These poor people. I wonder if they’ll ever be safe again:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Government investigators are still trying to determine exactly how much of a toxic chemical that spilled at the Freedom Industries tank farm along the Elk River soaked into the ground and could later leach into the river, a top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said Wednesday evening.
“An investigation is going on to figure out where there might be any materials in the ground, and so far that investigation is still going on,” EPA regional administrator Shawn Garvin told The Charleston Gazette.
Asked if that meant officials simply don’t know how much of the “Crude MCHM” is still in the soil and could reach the river without proper containment and cleanup measures, Garvin said, “I think that’s probably … we’re still investigating to ensure we have a complete answer to that.”
If we had done what the Republicans wanted us to do and closed down the EPA we wouldn’t be bothered by Shawn Garvin asking all of these pesky questions. We all know that companies, big and small, have the public’s health and welfare uppermost in their minds as they conduct their daily business. We know that profits are never a concern when it comes to operating in a safe manner. We don’t need no damn regulations. Nor do we need anyone enforcing them. So let’s all be good Republican and Libertarian capitalists and stop spending our tax dollars on anything except welfare for the 1%. Low tax rates, no capital gains taxes, no corporate taxes, deductions for special interests, and so on.
Jeez, you can hear the sounds of robust coporate ass kissing in EPA’s statement.
Actually the inspections should be done by the state Department of Environmental Protection. They were not done because (they claim) that (1) this was only a “storage facility” that did not actually manufacture chemicals and (2) the chemicals stored there were not in the list as “hazardous”.
The chemical was not on the list because, like about 10,000 other “grandfathered” chemicals, it had never actually been tested. This is one reason why nobody knows how dangerous it is.So don’t be sorry for us “poor people”. It could happen anywhere at any time.
It does happen everywhere. We’ve had several crude oil spills in the last year that have done the same thing. Doesn’t mean I can’t feel bad about it.
For all we know, that chemical or worse ones could be percolating all thru the groundwater of every place that has fracking. Don’t you feel better being protected from that scary knowledge?
I don’t understand why the concerns are only in those nine counties. What about the rest of the country downstream in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers?