The U.S. Forest Service turned in a court-ordered environmental analysis of a fish-killing flame retardant 2 1/2 years late, and only after the agency’s top official was threatened with incarceration for contempt of court. But the USFS did ultimately conduct the environmental review of ammonium phosphate — which was dropped on an Oregon fire in 2002 and subsequently killed 20,000 fish — so U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy elected Wednesday not to send Agriculture Undersecretary and USFS overseer Mark Rey to the slammer. Nonetheless, said Molloy, the agency’s lack of action was “shameful,” “unreasonable,” and showed a “systematic disregard of the rule of law.” Ah, just another day in the Bush administration.
