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    Trump's EPA sides with water polluters in major Hawaii case

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    August 08, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    By Travis Thurston - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    If you like sewage, chemical wastes or radioactive molecules in your drinking water the Trump Administration has your back. It’s part of Team Trump’s determined efforts to remake the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Pollution Agency.


    Soon the U.S. Supreme Court, urged on by Team Trump, may give its stamp of approval to effectively undo many benefits of the 1972 Clean Water Act in a case from the Hawaiian island of Maui.

    Environmental groups are seeking to stop Maui County from injecting pollutants into the ground, where they mix with groundwater and then flow to the ocean. The groups say the practice evades current pollution laws that bar the fouling of surface waters. The Trump Administration, reversing the Obama Administration’s stance, is on the polluters’ side.

    The Supreme Court, with two Trump appointees, has fast-tracked the case.

    If Team Trump and its allies win, polluters will just replace permitted drains at rivers, lakes and the sea with unpermitted wells that inject pollutants directly into groundwater.

    Depending on how the high court rules, America may return to the century-long corporate dumping that repeatedly set Ohio’s Cuyahoga River on fire, an era of unchecked polluting that made two-thirds of surface freshwater dangerous to drink, many rivers and lakes were not even safe for swimming.

    The question before the Supreme Court: Does the Clean Water Act require a permit when pollutants originate from a point source like a drain but flow to navigable waters via a nonpoint source, such as groundwater?

    Maui County argues that pollutants discharged from a drain that flows into a groundwater supply are not subject to the rules for permits for drains and other point sources even though most of the pollutants eventually reach the ocean.

    If Team Trump and its polluting allies win, government documents show, polluters will have an easy way to get rid of pollutants. Just replace permitted drains at rivers, lakes and the sea with unpermitted wells that inject pollutants directly into groundwater.

    The Trump EPA’s policy would “create perverse incentives for polluters to evade regulation and enforcement under the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants in basins or wells near navigable waters, where groundwater will predictably and directly convey the very same pollutants to the adjacent or surrounding connected surface waters,” according to the Waterkeeper Alliance, whose 340 nonprofit member organizations work to protect public health and the nation’s waterways from dangerous pollution.

    'Misguided and Unlawful'

    The Alliance described the Trump administration’s interpretation of the Clean Water Act as “a draconian and extreme reinterpretation…[and a] misguided and unlawful effort to completely reverse” decades of practice that have reduced water pollution.

    Discharging polluted water into the ground without a permit is supported by the Family Farm Alliance, which says its mission is “protecting water for Western irrigated agriculture.”

    Some opponents who favor the Trump EPA approach claim that the current understanding of that law is part of a plot to destroy American commerce.

    After a third of Northern California’s Klamath River salmon run was wiped out in the summer of 2002, the Family Farm Alliance president, Bill Kennedy, wrote an unhinged attack on environmental organizations trying to protect the salmon and promote sustainable forestry. He asserted that they “want to destroy our production, our infrastructure and our communities. ... Once our industry has been abandoned in favor of imported food and fiber, our nation will be at the mercy of countries with socialist agendas.”

    Despite such extremist rhetoric, agriculture groups legitimately worry that requiring permits to discharge pollutants into groundwater could create new headaches for farmers and for regulators. The Trump administration approach is not to balance these interests or seek new legislation, but instead to blindly argue the unlimited pro-pollution case.

    If you haven’t learned in the mainstream news about this major development affecting your health and safety, we at DCReport are not surprised. At DCReport we cover what Trump is doing to our government, not what Donald tweets. And we work to tell you what the administration, Congress or courts are up to before its carved into law so you can take action to make our democracy responsive to all of us.

    Coal Ash Ponds

    The Supreme Court decision could also affect electric utilities which own hundreds of coal ash ponds. Toxic metals leach from these toxic slurries into rivers used for drinking water. When pond dikes collapse, as some have, multitudes are forced to drink bottled water for months and may not even be able to wash clothes safely.

    At DCReport we have reported extensively on dangers that the 19th Century technology of coal ash ponds poses to people and wildlife. You can read about how Team Trump wants to increase pollution from burning coal, which would mean more deaths from cancer and heart disease along with devastating destruction of fish and aquatic life as we reported here, here, here, here, here, and, in a smidgen of good news for the environment, here.

    On the surface the issue before our Supreme Court is local and modest. Dig into the record, however, and profound and scary implications for all of America become clear.

    Each day four million gallons of treated effluent from a sewage treatment plant for 40,000 people in Maui is pumped into the ground. There it mixes with natural groundwater. Putting a tracer dye into the effluent showed that 64% of the treated sewage flows underground into the ocean.

    The Clean Water Act, signed by a Republican president, Richard Nixon, protects “surface waters” from polluters.

    Maui County officials operate on the theory that the sewage discharge into the ground is similar to storm water runoff and other so-called non-point discharges which are not subject to the Clean Water Act requirements for permits to discharge pollutants.

    Maui County treats sewage and then injects it into the ground through a Class V sewage injection well.

    According to an EPA advisory, posted on the internet in 2015 under the Obama Administration, “Class V wells are a concern because they pose a risk to underground sources of drinking water.”

    The Hawaii Wildlife Fund and other environmental groups sued Maui County over its wells. They say a discharge permit is required because in terms of water flow there is no difference between a drain that dumps toxics directly into surface waters and a drain that dumps toxics into the underground rivers and aquifers that flow into surface waters.

    As water geologist Barbara Siems wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency when it took its first step to help water polluters in 2018: “It makes no sense that pollution dumped directly into a waterbody requires a permit but pollution buried just a few feet away that then travels into that waterbody does not. Both circumstances result in polluted water that jeopardizes our health and both should be regulated. Reversing EPAs interpretation of its responsibility now would be illegal and would expose our waters to unchecked pollution. The EPA must continue to hold industries accountable for dumping chemicals and other pollutants into groundwater that flows into our nations rivers, lakes, streams and bays.”

    Opposition Across the Spectrum

    Conservation and environmental organizations oppose the Trump Administration and Maui County.

    Trout Unlimited, which represents 300,000 anglers, filed a brief noting that the Clean Water Act “was designed to ‘restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters’ and “to achieve water quality that ‘provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife.’”

    Unless a polluter has a permit “any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source” is prohibited, Trout Unlimited noted.

    A similar argument was made by the Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, who said their livelihoods depend on limiting industrial pollution of water they fish to eat and sell.

    And 37 professors who teach environmental and natural resources law filed a brief saying that if the Maui County position is upheld then all polluters “could evade the Act simply by adding pollution from their point sources to navigable waters through groundwater, air, or soil, thereby doing indirectly what the Act directly prohibits: degrading surface water quality with impunity.”

    Three former EPA administrators filed a friend of the court brief opposing Maui County and the Trump administration. William Reilly (George H. W. Bush), Carol Browner (Clinton) and Gina McCarthy (Obama) told the Supreme Court that the Clean Water Act “does not regulate the quality of groundwater; all parties agree that Congress left the regulation of groundwater… primarily to the States.”

    However, they said, “regulating any addition of pollutants from point sources to surface waters” is covered by the Clean Water Act discharge permit requirements.

    Congress, the former EPA administrators said, “has repeatedly confirmed that the [Clean Water Act] covers the discharge of pollutants from point sources to surface waters via groundwater.”

    That is the same point made by Justice Antonin Scalia in a 2006 case in which a Michigan developer was criminally prosecuted for filling in Lake Huron marshlands. Scalia noted that the Clean Water Act prohibits the “addition of any pollutant to navigable waters.” His point was that whether a drain directly dumps into surface waters or gets it there indirectly is of no consequence as the Clean Water Act applies in all such cases.

    Trump Helps Polluters

    In early 2018, the EPA took its first step to creating a way for polluters to dump wastes without permits by injecting them into the ground. Under the Clean Water Act pollutant means “dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.”

    That first step prompted 58,350 comments, including the cogent one quoted above from geologist Siems.

    Most such notices in the Federal Register attract few comments and then primarily from corporations or state and local agencies with a direct economic interest in an issue. At DCReport we scrutinize the Federal Register, which hardly any Washington reporters read even though it is “the Daily Journal of the United States Government.”

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

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    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.


    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Survey: Will Melania leave Trump now that he's out of office ?

    Trump supporters are threatening lawmakers as the second impeachment approaches: report

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 24, 2021

    Washington lawmakers were left terrorized after the U.S. Capitol came under attack on Jan. 6. The night before, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) told her husband where her will was located if she was killed. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser asked for National Guard support days in advance. Now, that fear has returned as some lawmakers face threats ahead of impeachment.

    The Associated Press cited sources revealing that federal law enforcement officials are already investigating threats ahead of the beginning of the trial in the Senate.

    An official explained to the AP that the threat of insurrectionists returning prompted the Capitol Police to ask 5,000 National Guard troops to stay in the Capitol longer.

    "The official was not authorized to not discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity," said the report.

    Read the full report.

    Justice Department can still pursue charges against Manafort, Stone and Bannon after pardons: prosecutor

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 24, 2021

    While many of President Donald Trump's close allies were pardoned in the final months of his presidency, that doesn't mean they have escaped accountability for their crimes or convictions.

    Writing for Just Security, former senior prosecutor for Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, argued that people like Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and others still aren't out of the woods.

    In the case of Bannon, there were specific pardons "under chapter 95 of title 18 of the United States Code (basically racketeering type charges)," he wrote. Those aren't all of the charges against Bannon and it certainly doesn't cover additional federal crimes like "mail and wire fraud."

    "It is rare that a prosecutor charges all such counts that could be charged, as it would overwhelm a jury and is unnecessary to increasing a sentence upon conviction," he noted.

    In the case of Michael Flynn, Trump's pardon was "exceedingly broad," he described. Granting him a pardon for "any and all possible offenses arising from the facts" in his Criminal Information and Statement of Offense, "any and all possible offenses within the investigatory authority or jurisdiction of the Special Counsel" and "any and all possible offenses arising out of facts and circumstances known to, identified by, or in any manner related to the investigation of the Special Counsel."

    That wasn't the way the pardons worked for the others, like Stone and Manafort. In his Virginia and Washington, D.C. trial, there were 10 hung counts that could all be retried.

    "In that district, Manafort pleaded to a superseding information containing two conspiracy charges, while the entire underlying indictment — containing numerous crimes from money laundering, to witness tampering, to violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act — now remains open to prosecution as there was no conviction for those charges," Weissmann explained.

    One count, in particular, Weissmann explained, Manafort already admitted to under oath.

    Manafort also waved the venue in his plea agreement and waved the statute of limitations. But after Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in Feb. 2019 that Manafort breached the cooperation agreement by lying to the government, the Justice Department isn't bound by the cooperation agreement not to go after other charges.

    There were also narrow pardons for Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos and Alex van den Zwann, all of whom could be held accountable due to Trump's sloppy pardon text.

    Read the full explanation at Just Security.

    'Guns and explosives galore': FBI arrests reveal weapons brought for insurrection at the Capitol

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 24, 2021

    A crossbow, assault rifles, knives, tasers, baseball bats, bear spray, a cooler full of Molotov cocktails ingredients and IEDs were among the weapons that President Donald Trump's supporters brought with them to Washington, D.C. ahead of the insurrection.

    The Daily Beast reported the slate of weapons brought to the Jan. 6 rally with Trump. After weeks of calling for GOP supporters to "fight" and "not go quietly into the night," all Trump and Republican lawmakers needed to do was tap the first domino.

    The Associated Press characterized the insurrectionists as "seething ranks of right-wing extremists" captured by rhetoric from the former president alleging the election was "stolen" from them.

    Capitol police also reported that the insurrectionists used their own pepper spray and mace against them during the riot, but that wasn't the biggest concern.

    "Firearms were among the most ominous weapons found on alleged rioters, both during and after the Jan. 6 assault," the Daily Beast said. "Lonnie Coffman is the man prosecutors say was popped with a cooler full of the makings of 11 Molotov cocktails. The devices, tucked into mason jars, mixed gasoline with styrofoam. The mixture, a common home recipe in extremist texts like the Anarchist Cookbook, makes an improvised incendiary substance similar to napalm that can stick to skin and surfaces while burning for extended periods of time."

    He was just one of many cited for bringing weapons ahead of the attack.

    Check out the full list of weapons recorded by FBI arrest reports at the Daily Beast.

     
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