EPA Official Backs Whistle-Blower Plan
A top federal environmental official pledged support Monday for a San Gabriel Valley community activist group’s unusual proposal to offer rewards to people who blow the whistle on suspected toxic waste polluters.
Daniel W. McGovern, regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said his agency by law could not help fund the reward but would help pay for advertisements to solicit information about ground water pollution in the San Gabriel Valley.
Environmental experts consider the area to have the state’s worst ground water pollution problem.
McGovern made his comments at a Baldwin Park pollution conference sponsored by Rep. Esteban Torres (D-Pico Rivera), Los Angeles County District Atty. Ira Reiner and the East Valleys Organization, a community activist group.
Mayors from Baldwin Park, Azusa, Rosemead, West Covina and South El Monte all said they would try to persuade their councils to donate money for the reward fund. Unlike state and federal reward programs, this one would not require the criminal conviction of a polluter in order for a tipster to get a reward.
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