DENVER (AP) – Anne McGill Gorsuch Burford, who spent two years as Environmental Protection Agency director under President Reagan before resigning in a fight with Congress over toxic waste documents, has died of cancer. She was 62.

Burford died Sunday at Aurora Medical Center, said one of her sons, J.J. Gorsuch.

A former Colorado lawmaker, Burford considered Reagan a hero and was thrilled to win a post in his administration in 1981. In her 1986 book “Are You Tough Enough?” she recalled the outrage from environmentalists as she cut the EPA budget by 22 percent.

Her plan was to protect the environment more efficiently – with a smaller staff, more responsibility at the state level and what she viewed would be more sensible regulations.

Burford also slashed EPA enforcement actions against polluters and slowed payments for Superfund cleanups.

But she ended up losing a court fight after refusing to share subpoenaed Superfund documents with a House subcommittee investigating toxic waste programs. Congress cited her for contempt in 1982 and she was forced to resign.

“I was a small fish on the way to a big fry,” she complained, saying she had no help from the White House in the legal battle.

“I took the job because I thought Ronald Reagan shared that philosophy,” she wrote. “Having to face the fact that he does not is probably the hardest thing I have had to do, and I am still uncomfortable with it. Ronald Reagan has always been a personal and political hero of mine, and concluding that he doesn’t care about the environment hurts.”

Her second husband, Bob Burford, was director of the Bureau of Land Management under Reagan. He also cut agency staffing and fought off environmental groups. He died of cancer in 1993 at age 70.

Anne McGill was born April 21, 1942, in Casper, Wyo., and graduated from the University of Colorado Law School at 21. She became a Fulbright scholar, a deputy district attorney in Denver and a corporate attorney before she was elected to the Colorado Legislature in 1976.

She was known as one of the “House Crazies,” a group of lawmakers intent on changing government, said Steve Durham, who served with her and later was regional administrator of the EPA under Burford.

“We wanted less government and have it cost less,” he said. “She had a great mind and was a good politician.”

After her stint with EPA, Burford returned to Colorado and specialized in child advocacy law.

She is survived by her mother, six siblings, three children and several grandchildren.

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