Family with stock pond beats EPA in Clean Water Act overreach

From Hotair:

Last August I talked to you about Andy Johnson, a rancher in Utah who was being tagged with upwards of $16M in fines by the EPA for building a small stock pond on his property. Even though the pond actually cleans the water in the stream which flows through it, provides hydration for trees and keeps his cattle alive, the EPA determined that this was some sort of gross violation of their control over every drop of running or standing water in the country under their recently expanded interpretation of the Clean Water Act. (By the way… that power grab was suspended by the courts, but that’s not stopping the EPA from pursuing enforcement anyway.)

This case has finally come to a close, though it was “settled” rather than mandated by a judge. The EPA is backing down, cancelling the fines and allowing Johnson to keep his pond.
....................

Gina McCarthy would like to dig the government’s fingernails into every roadside culvert and wet sidewalk in the country, and without someone to push back against these schemes the way the Johnson Family and the Pacific Legal Foundation have, she’ll get away with it. We don’t just need a new, conservative president next year… we desperately require new blood in all of the cabinet departments, starting with the EPA.

Yes, a some laws against administrative regulation.

McCain wants criminal charges against EPA officials involved in toxic spill

From Rick Moran in the American Thinker Blog:

Senator John McCain wants to charge EPA officials with a crime for their actions that led to the disastrous release of toxic wastewater from the Gold King Mine last year.

The spill polluted 3 rivers and severely effected the lives and livelihood of several indian tribes.

The senator made the declaration Friday during an Indian Affairs Committee field hearing in Phoenix, Ariz. The hearing was titled: "Examining the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Unacceptable Response to Indian Tribes."

"I've come to the conclusion that a Department of Justice criminal investigation is merited and must now occur," McCain said.

He cited EPA employees' failure to conduct appropriate water pressure tests at the mine and adequately consult partnering federal agencies before excavating around the mine's containment plug, though they knew about the potential for a "catastrophic blowout.”

The spill "has devastated lands and livelihoods across Navajo Nation" McCain said in a statement. He said he is concerned about the EPA's "disregard for environmental issues in Indian Country."

I guess Senator McCain work up from his nap, finally!

Ho hum -- another day, another toxic mine spill by the EPA

From Hot Air:

Is this something which is fairly new in the history of our government or was there just nobody paying attention up until now? This past week there was another spill of potentially dangerous waste water from a mine in Colorado. And once again it wasn’t miners or anyone in the private sector messing up the landscape… it was the increasingly inappropriately named Environmental Protection Agency. (Denver Post)

An EPA crew working at the Standard Mine above Crested Butte has triggered a spill of wastewater into a creek.

Crested Butte Mayor Aaron Huckstep and staffers for U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton said Thursday that about 2,000 gallons of wastewater spilled late Wednesday during work at the mine.

EPA officials could not confirm the incident, and National Response Center contractors in Washington D.C. did not yet have a report of the spill. An EPA congressional liaison officer could not be reached, and EPA public information officials said they were working on a statement.

We might have known about this even sooner except there is yet another repeating theme playing out in the story of the Standard Mine spill. As reported by Marjorie Haun at Watchdog, the EPA seems to have mysteriously forgotten to report the incident to the home office.

This is from the "most transparent Administration" evah!

"Gina McCarthy! Call your office!"

Navajo Nation furious that Democrats have seemingly abandoned them over Animas River spill

From Hot Air:

In August, the Environmental Protection Agency, in their infinite wisdom, decided to let three million gallons of toxic water from the abandoned Gold King Mine contaminate the Animas River. The EPA was sent there on a clean up mission, as the mine had been abandoned for nearly a decade–and accumulating hazardous water waste as a result. All told, the arsenic levels in the river are now 300 times the normal rate, with lead levels at 3,500 times what is considered healthy.

The Navajo nation slammed the president’s inaction over the Animas river spill in Colorado that is threatening their way of life. House and Senate hearings over the spill are being held in Congress over this issue (via The Hill):

OF course this Regime will abandon any ally when they are inconvenient. It's all about the narrative.

GOP Rep. Demands EPA Chief Resign Over Mine Blowout

From The Daily Caller:

A handful of Republicans are demanding EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy be impeached for allegedly committing perjury before Congress this year, and now one GOP lawmaker is calling for McCarthy to resign over the agency-caused mine blowout.

“In the interest of fairness to the American people who have experienced the wrath of the EPA for much smaller… accidents than this, I think it’s only appropriate that you would resign as a statement of fairness for what Americans have experienced for much smaller incidents,” Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice told McCarthy in the hearing.

The hearing was examining the EPA’s response to a massive blowout of wastewater at the Gold King Mine caused by agency workers. State and tribal officials have been furious with the EPA’s slow response and lack of transparency in agency spill operations. Navajo officials have even threatened to sue the agency over the spill.

She needs to be indicted, convicted, and serve hard time for criminal negligence, perjury, obstruction of justice, etc.

Rep. Goodlatte Blasts DHS Sec.'s 'Hypocritical" Criticisms of Sanctuary Cities

From Breitbart's Big Government:

Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson’s recent criticisms of sanctuary city policies ring hollow given the Obama administration’s actions enabling such policies, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

“While I agree that sanctuary city policies are unacceptable, it’s hypocritical for Secretary Johnson to criticize sanctuary cities while at the same time refusing to take the steps necessary to end these reckless policies,” Goodlatte said Wednesday in reaction to comments Johnson made a day earlier.

Why is Rep Goodlatte surprised. It not as if this Regime has a history of lying to Congress. This Regime has told the truth about Fast & Furious, The IRS (Lois Lerner), the EPA (CO2, Animus River, Greenhouse gases), Benghazi, Dreamers, etc.

Mine Owner Calls EPA Official's Testimony At Toxic Spill Hearing Absolute Baloney of the Worst Kind

From Breitbart's Big Government:

Gold King Mine owner Todd Hennis is calling the testimony of EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus at Wednesday’s House Science Committee hearing “absolute baloney of the worst kind.”

In his testimony, EPA’s Stanislaus told the committee “[t]his [blowout] was a result of cave-ins and water build up. That’s why we were there at the time.”

But Hennis is pinning the blame on the EPA for the August 5 blowout of 3 million gallons of toxic waste from the Gold King Mine he owns near Silverton, Colorado. That disaster turned the Animas River orange for days.

“They [the EPA] blocked off the flow of water out of the drain pipes and they created the huge wall of water in the Gold King by their actions last year,” Hennis told Watchdog.org.

“They are calling it [the blowout] an act of God when it was an act of government,” Hennis added.

Just remember the EPA's and the Obama's reaction to the oil well blowout in the Gulf.

Democrat members of the committee repeated Stanislaus’s “act of God” excuse to justify EPA’s conduct.

Was it an "act of God" in the Gulf?

“Blaming EPA for the spill is like blaming firefighters for the forest fire,” Rep. Donald Beyer (D-VA)0% said.

But Dave Taylor, the retired geologist who predicted the EPA project that caused the spill would fail, has little patience for the lame excuses being offered by EPA officials and their Democrat apologists.

“More accurately,” Taylor tells Breitbart News, “the analogy should be that the EPA poured gas on the fire, by showing up unequipped and unprepared with no back-up plan.”

Congress would like a word with the EPA over that toxic mine spill thing

From Hot Air:

As I’m sure you recall by now, the EPA ran into a smidgen of trouble this summer when they went poking around in an abandoned gold mine and dumped three million gallons of heavy metal laden water into the local water supply out in Colorado. At the time I wondered if there was anyone who could hold the EPA accountable when they were the ones causing an environmental disaster. That seemed like more of a thought experiment than anything else because the EPA is supposed to be the ones policing such things. But now there may be a glimmer of hope. After stonewalling on all the questions being sent their way, the agency is being invited to come up to the hill for a little chat.

The focus on a toxic mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states shifts to Congress this week as lawmakers kick off a series of hearings into how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally unleashed the deluge of poisoned water.

Republican committee leaders in the House and Senate said EPA officials were frustrating their attempts to investigate the spill by withholding documents that could explain what went wrong when a cleanup team doing excavation work triggered the release of 3 million gallons of rust-colored sludge from the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

As this reports suggests, there are a couple of different angles being taken in the coming dog pile. The GOP members of the Science Committee are going to try to figure out why the documentation related to the Gold King mine has still not been released. As I’ve noted here before, the EPA isn’t generally sitting on sensitive national security documents which might endanger our readiness for a missile strike. In fact, the vast majority of their business involves things which are more likely to put you to sleep than alarm you. The fact that they don’t want to give up the goods seems to be a fairly persuasive indicator that there’s some serious butt covering going on here.

The exposure will do a lot of good. As a smart man once said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

As the EPA and IRS Have Shown, with Big Government Comes Little Accountability

From National Review:

Social observers from Aristotle and Juvenal to James Madison and George Orwell have all warned of the dangers of out-of-control government. Lately, we have seen plenty of proof that they were frighteningly correct.

The Environmental Protection Agency spilled 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into a tributary of the Animas River in Colorado. The stinky yellow flume of old mine waste — rife with cancer-causing mercury and arsenic — threatens to pollute the drinking and recreational water of three states.

Had a private oil company acted so incompetently and negligently, it would have been fined billions of dollars by the same EPA. The company’s top executives might have been subject to criminal prosecutions. The business’s reputation would have been tarnished for years. Just ask BP officials what the Obama administration did to the corporation after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.

But who will police the green police at the EPA?

Well, it supposed to be Congress, but with weak leadership and a hostile media, they aren't doing their jobs.

When the IRS hounds citizens about their taxes, can Americans inform the agency that they are invoking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer out of fear of self-incrimination — and expect to face no criminal consequences?

No? Why, then, was high-ranking IRS official Lois Lerner able to sign off on the excessive scrutiny of some conservative nonprofit groups, lie about it, and then invoke the Fifth — without any legal consequences?

There is some hope that there will be a Lois Lerner Perp walk.

EPA Fails to Acknowledge It Coerced Mine Owner to Grant Access

From Breitbart's Big Government:

The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t responding to claims by Todd Hennis, owner of the Gold King mine in Colorado that the agency coerced him to grant access to his property. Once taking over, of course, EPA’s incompetent attempts to remove debris created a massive 3 million gallon toxic waste spill from the mine.

Hennis told the CBS Denver affiliate that unless he allowed the EPA to have access and authority to conduct operations on the site the agency had threatened him with daily fines of $35,000.

The EPA is just so corrupt, it's just not surprising. Read the entire article for a short list of all the corrupt acts the EPA has perpetrated on small business around the country. I will only reinforce the idea that if the EPA is willing to lie about small stuff, can you imagine how much their lying about the big stuff?

The Week in Pictures -- Meltdown Edition

From the guys at Powerline Blog:

 

 

 

 

Congress Accuses EPA Chief Of Lying, Mentions Criminal Prosecution

From the Daily Caller:

Republicans on the House science committee are accusing EPA Chief Administrator Gina McCarthy of lying while testifying before Congress last month, not so subtly reminding her that lying before lawmakers is a criminal offense.

“Providing false or misleading testimony to Congress is a serious matter,” House Republicans wrote to McCarthy, accusing her of making false statements regarding EPA regulations and science.

“Witnesses who purposefully give false or misleading testimony during a congressional hearing may be subject to criminal liability,” they wrote. “With that in mind, we write to request that you correct the record and implore you to be truthful with the American public about matters related to EPA’s regulatory agenda going forward.”

Republican lawmakers are referring to a July 9 hearing where McCarthy made allegedly false statements regarding the science behind the EPA’s Clean Water Rule, the agency’s approach to regulating ozone levels and concerns about withholding highway funding from states.

It's all about furthering the agenda, total centralized control.

Congress Investigates EPA’s Toxic Wastewater Spill

From the Daily Caller:

The EPA accidentally spilled millions of gallons of toxic wastewater from an abandoned mine in Colorado’s Animas River, and a top Republican lawmaker wants answers on just how bad the situation on the ground has become.

“It has been five days since the spill and the EPA has failed to answer important questions, including whether the polluted water poses health risks to humans or animals,” Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House science committee, wrote in a letter to the EPA. “It is concerning that the agency charged with ensuring that the nation’s waters are clean is reportedly responsible for the toxic water spill at Gold King Mine.”

Who wants to make a wager on the number of heads that roll?

With this Regime, I'm gonna guess, zero. They will all be promoted?

Media covering up EPA's responsibility for Colorado river pollution

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog:

The Animas River in Colorado has been despoiled with million of gallons of toxic mine waste, turning the stream bright orange. Is this the result of a heartless capitalist? Hardly. Our purportedly all-caring, wise, and reliable Environmental Protection Agency is at fault. But looking at the headlines, you’d have a hard time figuring that out.

Remember, the Drive-By Media is nothing other than Democratic Operatives with Bylines.

Consider one of the latest headlines, from the local Durango Herald, reporting that the disaster is 300% worse than the EPA first reported: 3 million, not 1 million, gallons of contaminated water rushed from mine, EPA says.

3 million, not 1 million, gallons of contaminated water rushed from mine, EPA says

Readers have to go 17 paragraphs into the story before learning where responsibility for the heavy metal release lies:

The Gold King Mine mishap started at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when a crew working for the EPA accidentally triggered the drainage while investigating contamination at the mine, causing millions of gallons of sludge to surge into Cement Creek and into the Animas River, where the plume traveled downstream, making its way to Durango on Thursday evening.

My only question, how would the EPA and Drive-By Media react if the spill was caused by a company owned by the Koch Brother?

Millions of gallons of toxic waste water spilled into river by… the EPA

From Hot Air:

How often do we see sad stories such as this in the news? Evil industrialists carelessly create a swath of damage across our pristine natural resources through pollution and reckless destruction. Another such event took place in Colorado this week when millions of gallons of toxic, metal laden waste water were dumped into a local stream, feeding into the local river system used by swimmers and fishermen. And the culprit for this horrendous act was… the Environmental Protection Agency.

So who's gonna fine them? Would a private company get away with this? Let's look at the fines levied in the past.

Here’s a question for the government to consider. How much of a fine do you think the EPA should impose on itself? A farmer in North Carolina was sentenced to six months of house arrest and fined $15K for discharging water with cow feces in it into a local river. But that was just a farm. This was a mine. Well, in the Appalachian region, a coal mining outfit was fined more than $27M for discharging into rivers. Pan Am Railways was tagged with $375,000 in fines by the EPA for discharging into a river. And then there’s the granddaddy of them all… British Petroleum got nailed with $18.7 Billion in fines last month for the Deepwater Horizon spill. Obviously there’s a lot of precedent here.

Now, the EPA can certainly come back and argue that this was an accident. They were there doing their jobs and the damage was unintentional. But I have some bad news for them. Do you honestly think that BP was trying to dump millions of gallons of highly valuable product into the Gulf of Mexico just because the rig manager really hates tuna? That was an accident too, and yet they have to pay. So why not the EPA?

But, who would the EPA give the money to?

The people who make a living off the river? ................ Of course not, not a supporter of the EPA and not a Crony ally.

Is it time to view the Obama administration as a criminal enterprise?

From Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner via Instapundit:

See a tree with 20 apples hanging on it and reasonable people conclude it's an apple tree. So is it a criminal conspiracy when 20 government employees illegally destroy important official emails?

If that seems like an extreme question, consider the steadily accumulating evidence about the Obama administration's modus operandi with potentially incriminating documents subpoenaed by Congress: A scandal erupts. Congressional hearings are held. Documents are requested and withheld. Subpoenas are issued. Contempt charges threatened. A few documents dribble out.

Then come the admissions that, oh by the way, emails required by multiple federal laws to be preserved have either been destroyed or "lost."

And the Drive-By-Media's response ..... crickets.

All one has to do is ask a simple question, "If George W. Bush was President, would these scandals be covered?"

EPA Refuses to Turn Over Subpoenaed Documents to Congress; Agency Explains That Some Subpoenaed Emails Were "Lost" In a "Hard Drive Crash" in 2010

From Ace of Spades HQ:

Via @iowahawkblog.

I thought he was making a joke.

He wasn't.

While most of President Obama's Cabinet was touting the anniversary of President Obama's landmark speech in which he laid out plans to address climate change, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy was left facing a contempt threat from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa....

Issa is probing whether the White House illegally coordinated with the EPA on how to avoid turning documents over to Congress.

The hearing also included a bit of deja vu for the committee when members grilled McCarthy on lost emails from a hard-drive crash (the same issue that wiped out emails from IRS employee Lois Lerner). In this case, the emails in question were from retired EPA employee Philip North, who was involved in the agency's decision to begin the process of preemptively vetoing the Pebble Mine project in Alaska.
North, who declined an interview request by the committee, is retired, and committee staff say they have been unable to track him down. According to a committee aide, North's hard drive crashed in 2010--which was around the same time that the committee is investigating the agency's discussions of a potential veto--and the emails were not backed up.

They're basically daring us to impeach them.

Update: So adorbz.

Does this give credence to IRS’ insistence that IT crashes not political coverups were the email problem? http://t.co/3QQ6brC14W

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) June 25, 2014

Yes, that's just what I was going to say, Sam.

The Regime must figure, well it worked regarding the IRS emails, right? The Drive-By-Media won't push the issue, so why not?