Word: epa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Anxious to counter the rapidly spreading perception that safeguarding the environment has not exactly been one of its highest priorities, the Reagan Administration last week began a refurbishing of the Environmental Protection Agency. First, EPA Administrator Anne Burford showed up in Missouri with a dramatic offer to buy out the homes and property of residents of the dioxin-poisoned town of Times Beach. Then, after Burford left for speaking engagements in California and Arizona, the Administration put the broom to the EPA, sweeping out of office two top officials who were under investigation and appointing five top deputies. Democratic congressional...
...marriage to Robert Burford, an aide to Interior Department Secretary James Watt, two days before her appearance in Times Beach. But there was no gratis honeymoon period for her on the Hill. Investigators for congressional subcommittees probed charges of political favoritism, conflict of interest and mismanagement at the EPA. They began to focus on Burford's role in overseeing the Superfund, a $1.6 billion program to clean up the nation's worst toxic dumps. Some Administration officials, unhappy with her handling of the mess at her agency, also favored jettisoning the "Ice Queen...
...President Reagan gave every indication of being determined to keep Burford. One top White House aide offered a sarcastic assessment: "We have nothing against her except that she might not have managed the agency properly." Officials described the new talent at EPA as calculated to strengthen top management, particularly in the Superfund program. "We're going to surround her," said a Reagan adviser...
...situation. Twice last week the President tried to down-play the problems, blaming the press for exaggerating the story. Said Reagan: "We're falling into that trap of running as if the sky is falling, just on the basis of accusations, without... any substance back of it. The EPA has, in truth, done a fine job." But White House insiders conceded that the Administration was hurting. Said one: "We may have handed the Democrats another good issue...
...officials dismissed on Wednesday were EPA Inspector General Matthew Novick, whose job was to police waste and misdeeds in the agency, and John Horton, the agency's director of administration. Novick is being investigated by the General Accounting Office on allegations that he used Government employees to do personal work for him during office hours; the Justice Department is looking into accusations that Horton used his EPA office to run private businesses...