EPA Drops Cases, Places Trust in Pesticide Maker

Several Nov. 6 headlines in The Times sadly reflect the effect the Bush administration is having on our republic.

From “Bush Signs Bill to Ban a Type of Abortion” to “Pentagon Orders Iraq Replacement Troops,” from “Rule Drafted That Would Dilute the Clean Water Act” to “EPA Drops Its Cases Against Dozens of Alleged Polluters,” it’s clear that what’s happening in this country is not, as Clean Air Trust Director Frank O’Donnell described it, “like our worst nightmare.”

No, it is our worst nightmare.

Miles Crakow

Los Angeles

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Re “Regulators to Let Maker Test Chemical Levels,” Nov. 1: The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to charge Syngenta -- the maker of the pesticide atrazine -- with responsibility for monitoring sensitive waterways for atrazine contamination represents an astounding dereliction of duty by the EPA as well as a classic “fox in the chicken coop” coup for Syngenta.

Ironically, this was announced by the EPA the same week that a major expose was published, on the front page of the Chronicle of Higher Education, on Syngenta’s efforts to obscure results of research on frogs that showed significant harm from atrazine. If Syngenta can’t be trusted to report honestly on laboratory experiments with frogs, how can we possibly trust its information about exposure levels that people might encounter in the real world?

John Peterson Myers

White Hall, Va.

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The Bush administration should now officially change the name of the Environmental Protection Agency to the Environmental Pollution Agency.

Margaret Millea

Playa del Rey