=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #159
—December 14, 1989—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
==========
The Back issues and Index
are available
here.
The official RACHEL archive is here.
It’s updated constantly.
To subscribe, send E-mail to rachel-
weekly-
request@world.std.com
with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message. It’s free.
===Previous Issue==========================================Next Issue===
CONGRESS ANNOUNCES INVESTIGATION OF
MR. REILLY, MR. HAIR AND MR. BUNTROCK.
U.S. Representatives John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Thomas Bliley
(R-Va.) announced December 6 that they will investigate the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, John Martin,
principally for failing to pursue unscrupulous superfund
contractors but also for other alleged failures. Dingell and
Bliley head the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s
subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
One of the allegations to be examined by Congressional
investigators concerns Martin’s handling of a controversy
involving EPA Administrator William Reilly; EPA employees William
Sanjour and Hugh Kaufman have presented evidence that Reilly
improperly intervened in a federal-state dispute over hazardous
waste regulation in North Carolina (See RHWN #151, #156, #157.) A
whistleblower in Martin’s own office, J. Richard Wagner, has
alleged that Martin’s official investigation of Reilly’s action
on North Carolina was, at best, badly botched and, at worst,
represented a felonious conspiracy between Martin, Reilly, Jay
Hair (President of the National Wildlife Federation), and Dean
Buntrock, chief executive officer of Waste Management, Inc., to
cover up improper attempts by Buntrock to influence Reilly at a
breakfast meeting arranged by Hair.
According to the NEW YORK TIMES (12/10/89, pg. 37) and other
sources, Dingell and Bliley are concerned about allegations that
Martin–who is supposed to be an independent watchdog over EPA
managers–met with Reilly before launching an inquiry into
Reilly’s and Buntrock’s involvement in the North Carolina matter.
Martin’s inquiry cleared Reilly of any impropriety. In a letter
to Martin advising him of the Congressional probe, Dingell and
Bliley requested a raft of documents concerning the inspector
general’s office of investigations from 1984 through 1989.
Martin was first appointed EPA’s Inspector General by President
Reagan in October, 1983; he was reappointed to that post by
President Bush in October, 1989. From 1981 to 1983 Martin was
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: john martin; william reilly; william sanjour;
hugh kaufman; j. richard wagner; nc; north carolina; states
sovereignty; jay hair; dean buntrock; wmi; epa;