Environment Agency Director Resigns
December 12th, 2009Engineer Trey Glenn Quits Department of Environmental Management
Video by John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper
There’s no clear indication from environmental non-profit groups in the state why Glenn resigned at this time, although is it rumored that he has been the subject of ethics charges, negligence of duty, creating total confusion and dissent at the agency and for leading the approval of a permit for millions of tons of toxic TVA coal ash to be deposited in a landfill in Alabama’s Black Belt.
According to a recent report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama is going to do far more than the agency under President George W. Bush — when science was undermined for big business — to monitor the regulatory activities of states on enforcement of the Clean Air and Water Acts. There is an indication the federal agency may be more willing than ever to step in when states aren’t adequately enforcing the law, according to the new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, a New Orleans native.
“Many of these state programs are 20, 30 years old, and we might even need to hit the reset button and say, ‘OK, we’re going to hold you to a standard. If you’re doing your job, great, but if you’re not, we’re going to be here going inside until you are,” Jackson said in an interview with reporters and editors back in November.
“It’s EPA’s job to oversee,” Jackson said. “We often say we’re partners, but we’re also delegating our authority to a state, and of course, ultimately that means your ultimate answer would be to take it back.”
Hurricane Creekkeeper John L. Wathen said environmentalists are glad to see him go, but remain anxious about the direction of ADEM.
“Unless ADEM replaces him and the other two empty chairs on the ADEM EMC Commission with people who understand enforcement there will be no meaningful changes at ADEM,” Wathen said. “People all over Alabama should be following this and getting contacts for a new director who will enforce the existing environmental laws instead of protecting polluters as Glenn did. It is time for all citizens to engage the ADEM EMC and demand accountability from Alabama’s polluters.”
A group calling itself the ADEM Reform Coalition and claiming 40 member organizations with the mission to protect and restore the environment, safeguard human health, and ensure environmental justice in accordance with the will of the citizens, issued this statement via e-mail.
The coalition is hopeful that the upcoming selection of a new director at the Alabama Department of Environmental Management will help transform the agency into one that is more protective of human health and the environment.
The agency still has a long way to go in order to adequately protect the citizens of Alabama from harmful pollutants in the air and water
The Coalition calls on the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to be deliberate, forward-thinking, and inclusive of the public as it searches for and hires a first-rate director. The next director of this important agency must be someone with experience in the area of environmental regulations and policy. He or she must also be someone who understands the connection between environmental protection and public health. Economic sustainability should be a positive consequence, not an objective, of the next director.
Through the hiring process, the EMC must find a director who can reverse the trend of the recent negative reports about Alabama’s environment. Birmingham consistently is among cities nationwide with the poorest air quality. Coastal water quality continues to decline. Stormwater runoff is plaguing all parts of our state. Enforcement and penalties have taken a rapid decline in the past few years with no explanation. Excessive pollution in impoverished and minority communities continue to be allowed. Funding is consistently too low.
Meanwhile, the federal changes on carbon emissions, coal mining, energy policy, renewing the Clean Water Act, and more will bring additional challenges to the next director. He or she must be a strong leader in order to transform ADEM into one the nation’s premiere environmental agencies that can meet the challenges and the needs of the people and environment of Alabama.
Does this mean Glenn has lined up a job in the private sector with an oil or chemical company?
Stay tuned to the online news organization with by far more experience covering science and environmental issues than any news outlet in the American South.
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Tags: Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Trey Glenn
December 12th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
The director of the Commission was quoted yesterday in the Bhm “News” on AL.com as stating that she thought that Glenn had done an excellent job as Director. I presume that to mean that the Commission intends to find someone equally skillful.
“Honest Services” by officials has been big news in the past few years. I fail to see how anyone can believe that either members of the Commission or of ADEM have been faithfully performing their duty for the people of the state of Alabama and in fact have been wasting tax dollars by their very existence. Thus by the standards that have been set by prosecutors and the Newhouse newspapers, there needs to be an investigation.
December 12th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court may be striking down certain types of honest services fraud, we hear, but there are other avenues of investigation. We are looking at a couple of options ourselves as journalists.
But realize that the only way to change the type of corporate criminals typically appointed to positions by Republicans in Alabama is to change the type of politicians we elect. Unfortunately, the bench in Alabama of electable possibilities is fairly short…
December 12th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I just happened to realize that the Birmingham Distortion of the News could have left off something the chairwoman said LOL. She could have gone on to say that he was in fact excellent..as a good and faithful servant of power and coal interests, but terrible at protecting the environment and in particular our water resources.
I know abut the honest services dilemma; I was just pointing out close ADEM has come to the accepted measure of corruption in Alabama. How can we say that Sue Schmitz is more guilty of taking money from the state for a job not done than someone who rubber-stamps the welfare of industry without even considering the interests of the people of the state (the very definition of the job.) The strip mine on the Warrior River adjacent to water intakes comes to mind.