Saturday, June 23, 2018 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt does not want anyone to look at what he’s sweeping under the rug. In an administration that sets new lows for transparency, Pruitt’s behavior stands out for the lengths he will go to obfuscate and mislead the public.
Take the recent EPA summit on drinking water contaminants: Pruitt’s bodyguards, a 20-man team costing $3 million per year, refused access to reporters from CNN and E&E News. One bodyguard shoved a reporter from the Associated Press for asking to speak with a staffer from the EPA about covering the public forum.
Pruitt is hiding from reporters because he was responsible for covering up a report about unsafe levels of contaminants in drinking water. In May, he admitted to pressuring officials at the Department of Health and Human Services to hide a report finding that current levels of two contaminants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are unsafe for consumption. An outside group found that 110 million Americans are drinking water with unsafe levels of these chemical compounds.That is nearly a third of our people.
Rather than taking action to treat water and eliminate sources of pollution, Pruitt wants to silence and intimidate reporters covering this threat to public health. Nobody interested in putting corporate profits over public health should be trusted with running the EPA. Scott Pruitt must resign.
