http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/27/koch-gut-clean-water-act/
[links, images, table in on-line article]
Polluting Politics: Koch Industries and Others Spend Millions to Gut
Clean Water Act Protections
Anastasia Pantsios | February 27, 2015 1:03 pm
Americans like the Clean Water Act (CWA), which was passed in 1972 to
clean up the country’s waterways polluted by decades of
industrialization and weak regulation, because they like having access
to safe drinking water as well as clean water for activities like
swimming, boating and fishing. It seems like a no-brainer. So it was no
surprise when the general public submitted more than 800,000 comments
during the public comment period last year in support of President
Obama’s plan to restore CWA protections to the country’s small waterways.
However, a new report from Environment America, Polluting Politics:
Political Spending by Companies Dumping Toxics in our Waters, shows
opponents to the CWA are spending significant amounts of money to act
against the public interest.
“Year after year, polls show that more Americans are concerned with the
pollution and quality of our waterways more than any other environmental
issue,” the report begins. “And after toxins in Lake Erie left 400,000
Toledo, Ohio residents unable to drink the water coming out of their
taps last August, the need to protect our waterways is clear and present.”
But, the report says, “Corporations and industry groups that oppose
restoring Clean Water Act protections can drown out the voice of the
average voter by spending enormous sums on election campaigns and lobbying.”
The report reveals that currently, half of the U.S.’s lakes, rivers and
streams are unsafe for fishing, swimming and drinking, and that 206
million pounds of toxic materials are dumped in our waterways each year.
Polluting Politics ties some of the polluters to investments in
political candidates who might work to minimize CWA protections.
“As it turns out, the same companies that are polluting our waterways
with toxic chemicals are also polluting our politics with their
spending,” said report author Ally Fields, clean water advocate at
Environment America.
What these companies want is to stave off regulations that would limit
the discharge of industrial chemicals from fracking and agricultural
runoff (especially from factory farms), and restore wetlands and protect
them against development. Those are regulations the public likes and
wants. But to a large degree, the public interest has been trumped by
several U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 2006 that have left half the
country’s waterways—which provide drinking water for a third of
Americans—vulnerable to toxic pollution. And these big spender have
swooped in to try to exploit those loopholes.
The report revealed that AK Steel Holding Corp, the top water polluter,
dumped 19,088,128 pounds of toxics into waterways in 2012. And in 2014
it spent $739,752 on lobbying to try secure its ability to keep on
polluting. Industrial foods company Tyson Foods, the second biggest
water polluter with 18,446,749 pounds dumped, spent $1,163,838 on
lobbying. The U.S. Department of Defense was the third largest waterway
polluter at 10,868,190, but does not spend money on lobbying. But
chemical company Cargill, checking in at fourth, spent about $1,300,000
to allow it to keep dumping more than 10,600,000 pounds of toxic
materials into U.S. waterways.
Those top polluters were not the biggest spenders though. That honor
went to the number six polluter, Koch Industries, a notorious source of
large campaign contributions to industry-friendly candidates. It dumped
6,657,138 pounds of toxics in 2014. Last year, it spent a whopping
$13,800,000 on lobbying, with another $7.7 million spent in last year’s
elections, according to Polluting Politics. Given the Koch brothers’
propensity for pouring campaign money into 501 (c) 4 groups that don’t
have to reveal their funders, the amount was likely much more.
Another outsized spender was chemical company DuPont, which dumped about
5,500,000 pounds of toxics and spent nearly $9,300,000 to protect its
right to do so. According to the report, the top 10 companies were
responsible for almost 100 million pounds of toxics in public
waterways—as well as $53 million on lobbying and $9.4 million in
campaign contributions. And the three top polluting
industries—energy/natural resources, agribusiness and construction—spent
more than $237 million on campaign contributions in the 2014 elections.
Meanwhile, industry groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and
the American Farm Bureau, spent tens of millions more on lobbyists who
were frequently well-connected former government officials.
“It’s clear that our nation’s polluters have deep pockets, but hundreds
of thousands of Americans have raised their voices in support of doing
more to protect our waterways, from the Chesapeake Bay to Puget Sound,”
said Fields. “It’s time for Congress to listen to citizens, not the
polluters, and let the EPA finish the job to protect our waterways.”
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