Henry Payne for August 26, 2015

And the mining company had absolutely nothing to do with the spill.

Evidently, Henry yearns for the days when rivers would catch fire every so often.

And, of course, the days of acid rain.

How to stop an accidental release: block the river with debris from strip mining coal.

The Federal USA Democrat Republican system did much worse environmental damages in the wars in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, iraq-iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Nicaragua, etc. The Feds employ mostly veterans, like in the post office. Karma?

Maybe they thought gold was buried under all that muck, get rich quick the easy way.

The EPA hired a PRIVATE company to do the inspection. I thought that PRIVATE business can do NO WRONG!

The EPA was trying to clean up a really bad mess left behind by the mining companies. It business had cleaned up their mess the EPA would not have even been there. Their contractor screwed up and caused the spill but show me a business that doesn’t screw up once in a while. There are all kinds of flooded mines and mining sediment lakes all over the country that pose a potential threat to those who live near them. The EPA is simply trying to clean up the mess business left behind. Business doesn’t like it because it will hurt their profits if they have to clean up after themselves.

The EPA did a pretty good job of cleaning up our uranium mill and mines. Which, the first action Kerr McGee, the mine owner, took may have killed everyone on site with later cancers after they did some stupid stuff. (think Silkwood btw)

I’ve worked with EPA and corporates, and the EPA simply has a better recored, WHEN they are allowed to use science and technology, instead of being shoved by politics and a lack of funding (Thanks Republicans) into “problem areas”.

Which it is POLITICS that mandates that FERC will license just about any energy application, no matter how stupid, and that’s because of regulations and madates written by mostly Republicans, and a few Dems who’ve also been in the pocket of industry.

When and if, folks saw just how much “government” has changed, for the worse, under Reagan and later “conservative” policies to favor corporate interests in resource managment, they’d hang em.

Even before this latest episode, corporations have been lambasting the EPA constantly and unfairly, simply because of what the EPA was set up to do: regulate waste, keep the environment from becoming poisoned. This does entail some outlay of money to abide by these rules, but it cuts into their profits, and they don’t want that. So, ship operations to offshore nations, pay off the leaders to look the other way, and make greater profits, and earth’s health be damned. Poisoned air and waters are the next generation’s problem; we want to enjoy our wealth TODAY!

The air and water now are a hell of a lot better than they were in the 60s–70s. The GOP (apart from Nixon) never wanted to clean up anything if it cost a few cents, and they’ve done their best to declare that all pollution is over and we can go back to throwing everything in the river.

Leaving it in the ground for later is a typical cowardly conservative dodge, just like leaving bridges, roads, and crossings unfixed until they fall into the river as well.

Meanwhile, the owners will declare bankruptcy after milking as much dough as they can from the government they claim to hate, and join their loot offshore. The similarity to a Mafia-styled “bust out” is not a coincidence.

A Toxic Chemical Ruined The Lives Of These People — And It’s Probably In Your Blood The story of one of the most brazen, deadly corporate gambits in U.S. history.http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/welcome-to-beautiful-parkersburg/