kwolf@kwaecoscience.com 
08/14/2007 03:59 PM	To	
Group A-AND-R-DOCKET@EPA	

cc	

bcc	

	

Subject	
EPA Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-QAR-2005-0172	

	

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson

Dear EPA Administrator Johnson,

I am writing under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-QAR-2005-0172 to urge
you to strengthen ozone pollution controls and to base the final
standard on the best available science as required by the Clean
Air Act. 

As a colleague of principled and environmentally conscientious
people like Mr. Bill Ruckelshaus and thousands of other
responsible and reasonable scientists working to protect and
recover our environment, I find significant flaws in the EPA
science to policy exchange. 

Detailed examination of your federal register posting and your
proposed actions are incongruent as best, and unequivocally
reckless at worst.

From NASA to the USFWS, polarization of science and ideological
manipulation by untrained, inexperienced embedded political
appointees will not be tolerated by the American People. 

I have also had the disappointing experience of working for a
large multi-national consulting firm that pandered to corporate
greed. Their brand of "science" was intended to abdicate and
confuse, not to secure responsible and reasonable actions to
mitigate egregious assaults on our health, our children’s safety
and a healthy environment we have striven to achieve. I honestly
don't know how the Principles of this company sleep at night. I
quit, even though my division was making good decisions, because
I was unable to continue to tolerate what others in the company
were doing.

But this is about you. First, shame on you for towing the party
and corporate line for the sake of profits and the failed
ideology that dominated the Saxons, Normans, and American
Revolution; ideology that led to the tragedy of the commons,
primogeniture, the great depression, the dust bowl, acid rain,
three-mile island, Libby Mt. vermiculite mining, the
arsenic-laden Blackbird cobalt mines in Idaho, coal-bed methane,
liquid coal, the falsehood of "clean goal" PCB cover-ups at
Motorola, PGE's Chromium lies ala Erin Brockovich (that former
company's client)and thousands of other examples that your
current policy will engender. Think about the future and the
former condition of thousands of lakes, rivers and watersheds
upon which we all depend and the legacy we leave our children
and grandchildren. Think about how EPA led the way to clean up
the restore much of this country's natural resources until 2000
and what it has done since. You can end your tenure by standing
up to greed, ideology and lies by changing this policy, relying
on the science and making "risk" an adverse policy once again.

So, if you do not then shame on you for making decisions that
take us back to those days and examples cited above; again a
decimal dusting of examples. And, if you proceed, you will
absolutely be held accountable in public and possibly in court
if you continue to obviate the very science that should guide
your policy in a very different direction. Your departure will
not signal your exoneration and retirement into comfort and
anonymity. Thus, you must make the change now, or you will be
held in contempt and suffer the consequences you ravage upon the
environment today.

The newly proposed draft ozone pollution regulations fall short
of what EPA scientific experts consider safe. EPA scientists
have linked ground-level ozone, a dangerous component of smog,
to asthma and other breathing difficulties, chest pain, lung
damage, and even premature death. According to the EPA's own
analysis, tightening the current standard would significantly
reduce ozone-related deaths. 

I also urge you to eliminate the "rounding loophole." Please
ensure that ozone levels are measured to three decimal places
instead of two. Rounding off pollution levels allows many
communities to claim they are meeting a safe standard for ozone
when in fact, they are not.

I urge you to adopt a final ozone standard consistent with the
independent scientific analyses conducted by EPA staff
scientists and science advisors.

Then, ask yourself: Can I lead as an individual? Can I lead in a
way that I can

Sincerely,
Keith Wolf
PO Box 1017
Duvall, WA 98019-1017