The regulatory state agencies are themselves regulated by the legislators, who set the tone of how much pointedly investigative water quality assessment that they will tolerate ... or not tolerate. Almost all state legislatures erroneously see accurate water quality assessment effort by agencies as being politically and fiscally subversive, and they reduce funding to agencies that persist in making too many waves by sampling and assessment that might point out where new problems might need fixing. This attitude by the governments are usually pervasive (in most states as well as MI), and stifle agency intent. As this persists over many years it builds up a strong culture within the agencies of promoting those that will put up with the politic without comment or corrective actions and recommendations, or demoting any potential troublemakers. Currently, unsupportive legislators rule most environmental quality departments and stifle the science of environmental assessment and public health protections from toxic contaminants. We get what we pay for... or, we get what we do not want because we don't bother to vote for. The 'buck' stops with who we place into office hired to look out for our public health needs, but shirk those duties in favor of corporate lobbies to ignore almost all water quality threats. Funding does note prioritized to essential science that is needed to guide our ability to SAVE money by discovering our toxic health threats so we can work toward correcting them as we are able to manage so that we no longer have to continue to pay way off into the future with health declines and medical expenses. Corporations externalize their costs onto the public in order to maximize profit.... and lobby legislators to ignore environmental assessment where ever it can be suppressed. A lot of agency 'busy work is done to fake 'due diligence' but that is not science, and it is not GOOD politics that is supportive of the public wellbeing. The whole state government is to blame, because the system is broken by bad oversight. The federal agencies are similarly irresponsible for the same reasons. IMHO
Published by Ray Kinney
The regulatory state agencies are themselves regulated by the legislators, who set the tone of how much pointedly investigative water quality assessment that they will tolerate ... or not tolerate. Almost all state legislatures erroneously see accurate water quality assessment effort by agencies as being politically and fiscally subversive, and they reduce funding to agencies that persist in making too many waves by sampling and assessment that might point out where new problems might need fixing. This attitude by the governments are usually pervasive (in most states as well as MI), and stifle agency intent. As this persists over many years it builds up a strong culture within the agencies of promoting those that will put up with the politic without comment or corrective actions and recommendations, or demoting any potential troublemakers. Currently, unsupportive legislators rule most environmental quality departments and stifle the science of environmental assessment and public health protections from toxic contaminants. We get what we pay for... or, we get what we do not want because we don't bother to vote for. The 'buck' stops with who we place into office hired to look out for our public health needs, but shirk those duties in favor of corporate lobbies to ignore almost all water quality threats. Funding does note prioritized to essential science that is needed to guide our ability to SAVE money by discovering our toxic health threats so we can work toward correcting them as we are able to manage so that we no longer have to continue to pay way off into the future with health declines and medical expenses. Corporations externalize their costs onto the public in order to maximize profit.... and lobby legislators to ignore environmental assessment where ever it can be suppressed. A lot of agency 'busy work is done to fake 'due diligence' but that is not science, and it is not GOOD politics that is supportive of the public wellbeing. The whole state government is to blame, because the system is broken by bad oversight. The federal agencies are similarly irresponsible for the same reasons. IMHO