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.”

  • @NJSpradlin
    21•29 days ago

    Playing by the rules and showing those that made them their flaws, is also a legitimate strategy to force corrections.

    • originalucifer
      23•29 days ago

      exactly, lets purposefully poison lots of people so we can force those regulations written in blood!

      • @IsThisAnAI
        5•29 days ago

        And playing with lives over to respond or not with unclear rules over the next 50 years is better? Folks will get sick either way. I’d prefer to force a decision sooner rather than later.

      • Transporter Room 3
        3•29 days ago

        Well… Just poison the right watering holes that the people who have the power to act care about, and suddenly they’ll care about the EPA and water quality regulations.

    • @gAlienLifeform
      16•29 days ago

      You think the drinking water of Supreme Court justices is going to be contaminated as a result of this? They’re not being punished for making a mistake, a bunch of innocent powerless plebs will be.