This was allowed to happen under Gov. Hickenlooper’s watch, the Denver Post’s Bruce Finley reports:
Colorado allows 39 companies to pollute the state’s waterways with E. coli, chlorine and more.
The news should have elicited demands for an explanation from Hickenlopper and top officials in his administration, promises to never allow it again, and pledges to crack down on serious offenders.
This should be the cue for Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne to distance herself at warp speed from the Hickenlooper administration in her gubernatorial bid, and issue a statement pleading that it happened before she got there and she’s knows nothing, nothing about it.
But that’s not what the article is about. It’s just another half-assed lobbying effort by a California environmental group to pressure Congress to give more money to the EPA.
In just 18 months, 241 violations were recorded and an environmental group worries cuts to the EPA will worsen the problem
The state relies heavily on federal funds for programs designed to protect people and the environment, with about a third of its enforcement budget, or about $30 million, coming from EPA grants.
So Colorado had $90 million to enforce Clean Water laws and this is what we got for our money: “State and federal enforcers in Colorado rarely penalized the polluters.”
Therefore, environmentalists want us to give the EPA even more money to not enforce Clean Water Act laws. Also U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet went on record this week saying he wants the EPA to have more funding, so long as the money doesn’t go to Coloradans impacted by the EPA-caused Gold King Mine spill.
The article doesn’t say whether any of the discharges actually caused a public health threat or caused environmental damage. Just that we should open our wallets and give even more money to the EPA victims.