans to waive their rights to future compensation (possibly by offering immediate reimbursements).  According to the Navajo President, Russell Begaye, EPA workers were going door to door on his reservation asking residents to sign claim forms appearing to waive their rights.

Begaye stated that EPA workers were approaching elderly Navajo farmers and ranchers who may not speak English as their first language and might have a difficult time understanding the form.

Gina McCarthy has called the water spill accident “a heartbreaking situation for the EPA”.  I think she may have meant bank-breaking.

This accident could have been avoided.  At the very least, the EPA could have given their full and immediate cooperation to the congressional investigation.  They did not.

So there you have it. If women ran the world.

Up Yours, Utah!  Same to the rest of you!!

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Sources:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/13/epa-mccarthy-subpoenaed-testify-gold-king-spill/

*The Washington Times article from April 13 states in the main article that 3 million gallons were spilled, but the accompanying photo caption says 1 million gallons.  Another source (not listed) also said it was 1 million, so that is the figure I used for my post (the Washington Times text might be a typographical error).



http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/13/epa-denies-navajo-pressure-to-waive-rights-to-futu/

Go Red Sox!!!!