Environmental groups sue EPA for stronger dispersant rules
Environmental groups are suing to force the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a rule on the use of oil dispersants, arguing that current rules do not meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act.
Conservation, wildlife and public health groups in the Gulf of Mexico region and in Alaska allege in their suit that dispersants were used unsafely to break up crude after the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the plaintiffs said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re disappointed that the agency doesn’t seem to understand the widespread public urgency to initiate this rulemaking process,” said Jill Mastrototaro, Sierra Club Gulf Coast Protection Campaign Director. “If a spill or blowout happened tomorrow in the Gulf of Mexico, or any U.S. water for that matter, any dispersant that is used would not necessarily be safe for the waters, ecosystems, response workers, or nearby communities.”
EPA regulations governing dispersants that can be used in oil spills do not provide a threshold for safety and require only minimal toxicity testing, according to the plaintiffs.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/08/08/environmental-groups-sue-epa-for-stronger-dispersant-rules/
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Because if it's up the corporations they will just continue to rape, pillage and plunder. Oh and then they get the hell out of dodge and go start off somewhere else.
And we certainly can't expect the TCEQ (Toxic) to do their job. Those guys work for the polluting industry on the taxpayer dime.
Here is an ongoing example on how ineffective the TCEQ is. When companies cook the books (literally), the TCEQ turns a blind eye. Except that one of their employees was also almost killed on a site inspection.
Texas Observer 8/1/12
Heavy Metal
The ‘long, sordid history' of Texas’ most brazen polluter.
ON OCTOBER 20, 2010, TWO INVESTIGATORS with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality climbed a smokestack at the Gulf Chemical & Metallurgical Corp. plant in Freeport. The plant takes spent catalysts from oil refineries across the globe and recovers valuable metals from them. For years, state regulators at the TCEQ’s regional office had tried to figure out how much pollution the facility was emitting. Neighbors had often complained that Gulf Chemical spewed dangerous heavy metals into the water and air. The company had long failed to conduct accurate testing, and the October 2010 stack test had been repeatedly delayed. Just a few months earlier, in June, the company had pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts of illegally discharging toxic wastewater into the Old Brazos River and paid a $2.75 million fine. Surely the company, chastened by a rare criminal prosecution for pollution, would now be on its best behavior.
Not exactly.
As the TCEQ employees, wearing flimsy $8 dust masks, climbed the stack, they suddenly smelled an odor like a firecracker had just exploded. Soon, a molten material—the company would later call it “magma”—erupted from the stack and began raining down on them.
The TCEQ employees hustled off the stack to safety, but two contractors working on the test weren’t so lucky. Company officials made no effort to bring them down, and one contractor was burned by the magma, according to internal company emails and state records obtained by the Observer.
