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Bush admin ousts top EPA official over Dow Chemical pollution case

Posted at 8:41 PM on 01 May 2008

The Bush administration forced out the U.S. EPA's top Midwest regulator on Thursday, after months of contention over a pollution case involving Dow Chemical, the Chicago Tribune reports. Mary Gade, who was appointed by President Bush in 2006, had been tussling with Dow over plans to get the company to clean up extensive dioxin pollution that it dumped into Michigan waterways for decades. Dow asked EPA headquarters to intervene in the dispute, and top deputies to EPA chief Stephen Johnson repeatedly questioned Gade about the case. Then she was stripped of her authority and told to quit or be fired. "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."

source: Chicago Tribune
see also, in Gristmill: Shades of U.S. attorney scandal

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Comments: (7 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

I like her Earth Day speech

Mary Gade comes across as a decent career environmental lawyer who went into the field for the right reasons, lots of earthy personality, not too fancy. I wonder if she's still a Bush supporter...

Dow Chemical's Wikipedia article is illuminating - it is a controversial entry, and the Discussion tab is worth a visit. Manufacturers of Agent Orange and napalm, involved in 96 Superfund dump sites, major air polluter. Sold a soil fumigant, DBCP, to Dole Fruit after it had been linked with male sterility and banned in the US. Dow and Dole sued in Latin American courts, lost, owe $600 million, refuse to pay. And, I suppose, everyone's heard of Bhopal.

I don't see how we can have environmental regulation of multinational corporations if the companies are allowed to shrug off all financial and criminal penalties for their wrongful acts.

Stephen Brown (Sharon, PA)

by pianoyoga at 4:04 PM on 02 May 2008

Superfund Pork Barrel

There's Superfund site right outside my office window.

It's been there since 2001.

It's still there.

Once in a while guys in Hazmat suits come around...but not lately.

Will it ever be cleaned up? Does the EPA actually clean up these "Superfund" sites?

by jabailo at 7:28 PM on 02 May 2008

superfund

What a joke!No,texeme,I do not think that the superfund does or will do anything.We have a superfund site in our small town of 15,000 and nothing has been done in 8 years now.There was a mysterious fire that burned part of the factory this past winter.The blame was on homeless people,but no one was charged.
Pianoyoga,you are bang on the mark.No financial or criminal penalties equals Big Business gets richer and does what it chooses and the poor just die.

Why not ask why!?

by usandthem at 9:24 PM on 02 May 2008

Just dreaming

Wouldn't it be lovely if corporations had to prove that they were acting in the public good or be de-chartered. Actually, that is how incorporation originally worked: limited liability in exchange for some definable public good.

by human power at 11:18 PM on 02 May 2008

Less is More

linked with male sterility

Wouldn't that be a better thing both for their population...and ours?

by jabailo at 11:39 AM on 03 May 2008

Poisoned farmworkers

Sterility without informed consent is never acceptable.

by EcoAvenger at 2:50 AM on 05 May 2008
[ Parent ]

Where is Obama on this?

I have been following Mary's dogged campaign for some months with interest. I have sent more than a few emails with 'nary a response from the Senators from Ill. Why is Obama silent on this? For that matter, with a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, I would think this would be a great example of Republican cahoots with the Chem-boys to be played out in a public hearing.

We know Bush administration is evil, but why the silence from the Democrats?

by perk at 6:43 AM on 06 May 2008

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