EPA report card stirs political fires

[CShine]

Factories, power plants, and mines used to just dump their waste into waterways or on the ground, or they sent it up smokestacks. Out of sight, out of mind was the operating principle. But that began to change with passage of landmark environmental legislation a generation ago - mainly the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Polluters started cleaning up, and more recently they've been required to report the kinds and amounts of toxic substances they emit. Public and political scrutiny helped accelerate the cleanup of some 650 potentially dangerous substances at nearly 25,000 facilities around the country. Over the years, those yearly reports under the "Emergency Planning & Community Right-To-Know" law showed improvement. But the latest national report card by the Environmental Protection Agency (with data from 2002) shows an increase in toxic pollutants, the second time that's occurred since reporting began 17 years ago.

In all, nearly 5 billion pounds of toxins were released into the environment in 2002, the EPA reports. That's undoubtedly less than before such reporting was required, but it is 5 percent more than the previous year, and it's likely that other toxic releases are missed in the total count. For example, perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in military rocket fuel, has been found in the groundwater of at least 20 states. As a result, reported the Environmental Working Group last week, pregnant women and young children who drink milk from cows in California (home to many military bases) may be exposed to unsafe levels of the substance. State and federal regulators are considering new standards for perchlorate.

EPA and industry officials say the overall spike in toxics is mainly due to a one-time closing of a copper smelter in Arizona. (When the facility was shut down, everything on the site was considered waste. But former EPA officials and environmental watchdogs dispute that assertion, and they warn that government regulators are seriously underreporting the actual amounts of such dangerous pollutants as mercury, arsenic, and lead. Using data gathered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Integrity Project (founded by Eric Schaeffer, former EPA official) and the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention warn that levels of such carcinogenic substances as benzene and butadiene may be four to five times higher than reported by the EPA.

"Systematic underreporting happens today because most air pollution is now estimated, not monitored," says Kelly Haragan, a lawyer with the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington. "To make matters worse, the guesswork is being done by the polluters who have the incentives to keep numbers low ."


http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0629/p02s02-uspo.html

[louis-t]

1. and Chimpie McDumbass replaced head of EPA

with someone who is more "business friendly".

[pinniped]

7. Ya it's probably that jerk Mike Leavitt.

Seems this jerk is more interested in protecting big corporations than anyone else.

[Ivan Zero]

2. One of President Kerry's first priorities

had better be to de-neuter the EPA.

[Massacure]

3. Kerry has an excellent environmental record.

I'm sure this won't be a problem with him.

[Ivan Zero]

4. Yes, he does

His environmental record is the first thing I bring up when someone says there's no difference between him and Oilboy.

[struggle4progress]

5. kick

:kick:

[radfringe]

6. a couple of years ago, a "con"servative

actually told me pollution was good for the environment because plants and other vegetation convert pollutants into oxygen... :eyes:

guess we can add this to the Orwell list of things that are good for you

*weak dollar is good for economy
*exporting jobs is good for domestic job creation