EPA: "...wetlands discharge more pollutants than they absorb..."

The EPA and the USFWS are hardly credible government agencies but 
have become instead the official rubber stamps for advocates of 
industrial pollution and unbridled environmental exploitation  - 
under the aegis of the Bush administration.

Another example of the Bush administration turning science upside 
down to suit developers.  Bush's
appointees are a gaggle of republican neocon mafia thugs.
Tim Jones
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2003/2003-10-23-09.asp#anchor4>http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2003/2003-10-23-09.asp#anchor4
EPA Biologist Resigns in Protest of Wetlands Study

WASHINGTON, DC, October 23, 2003 (ENS) - A U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) biologist has resigned in protest of the 
agency's acceptance of a controversial study that concludes wetlands 
discharge more pollutants than they absorb, according to a statement 
released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental 
Responsibility (PEER). The EPA's approval of the study gives 
developers credit for improving water quality by replacing natural 
wetlands with golf courses and other developments, PEER says.

"In the Bush administration's bizarre world of 'sound science,' 
wetlands cause pollution and there is no evidence of global warming," 
said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "EPA's new position that 
wetlands pollute stands the Clean Water Act on its head and sends the 
all clear signal to developers that no project is out of bounds."

The report was financed by a group of local developers in Southwest 
Florida. It concludes that wetlands generate pollution and recommends 
that developers be allowed to avoid federal wetlands restrictions by 
allowing a few cattle to graze in the wetland so it can classified as 
"improved pasture."

The agency's acceptance of the report was too much for Bruce Boler, a 
former state water quality specialist to take - he resigned after 
three years with the EPA.

In his resignation statement, Boler cited the stance taken by the EPA 
Regional Administrator Jimmie Palmer that the agency "would not 
oppose state positions, so if a state had no water quality problems 
with a project then neither would EPA."

The state of Florida has already signed off on the controversial 
wetlands report.

"Ultimately, the politics in southwest Florida have proven to be 
stronger than the science," Boler wrote in his resignation letter.