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| **kwolf@kwaecoscience.com** |
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| 08/14/2007 03:59 PM         |
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    EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson

     

    Dear EPA Administrator Johnson,

    I am writing under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-QAR-2005-0172 to urge

    you to strengthen ozone pollution controls and to base the final

    standard on the best available science as required by the Clean

    Air Act. 

    As a colleague of principled and environmentally conscientious

    people like Mr. Bill Ruckelshaus and thousands of other

    responsible and reasonable scientists working to protect and

    recover our environment, I find significant flaws in the EPA

    science to policy exchange. 

    Detailed examination of your federal register posting and your

    proposed actions are incongruent as best, and unequivocally

    reckless at worst.

    From NASA to the USFWS, polarization of science and ideological

    manipulation by untrained, inexperienced embedded political

    appointees will not be tolerated by the American People. 

    I have also had the disappointing experience of working for a

    large multi-national consulting firm that pandered to corporate

    greed. Their brand of "science" was intended to abdicate and

    confuse, not to secure responsible and reasonable actions to

    mitigate egregious assaults on our health, our children’s safety

    and a healthy environment we have striven to achieve. I honestly

    don't know how the Principles of this company sleep at night. I

    quit, even though my division was making good decisions, because

    I was unable to continue to tolerate what others in the company

    were doing.

    But this is about you. First, shame on you for towing the party

    and corporate line for the sake of profits and the failed

    ideology that dominated the Saxons, Normans, and American

    Revolution; ideology that led to the tragedy of the commons,

    primogeniture, the great depression, the dust bowl, acid rain,

    three-mile island, Libby Mt. vermiculite mining, the

    arsenic-laden Blackbird cobalt mines in Idaho, coal-bed methane,

    liquid coal, the falsehood of "clean goal" PCB cover-ups at

    Motorola, PGE's Chromium lies ala Erin Brockovich (that former

    company's client)and thousands of other examples that your

    current policy will engender. Think about the future and the

    former condition of thousands of lakes, rivers and watersheds

    upon which we all depend and the legacy we leave our children

    and grandchildren. Think about how EPA led the way to clean up

    the restore much of this country's natural resources until 2000

    and what it has done since. You can end your tenure by standing

    up to greed, ideology and lies by changing this policy, relying

    on the science and making "risk" an adverse policy once again.

    So, if you do not then shame on you for making decisions that

    take us back to those days and examples cited above; again a

    decimal dusting of examples. And, if you proceed, you will

    absolutely be held accountable in public and possibly in court

    if you continue to obviate the very science that should guide

    your policy in a very different direction. Your departure will

    not signal your exoneration and retirement into comfort and

    anonymity. Thus, you must make the change now, or you will be

    held in contempt and suffer the consequences you ravage upon the

    environment today.

    The newly proposed draft ozone pollution regulations fall short

    of what EPA scientific experts consider safe. EPA scientists

    have linked ground-level ozone, a dangerous component of smog,

    to asthma and other breathing difficulties, chest pain, lung

    damage, and even premature death. According to the EPA's own

    analysis, tightening the current standard would significantly

    reduce ozone-related deaths. 

    I also urge you to eliminate the "rounding loophole." Please

    ensure that ozone levels are measured to three decimal places

    instead of two. Rounding off pollution levels allows many

    communities to claim they are meeting a safe standard for ozone

    when in fact, they are not.

    I urge you to adopt a final ozone standard consistent with the

    independent scientific analyses conducted by EPA staff

    scientists and science advisors.

    Then, ask yourself: Can I lead as an individual? Can I lead in a

    way that I can

    Sincerely,

    Keith Wolf

    PO Box 1017

    Duvall, WA 98019-1017