Contradicting a Lawyer: Worst US Environmental Disaster Definitely Not from an Oil Well

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster the US has faced, a senior Obama official has said. Carol Martha Browner, Director of White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama Administration and a lawyer, called the Gulf spill, which started April 22, “probably the worst environmental disaster we’ve ever faced in this country,” and said that it was being met with “the biggest environmental response.”

Very interesting and WRONG! How can anyone contradict Ms. Browner?

Is there a larger environmental disaster in the US? Yes, but lawyers naturally blame private business and industry, the source for most of the parasitic fees they collect, funds they exploit, and insurance claims built into the prices of products they intend to litigate eventually rather than governments. If there is an even larger environmental disaster looming, why is the public relatively unconcerned about it?

First, because the handmaiden of government, the mainstream media, does so little reporting to remind the public. Secondly, because the government has done something about the larger ecological disaster -- legislated laws to fix it by 2024 (still indefinite). Thirdly, it is not private businesses that have been the culprits in the larger environmental disaster, it is municipal governments like New York and Washington, D.C., etc.

Government data released Thursday suggests some 19 to 30 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf. Taking the worst case, that is 750,000 gallons daily, a large quantity to be sure, but not as large as the real culprit.

A Gathering Storm - New York Wastewater Infrastructure in Crisis -... one-quarter of the 610 facilities in New York are operating beyond their useful life expectancy and many others are using outmoded, inadequate technology, increasing their likelihood of tainting our waters... Every year, old sewers flooded by stormwater release more than 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the New York Harbor alone.

Every year, old sewers flooded by stormwater release more than 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the New York Harbor alone... An inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure jeopardizes the viability of current and future businesses, stymies economic growth and threatens the quality of life for New York State residents. - 2010 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Washington: Agreement On Storm Runoff - [2004]

The District of Columbia, in a settlement with federal environmental officials, agreed to build a $1.4 billion underground storm water storage system over the next 20 years to prevent raw sewage from entering rivers during heavy storms, the Justice Department said. The agreement should stop the annual discharge of an estimated 3.2 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek. Eric Lipton (NYT)

For just D.C. and NY alone, the raw sewage flowing from rivers to the ocean is over 30 Billion gallons per year (average of over 82 Million gals/day). In addition to fecal coliform and disease, other pollutants may include pharmaceutical trace drugs, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). See what I mean, now which do believe is really the larger environmental disaster?

82 Million gallons /day of raw sewage is 100x more than 750 Thousand gallons / day of raw oil, and it ain't good for shrimp, oysters, seafood, and fishermen either.

Are lawyers accustomed to say only that which helps those paying them? Absolutely, with practice and testing provided by Law Schools.