Bush Administration Plans to Relax Toxic Controls -- Again

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> Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:06:40 GMT

> " BushGreenwatch " <info

 

> Bush Administration Plans to Relax Toxic

> Controls -- Again

>

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> BUSHGREENWATCH

> Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental

> Misdeeds

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>

> September 10, 2004

>

> BUSH ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO RELAX TOXIC CONTROLS --

> AGAIN

>

> The Bush administration, which has unswervingly

> favored the

> chemical and power industries on environmental and

> health

> protections, plans to once again relax government

> regulation of

> toxic substances in favor of weaker standards being

> promoted by

> industry.

>

> At issue are national standards regulating the

> amount of

> selenium that can be discharged into waterways by

> power

> companies, farmers and mining operations. The

> current standards

> for selenium were established after the toxic metal

> caused mass

> deformities of waterfowl in California's Central

> Valley during

> the 1980s.

>

> Now the administration has drafted a plan, supported

> by industry

> scientists, that would weaken current standards in

> two ways,

> according to an August 31 story in the Sacramento

> Bee. [1]

>

> According to the Bee, EPA plans to switch from a

> water-based to

> a fish-based standard, meaning the government would

> stop

> measuring how much selenium was getting into the

> water and start

> looking at how much had been absorbed by local fish.

> The draft

> calls for a concentration of 7.91 parts per million

> in fish,

> whereas current standards allow no more than 5 parts

> per million

> in water.

>

> Scientists in other federal agencies, such as the

> U.S. Fish and

> Wildlife Service, oppose the plan to weaken the

> standards. They

> say the higher levels of selenium will cause birds

> to lose more

> than 50 percent of their offspring, the Bee reports.

> They also

> say the proposed standard is based on a flawed

> analysis of a

> study that vastly overstated survival rates for

> contaminated

> fish.

>

> Selenium comes from a variety of sources around the

> country,

> including phosphate mines in Idaho, copper mines in

> Utah,

> mountaintop coal mines in West Virginia,

> coal-burning power

> plants and farms. It is the latest in a series of

> toxic

> substances for which the administration has sought

> to weaken

> regulations.

>

> Earlier the Bush administration weakened the U.S.

> position on

> Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), substantially

> reduced

> efforts to clean up mercury pollution, and sought to

> replace the

> Clean Air Act with its far less effective, " Clear

> Skies "

> program, which experts say would actually increase

> the number of

> deaths from air pollution each year.

>

> ###

>

> NOTE: Thanks to an outpouring of citizen protests

> (BushGreenwatch, Sept. 8), the U.S. Forest Service

> announced on

> Wednesday that it will extend the public comment

> period to

> November 15 on its plan to rescind the Roadless

> Forest

> Conservation Rule. The rule calls for 58.5 million

> acres of

> America's National Forests to be protected from

> logging, mining

> and drilling. The Service had earlier set a deadline

> of

> September 14 for public comments. Comments may be

> sent to:

> http://ga3.org/ct/H1zkGk91yjJs/.

>

> ###

>

> SOURCES:

> [1] " Battle Over Toxic Metal: EPA Appears Set to

> Relax Standards

> for Selenium, Which Led to Deformities in Waterfowl

> in 1980s, "

> Sacramento Bee, Aug. 31, 2004,

> http://ga3.org/ct/GdzkGk91yjJc/.

>

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