It is a tragedy when a person begins with an ideology and then is handed the power to throw away years of common sense regulation just to satisfy the preconceived idea.
Ms. Norton's self-audit philosophy has not worked out very well for Colorado's Alamosa River. And after I read the articles in The Washington Post and The New York Times, I wonder if we should also thinks of Ms. Norton as The Great Equivocator
On the one hand, Ms. Norton criticized the federal government.
"Norton has often criticized the federal government, which she has called the worst polluter in the nation for the toxic mess it has left behind at government weapons factories and military bases ……"
As (Colorado's) attorney general, she also sought to allow companies to "self-audit" their pollution, a policy that the Environmental Protection Agency has vigorously opposed.
Excerpt from The WashingtonPost. washingtonpost.com
(See post 1167)
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"State officials called the (Alamosa) river's demise the worst environmental disaster in Colorado, a spill of cyanide and acidic water from a gold-mining operation that killed virtually every living thing in a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River, though causing no human injuries"., according to The New York Times. (See post 1168)
And, on the other hand, Tiger Paw, guess who cleans up the mess in Colorado?
The Federal Government so American tax payers must pay for the ongoing clean-up.- Mephisto
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"Ms. Norton has also been a consistent advocate of states' rights and minimal federal interference. But in the Summitville case, it was the federal government that stepped in, acting on an emergency basis after the poisoning of the river to avert an even larger disaster, and later winning felony criminal convictions against many of the corporate owners of the mine.
The state welcomed the federal intervention."
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"It was left to the Environmental Protection Agency, using company workers familiar with the operation, to keep the toxins at bay. It is a continuing operation that federal officials say could go on for two more decades.
"The river was killed for 17 miles, but it would have been a heck of a lot worse if the feds had not stepped in," said Roger Flynn, who served on the governor's Summitville task force and is the director of Western Mining Action Project, an environmental group in Denver.
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Why did the accident on the Alamosa River occur?
In my opinion, it was because of Ms. Norton "self-auditing" philosophy.- Mephisto
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"Ms. Norton, like Mr. Bush, has long advocated allowing the mining, timber and oil industries more leeway to police themselves. Their argument is that if businesses are given incentives, like immunity from fines and prosecution, for reporting and cleaning up their own pollution, most will do the right thing— a so-called self-audit."
"The whole problem with Summitville goes back to the essential trust that the state put in that mining company," said Larry MacDonnell, former director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado. "Summitville is a poster child for the inadequacy of that kind of philosophy."
nytimes.com |
