WASHINGTON - Democratic senators lambasted the Environmental
Protection Agency on Wednesday for ousting its top administrator in the Midwest
after she pressured Dow
Chemical to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil in Michigan.
During a
hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Sheldon
Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the episode raised warning signs about the credibility
of the EPA and the agency's commitment to "protect the environment and our
health."
According to a report in Friday's Chicago Tribune, the EPA
administrator for the Midwest region, Mary Gade, said she was told to quit or be
fired by June 1. She resigned.
Gade had been pressuring Dow for almost a
year to get the chemical company to clean up chemical contamination in
Michigan.
Dioxin, produced as a byproduct of some chemical manufacturing
or formed from burning wood, coal and oil, has been linked to cancer and other
health problems.
Whitehouse acknowledged that "we don't know yet what the
full story is on this" but said Gade's account raises warning flags.
Gade
had been "aggressive [in her] pursuit of Dow Chemical," Whitehouse said, and
"suddenly -- poof -- a forced resignation in the context of a dispute with a
major industrial [corporation]."
"Ms. Gade, by all accounts, is
well-regarded and experienced in her field" and had "received strong performance
evaluations in a position that by all accounts is ordinarily given extremely
wide latitude by the higher-ups in Washington," Whitehouse said. "Her forced
resignation reeks of political interference."
According to the Tribune
report, Gade said her resignation was a direct result of her pressuring of
Dow.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the episode is a "very troubling
case for the country." She added that Gade's account "seems to be a clear case
here where policy was driven by politics."