Bushco and the Effluent Society

posted by The Vidiot @ 1:43 PM Permalink

First the good news:

About 5 percent of the contiguous United States, or almost 108 million acres, was covered with wetlands as of 2004, the Fish and Wildlife Service reported Thursday. Federal officials celebrated the net gain of 191,800 acres since 1997 as a milestone in the nation's effort to achieve "no net loss" of wetlands - a goal first set by the first President Bush.

Ahh, but this is Bushco and with Bushco, no news is good news:

Neither the report nor the celebration kept natural wetlands like bogs, swamps, ponds, marshes and fens from suffering a steep decline. The nation lost 523,000 acres since 1997 - and that doesn't include the devastation of coastal wetlands hurricanes Katrina and Rita left in their wake.

Standard Bushco tactic, don't fix the problem, fix the definition:

The increase in the nation's wetlands came primarily from artificial ponds.

About 715,000 acres of decorative ponds at posh housing developments and water traps at golf courses accounted for the national milestone. Retention ponds to hold stormwater and sewage effluent also helped.

Bushco preserving their natural heritage, the cesspools of corruption from which they crawled forth.

And who in Bushco is responsible for these losses and distortions? In the immortal words of Ralph Cramden: Norton, hey NORTON!

In an interview with the Associated Press, (Interior Secretary Gale Norton), who is stepping down Friday for personal reasons, said the department has worked with hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers on protecting wetlands and endangered species.

Anyone else notice a conspicuously missing group ... like mebbe environmentalists!?

And yet another WOT. No, not the War on Terror, the Water or Trichlorethylene dilemma:

Pentagon Block on Move For Safer Water

The Pentagon stalled efforts to clean water supplies contaminated by a carcinogenic chemical despite evidence that it posed a significant health risk to millions of people, it was reported yesterday.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated the solvent, trichlorethylene, extensively used on military bases, after significant quantities were found in water supplies. In its report, published in 2001, the EPA found it to be 40 times more likely to cause cancer than had been previously thought, and recommended tough safety standards to limit public exposure. There was also evidence the chemical played a role in birth defects.

But the Los Angeles Times reported that the defence department, which owns 1,400 bases and other sites contaminated by trichlorethylene (TCE), fought the findings, challenging their scientific basis. Under pressure from the Pentagon, political appointees at the EPA overruled their own scientists, took them off the case and postponed action pending a further study by the National Academy of Sciences, which is due to report this summer.