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Beating a Dead Horse
by Ted Mooney
<mooney@finishing.com>
July 7, 1998
Yet again. It's 25 years now, and the EPA seems to never, ever
run out of money to fund duplicative counter-productive waste
reduction studies for the metal finishing industry. I've already
editorialized on this to the point of ennui, yet this inquiry was
in today's mail anyway:
[My company] is a small consulting firm
in [the beltway area of] MD specializing in Economics and Public
Policy Consulting. We are trying to bid on two proposals to the
U.S. EPA in [a State] on [processes that approach or obtain zero
discharge in common metal finishing processes] and [developing a
report on cyanide processes in metal finishing shops]. We last
year won a contract with the EPA [etc., etc.] Would you be
interested in joining us to bid on the two above-mentioned
proposals? If so, you could get in touch with me via email or
[phone number]. The deadline for submission of the proposals is
[soon] so a prompt reply will be appreciated. Thanks!
All I could do was compromise as best I could between honesty
and politeness:
Hundreds upon hundreds of waste
reduction reports have been funded for the metal finishing
industry over the past 25 years. Nobody could ever read even 5
percent of what is already out there courtesy of our tax money.
More of them is the last thing this industry or this country
needs. Sorry, my heart could never be in it.
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