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

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.”

    • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
      158·
      4 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.

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          41·
          4 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.

            • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
              32·
              4 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!).

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        4 months ago

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

    • capital@lemmy.world
      41·
      4 months ago

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

  • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
    43·
    4 months ago

    Cool, the thing we were assured wouldn’t happen because free market or something.

    Even if it’s decided that the EPA has the proper authority, the damage will be done by the time it makes its way through the courts.

    The EPA order requires the development of a system specifically designed for PFAS. A similar system is estimated to cost about $25m to develop, or about 0.1% of the air force’s annual budgeting.

    Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool…

  • FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
    35·
    4 months ago

    The AF also contaminated the groundwater in a large residential area just west of Spokane, WA adjacent to the Fairchild AF base. Until recently they seemed to be accepting at least partial responsibility but I wonder if that’s now going to come to an end. It’s not generally a wealthy area, lots of apartments and discount stores and has what I think of as a “military town” vibe. Apparently residents are largely dependent on PFAS-loaded well water and if the AF tells them to FO and be happy they’ve got anything to drink, they’re screwed unless some other entity with deep pockets will come in and clean up. https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024-news-stories/feb-21-west-plains-sampling-for-pfas

  • Deconceptualist@lemm.eeEnglish
    30·
    4 months ago

    So “federal regulators lack the authority” to order a cleanup, even though feds made the orders that led to environmental damage in the first place. Riiiiight.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.world
      25·
      4 months ago

      This is nothing. Wait until you see what the corporations will do when they’re told to stop polluting say the water source of a major city and they say fuck you to the EPA

      It’s gonna get so so so much worse

      "Millions leave Chicago because Dow Chemical poisons the water table. When asked for comment a DOW chemical PR representative said: ‘Yeah, suck a dick losers’ "

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        7·
        4 months ago

        The EPA can still take them to court with a jury over things like this, but they won’t have the resources to take everyone to court.

        So you still gotta be smart about it and not do something like completely wreck the water source for Chicago, because they’ll use their limited resources to go after them.

        But some small town no one cares about? Probably much easier.

        • xenoclast@lemmy.world
          1·
          4 months ago

          You’re talking about the same companies that own entire local governments. That get to choose the rules they play under in normal situations.

          This is like nothing any human currently alive in America has experienced. It’s worse than 1800s robber Baron America. It’s the same attitude and people with (and I means this literally) million of times greater resources than the government.

          The 44 years of dismantling and disrupting any power the government had is starting to pay off in spades.

          The reality is, we’ll look at my original comment and laugh at how naive and quaint it was. Like people saying “Trump will never win” then "How bad could he fuck it up really?.. and then…

  • MSids@lemmy.world
    2·
    4 months ago

    I work just outside of the Pease air force base and drank the coffee and water for ages. They were on the base well system which was heavily contaminated. Thanks a bunch.