A Quota of Daily Pollution - EPA Delays and Lack of Enforcement

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Published on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

A Quota of Daily Pollution
by Evaggelos Vallianatos

From the moment of its inception, in December 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was caught in a trap. It could not honestly protect “human health and the environment” from the perpetual onslaught of toxins and outright pollution of the industrial behemoth of the United States.

The federal government organizations that tried to protect human health and the environment before 1970 were the giant Departments of Agriculture; Interior; and Health, Education and Welfare. They had failed miserably, which was the real reason for the establishment of EPA.

The most EPA could do was to learn from its predecessors by “regulating” pollution, i.e., allowing factories a quota of pollution every day and prohibit the most life-threatening practices of those making poisons and other dangerous products.

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