GOVERNMENT & INDUSTRY (POLLUTING OR OTHERWISE) ARE IN BED TOGETHER

There is a phenomenon known as "regulator capture". Whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or Canada's various provincial Ministries of Environment, the process and results are similar. Likely it occurs in other fields such as securities regulators, housing standards, automotive safety regulations etc. Essentially there will be professional commonalities between the various personnel (government and industry) such as their fields of study, University degrees, professional certifications etc. Another prime example would be the Ontario Ministry of Labour. What an absolute joke and disgrace rolled into one. Again to a certain degree it's a case of human beings of a "professional" stature having to work closely together and wisely deciding early on to make things as pleasant as possible versus say the combative, confrontational atmosphere of a courtroom. Although even there realize that generally speaking the police, the Crown prosecuters and even the judge are all viewed as professional collegues to be respected at all times. Defnce counsel may be somewhat on the outs although not always. .................................................................................................................... Regarding professional certifications I know that those in industry with a MSC (Master of Science) degree and most certainly those with a professional certification in hydrogeology tend to form their arguments around known and accepted scientific criteria and understandings. Of course there is way too much "professional opinion" involved especially as polluting companies are loath to spend extra money on sampling and testing that may prove they they then need to spend even more money on contaminant removal or containment. I also expect that their consultants very quickly have learned that they and their companies can expect much more followup work via reports and written studies when they are more cognizant of "cost effective" methodologies and means. Hence consulting companies early on learn that being known as "client driven" is to their advantage. Either professional standards or even formal, engineering standards be damned if they conflict with the paying client's interests. In other words, in law, it is understood that a person's lawyer holds priveleged information that is harmful to their client's interests (financial/legal) and that they are neither expected to share them with the opposing side and in fact are legally bound NOT to do so. In legal matters that is understood. It is NOT so understood in regards to technical consultants and in fact consultants routinely and dishonestly attempt to fashion their positions and conclusions around the public interest including public environmental interests. The reality is that environmental/hydrogeological/surface water and or soil consultants in general do not give a rat's as. about the public interest. While an engineer can literally go to jail for a shoddy design of a bridge or building that collapses, as long as the environmental consultants have saved their clients money, a complete failure in say for example cleaning up the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards in thirty years, goes unpunished. ................................................................................................................ The system is both broken and rotten. Intentionally so and this is the public price (environmental & health) paid because of millions of dollars of sucessful government lobbying efforts by industry. This lobbying is of course enhanced with generous political donations and more. Again just like regulators being "captured", so can our government Ministry's and their staff.