Three cheers for the people of Kellogg, Idaho
For waking up and seeing the meddling of the EPA for what it is.
From
Yahoo News/Associated Press:
Superfund cleanup in Idaho draws local opposition
People who live around a toxic former silver mining complex in Idaho have a message for federal environmental officials who want to expand a lengthy cleanup effort: Go home, your help is no longer wanted.
Despite the government's best intentions, some locals think a prolonged federal presence will scare away businesses by sending a message that the Silver Valley is a dangerous place to live. Residents and politicians in this conservative region also believe it's a waste of taxpayer dollars and that the real intention of the government is to shut down the remaining mines.
"They've got their environmental science degree from some place like Berkeley and they drive their Prius to the back hills of Idaho and here are a bunch of miners and they want to do what they think is best for us," said attorney James McMillan.
The Environmental Protection Agency has spent nearly 20 years cleaning up the Superfund site in Kellogg that was once one of the most-polluted places in the country, with arsenic and lead stripping the hillsides of vegetation and poisoning the blood of children.
Emphasis mine -- item one on the EPAs agenda
A bit more -- why the people were protesting:
Item #1):
The EPA wants to expand the cleanup to outlying and aquatic areas � some 300 square miles of the Coeur d'Alene River Basin. The expanded cleanup could take up to 90 years to complete.
Item #2):
...and Republican Idaho Gov. Butch Otter complained about the long timeframe for the work.
"I will not support an open-ended bureaucratic process that amounts to a blank check for the EPA," Otter said at a meeting Monday.
It is no longer about the environment, it is about politicized science and hoarding power and control.
Pournelle's Iron Law writ large:
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people. First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers are scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
Posted by DaveH at August 13, 2010 1:31 PM