Democrats Say Key Superfund Data Is Being Withheld From the Public

Democrats Say Key Superfund Data Is Being Withheld From the Public
The EPA won't release some data on 140 Superfund locations. Senate Republicans say their rivals may want to reinstate a cleanup fee.
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
June 16, 2006

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Thursday accused the Bush administration of withholding key details about toxic waste sites that present risks of exposure to nearby residents.

At a congressional hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the Environmental Protection Agency had designated as confidential the details of about 140 Superfund sites where toxic exposure remained uncontrolled.

Boxer and other Democrats said the secret data included information about how much money and time it would take to clean up the dangerous sites, including one site where the EPA predicted it would take 26 years to close off access to toxics.

"This isn't a question of left or right," Boxer said, waving a document marked "Privileged" by EPA officials to prevent its release to the public. "This is a question of right and wrong."
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-toxic16jun16,1,1013231.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

and they widely broadcast the first and only wildlife preservation BushCo has done. The hiding of pollution is called partisan politics and the only preservation is proclaimed as Bush being environmentally friendly.

The corporate media plays along. In a free nation the media would be all over the pollution story investigating which areas are at risk. That doesn't happen here in this country.

on the grounds that it might be used by terrorists to create a public health hazard.
The online street map websites had to remove electric power lines,
made it a real pain in the ass for house-hunters who didn't want to live near electric power lines.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061606E.shtml

original LAT link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-to...



Democrats Say Key Superfund Data Is Being Withheld From the Public
By T. Christian Miller
The Los Angeles Times

Friday 16 June 2006

The EPA won't release some data on 140 Superfund locations. Senate Republicans say their rivals may want to reinstate a cleanup fee.

Washington - Senate Democrats on Thursday accused the Bush administration of withholding key details about toxic waste sites that present risks of exposure to nearby residents.

At a congressional hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the Environmental Protection Agency had designated as confidential the details of about 140 Superfund sites where toxic exposure remained uncontrolled.

Boxer and other Democrats said the secret data included information about how much money and time it would take to clean up the dangerous sites, including one site where the EPA predicted it would take 26 years to close off access to toxics.......

"This isn't a question of left or right," Boxer said, waving a document marked "Privileged" by EPA officials to prevent its release to the public. "This is a question of right and wrong."...

please edit your post to provide the original link
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Note LBN rules:
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.... Democrats have routinely accused the Bush administration of restricting access to information designed to protect the public. One Republican-sponsored bill moving through Congress would limit data available on toxic substances released into communities, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has blocked information on flooding dangers in Florida.

Thursday's hearing of the Superfund and waste management subcommittee was the first in four years. The Superfund program was created almost three decades ago in response to environmental disasters such as Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where chemical contamination forced the removal of 800 families and led to $200 million in remediation costs.

that when you dump a bunch of chemical waste improperly, it can hurt the development of fetuses. Right to life, my ass.

is the sort of information that would show an overwhelmingly republican-linked factor.

Toxic waste. Big schmeal. Danger to citizens' health. Pfah! How does this compare with the vital need for the House to spend two days debating a non-binding resolution that says we're gonna win the war on terror? By golly, we debated the hell outta that sucker. We must be closer than ever to winning the war on terror! U! S! A! U! S! A!

This is a lot more important than the stupid Karl Rove soap opera or the latest inanity spouted by Ann Coulter.

Do you suppose THAT has anything to do with all of this cloak and dagger crap?

:think:

Locally we have an old Air Force Base that is designated as a Superfund site. Literally, there are areas (several acres worth) of that old base that are chained off and posted with signs waring of toxic waste.

The fences are not anything substantial enough to keep even a cow in/out, so I highly doubt they are up to anything. Additionally I have worked with GIS maps of the restricted access areas, and there is not much there--lots of bare ground.

Similarly (and really creepy to consider) there is actually a lake on that old base that has all kinds of warning signs posted about not swimming in the water and not eating any fish you catch from there. THAT might well be leaking into a major (multi-state, I think) aquifer.

That's right, folks, our Air force created this and then moved on--leaving it in the hands of the local government. Ya gotta love that "cut and run" mentality, but you also have to figure the feds don't want to have to pay for cleaning this mess up all by themselves.



Laura