You are pretty naive to think that the EPA isn't looking out for the best intersest of Bush and his friends rather than the public's health. The EPA is controlled by the White House, which is made up of former oil industry executives. The EPA is ignoring the science, which indicates that perchlorate is harmful at the levels currently found in our drinking water.

$2,850 for "serious" and "regulatory" violations is laughable. It's cheaper to pay the citations than to comply with the OSHA regulations. The cost/value of a human life is pretty cheap in Nevada.

Now that Republic Services has spent $36 Million mostly in legal bills arguing over whether they are responsible for cleaning up Sunrise Landfill, which they are, let's just give them a rate increase because they deserve it - ha, ha. After all, they are looking out for the health of the citizens and environment and not looking at the bottom line of what it is going to cost them. Why should they worry about $36 Million in clean up costs or double that, when they got a sweetheart deal of a 15-year garbage contract extension worth several hundred millions if not billions of dollars? They already charged the rate payers several times for the same garbage that washed away during the 1998 storm event - 1) Fee to haul the garbage away from customers, which was dumped in the canyon above and outside of the permitted Sunrise Landfill area, 2)the cost to clean up the garbage and haul it to the their new Apex Landfill, and 3) a rate increase to help pay for the closure of Sunrise Landfill, which was never closed properly to begin with. If the waste was disposed of properly and Sunrise Landfill was closed properly at the time of closure in 1993, pursuant to State and Federal Regulations, none of this would have happened.