495
submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

EPA says Tucson’s drinking water is contaminated but air force claims agency lacks authority to order cleanup

The US air force is refusing to comply with an order to clean drinking water it polluted in Tucson, Arizona, claiming federal regulators lack authority after the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned the “Chevron doctrine”. Air force bases contaminated the water with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and other dangerous compounds.

Though former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials and legal experts who reviewed the air force’s claim say the Chevron doctrine ruling probably would not apply to the order, the military’s claim that it would represents an early indication of how polluters will wield the controversial court decision to evade responsibility.

It appears the air force is essentially attempting to expand the scope of the court’s ruling to thwart regulatory orders not covered by the decision, said Deborah Ann Sivas, director of the Stanford University Environmental Law Clinic.

“It’s very odd,” she added. “It feels almost like an intimidation tactic, but it will be interesting to see if others take this approach and it bleeds over.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 188 points 2 months ago

We have an irresponsible and illegitimate Supreme Court and this is what we get.

[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 118 points 2 months ago

there are also humans at the top of the 'air force' that made this decision not to clean up. its two sets of irresponsible...no... negligent humans at play.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 62 points 2 months ago

That would be the Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall.

Also, he is appointed by, and reports directly to, the president. Biden could easily call this guy up and tell him to unfuck himself.

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

That’s exactly what I was thinking

[-] frezik@midwest.social 8 points 2 months ago

"Do you know the chain of command? It's the chain I use to beat you if you don't cleanup the gorram PFAS."

[-] Biggles@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 2 months ago

Biden is commander in chief. He can just order them to clean it up.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 16 points 2 months ago

I can't tell if this is a genuine attempt to dodge cleanup or an attempt to test a Supreme Court ruling before companies can get out of hand during the next administration.

But maybe I'm reading too much into the context.

[-] index@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

They also made the decision to pollute in the first place. Let's not divert the attention off the cause of the pollution.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

To be fair, much of this pollution was done decades ago. The people responsible for the bulk of it are retired by now.

[-] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

We have a *criminal, irresponsible, and illegitimate Supreme Court.

[-] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

We have a nation of people who voted for the people who selected the extreme far right conservatives into the court.

Voters deserve much of the blame too.

[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 14 points 2 months ago

id argue non-voters are equally to blame, and a larger block

[-] Blackbeard@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

...and who vote for a Congress that refuses to pass laws to address these problems.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

What are you talking about? Congress did pass a law to address this: it's called the Clean Water Act. The issue is that an illegitimate SCOTUS packed by traitors basically invalidated it.

[-] Blackbeard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

The article spells out what I'm talking about pretty clearly. I work with the CWA literally on a daily basis. Congress hasn't made the CWA more clear or specific since the Water Quality Act of 1987. Congress could literally fix this dispute between federal agencies tomorrow, but we elected Republicans to control the House, which means it has a snowball's chance in hell of ever happening.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

The CWA as of 1987 is plenty clear under any reasonable standard. The relevant problem here is that SCOTUS has ordained an unreasonable standard. Yes, Democratic control of both houses of Congress could "fix" that issue, but the point is it shouldn't need to because the EPA should be allowed to do its job (which, contrary to the illegitimate tyrannical stooges' diseased opinions, does include interpreting the law!).

[-] Blackbeard@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Yes, Democratic control of both houses of Congress could “fix” that issue

Glad we agree.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Erm, all Americans who could vote share the blame but Mitch McConnel gets a big heaping serving of it.

[-] capital@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

The consequences of people staying home and/or general apathy in regards to voting.

[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Gorsuch was an eternity ago, but thats where it started

this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
495 points (99.8% liked)

News

23305 readers
5038 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS