The bureaucracy as enemy of the people.

EPA rebuked for failing to comply with House mine spill investigation

By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Environmental Protection Agency came under fire Tuesday for neglecting to turn over most of the documents requested by a House committee related to the Gold King Mine spill.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee had requested documents and communication stemming from the toxic blowout in an Aug. 10 letter to the EPA. The deadline was Monday.

“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the EPA failed to meet the House Science Committee’s reasonable deadline in turning over documents pertaining to the Gold King Mine spill,” said committee chairman Lamar Smith.

The EPA has released some documents requested by the committee publicly but “has failed to turn over the majority of the requested documentation to date,” according to the committee’s Tuesday statement.

EPA spokeswoman Melissa Harrison responding by saying that the agency “takes its commitment to transparency seriously.”

“Since the Gold King Mine incident, EPA has been inundated with requests for documents related to the response. EPA has posted a large number of documents on our response website, many of which are responsive to the committee’s request,” she said in an email.

“EPA is continuing to identify additional documents responsive to the request and will provide them to the committee as soon as they are available,” said Ms. Harrison.

The committee has called on EPA administrator Gina McCarthy and the head of Environmental Restoration, the contractor on the project, to testify before the committee at its Sept. 9 hearing on the accident.

Ms. McCarthy is currently meeting in Japan with government and business leaders on environmental policy, which Mr. Smith described as “crusading on climate change.”

He also noted that President Obama “has yet to visit the area affected by the spill,” although he has traveled the country to push the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which requires steep reductions in emissions from coal-fired plants.

“Even in the face of self-imposed environmental disaster, this administration continues to prioritize its extreme agenda over the interests and well-being of Americans,” the Texas Republican said.

Ms. McCarthy, who spent two days in Colorado and New Mexico inspecting the damage, has apologized for the Aug. 5 accident that sent 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Animas and San Juan rivers.