Trump's EPA Wants New Focus On Superfund Sites, Complete With 30% Budget Cuts, Layoffs & Buyouts
EDIT
As Natural Resources reporter Susan Dunlap reports in today’s edition of The Montana Standard, the EPA let us know that Butte doesn’t have to worry about what the Administrator will do here. The reason? There are no remedies yet to come for Butte that will exceed $50 million. To appreciate the truly astonishing nature of this pronouncement, let us first consider just one operable unit – Butte Priority Soils.
The ultimate, overall remedy for this unit is still a matter of negotiation. EPA, ARCO, the state and Butte-Silver Bow have been locked in consent-decree talks for years. EPA Montana Superfund Manager Joe Vranka has said the agency has already overseen some $250 million in work within the operable unit. The remedy now operating – a subdrain and a waste-in-place philosophy – calls for the polluted water collected by the subdrain to be “treated in perpetuity.”
We’re not sure how long “perpetuity” is but it’s probably long enough to ring up another $50 million in costs.
EDIT
Most concerning about this fantasy math is that it sends a clear message from EPA to Butte: We’re almost done here, folks, we’re going to ignore the cleanup you really deserve, and we just can’t wait to hit the road.
With some 1,300 Superfund sites around the country, taking a third of the program’s resources away, offering buyouts to more than a thousand workers and lowballing the government’s obligations going forward represents a facile dereliction of duty. Somehow the gabble about leadership and attitude and management makes it all the more repugnant.
EDIT/END
http://mtstandard.com/opinion/editorial/standard-opinion-epa-s-fantasy-math-sends-clear-message-on/article_db0036af-60fb-505d-aa68-77703efa94d9.html
