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Time to end EPA’s double standard

When the tables are turned, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not respond well to reports that conclude it does a worse job of keeping its own house in order than many of the companies it persecutes.

A report from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General – charged with receiving and investigating reports of fraud, waste and abuse within EPA programs, among other things – concludes programs designed to ensure companies treat, store and properly dispose of waste are being horribly mismanaged.

“When polluters do not pay the full cost and the government must step in, the financial burden shifts from the responsible private party onto taxpayers,” according to the report. (It is telling the EPA does not refer to these entities as companies or corporations, but as “polluters.”)

An audit last year found the EPA works under data quality deficiencies and a lack of internal controls that make it impossible to properly manage its Superfund and Resource Conservation and Recovery programs. This is the same agency that turned the Animas and San Juan rivers in Colorado orange in a botched attempt to clean up a former gold mine last year. Not only did the EPA send three million gallons of toxic water downstream, it failed to notify residents in New Mexico that the aftermath of its incompetence was headed their way.

It was no surprise EPA officials disagreed with the inspector general’s “portrayal of risk,” willing to acknowledge only that there are “opportunities to improve.”

Companies across the country disagree with the EPA’s risk assessments on a daily basis. Congress should pursue action against the EPA to the same degree the EPA viciously goes after those companies.

It is high time someone demand the EPA cease operating under a double standard that hurts us all.

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