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Bush Official Accused of Lying to Congress Over Air Rules WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - The Bush administration misled Congress in its effort to revamp federal clean air regulations, according to a report by the public interest group Public Citizen.The report says U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Air Jeffrey Holmstead told a Senate committee that the agency's enforcement office had concluded the lawsuits against nine utilities for violations of the Clean Air Act would not be compromised by the administration's proposed changes to the law's New Source Review provision. Two former senior EPA officials have said the consensus of the enforcement office was the opposite, says Public Citizen, a nonprofit group founded by Ralph Nader. Holmstead has denied the allegations in interviews with the Associated Press and "The Washington Post." He says the law suits have not been derailed and that his Senate testimony referred to a list of seven proposals relating to New Source Review that had been issued weeks before the hearing, not on the overall rule change. Public Citizen said Monday that the record of the July 2002 hearing undermines this claim by the Bush official. Congressional records show that Holmstead was responding to an inquiry about an agency report that included seven proposals for changes to the New Source Review program, including a change to the routine maintenance exemption that allows utilities to avoid installing new pollution controls. It is the administration's revision of this definition, finalized in August 2003, that many believe jeopardizes the pending law suits. "The Bush administration's approach to environmental violations is to change the laws - in exchange for millions in contributions from the violators," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch. "This administration's willingness to sacrifice public health by exchanging environmental policy revisions for cash is so extreme that they are now changing the enforcement of those rules retroactively." The report details that the electric utility industry donated some $4.8 million to the Bush 2000 presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee and the inaugural committee.
FDA Database Reveals 300 U.S. Companies Violated Mad Cow Rules WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - A total of 300 U.S. companies are in violation of federal regulations meant to prevent mad cow disease, according to analysis of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) database of animal feed company inspection records. The analysis was released Friday by the environmental group Friends of the Earth in the wake of the FDA's first update of the information in the past 17 months.The number of companies violating the law is more than double the number listed by the FDA in April 2002. The regulations are meant to prevent cattle and other ruminant parts from being fed to cattle and other ruminants. This practice was once common, but is not outlawed because it is considered the most likely means to spread mad cow disease - also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). The disease is suspected of causing a related and fatal brain disorder in humans called Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. As part of its prevention program, the FDA inspects feed companies in the United States to determine whether they are in compliance with federal BSE prevention rules, which include keeping feed made with cattle parts separate from feed for cattle and labeling feed with the banned material. Of the 300 firms in violation of FDA regulations, 173 handled or distributed prohibited materials - 32 of these handle both prohibited materials and ruminant feed, making them the most likely firms to spread mad cow disease. In addition, 1779 records out of 11,172 have no listing of any action taken by the FDA after it completed its own inspection. The agency had no immediate comment on the report. "Just one bad apple in the barrel could put Americans at risk of getting mad cow disease," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. The risk to the financial health of the cattle industry from violations is also serious. In May 2003, the United States banned all beef imports from Canada after learning that a single cow in the province of Alberta had BSE, a move that cost the Canadian beef industry billions of dollars in U.S. exports. For a listing of the 300 firms out of compliance and an assessment of the FDA database of mad cow prevention inspection records, see http://www.fda.gov
Enviros Seek Stricter Atrazine Regulation WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to protect the public from the cancer threat posed by atrazine, the most widely used weed killer in the nation, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).In a legal motion filed today, the group charged that the agency violated the law by refusing to fully evaluate the link between cancer and atrazine. The NRDC asked the court to force the EPA to solicit an independent scientific review of the possible links between all cancers and the chemical, which the agency was required to do under a court order issued two years ago. "Atrazine poses a cancer risk for millions of Americans," said NRDC Senior Attorney Erik Olson. "Instead of protecting the public, the EPA is ignoring a court order mandating an independent scientific review of its unfounded conclusion that atrazine does not cause cancer." The case stretches back to 1999, when NRDC and a coalition of farm worker and other groups sued the EPA, alleging that the agency had missed its deadlines to review the safety of pesticides for children mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. In 2001, the plaintiffs and the EPA filed a consent decree requiring the agency to review the safety of atrazine and several other high risk pesticides by specific deadlines. In early 2003, EPA asked for a deadline extension for reviewing atrazine, and NRDC agreed - incorporating into the new court order a requirement that the agency's independent Scientific Advisory Panel complete a full review of all cancer data for atrazine. But the EPA has told the NRDC that it had decided to forego the review and today's motion in federal district court in San Francisco seeks to force the agency to comply with a consent decree and to solicit an independent review by the agency's Scientific Advisory Panel of the links between all cancers and atrazine. In the United States, 60 million to 70 million pounds of atrazine are applied annually to fields, golf courses and lawns, and EPA has found widespread atrazine contamination in U.S. waterways. The most recent data indicate that more than 1 million Americans drink from water supplies contaminated with atrazine at potentially harmful levels. Studies of people exposed to atrazine indicate that the chemical may be linked to a number of cancers, including prostate cancer and non Hodgkin's lymphoma. Animal lab studies also have linked it to certain cancers and hormonal problems that could disrupt reproductive and developmental processes. At least six European nations already have either banned the chemical or severely restricted its use, and last week it was reported that the European Union will withdraw its approval of atrazine because of health and environmental concerns. "There is mounting evidence that atrazine may cause a wide variety of health problems, including several types of cancer, but the EPA apparently does not want to know," said NRDC Senior Scientist Jennifer Sass. "It will not stand up to pressure from the pesticide industry and agribusiness to do nothing."
U.S. Eyes Easing Rules Protecting Foreign Endangered Species WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - Proposals by the Bush administration could dramatically change how the United States regulates international trade of foreign species considered endangered or threatened. The plans to alter the Endangered Species Act (ESA) - proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - would allow U.S. hunters and business to capture, kill and import some endangered species from foreign countries.U.S. residents are currently not permitted to capture, kill or import foreign species that have been listed under the ESA. The Bush administration says the proposals reflect recognition that allowing Americans to take a fixed number of endangered species can fuel and fund conservation efforts for these species in foreign countries. The theory was behind a decision last year by the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which sets controls on international trade and movement of endangered species, to allow three African countries to engage in a one time sale of ivory stockpiles in order to generate funds to protect elephants. In its proposal, the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote that it now believes there could be a greater conservation benefit by providing for the import and export "of carefully selected ESA listed foreign species, or their parts and products, that are obtained from captive breeding programs or well managed conservation programs that limit removal from the wild and further promote and advance the conservation of the species within range countries." The administration's proposals would allow permits for Asian elephants - in high demand by circuses and zoos- as well as a valuable aquarium fish from Asia, a South American freshwater crocodile, an endangered goat found in Pakistan and an endangered Amazonian parrot. The agency says the ESA and existing regulations provide full authority for issuance of these permits, but it has chosen not to limit them in the past. The comment period for the draft proposal ends October 17.
Federal Dams Could Get Break on Water Temperature Rules WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - A rule proposed Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would ease regulation of water quality standards on Oregon rivers with federal dams, a move that critics believe would undermine efforts to restore endangered salmon.Environmentalists criticized the proposal rule as a "virtual exemption" for Oregon dams from water temperature standards that protect salmon from lethally hot temperatures. And they sounded concerns that this proposal is merely a foreshadowing of a pending plan by the Bush administration to expand the proposal to exempt all federal dams from the standard - and potentially the entire Clean Water Act. "This process sets in place a swift and strict timeframe in which EPA would weaken Clean Water Act protections for salmon to avoid controlling pollution, including lethally high temperatures - something that would devastate our wild salmon and the rural communities and businesses that depend upon them," said Pat Ford, executive director of the conservation group Save Our Wild Salmon. Published Friday in the Federal Register, the proposal would give federal dam operators the ability to petition the EPA if they believe they would be unable to meet temperature standards designed to ensure water quality and protect endangered fish. The rulemaking is in response to a March 2003 ruling that found the EPA had violated the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act when it approved 1999 water quality standards for the state's rivers - except for the Columbia River. The Clean Water Act was enacted to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation's waters - and contains the interim goal of providing water quality "which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife." Dams cause large areas of water behind them to pool and heat up to temperatures often too warm for native salmon. Operators can fluctuate flows to try and compensate - and to comply with the Clean Water Act - but federal managers are not always keen to do so. Oregon state officials currently decides if an exemption from the Clean Water Act is worth pursuing, but the proposal would give that decision to the federal dam operator. It would allow the operator to ask the EPA for analysis of whether the exemption is justifiable. "Instead of implementing the difficult measures needed to protect our salmon and environment, the Bush administration prefers to circumvent or change the law, so that tough decisions are never needed," Ford said. " If President Bush is serious about protecting salmon, he needs to start abiding by his own laws instead of rewriting them to fit his political needs."
Report Warns of Attack Risks on Oil Refineries WASHINGTON, DC, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - Little has been done to secure the nation's oil refineries from accidents or deliberate attacks, according to a report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The report finds more than 15 million people across the United States at risk of injury or death in the event of an accident or deliberate attack on an oil refinery."It is unacceptable that oil refineries continue to needlessly threaten so many lives in communities across the country," said U.S. PIRG Environmental Health Associate Meghan Purvis. "Safer technologies exist but industry has failed to take the public out of harm's way." The report, "Needless Risk: Oil Refineries and Hazard Reduction," focuses on the danger of oil refineries that use and store large amounts of hydrofluoric acid onsite. If accidentally released, hydrofluoric acid forms an aerosol cloud over surrounding communities that can cause skin and deep tissue burns, serious bone damage, and death by burns to the skin, tissue or lungs. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, a slew of federal officials and lawmakers cited the need to tighen protection at all of the nation's chemical facilities, but legislative efforts have failed. There is little federal government regulation that requires industries to consider implementing inherently safer technology. The report finds that Pennsylvania ranks first among states in terms of number of people at risk - some 4 million people live within the vulnerability zones of oil refineries in the state that use hydrofluoric acid. The study ranks Illinois second, with refineries that put 3.6 million people at risk. New Jersey ranks third, with refineries that put more than 2.8 million people at risk of injury or death, according to PIRG. The report notes that there is a long history of accidents at oil refineries that use hydrofluoric acid. The largest hydrofluoric acid release in the United States took place in 1987 in Texas City, Texas, when a pipe ruptured at a refinery and released 30,000 pounds of the chemical. More than a thousand people were sent to the hospital as a result of the accident, and 3,000 residents were forced to evacuate their community for three days. An accidental release in 1991 at Southwestern Refining Company in Texas killed two workers and injured five others. The report says that facilities can be built using solid acid catalysts, completely eliminating the risk of a toxic cloud, for nearly the same cost as building a new hydrofluoric acid facility.
Huge Antarctic Iceberg Splits in Half MADISON, Wisconsin, October 14, 2003 (ENS) - A 100 mile long Antarctic iceberg known as B-15A has split in two, according to scientists who have analyzed satellite photos. The development could have stark implications for the fate of some Antarctic shipping.The iceberg first broke off Antarctic's Ross Ice Shelf in 2000 and since then has been trapping sea ice near Ross Island, due south of New Zealand. The trapped ice has made shipping and the delivery of fuel and supplies to the island's McMurdo Station, one of the main U.S. scientific outposts in the Antarctic, increasingly difficult. The splitting of B-15A, scientists say, could help clear the trapped ice near McMurdo, or it could compound the problem, making it even more difficult for ships to traverse the Ross Sea. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) - monitoring the Antarctic ice using NASA's Terra satellite - were among the first to notice the fracture creating two giant icebergs in the Ross Sea, due south of New Zealand. "It has been kind of stuck in this location for almost two years and the sea ice behind it has been growing thicker instead of dispersing as it usually does," according to Matthew Lazzara, a meteorologist at SSEC's Antarctic Meteorological Research Center. "It will be interesting to see if it goes away and creates fewer problems or if it makes it even harder to get ships to McMurdo." The intact B-15A iceberg was an estimated 90 to 100 miles long - the now split iceberg has divided into two, with one berg about 75 miles long, and the other an estimated 20 miles to 25 miles in length. |
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