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.
A landmark study recently issued by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) charges that federal and state agencies (among them: the Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) have been ineffective in monitoring, controlling, and attempting to abate the pollution of the Hudson River by industry.
The study points out that for much of the river's 300-mile length, Hudson waters are contaminated with hundreds of toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals, including lethal heavy metals. What makes the situation particularly disturbing is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced its intention to skim the river to provide drinking water for 10 million people who live downstream. (This is in addition to the 150,000 people who already utilize the river as a source of drinking water.)
Some of the major chemical contaminants of the Hudson are already well known. For example, some 450,000 pounds of poisonous PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) have been dumped into the river by General Electric over a period of years, and deposits of radioactive cesium 137.from Consolidated Edison's Indian Point nuclear power stations-have been found in the stream's bottom. Until EDF and NYPIRG released their report, however, the true extent of the damage was unknown.
The EDF/NYPIRG study scrutinized 78% of the principal dischargers (and 10% of the minor ones) known to hold National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. (Through May of 1977, New York State had issued a total of 1,245 NPDES permits.) Scientists analyzed water samples from treatment facilities and from the river itself. Among the chemicals found: heavy metals, dyes, dieldrin, chlorobenzene, chloroform (and other chlorinated hydrocarbons), toluene, phenol, and benzidine. The companies responsible for discharqing these chemicals include representatives of the mining, manufacturing, transportation, foodgrowing, and wholesale trade industries.
The authors of the study warn that "the EPA has refused to require industry to divulge what chemicals are present in its wastes, let alone conduct an analysis of their potential environmental and health effects. As a result, despite the strong mandate Congress gave EPA in 1972 [with the Water Pollution Control Act], we are no closer today to knowing the sources of the potential toxic chemicals in our drinking water than we were before the Act was signed six years ago."
Copies of the EDF/NYPIRG report, Troubled Waters: Toxic Chemicals in the Hudson River, are available for $5.00 each from NYPIRG, 5 Beekman St., New York, N.Y. 10038.
Without openly admitting it, Senator Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) has indicated that he plans to introduce legislation that would effectively gut Section 7 of the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). Section 7 forbids any federal agencies from taking actions that would jeopardize the existence of an endangered species. This section is the most effective tool the government has for implementing the ESA.
Senator Baker's attack on Section 7 of the ESA stems from his support of the $127 million Tellico dam project in Tennessee. In January 1977, as you'll recall, a U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals handed down an injunction halting the completion of a dam in the Tellico development project because the dam would have flooded the critical habitat of the snail darter (an endangered species of fish). The Tennessee Valley Authority was subsequently granted an appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Tellico/snail darter case as this goes to press.
Baker.a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works-told a reporter last April, "Species are evolving and disappearing almost daily in the scheme of things .... I think it's a good Act ... but there isn't enough flexibility."
Public Works lobbyists complain that environmental groups misuse the Endangered Species Act by seizing on Section 7 as a "handle" to stop projects that cannot be stopped otherwise. But, as FOE's conservation director Anne Wickham explains, "Section 7 was supposed to be a handle."
What You Can Do: Write to your Senator (c/o the U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510) and urge him to oppose any amendment that would weaken Section 7 of the ESA. It is crucial that the following Senators receive letters expressing support for Section 7: Jennings Randolph (D-W. Va.), Edmund Muskie (D-Maine), Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), and John C. Culver (D-lowa).
Michigan has come up with a winning idea: Repave worn-out roads with recycled blacktop obtained from (yep) worn-out roads.
Conventional methods of repaving highways involve spreading four to six inches of asphalt over an old road surface, then compressing the asphalt. Michigan Director of Highways and Transportation John P. Woodford points out, however, that because the manufacture of asphalt is petroleum-intensive, "alternate materials and methods for reconstructing or resurfacing wornout highways are absolutely necessary".
In an experimental road-recycling program now underway in Michigan, an old road is ground up, mixed with a small amount of new asphalt, and then reapplied and compacted. The 10.5-mile experiment-when finished- is expected to save over 80,000 gallons of asphalt and 51,000 tons of gravel. An additional advantage of recycling is that the road's original fissures are eliminated, so that the repair job should last longer than mere repavement.
The West German government recently announced that between 1978 and 1981 it will provide 4,350 million marks (about $1.89 billion) to subsidize the installation of solar energy equipment in private homes .... The California Air Resources Board has appointed a committee of six scientists and physicians to do a series of tests to determine how dangerous it is to breathe Golden State air . . . Confidential talks between U.S. representatives, the Japanese government, and the International Atomic Energy Commission have centered around the possible construction of a giant nuclear fuel reprocessing center in Micronesia. The enormous cost of building such a plant would supposedly be offset by the low number of people who would be hurt in a "mishap".
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.
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