1 Boring Old Man

EPA’s top Midwest regulator forced out

^{Mary Gade, based in Chicago, says Bush administration made her quit over Dow Chemical case}

For the past year, Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich., plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. Gade, a former corporate attorney appointed by Bush in September 2006, invoked emergency powers last year to force Dow to clean up four hot spots of dioxin, including the largest amount of the cancer-causing chemical ever recorded in the United States.

In January, Dow urged officials at the EPA’s headquarters to intervene after Gade broke off negotiations intended to renew the terms for a more comprehensive cleanup. Neither side would reveal details, citing confidentiality agreements, but Gade said Dow resisted taking steps needed to protect human health and wildlife. Though regional EPA administrators typically have wide latitude to enforce environmental laws, Gade drew fire from officials in Washington last month after she sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels.

She said top lieutenants to Stephen Johnson, the national EPA administrator, repeatedly questioned her aggressive action against Dow, which long ago acknowledged it is responsible for the dioxin contamination but has resisted federal and state involvement in cleanup plans. "There is no question this is about Dow," Gade said. "I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I’m proud of what we did."

Dioxin is not a lightweight toxin. It’s the real deal. Remember Ukraine’s President Yushchenko’s before and after pictures? Dioxin poisoning. He survived, but what happened wasn’t very pretty.

We know that in the U.S. Attorney scandal with politicians calling Rove being assured their "problem" would be taken care of. In fact, the whole thread of complaints about this Administration revolves around this kind of thing – falsifying intelligence, big military contracts, protecting telecoms, secret legal memos, government by leaks, stubbornly resisting oversight, inappropriate appointments, signing statements, the list goes on and on. We have a corrupt government, plain and simple. It is highly unlikely that Mary Glade was fired for cause. She was fired for doing her job. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to propose that she was fired because she wouldn’t "play ball" with the DOW Chemical company to minimize their clean-up costs. Dioxin kills people, gives them cancer. So, it appears that DOW Chemical has plenty of influence in Washington.

This reminds me of a case from long ago. Lewis Harold Brown was president of Johns-Manville, the largest asbestos manufacturer in the US, and was involved in a massive, 40-year cover-up of the severe health risks from asbestos. He was also the founder of the American Enterprise Institute, the right-wing think tank that spawned the Neoconservatives that took over the White House under George Bush. A.E.I. was founded to be a voice for Big Business in government. They are still involved in trying to ameliorate the asbestos settlements.