Friends Of The Earth

By the Mother Earth News editors

July/August 1977

Friends of the Earth is one of the most effective environmental groups in the world today. Although FOE publishes its own journal-a monthly tabloid called Not Man Apart -far too few of MOTHER's readers regularly see a copy of NMA . . . which is why we've agreed to publish this column, written by the FOE/NMA staff.

COURT VOIDS NUCLEAR INSURANCE

In a strongly worded opinion delivered on March 31 in a Charlotte, North Carolina courtroom, U.S. Federal District Judge James B. McMillan ruled that the provision of the Price-Anderson Act which limits the liability of nuclear power plants violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment. The judge-in effect-declared the 1957 Price-Anderson Act (which provides the financial underpinning for the entire nuclear industry) unconstitutional.

The case in question- CarolinaEnvironmental Study Group et al v. U.S. Nuclear Power Commission- was brought in 1973 by two consumer groups and 36 citizens against the NPC and Duke Power Company. The suit challenged two nuclear power stations being built by Duke near Charlotte: one twin-1,000-megawatt unit (the Catawba station) on South Carolina's Lake Wylie, and another twin-1,000-mw plant (the McGuire station) on North Carolina's Lake Norman.

The issues before the court involved the standing of the plaintiffs to sue, whether the issue was ripe for a decision, the constitutional points in question, and the likelihood and possible consequences of a major nuclear accident.

The judge found that the plaintiffs had standing to sue, since they suffered both immediate and potential damage from the operation of the plants. The immediate damages include the low-level radiation releases from the plants, the thermal pollution of the two lakes involved, the threat to property values, and "present fear and apprehension" regarding the radioactivity released in normal operations and from potential accidents.

The issue was ripe, Judge McMillan ruled, because a real possibility existed that the plaintiffs would suffer damages that exceeded the ability of the Price-Anderson Act to provide compensation. "The court finds as a fact," the judge said, "that the probability of a major nuclear accident producing damages exceeding the $560 million limit of the PriceAnderson Act is not fanciful but real."

The judge was unequivocal in his ruling. "The act violates the Due Process clause because it allows the destruction of the property or lives of those affected by nuclear catastrophe without reasonable certainty that the victims will be justly compensated." In addition, the act violates the Equal Protection provision of the Fifth Amendment, said Judge McMillan, "because it provides for what Congress deemed to be a benefit for the whole society, but places the cost of that benefit on an arbitrarily chosen segment of society: those injured by nuclear catastrophe."

Judge McMillan's decision represents a serious blow to the nuclear industry. Accordingly, an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court is anticipated.

REDWOOD PARK EXPANSION UNDER FIRE

When California Representative Phillip Burton brought his House National Parks subcommittee hearings to Eureka (California) and San Francisco recently, he was met by throngs of angry loggers, truckers, and sawmill workers. At issue: 74,000 acres of timberland that Burton (and environmentalists) would like added to northern California's Redwood National Park.

Before the hearings, Burton flew by helicopter over the heavily logged slopes on the edge of the Park. "I don't know what I expected [to see] on an overfly," the San Francisco Democrat remarked afterwards. "But I didn't truly expect to see something resembling a moonscape."

The Park's main attraction is a strip of land seven and a half miles long and a half mile wide along Redwood Creek. This strip of landknown as "the worm"-contains some of the world's tallest trees. Since the creation of the Park in 1968, ero sion caused by logging activities upslope and upstream from present park boundaries has threatened destruction of the trees within the reserve. Representative Burton and others would like to see an immediate transfer of the upslope property to the federal government and a halt to all cutting.

A worsening job situation in the Redwood Park area, however, has made timber workers extremely concerned. Logging company spokesmen and labor leaders charge that Burton's proposal to expand Park boundaries would eliminate as many as 2,200 jobs.

Yet Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus has stated that at current logging rates, existing old-growth timber will be exhausted in 10 to 15 years anyway. Says Andrus: "Most of the people who stand to lose their jobs because of park expansion would lose their jobs during that period regardless of whether or not new land were acquired for the park."

STRIP-MINING "ALTERNATIVE" FACES OPPOSITION

The residents of Cerrillos, New Mexico (pop. 350) are less than enthusiastic about the Occidental Minerals Corporation's recent decision to try out its new method of copper mining-called "in-place acid leach mining"-near their homes . . . for what may be some pretty good reasons.

The new technique-hailed as an environmentally superior alternative to open-pit mining by some-calls, initially, for the blasting (or "rubberizing") of the area to be mined via a series of underground explosions. Next, a sulfuric acid solution is pumped into the fractured rock to dissolve the copper which it contains. Finally, the copperbearing solution is pumped back up to the surface and the copper is separated out.

Despite all the claims made for "leachate mining", many Cerrillos-area residents-including Indians of the Santo Domingo Pueblo (who claim that Occidental's site is part of their aboriginal lands)-are skeptical. They fear that blasting will disrupt the aquifers which feed their wells, and that sulfuric acid will contaminate their already perilously low (because of the drought) water supplies.

If the "in-place acid leach mining" technique catches on (as some think it will), the controversy at Cerrillos may prove to be an early skirmish in a continent-wide war.

NEWSBRIEFS

Shortly before press time, FOE filed suit against the National Institutes of Health to stop federal funding of genetic engineering research. The suit alleges that the NIH released safety guidelines before filing an environmental impact statement, contrary to the approved procedure . . . . According to a new data list compiled by Lloyd's of London, a record 204,235 tons of oil were lost to the world's oceans in 29 reported tanker accidents in 1976. Half the tonnage, says Lloyd's, was released by vessels less than four years old . . . . Italian officials recently reported finding dangerous quantities of dioxin (the poison that caused the worst ecological disaster in Italian history one year ago) south of the sealed-off area around Seveso. Nineteen factories will be closed for checks . . . . Senators Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.) and James Abourezk (D-S.D.) have sent a joint letter (cosigned by other Senators) to President Carter expressing their support of appropriate technology. Carter is evidently receptive to such concepts: He met recently with Small Is Beautiful author E.F. Schumacher.

To become a member of Friends of the Earth-and receive their excellent publication, Not Man Apart, year round-remit $20 to FOE at 124 Spear, San Francisco, Calif. 94105.-MOTHER.