By Joshua Daniel Hershfield, 11/30/06
The Environmental Protection Agency has once again decided to not protect the environment. On Monday the 27th, Bush’s EPA declared that pesticides may be sprayed into and over waters, and that this poisoning of water is not protected under the Clean Water Act.
EPA officials concluded that a pesticide, when it is deliberately applied, is not a “pollutant.” So, if you accidentally put massive quantities of poison into lakes, rivers, streams, and the ocean, then that is “pollution,” but if you do it on purpose, then it’s just business.
The South Carolina Aquatic Plant Management Society argued in favor of the EPA’s decision saying that regulating such pesticide spraying activities would “adversely impact hundreds of businesses.”
Five million people die every year from polluted water*.
*Hertsgaard, Keith. Earth Odyssey