Sunday, September 25, 2005

Killing us slowly

WASHINGTON -- The government wants to stop forcing companies to report small releases of toxic pollutants and allow them to submit reports on their pollution less frequently.

Saying it wants to ease its regulatory burden on companies, the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday proposed adopting a ''short form" that would excuse companies from disclosing spills and other releases of toxic substances if:

They say they release fewer than 5,000 pounds of a specific chemical. The current limit is 500 pounds.

They store onsite but say they release "zero" amounts of the worst pollutants, such as mercury, DDT, and PCBs, that persist in the environment and work up the food chain. However, they must report if they have stored dioxin or dioxin-like compounds, even if none is released. [my em]

[. . .]


You gotta be fucking kidding me. One day, there is gonna be a mushroom cloud. It's gonna be some chemical plant blowing sky high. Either that or they're gonna render our lands inhabitable. Remember all those Superfund sites we paid to clean up? Seems there are more in the making.

Hat tip: Seeing the Forest

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