Yesterday we learned that the Environmental Protection Agency couldn't be arsed prosecuting 13 companies caught illegally storing banned PFOS and PFOA firefighting foams. It turns out its even worse than that: last year, they couldn't be arsed prosecuting anybody:
The agency charged with protecting New Zealand’s environment investigated 20 cases last year but issued no prosecutions.
Data obtained by Newsroom under the Official Information Act shows that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) prosecuted no one in the last financial year.
In the same period, it investigated 20 tip-offs and found “compliance issues” indicated in five instances. Of these five cases, two were given “enforcement action” and none were prosecuted.
The data did not include the EPA’s longstanding investigation into contamination from firefighting foams containing the banned chemical PFOS.
Which looks an awful lot like an agency which simply cannot be fucked. According to their annual report, the government allocated the EPA $6.5 million last year for "monitoring and enforcement functions. It would be nice if they actually did the job they were paid for, rather than wasting public funds doing nothing while our water is poisoned.
