Animas River
There's no doubt the EPA contractors should have investigated what the hell they were doing before they went in there with a frickin' backhoe, but...
"For years, the Gold King has leaked toxic water at a rate of 50 to 250 gallons a minute. The agency had planned to find the source of the leak in the hope of one day stanching it." Sure Road to Hell and all that, but...
"In his first interview since the spill, the owner of the mine, Todd Hennis, said the spill was probably the fault of another mine company — the Sunnyside Gold Corporation — that had built retention walls inside an abandoned mine near the Gold King,
part of an old cleanup agreement with the federal government. Once the Sunnyside mine filled with wastewater, the water probably spilled into the Gold King, and then into the Animas, Mr. Hennis said."
So improper cleanup and verification by the Gov't, which allowed the mining company to clean up it's own mess, and trusted them to do so, is what caused the situation to begin with that needed to be fixed.
Flint, Michigan
So we start with an absolutely damning Smoking Gun...
"In June 2015, Miguel del Toral, a regulations manager in the EPA’s ground water and drinking water branch, sent a memo to his agency superiors titled: High Lead Levels in Flint, Michigan – Interim Report. In it, del Toral stated that there were elevated levels of lead in several Flint homes after the city began using the Flint River as its municipal water source.
In one home, the lead levels amounted to 13,200 parts per billion. The level that triggers federal action is 15. Del Toral also wrote that Flint lacked a plan to adequately prevent corrosion in the lead pipes that delivered water to the city of almost 100,000 people."
...but...
"The EPA, however, did not act publicly on del Toral’s findings. Susan Hedman, the EPA administrator who resigned this week, has argued that her office could not legally make that information known. That claim was based on an interpretation of federal law that the
EPA is responsible for establishing standards for states to follow, but doesn’t necessarily have the ability to force states to comply with those standards. As a result, Hedman says the EPA tried to apply behind-the-scenes pressure to get the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to take action.
“Let’s be clear, the recommendation to DEQ (regarding the need for corrosion controls) occurred at higher and higher levels during this time period,” Hedman told the Detroit News on Jan. 12. She said
Michigan officials rebuffed the EPA, insisting that such corrosion controls were not required by law. Hedman said she
sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force the state’s hand, but it took months for an answer. (The EPA declined to make Hedman available to comment.) All the while, residents of Flint were drinking and bathing in toxic water."
So, the EPA could do absolutely nothing to force Michigan to fix the problem or even acknowledge it.
Not exactly rackin' up the argument for less regulation since in both the cases, from the sources you quoted, EPA's lack of power, and trust in corporate goodwill is what seems to be the problem.
Regulations aren't the problem. Toothless, useless, corrupt, and pointless regulations are the problem. Also spineless administrators who are too afraid to pick up the phone and drop a dime to the New York Times and the Washington Post.