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    Dems Rip EPA for Axing Official Who Urged Cleanup by Dow
    By Jennifer A. Dlouhy
    Hearst Newspapers

    Thursday 08 May 2008

    Washington - Democratic senators lambasted the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for ousting its top administrator in the Midwest after she pressured Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil in Michigan.

    During a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the episode raised warning signs about the credibility of the EPA and the agency's commitment to "protect the environment and our health."

    According to a report in Friday's Chicago Tribune, the EPA administrator for the Midwest region, Mary Gade, said she was told to quit or be fired by June 1. She resigned.

    Gade had been pressuring Dow for almost a year to get the chemical company to clean up chemical contamination in Michigan.

    Dioxin, produced as a byproduct of some chemical manufacturing or formed from burning wood, coal and oil, has been linked to cancer and other health problems.

    Whitehouse acknowledged that "we don't know yet what the full story is on this" but said Gade's account raises warning flags.

    Gade had been "aggressive [in her] pursuit of Dow Chemical," Whitehouse said, and "suddenly - poof - a forced resignation in the context of a dispute with a major industrial [corporation]."

    "Ms. Gade, by all accounts, is well-regarded and experienced in her field" and had "received strong performance evaluations in a position that by all accounts is ordinarily given extremely wide latitude by the higher-ups in Washington," Whitehouse said. "Her forced resignation reeks of political interference."

    According to the Tribune report, Gade said her resignation was a direct result of her pressuring of Dow.

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the episode is a "very troubling case for the country." She added that Gade's account "seems to be a clear case here where policy was driven by politics."

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