"Is California’s Toxic Waste Regulator Letting Oversight Slide?"

"California generates an average of 1.7 million tons of hazardous waste each year. That ranges from industrial pollution to discarded household products. It includes liquids, solid, or gases that science has determined pose a threat to human or other life.

The state agency charged with protecting California’s people and environment by making sure these substances are handled safely is the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). The DTSC regulates thousands of businesses and institutions and completes some 125 cleanups a year.

In recent years the department has faced criticism from environmentalists, neighbors of industrial sites and state legislators. They accuse the department of allowing some cleanup projects to drag on, sometimes for decades. They point to fiscal mismanagement, sloppy record keeping and an opaque institutional culture that makes it hard to find out when the public is in danger or what’s being done about it. Some of these critics say state regulators have been indifferent to the public, cozy with polluters and slow in enforcing regulations."

Chris Richard reports for KQED News April 24, 2017.