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Landfill Persuasive Essay

Decent Essays

In 2016, Americans elected a new President, Donald Trump. During his campaign, candidate Trump made several promises about the EPA. One of Donald Trump’s campaign promises that I read on www.washingtonpost.com, “the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might disappear,” reminded me of the “Love Canal” scandal. As a student of biology and geology and a future scientist, the idea that government agencies would no longer assist with the protection of the environment, which includes politicians, was astonishing. According to an Executive Order signed by President Trump and posted on www.epa.gov, the “2015 Clean Water Rule” that protected streams and oceans from environment pollutants was rescinded (2017). The reason the quote by candidate Trump and the executive order by President Trump has any relevance is because these same actions could impact pre-1991 landfills. Landfills built before the 1991 regulations were not required to install barriers that protect the groundwater from carcinogens. There are chemicals that the EPA has determined to cause cancers and presently exist in landfills. Landfills built before 1991 are not required to protect any humans, wildlife or plants, or water from toxins and the new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt could decide the current regulations are too …show more content…

Now as President, his recent statements indicate that he will order the EPA to invalidate many of President Obama’s policies on the environment (Waste, 2017). The current regulations for landfills built before 1991, allow the landfill owners to stop testing for dangerous chemicals after thirty years. The EPA should adopt stricter policies, strengthened current regulations, and extend testing for carcinogens indefinitely, thus protecting the environment and its

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