• All EPA National Headquarters Electricity to Be Renewable
  
• California Court Grants Group's Request for Perchlorate Documents
  
• Washington's E-Waste Recycling Bill Toughest in the Nation
  
• Louisiana Meets All Air Toxics Standards for First Time
  
• Public Employees Urge Removal of Interior Dept. Bison Logo
  
• Opposition Grows to Pebble Mine in Alaska Fishing Area
  
• Nature Conservancy Buys Prime Habitat for Everglades Restoration
  

All EPA National Headquarters Electricity to Be Renewable

California Court Grants Group's Request for Perchlorate Documents

The ruling against the Pentagon, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) came in response to an NRDC lawsuit charging that the agencies illegally withheld evidence showing efforts to delay or kill new federal health standards that would require major cleanup, especially in Southern California.

The substance, perchlorate, interferes with thyroid hormone uptake. Because thyroid hormones are necessary for normal growth and development, perchlorate exposure can harm brain development in fetuses and newborn babies.

Perchlorate also poses a threat to people who already have thyroid problems or an iodine deficiency, which includes 15 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age.

Over the years, manufacturers have been improperly disposing of perchlorate, which has leached into the Colorado River, a major source of drinking water for Los Angeles, Las Vegas and northern Arizona.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess ruled that while the three agencies had released some documents to the NRDC, they had wrongly withheld many others. These include evidence that OMB gave information to lobbyists working for chemical companies and aeronautics firms that "suggested preferential treatment," the judge wrote.

"Today’s ruling is a victory for public health and a blow to the Bush administration’s private dealings with the defense industry," said NRDC attorney Aaron Colangelo.

The NRDC lawsuit charged that the OMB, Department of Defense and EPA violated the law by refusing to turn over documents regarding both the nature of industry involvement in EPA’s perchlorate safety assessment and White House lobbying on behalf of industry.

The lawsuit also charged that the government agencies have refused to disclose records revealing the scope of perchlorate contamination in the nation’s drinking water and the threat it poses to public health.

NRDC had asked the federal District Court in Los Angeles to compel these agencies to turn over relevant documents, as they are required to do under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The environmental group filed FOIA requests in 2003 with EPA in March, with the Department of Defense in September 2005, and with the OMB in December 2005.

Perchlorate has been used to make fuel for rockets and missiles in 49 states, and detected in ground or drinking water in at least half of those states. The NRDC says perchlorate may be contaminating the drinking water of 20 million Americans. Levels found in the Colorado River have exceeded EPA’s draft exposure limits.

Washington's E-Waste Recycling Bill Toughest in the Nation

Link to bill language here.

Link to chart of all states with e-waste bills pending here.

Louisiana Meets All Air Toxics Standards for First Time

After a review of the data from 16 DEQ air-monitoring sites throughout the state, the department announced last week that the entire state is in compliance with all air toxics ambient air quality standards for the first time since the air toxics program’s inception in 1990.

Louisiana, which monitors for 60 air toxics, is one of only three states with established ambient air toxics standards. Currently, there are no federal ambient air toxics standards.

The news shows progress for the state’s air quality. However, the agency says there is still work to do in the five parish Baton Rouge area because it fails to meet federal guidelines for the criteria air pollutant ozone.

Because of this failure to comply, the DEQ initiated an aggressive air-quality campaign for the summer of 2005. The goal was to reduce emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds, or HRVOCs, which contribute to the formation of ozone.

Toward the end of 2004, DEQ issued administrative orders to 15 industries in the Baton Rouge area requiring 22 additional monitors and more internal audits. DEQ also used a HAWK infrared gas imaging camera to look for leaks at facilities, in pipelines, on barges and on railroad tank cars. There were also additional inspections performed throughout the five parish Baton Rouge area.

Ambient air monitoring data collected from 2005 shows that these efforts met with some success. Decreases in air toxic releases were noticed at the Port Allen and South Scotlandville monitors. Both sites were previously out of compliance with the state air toxics standard for 1,3 butadiene. This pollutant is one of the more common pollutants associated with ground level ozone formation.

"Meeting the ambient air toxics standards is a giant step in the right direction for air quality throughout Louisiana," DEQ Secretary Mike McDaniel said of the department’s increased activity.

"This proves the perception of Louisiana as a state with poor air quality is not an accurate portrayal. By using the newest tools available to us and with cooperation from industry and the public, we will continue to make progress in improving our air quality," said McDaniel. "This is evident because of the breakthrough year we had in 2005."

The DEQ is working to acquire a mobile monitoring laboratory which will enable it to conduct local monitoring and evaluate toxic emissions in more locations and closer to emission sources.

Public Employees Urge Removal of Interior Dept. Bison Logo

WASHINGTON, DC, March 24, 2006 (ENS) - At the request of Yellowstone Park's own employees who are appalled by what one calls "biological malpractice," Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has started a drive to remove the bison as the official seal for the Interior Department and is enlisting public involvement in suggesting a substitute symbol for the agency.

Although it is the official symbol for the U.S. Department of Interior, the American bison is treated worse than any other species of wildlife in the national park system, said PEER, a national association of government employees in natural resources agencies.

This year, more than one in five members of the nation's largest remaining wild herd, located within Yellowstone National Park, will be killed - by slaughter, hazing and maiming - as a result of federal action.

Despite the official policy to "protect and maintain a wild, free roaming population of Yellowstone bison," the reality is that no other native wildlife species is subjected to official eradication efforts on the scale that is occurring within Yellowstone.

"Chipmunks in New York's Central Park get more consideration and protection than the bison in Yellowstone," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, calling Interior's bison management policy "a universally acknowledged travesty. The fact that Interior uses the bison as its official symbol adds the insult of misleading advertising to the injury of mass mayhem."

On Wednesday, near Gardiner, Montana, National Park Service wranglers captured 250-300 wild buffalo in the Stephens Creek bison trap, located within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. These actions are based on fears of wild bison transmitting the livestock disease brucellosis to cattle. There has never been a documented case of transmission between wild bison and cattle.

The Montana Department of Livestock did not test the bison they captured for exposure to the disease. It is uncertain if the National Park Service intends to test the animals they captured for exposure to brucellosis.

There are no cattle within 40 miles of West Yellowstone. In Gardiner, about 150 cattle graze on private land owned by the Church Universal and Triumphant, adjacent to Yellowstone's northern boundary, located within North America's largest wildlife migration corridor.

Stephany Seay of the bison advocacy group Buffalo Field Campaign said, "Park Rangers have no right wearing buffalo on their badges as they haze, capture and slaughter the very buffalo they're entrusted with protecting, America's last wild herd."

Under Interior's bison management policy, so far this year:

• 849 park bison have been sent to slaughter by Yellowstone National Park, including scores of calves.

• Nearly 90 wild bison calves have been sent by the Park Service to a state-federal bison quarantine facility where they will be domesticated and more than half will be slaughtered.

• In January, park officials watched as nearly 50 bison were driven onto thin ice. Fourteen fell through and two drowned.

• Bison are injured and killed from wounds due to cramming testy animals into corrals not designed for buffalo. Bison are slashed, gored and trampled as they are run into pens with sharp corners, blind stops and exposed metal edges.

Despite injuries to the animals, the park has spent no money to expand or fix the inadequate holding facilities, but the federal government has spent more than $180,000 this year to capture bison and receives millions more to implement the interagency agreement with Montana to prevent bison from coming into contact with cattle.

The Interagency Bison Management Plan costs U.S. taxpayers $3 million each year, funds that PEER says would be more wisely spent on the acquisition of winter range along with cattle-based risk management efforts.

The Interagency Bison Management Plan was developed and is implemented by five state and federal agencies including the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Montana Department of Livestock and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It is intended to maintain a brucellosis-free designation for the Montana livestock industry.

The bison that inhabit the Yellowstone region are the last wild, genetically pure, unfenced bison left in the country. They are the only bison to have continuously occupied their native range and they are the last bison to follow their natural instinct to migrate. But wild bison are not allowed to leave the confines of Yellowstone National Park and face a zero-tolerance policy when they enter Montana.

A list of solutions is online here.

Opposition Grows to Pebble Mine in Alaska Fishing Area

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 24, 2006 (ENS) - Local tribal groups in Alaska's Bristol Bay Region are coming out against an open pit gold and copper mine project planned for the area. Commercial salmon fisheries depend on Bristol Bay and recreational fishing lodges are numerous in the region.

The Nondalton Tribal Council and Choggiung Native Corporation have joined a growing list of groups opposed to the project being proposed by Northern Dynasty, a Vancouver, British Columbia based company managed by Hunter Dickinson Inc, also of Vancouver.

The Village of Nondalton, the 260 person Alaska Native village that would be closest to the proposed mine, has stated that the majority of its residents do not want the mine. In the mining industry, there is a term called "social license" which means mining companies need the consent of the people who will be most affected before they proceed.

Nondalton stated this week it "will never grant Northern Dynasty a social license to pursue the project."

Earlier this month, Choggiung Native Corporation, which represents the nearby villages of Dillingham, Eluk and Portage Creek, changed its position and came out in opposition of the Pebble Mining District. The Choggiung Limited Board of Directors voted unanimously on March 7 to oppose open pit mining in the region, and vowed to actively oppose any claim that large-scale mining can safely coexist with the nearby waterways that are home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. The board changed its position in response to a shareholder advisory vote conducted on the issue.

Speaking in Anchorage on March 17, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens said he will do what he can to stall the Pebble Mine development and that he has asked federal agencies to give the project "a careful review" since a big mine in a fish-dependent region does not make sense.

Stevens, who is normally in favor of economic and natural resource development, and is not known for supporting environmental efforts, has stated that the risks for this project are too great.

On March 19, Alaska's largest newspaper, the "Anchorage Daily News," printed an editorial opposing the Pebble Mine. The paper stated that "nowhere in the world has an open-pit mine of this type managed to operate in such an ecologically and economically important area without some significant harm, either during active mining or after mining has ceased."

Previously, the Safari Club International, Rocky Mountain Elk Association, Trout Unlimited and six villages affected in the Bristol Bay drainage have passed resolutions in opposition to Pebble Mine. Other national and Alaskan organizations have similar resolutions pending.

Nature Conservancy Buys Prime Habitat for Everglades Restoration

Paradise Run is prime habitat and a top priority for protection under the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Project of the CERP.

"The site supports several federally listed threatened or endangered species, such as bald eagle, snail kite, crested caracara and wood stork, and supports 20 state listed species, including many wading birds. This is a golden opportunity for ecosystem restoration," said Steve Schubert of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The site is part of the original Kissimmee River floodplain and presents a unique opportunity for habitat restoration. The Conservancy bought the land on behalf of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for transfer at a later date.

"This land came on the market at an unplanned moment, but one very timely for restoration of these important Everglades systems. We appreciate The Nature Conservancy providing assistance in acquiring this priority tract at this critical time," said Ruth Clements, director of the SFWMD Land Acquisition Department.

The Nature Conservancy will eventually sell the land to the SFWMD when funds become available.

The property is located across Route 78 northwest of Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in the southeastern United States and a central component of the vast interconnected aquatic ecosystem in south Florida.

"The conservation value of this acquisition is not only the protection of top priority habitat for the CERP but the enormous contribution to restoration of related aquatic sites and abating threats to them," said Victoria Tschinkel, Florida director of The Nature Conservancy.

"Paradise Run appears to have earned its name through abundant wildlife resources," said Paul Gray, Audubon’s Lake Okeechobee Watershed Program coordinator. "A number of significant wading birds and ducks have been found there, as well as vigorous fish populations."