The state of New York is finally delving further into protecting our environment by boosting the Bureau of Environmental Crimes unit of the Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC created this unit in 1982 with the mission of investigating illegal and dangerous activities, such as large-scale dumping of hazardous waste.
Interestingly enough, in a reorganizing effort Former Governor Pataki downsized the department and eliminated 700 to 800 positions between 1995 and 2006. As Pataki has long been considered a great friend of the environment, this news highlights another side to the ex-chief executive. Of course, there are always rationales for this type of downsizing, but it's a decision worth reviewing if Pataki decides to reenter public life.
More important, the first course of action for the reinvigorated Bureau of Environmental Crimes may be to investigate what really happened at the Ground Zero rescue and the toxins emanating from the pile where so many individuals put their hearts, souls, and bodies into the clean-up. This is not a political problem but a life-and-death issue. Every day news about new illnesses contracted by these heroic workers is coming to light, and it's just not possible that this is a coincidence.
Beyond offering medical care for those who have sacrificed so much and now are suffering, the government owes another debt: providing peace of mind to those effected. It would be heartening to see the government help those in real need rather than offer the obtuse responses and obfuscation about the facts that we have, unfortunately, become so accustomed to.
This topic was published as part of the House Media Network newsletter. Read this newsletter in its entirety at www.housemedianetwork.com/newsletter/54
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