Quote:What a rambling mess.


 

1. The EPA has no control over India or China, and their overzealous environmental rules were partly the reason manufacturing (and the accompanying much worse pollution) moved to China.


 

2. The tap water fires were caused by naturally occurring gases in the ground water, not by corporate pollution and once again the EPA can do nothing about acts of nature.


 

 

3. If you were referring to this story about "pumping feces," it was caused by birds, not humans. There was no "pumping."

 

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-n-palm-b...ubois-park

 

4. The Gulf oil spill was because of the prohibition on offshore drilling. It was a problem of drilling a mile deep, near shore shallow wells do not have that problem. In any case, naturally-occurring bacteria ate up the oil fairly quickly, and there was no significant damage to the environment. However the media quoting EPA alarmists did cause a lot of needless cancellations of reservations along the Gulf Coast and the resultant financial loss.


 

So the EPA was worthless for three of your four points, and their rules contributed to the 4th.


 

Polluting air and water is illegal. That would still be the case without the EPA, but the laws would be written and controlled by our elected officials rather than made up by unelected bureaucrats. We don't need a massive bureaucracy micromanaging our lives in the name of environmental protection.


 

Even if that's your desire, closing the EPA and opening a replacement would enable the government to get rid of the bureaucrats who are causing harm to individuals. Apparently that can't be done in any other way (see the original story about not being able to fire a pedophile, never mind the lack of accountability among the VA employees who caused the deaths of thousands(?) of veterans).

 

Define "significant" damage.  Do you mean biologically significant or statistically significant? Most of the short chain alkanes in oil will be photo-oxidized, or respired by hydrocarbon degrading bacteria, but that is only one fraction of crude oil. The other fractions containing cycloalkanes and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are more recalcitrant to degradation, and those are the ones that can accumulate in animal tissues. I know because I've worked with with these microorganisms. 

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