EPA's Pinocchio nose erodes public trust
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Editorial
The Seattle Times
Wednesday, August 13, 2003, 12:00 A.M.
seattletimes.nwsource.com
The Bush administration, battling charges of tampering with facts to make the case for war, is on a troubling track with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The credibility of the regulators is fundamental to any enforcement agency, and this behavior erodes trust and public confidence.
A steady drumbeat of examples, from a variety of media outlets, suggests the EPA is misleading the public on the state of the environment. It's no small issue for Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, nominated by President Bush to replace Christie Whitman, who resigned.
The Washington Post reported that the agency's inspector general is investigating whether the agency deliberately misled the public by overstating the purity of the nation's water supply.
Other accounts deal with the EPA inflating and misrepresenting its enforcement staff and record. The EPA inspector general also concluded that the agency failed to honestly report what it knew about the safety of the air at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Earlier this year, the EPA was caught fudging on a report about the status of Yellowstone National Park, and again on the overall health of the global environment.
Distorting the record for political purposes is bad enough, but it allows potentially health-damaging conditions to fester. Over time, they become more expensive to remedy, and the public has to be convinced of the problem.
Voters are the ultimate arbiters of White House policy emphasis and style. They cannot make good assessments if facts are strained through a political sieve or distorted.
Policy choices belong to the White House. Don't fudge the information given to the public.
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