Posted on 06/24/2010 10:19:17 PM PDT by Qbert
Omaha, Neb. (AP) - Union Pacific Corp. asked a federal judge Wednesday to order the Environmental Protection Agency to stop destroying records the railroad requested about lead contamination in Omaha.
The EPA and Union Pacific have been trying for years to settle who should pay more than $50 million to clean up 5,600 lead-contaminated properties in the railroad's home city because they disagree about the source of the contamination.
In Union Pacific's lawsuit, the railroad quotes from several e-mails where an EPA supervisor encourages employees to delete messages so they won't be subject to release as public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
In one e-mail the lawsuit references, the EPA supervisor overseeing the Omaha lead site, Robert Feild, wrote: "It will be critical that every i is dotted and t crossed since we are under a microscope. please delete this message after reading - we receive regular FOIA requests from Union Pacific for our e-mails. thanks, Bob F."
EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said the agency doesn't typically comment on pending litigation.
Much of eastern Omaha has been designated a superfund site by the EPA because of the extent of the contamination.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Wow - this is insane! And of course UP will be coerced to pay huge amounts on the now-unsubstantiated testimony of the EPA!
We’re becoming a fascist state, and we’re doing it in a hurry!
If I were the judge I would tear into the EPA for this, just like Judge Feldman did with the administration in the drilling moratorium case for citing “expert opinion”, even though the experts hadn’t actually reviewed the key parts that were being presented.
These thugs will literally say and do anything- with joy.
Simple: No proof, no liability for UP.
If you want to see an illegal fascist thug agency in action, read Rapanos v US. The EPA is a neo-Nazi nature worship cult.
The EPA should have been disbanded after that and its “employees” thrown in prison.
Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson sold his soul to Obama on the health care bill and now the Obama thugocracy craps on his state. Sure was worth it wasn’t it Ben...
Coming Soon...... Government Healthcare. We need more government agencies like the EPA! /sarc
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