While the recent unleashing of three million gallons of toxic wastewater from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River in Colorado by contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency has been called "outrageous" in a Miami Herald editorial ("Accident Aside, EPA Still Needed"), the "horrific accident helps drive home the point that the agency is needed more than ever."
The editorial states that the EPA "must keep their promises to effectively undo the damage done by the spill," as well as compensate landowners affected by it.
While thousands of Superfund sites - "hazardous-wast dumping grounds often created by irresponsible private companies" - about across the U.S., several states are fighting the EPA, including Florida. Florida is one of 17 states involved in a legal action against the EPA, "accusing it of illegally invalidating the individual air-quality protection plans in those states. The reason: In June, the EPA issued a final rule requiring 35 states, including Florida, to revise their individual State Implementation Plans governing carbon emissions during a power plant’s start-up, shutdown or malfunction."
The Miami Herald's editorial goes on to briefly outline the fight, as well as reiterating the fact that "the EPA must be allowed to carry out its extremely important role" of protecting the nation's environment.
To read the editorial in its entirety, go to http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article31135991.html#storylink=cpy.
No comments:
Post a Comment