ASBESTOS

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
Department of Justice
Main Justice Building
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Carol M. Browner
Office of the Adminstrator
United States Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Ms. Reno and Ms. Browner:
I am the president of Don't Waste Arizona, Inc. (DWA), a non-profit environmental organization in the state of Arizona. DWA has conducted significant citizen suit enforcement of federal environmental laws, particularly of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act.

I watched with great interest your recent tough talk on national news about prosecuting those employers who have their employees remove asbestos materials without the proper training and protective equipment. I hope that this was not just idle talk, particularly because this has happened in a well-publicized series of incidents in Arizona.

Attached please find a newspaper article detailing this. In this series of incidents, the Arizona Department of Corrections with knowledge and forethought forced STAFF AND INMATES to remove asbestos from certain state buildings. The article does mention USEPA, and states the EPA "won't say whether it is conducting a criminal investigation of the Department of Corrections."

All Americans should be offered the equal protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

There are even federal-level and state-level civil suits pending regarding these particular matters, but these suits cannot address the criminal aspects of this matter. And I don't know how you can selectively prosecute these cases.

If there is not a criminal investigation underway, I urge you to start one now. If there is, I hope the attached article is helpful.

Please let me know what results from this contact so that it may also be posted to the organization's website on the Internet.

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Brittle
President
Don't Waste Arizona, Inc.
6205 South 12th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85040
602-268-6110
602-268-0915 fax

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