Trump: US Environmental Agency Must be Stripped of Political Agenda

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must be stripped of the political agendas it has pursued for many years and must focus instead on its core mission of ensuring healthy water and air for the American people, Donald Trump told a rally.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – "Our EPA will abandon political agendas and focus on its core mission — clean air and clean water," Trump, the Republican US presidential candidate, stressed in Canton in the US state of Ohio on Wednesday evening.

He said the environmental water supply disaster in the city of Flint in the US state of Michigan was a direct result of the Free Trade policies that had destroyed the US industrial base creating widespread economic suffering and hardship.

"This is the catastrophe that happens when [we] take care of every country except for our own. I'm running to bring hope to Flint and to other places including even Canton," Trump stated.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) called in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy last month for EPA to set a federal US standard for permitted levels of the toxic chemical hexavalent chromium allowed in drinking water.