Miners in Tar Creek in the 1920’s
Politico reported this week on a major environmental scandal in EPA Administrator’s Scott Pruitt’s backyard, with lingering questions dating back to his time as Oklahoma Attorney General.
All agree that Tar Creek, Oklahoma is a public health disaster. The community was exposed to extraordinary levels of toxic lead and arsenic from decades of mine waste. According to a university-led study, the town had “lead-poisoning levels in children that were three times higher than those registered in Flint, Michigan, during the peak of its recent water crisis.”
The mismanaged cleanup of this threat took place before Pruitt took office, but his decision not to prosecute anyone involved and to ignore the state’s open records law to hide a state audit about the case has led to legal action by the non-profit Campaign for Accountability, seeking to make the audit public.
The group’s executive director told Politico, “If you take a look at Scott Pruitt’s record, you see a general disregard for transparency. I don’t think it’s outside our bounds to say that Pruitt is trying to hide evidence of criminal wrongdoing.”
Here are the four biggest unanswered questions arising from the case:
1. Why didn’t Pruitt prosecute anyone involved in the land deals and buyouts surrounding the cleanup, despite questionable-looking payments and widespread accusations of insider dealing?
2. Why did he refuse to release the state auditor’s report on the failed buyouts and other issues related to the cleanup? (The auditor called the decision “bizarre.”)
3. Why did Pruitt fail to even contact the auditor before sealing his findings from public view?
4. Oklahoma insiders think EPA’s Scott Pruitt is seeking to be anointed Senator James Inhofe’s successor if he retires in 2020. Is that why Pruitt has sealed the audit that could reveal unseemly details about a hazardous waste buyout plan that his benefactor brokered?
Pruitt, of course, has a long history of secrecy. As Oklahoma Attorney General, The New York Times reported 2014, he led an “unprecedented secretive alliance” with top energy companies and lobbyists. Contrary to past practice at EPA, he withheld his schedule of public events until bowing to widespread opposition. He’s even using $25,000 of taxpayer funds to install a new secure “phone booth” near his office at EPA.
The damage done to Tar Creek residents is horrifying. They deserve openness and answers. One resident said, “We were lied to and deceived from Day One.”
The question now is whether Scott Pruitt’s actions deepened an already tragic situation. And, more importantly, what is being hidden from the public.
On Twitter at @RealKeithGaby