To Clean Up or Not to Clean Up ... We're Still on Defense

U.S. Defense Department fighting EPA orders to clean up Superfund sites 3

Defying environmental law, the U.S. Defense Department has resisted repeated orders lately from the U.S. EPA to clean up some of the nation's most contaminated places. The DoD/EPA standoff has turned into a bureaucratic pissing match wherein the EPA has asserted its authority to order and oversee cleanup of ultra-polluted Superfund sites the DoD owns, but where DoD, in its characteristic style, doesn't want to acknowledge EPA's power and maintains that it's cleaning up many of the contaminated sites itself voluntarily -- albeit extremely slowly. The fate of contaminated aquifers, polluted soil, and public health at three military bases hang in the balance; timely cleanup of some 12 other Superfund sites are also at stake. Complicating matters, different departments in the executive branch are discouraged from suing each other, so the EPA's legal recourses are limited. Meanwhile, the DoD is appealing to the Justice Department and the White House to intervene on its behalf.

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  1. Wolverine Posted 2:42 am
    30 Jun 2008

    TypicalThere's nothing more evil than the U.S. military, the biggest polluter in the U.S.  These people are not warriors, as people like to think.  They are nothing but thugs who enforce the power of U.S. business interests, despite any lies and propaganda to the contrary.
  2. Masked Goddess Posted 8:15 am
    30 Jun 2008

    DoD - department of defending (itself)Of course the DoD would defy EPA orders.  It doesn't apply to them.  Why would they want to do something as sensible as clean up some of the nation's most contaminated places?  They're far too bizee with homeland suckurity.

    As for the pissing contest, the DoD's motto is "piss on you".
  3. John former Marine Posted 3:05 am
    01 Jul 2008

    They're mercenaries...Warriors defend their village and I'm sure wouldn't dump toxic waste within its boundaries.  Full-time, well-paid, insured, and pensioned military are not warriors, they're mercenaries.  They go where you tell them to go and kill or bomb where you say.
    War is a Racket.  And it's a huge waste of resources.  But it's good for the economy...or at least for defense contractors, oil companies, and arms dealers.
    Don't think you're gonna change it anytime soon though.  Many people in top ranks still get their primary education/philosophy from a book in which a "God" orders Joshua to kill men, women, children, animals and to burn everything else that his enemies own.  I'm sure "God" would've said "nuke the bastards" if he had invented the atomic bomb a little earlier.

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