by Tony Isaacs
(The Best Years in Life) Newly released documents and emails from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) show the agency's top commissioners directed staff to lower radiation test results for years in defiance of federal EPA rules. In addition, top state officials and the EPA knew about the agency violations but choose to take little or no action.
The startling revelations came as a result of an investigation by Houston television station KHOU, which obtained documents and emails after the state attorney general directed TCEQ to release them. Examination of the documents revealed a pattern of deception and cover-up which has gone on for almost 20 years. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Texas residents in the Texas Hill Country area served by the Hickory aquifer have been kept unaware that they have been drinking dangerously contaminated water.
"It's a conspiracy at the TCEQ of the highest order," said Tom Smith, of the Public Citizen government watchdog group. "The documents have indicted the management of this commission in a massive cover-up to convince people that our water is safe to drink when it's not."
A key part of the deception was TCEQ's decision to subtract the margin of error from water test results - though obviously it could have been just as valid to add the margin of error. The released documents show that subtracting the margin of error enabled TECQ to keep from declaring 35 water systems in violation of EPA standards. A formal violation declaration would have forced the water systems to inform residents of the increased health risks.
The startling revelations came as a result of an investigation by Houston television station KHOU, which obtained documents and emails after the state attorney general directed TCEQ to release them. Examination of the documents revealed a pattern of deception and cover-up which has gone on for almost 20 years. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Texas residents in the Texas Hill Country area served by the Hickory aquifer have been kept unaware that they have been drinking dangerously contaminated water.
"It's a conspiracy at the TCEQ of the highest order," said Tom Smith, of the Public Citizen government watchdog group. "The documents have indicted the management of this commission in a massive cover-up to convince people that our water is safe to drink when it's not."
A key part of the deception was TCEQ's decision to subtract the margin of error from water test results - though obviously it could have been just as valid to add the margin of error. The released documents show that subtracting the margin of error enabled TECQ to keep from declaring 35 water systems in violation of EPA standards. A formal violation declaration would have forced the water systems to inform residents of the increased health risks.
READ MORE: http://www.tbyil.com/Texas_Radioactive_Water_Scandal.htm
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