If People Were Angels, the EPA Would Not Be Necessary

The Animas River spill was a horrible disaster.  Read here for accurate context of the spill.   First, I have to start by telling you a couple of my biases.  This way I can try to be as honest as possible while writing about the Animas River spill. 

For starters, I love rivers.  I am an avid whitewater kayaker who has spent countless hours of my life floating through some of the most beautiful places on this planet, and countless hours challenging myself on some of the most difficult rapids in Colorado and elsewhere.  

Rivers are one of my sanctuaries.  They are the place I go to get away from the daily grind; a place where politics, work, and social drama doesn't exist.  While I am on the river I am completely in the present moment, deeply connected to the wonders of nature and my fellow kayaking friends who look after me, as I them, as we try to safely pass through the various river canyons.

My other bias is my love of technology, energy, transportation, and the gadgets that make my life more comfortable.  In other words, I am deeply aware that extracting valuable resources, in areas near my sanctuary, is an integral aspect that allows me to sit here and type on my MacBook Pro, or easily access the worldwide web of information on my smartphone while waiting for... whatever.

Thus by revealing my two main biases I also reveal to you a paradox that I encounter in my daily life: my love a rivers and the want to see them protected, and my awareness that the things that I consume are often extracted from the areas that are all too close to the rivers I love.  It is a paradox that I was able to reach only by attempting to be honest with myself.  

So... now I can move into the crux of why I am writing this essay: shameless political propaganda.  There is So. Much. Fucking. Dishonesty out there right now.

The part that truly perplexes me is wondering whether the dishonesty is conscious or unconscious. If it is conscious dishonesty, then I wonder how it is that some of these public relations spinmeisters can honestly look themselves in the mirror each day.  Because I struggle to imagine what it would be like to be so completely dishonest.

But my default, and my feeling, is that the people spinning out the shameless attacks on the organization (EPA) who was trying to stop the toxic mess that had been bleeding into the Animas river for many many years are simply being unconsciously dishonest.  I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because I do not know, as the saying goes, what is in their hearts.  

Thus I can only imagine that they spin their vague and inaccurate tales to defend their ideology, or their paychecks, and do not realize their dishonesty.  As Upton Sinclair once wrote (and I paraphrase), it is difficult to get people to understand something, when their salary depends on them not understanding it.  

It is not really a secret that the extractive industry does not like the EPA.  They have been funding lobbyists, and the political campaigns of politicians who fight for them, for years to undermine the regulations that were put in place in an attempt to keep them from polluting, like they had been able to do for centuries.  The toxic mess of mine sites throughout Colorado is just one example of industry not taking responsibility for their negative externalities. 

James Madison once wrote:

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself." 

If we believe Madison’s premise to be true then we can understand why it is necessary to have regulations and laws to safeguard communities from industrial pollution.  But we can also understand that it is necessary for the people to be able control the government.  Colorado’s 19^th and 20^th Century mining show us what happens when there are basically no regulations (i.e., industry pulls the profits out of the ground and rarely takes responsibility for the toxic mess they leave behind because, well, it's not cost effective).  

Thus the mining industry has shown us that they were not angels in the past.  And this is one reason why, among many other types of industrial pollution examples, the EPA and regulations were originally created.

So have the industrialists changed?  Have they learned the lessons from the past?  Do they now take complete responsibility for their negative externalities?  Some would say yes, and some no. Has the EPA turned into a big bureaucratic nightmare that makes companies sift through mountains of paperwork to get any kind of a project done?  These questions would certainly be legitimate discussions to have.

But, unfortunately, these are not the discussions that are being had.  Instead we see shamelessness, self-delusion and partisan hackery in an attempt to promote ideology and industry interests.  (i.e., getting rid of the laws and agency that hold polluters responsible).  

Here is one example, among many...

Yes, the environment can recover.  However, in order for it to do so the pollution also has to stop; just like the only way to clean up a nasty overflowing toilet is to first drain the shit-filled water - an equation that is entirely missing from the "defund the EPA" crowd.

The Gold King mine, and hundreds of others, have been leeching toxic water into Colorado rivers and creeks for decades, and I certainly don't remember hearing much concern about it from the public relations spinmeisters for the extractive industries throughout the years.  Nor do I hear any solutions as to how they would go about cleaning up the other hundreds of mines that are currently polluting our waterways in order for the environment to heal itself.

Thus these people are shamelessly using this accidental spill to jump on their "defund the EPA" campaign that they have been waging for years - many of the Colorado GOP have hinted at such as well.  "Defund" is just code for them trying to undermine EPA's regulations that keep them from polluting.  

Suggesting we don’t need regulations and laws to protect communities from industrial pollution, or that the government just needs to get out of the way for the invisible hand to do its magic is self-serving ideological nonsense.   

In other words, companies and people continually prove that Madison was right: people are not angels, and we need laws and regulations that protect people from companies who will gladly skip town with their pockets stuffed with profits, while leaving the mess for society to clean up.  

But, hey, if the nature of people, and the nature capitalism has changed, then let's hear the arguments.  Let's hear how companies will start finally taking responsibility for their negative externalities.

We know a toxic mess unleashed into our rivers is harmful to the environment and people.  We know that dirty air harms the health of humans.  We also know that if the pollution stops, the environment and our health can improve.  

We should also know that the extraction of valuable resources from the land is necessary in order to live a comfortable modern life.  Thus the question should be: how can we do so responsibly? 

And how do those who want to "defund the EPA" plan to hold people and companies responsible for their negative externalities in the future?  And we still have hundreds of mines to clean up in Colorado.  Who is going to take responsibility and clean these up?  Can these people, who want to defund the EPA, show the people of Colorado a viable plan to clean up the toxic messes?

Thus herein lies a challenge to those who want to "defund the EPA," and who only seem to complain, and rarely offer viable solutions, besides spouting off the typical meaningless political cliches:  

There is a massive toxic mess up above Leadville at the Climax mine.  In 2008, there was an estimated one billion gallons of toxic water sitting behind a deteriorating debris dam that was threatening the town of Leadville and the entire Arkansas river valley.  It is a disaster in the waiting.  Here is your chance to show the world how you will solve this future disaster using your free market theories.  

P.S. - your solution cannot use public funds that are simply funneled to private companies who would clean up the mess because then it would not be a free market solution; rather, it would just be the creation of another public/private partnership that uses the power of the state to enrich private coffers.  

So step up to the plate!  Be a hero.  Let's see some concrete solutions, rather than more complaints and shameless political spin. 

Your truly,
Mark Olson

P.S. - I have no copy editor, nor do I swim in the donor pools who will give me money to shill for their interests.  Thus my perspective and any grammatical errors above are all mine.