TX Pols knew TCEQ hid the amount of radiation in drinking water

[sonias]

KHOU 5/19/11

Texas politicians knew agency hid the amount of radiation in drinking water

HOUSTON— Newly-released e-mails from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality show the agency’s top commissioners directed staff to continue lowering radiation test results, in defiance of federal EPA rules.

The e-mails and documents, released under order from the Texas Attorney General to KHOU-TV, also show the agency was attempting to help water systems get out of formally violating federal limits for radiation in drinking water. Without a formal violation, the water systems did not have to inform their residents of the increased health risk.

“It’s a conspiracy at the TCEQ of the highest order,” said Tom Smith, of the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “The documents have indicted the management of this commission in a massive cover-up to convince people that our water is safe to drink when it’s not.”

Smith is talking about what happened to residents who live in communities served by utilities like Harris County Municipal Utility District 105. For years, tests performed by the Texas Department of State Health Services showed the utility provided water that exceeded the EPA legal limit for exposure to alpha radiation.

However, the TCEQ would consistently subtract off each test’s margin of error from those results, making the actual testing results appear lower than they actually were. In MUD 105’s case, the utility was able to avoid violations for nearly 20 years, thanks to the TCEQ subtractions.

All of these people have been complicit in lying to Texans about the safety of their water:
TCEQ Commission Kathleen Hartnett White, then-Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Sen. Robert Duncan, and other lawmakers and state leaders.

OMG! This is frigging horrible. We've always known TCEQ was a captured agency for the polluting industry and was at odds with the EPA but this is unforgivable. They're outright lying on their tests by rounding down results!!

:mad::mad::mad:

[w8liftinglady]

1. Do you think TCEQ has sold their collective souls to the highest bidder?

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040709dnmetcement.b5d096ce.html

[sonias]

2. I don't think they have souls

They're simply thinking about money. They might as well be a malicious software program that finds the quickest way to maximize corporate profits and health of humans be damned.

:mad:

[Melissa G]

3. Hideous. Of course, the EPA is cutting back testing on radiation to every quarter

Totally ignoring what's happening in Japan. Nothing to see here... Move along folks...

Who know what Hawaii's radiation info is going to be? I hope there are folks there doing independent testing. :grr:

Edit to say that I generally hope the Feds catch what the State is missing and vice versa. Not likely as far as radiation is concerned at either level.

[plumbob]

4. Duncan is a graduate of Tech, and that is the main reason I do

not recommend Tech to my students. Anyplace that allows the kind of backhanded doubledealing anti-education slug like Duncan to get two degrees is just not getting the job done.

These people are scum, and as a resident of the area which recently "won" the right to accept nuclear waste from 36 states right on top of our drinking water, I am even more livid than usual.

[sonias]

5. "won" the right to accept nuclear waste

Yea we're number one in toxicity!!! :sarcasm:

The whole vote went down strict party lines too. Harold Simmons bought the Republican Lege super cheap. :grr:

Laying Waste to Texas: Simmons' Campaign Money Predicted Nuclear-Waste Dump Votes