Hugh Kaufman (born January 14, 1943), better known as the Rubber Chicken Man, is a

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadi ...

baseball fan who can be seen at most games at

Nationals Park Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Home to Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals since its completion in 2008, it was the first LEED-certified green major prof ...

waving a rubber chicken over the Nationals dugout to ward off bad " juju" or bad luck. Sports reporters writing for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' have written about his giving chicken soup to struggling Nats players to improve their play and that his ritual "sacrificing" of chickens often seems to precede turnarounds in the Nationals' performance. As an employee of the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

, Kaufman has repeatedly been a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

, including matters relating to the

Rita Lavelle Rita Marie Lavelle (September 8, 1947) is a United States and California State Republican political figure. In 1984, Lavelle was convicted on federal charges of perjury related to an investigation into misuse of the United States Environmental P ...

convictions and the post-9-11 cleanup of Ground Zero.

Early life

Kaufman was born January 14, 1943, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, to Milton and Lillie Kaufman. There, he became a fan of the old Washington Senators. His father was a mathematician in the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bus ...

. He continues his father's tradition of keeping box score statistics of each game. Kaufman got a master's degree in engineering administration from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

. Kaufman served in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

from 1965 to 1971, leaving as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Environmental Protection Agency

Kaufman joined the

(EPA) in 1971.

Superfund, Anne Gorsuch, and Rita Lavelle

Kaufman was one of the authors of the

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency ...

, more commonly known as Superfund. Kaufman turned boxes on Anne Gorsuch's actions with Superfund money to a Senate subcommittee.

ordered an investigation of Kaufman in order to get him fired. She stated in a December 16, 1983 Senate hearing that she never ordered an investigation nor stated a desire to fire Kaufman. However, this was contradicted by other documents produced. She was later found guilty of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. Kaufman testified against Lavelle in her trial. "I feel her sentence was fair for the crimes charged, but I also feel she was made the scapegoat," stated Kaufman. "She was the lowest-level official involved and it was done to deflect attention away from the real issues and real crimes."

Hurricane Katrina

The EPA stated that "Hugh Kaufman is welcome to speak as a citizen. But he does not speak for the agency," in regards to his speaking on Katrina. Kaufman "suggested" that the Bush Administration was putting pressure on the EPA to not release information about the environmental impacts of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. He also claimed that lax enforcement of environmental precautions led to extremely toxic floodwater. He stated that the best thing to do with the toxic floodwater was to "send all that material into the Gulf of Mexico." However, water was pumped into

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

and the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

, a decision Kaufman criticized for possibly endangering people downstream. Additionally, he criticized the lack of

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, ...

and training for workers and citizens, due to the high levels of

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

and asbestos; he believed that many would get cancer as a result. He stated that this was occurring due to incompetence and a disconnect between decision-makers and experts.

Use of Corexit to clean Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Kaufman claimed that the use of

Corexit Corexit (often styled COREXIT) is a product line of oil dispersants used during oil spill response operations. It is produced by Nalco Holding Company, an indirect subsidiary of Ecolab. Corexit was originally developed by the Standard Oil Compan ...

to clean up the

2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, conside ...

was known to the EPA to be dangerous; Corexit has been found to have more negative effects on marine life than oil and to cause adverse health effects in humans. He claimed that the EPA is attempting to both claim that Corexit is safer than oil and that they don't know enough about Corexit to regulate it. Kaufman that "the only real purpose of nowiki/>BP">BP.html" ;"title="nowiki/>BP">nowiki/>BPusing so many Dispersant">dispersants A dispersant or a dispersing agent is a substance, typically a surfactant, that is added to a suspension of solid or liquid particles in a liquid (such as a colloid or emulsion) to improve the separation of the particles and to prevent their settl ...

Early life

Environmental Protection Agency

Superfund, Anne Gorsuch, and Rita Lavelle

Hurricane Katrina

Use of Corexit to clean Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Sports

See also

References