Controversial former MDEQ official to head EPA’s Midwest office

Thanks to Great Lakes Blogger Dave Dempsey for pointing out this Gristmill story on the appointment of Lynn Buhl as regional director for the Environmental Protection Agency’s region 5.

Buhl replaces Mary Gade, who resigned earlier this year, stating that she was forced out over her efforts to get the Dow Chemical Co. to clean up dioxin contamination in the Saginaw Bay watershed.

Continued -Grist says that Buhl’s appointment is a score for Dow and notes that Buhl — who is leaving her position as deputy assistant administrator in EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Office to head the agency’s Midwest Regional office — also worked as an attorney for DaimlerChrysler.

In 2003, Buhl was nominated by Robert Ehrlich Jr., then-governor of Maryland, to head that state’s Office of the Environment, but her appointment was blocked by the Maryland Senate. According to the Bay & Environment blog at the Baltimore Sun, Buhl’s was the first appointment ever blocked by the Maryland Legislature.

Katherine Boyle of the online Energy & Environment News reports:

Maryland Senate President Mike Miller (D) said he opposed her nomination because of her “horrible record of stewardship in the Great Lakes region” during her time as a senior official in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

“Her tenure there was marked by an absence of any degree of monitoring in the Great Lakes area at all in terms of polluters,” Miller said in an interview. “Instead of increasing environmental awareness and improving the environment, it actually deteriorated under her watch.”

“This reminds me of what the military used to call a gangplank promotion,” James Lang, an environmentalist active on water quality issues told Michigan Messenger, “… at the end of World War II, soldiers on their way home to be discharged got a promotion to enhance their rank and post-war benefits.  Have a great six months, Lynn.”