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GOVERNOR LEAVITT'S ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD On Monday, the Bush Administration nominated Utah's Governor Mike Leavitt to serve as the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Governor Leavitt's environmental track record suggests that we can expect little improvement from the Bush Administration, which has done a terrible job protecting our air, water and lands. Environmental Enforcement Lags Under Leavitt * Clean water enforcement is among the worst in the nation under Governor Leavitt. Utah recently tied for last in enforcing the Clean Water Act, according to an EPA report dated February 2003. (Washington Post, June 6, 2003) According to the EPA report, Utah's clean water enforcement program was so bad that it tied for dead last, with Ohio and Tennessee, in six key measures of effectiveness. Also of note, one of Leavitt's first acts as governor was to fire the Division of Wildlife Resources enforcement official who had fined the Leavitt family's fish farm for violations that brought the devastating whirling disease to Utah. Governor's Highway Threatens Great Salt Lake Wetlands * Governor Leavitt has been a staunch advocate of the notorious Legacy Highway, which threatens Utah's world renowned wetlands and fertile farmlands along the Great Salt Lake. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the $415 million highway project on the grounds that its key agencies were "arbitrary and capricious" in issuing construction permits on the project. Specifically, the environmental impact study for the proposed highway was inadequate because its sponsors failed to look at less harmful alternatives and ignored obvious impacts on the wildlife and Utah's environment. The Great Salt Lake Wetlands, one of the most important inland shorebird breeding grounds in the world, are a designated Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network Site. A full third of the 10 million ducks of the Central and Pacific flyways and 500 bald eagles utilize these wetlands each year. As EPA Administrator, Governor Leavitt would responsible for protecting America's wetlands under the Clean Water Act. Leavitt Advocates Reduced Federal Role in Protecting Environment * Governor Leavitt fundamentally believes that "the federal government has become too powerful, too prescriptive and too pervasive" and "balance will only be restored if [states] figuratively gather at the main valve and collectively compete with the federal government." (Acceptance Address, Western Governors' Association, June 14, 1994) He has also consistently highlighted the environment as an area where he wants to turn more power over to the states. His extreme views are entirely consistent with the most conservative think tanks and the Bush Administration, and the President even praised Leavitt's passion for "state's rights" when announcing his nomination. This radical agenda raises major concerns for a would-be EPA Administrator because so many pollution problems infringe across state boundaries. Mercury, water quality, smog and haze, and global warming are just a few of the issues which require strong federal action to protect American families. Governor Turns Deaf Ear to Hog Factory Complaints * According to Citizens for Responsible and Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA), a local citizens group in Beaver County, Utah, Governor Leavitt's factory farm policies have been anything but successful. Since 1995, the local community has been trying to deal with "Circle Four," a 260,000 hog operation with a history of chronic environmental compliance problems, including multiple spills of liquefied manure from broken or plugged waste pipelines, leaking lagoons, a lagoon wall collapse, and groundwater pollution, including a spill of up to 80,000 gallons of lagoon sewage into a water well connected to the underground aquifer. Local activists have now filed a lawsuit against "Circle Four" for groundwater contamination, but they've gotten little help from Governor Leavitt's administration. To date, the operations have apparently paid just $11,700 in state pollution penalties, and Governor Leavitt helped to pass a law that prevents citizens from bringing nuisance suits against agricultural businesses, making it difficult to hold corporate polluters responsible. Shady Deals Open Millions of Acres of Wilderness * "Two-pronged assaults seem to be in fashion these days. First, the U.S. Army and Marines launched one against Baghdad. Then, Mike Leavitt and Gale Norton mounted another against wilderness in Utah." That's what the Salt Lake Tribune wrote in an editorial after Governor Mike Leavitt secretly negotiated two controversial deals with the Department of Interior to open up millions of acres of Utah wilderness to roadbuilding and development. (SLT, April 20, 2003) The Outdoor Industry Association was so outraged by the blatant land giveaway that it threatened to move its $24-million-a-year Outdoor Retail Trade show to another state. Governor Backs Dirty Coal * The U.S. Energy Information Agency, which recently predicted that 92% of new utility generating capacity will come from non-coal sources, may have to change their tune after the nomination of Governor Mike Leavitt for EPA Administrator. Taking Utah down the wrong path with 19th century technology, Governor Leavitt's energy policy advocated building new coal-fired power plants and taking "advantage of the abundant coal reserves within the state." The Deseret News even reported that during a meeting between Leavitt and President Bush, Bush recommended that federal lands be opened up to produce more gas and coal, "a note Leavitt recently sounded." (Deseret News, January 7, 2001) Air pollution from coal-burning power plants is a dominant cause of smog, deadly soot, global warming, pollution in our National Parks, and toxic mercury contamination in our fish. Leavitt Purges State's Environmental Scientists * Todd Wilkinson's book Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and Truth (Johnson Books, 1998) devotes an entire chapter to Mike Leavitt's purge of many competent biologists at Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources. Although at the time Leavitt defended the reduced headcount as a budgetary necessity, Wilkenson writes that "a year to the day after the purge was completed, the number of DWR staff members miraculously returned to previous levels, but the positions were filled with game biologists told to refrain from identifying endangered species." Leavitt dismissed the entire staff of non-game biologists at a time when news of plunging population numbers of spotted frogs, desert tortoises and other sensitive species could have led to federal endangered species listings. Such listings would interfere with plans for sweeping water diversions, extensive new subdivisions and other development. This purge casts a pall on Leavitt's commitment to scientific integrity and to the free flow of information so important at the EPA. Conflict of Interest Cripples Efforts to Contain Fish Disease * Just before Mike Leavitt became governor, whirling disease, a devastating fish parasite, was discovered on his family's commercial trout-growing farm. At the time, the state's Division of Wildlife Resources tried to act swiftly to contain the problem and fined the Leavitt family for illegally moving fish from their facility. But once he became governor, Leavitt turned the tables. One of his first acts as governor was to fire the head of the Division of Wildlife Resources, who was responsible for the enforcement action against the Leavitts. That action and others created a climate where biologists felt they couldn't do their jobs. Ron Goede, a retired pathologist and Utah's expert on whirling disease, later told the Salt Lake Tribune that "we could not do what we knew was right because we would lose our appropriations." (SLT, July 30, 2000) Then Leavitt led the charge in passing a bill to shift the responsibility over commercial fisheries and whirling disease from the Division of Wildlife to the Department of Agriculture which would be more favorable to commercial hatcheries. (Interestingly, Governor Leavitt told the Salt Lake Tribune that his experiences with whirling disease had a profound affect on his overall approach to environmental regulation and enforcement.) Meanwhile, the whirling disease problem has only grown worse, and this summer, the Salt Lake Tribune reported on new tests which show that the fish-crippling disease keeps spreading to more of Utah's streams and reservoirs. (SLT, July 2, 2003) ### |
