EPA should be fined

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which just released 3 million gallons of polluted water, is the same agency that wants to classify all water, including storm drains, as “navigable streams.”

This is the same agency that told friends of mine that were applying for a suction dredging permit that if they took a rock from a stream and returned it to the same stream; then they were polluting the river, and were denied the permit. Think about making sand castles on a river beach.

Now, they have polluted a Colorado river to the extent that it may never recover. The agency should be fined the same amount that would be assessed if a company did the same thing, and the fine should go into the general fund.

Suction dredging has been shown to improve the quality of rivers by removing lead and mercury. The gravel produced is good for fish. As opposed to dredging, fishing puts lead weights and hooks in the river and removes fish. But no one is complaining about fishing.

Richard Servatius

Murray, Idaho