last minute gift

In a last minute gift to chemical manufacturers, the Bush Administration issued a controversial health advisory on drinking water contaminated with a toxic chemical released when making Teflon and other non-stick coatings.

The EPA is “advising people to reduce consumption of water containing more than 0.4 parts per billion of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA — a level critics say is not strict enough. Studies have shown the chemical, which is linked to cancer, liver damage and birth defects, has built up in human blood throughout the world.”

Many had felt that the acceptable limit had to be reduced down to 0.2 parts per billion, which is why many are saying this is another win for companies such as DuPont, who makes the chemical.  It should be noted that Obama’s pick to head the EPA, reduced the acceptable level to 0.04 ppb in her state of New Jersey, ten times lower than the Federal limits.

PFOA and related chemicals concern other scientists and regulators because the compounds don’t break down and they stay in human blood for at least four years. They have also shown up in foods such as apples, bread, beans and ground beef.  More than likely due to a transfer from the contaminated water.

More information is available through the Chicago Tribune.

bush: last 12 days

Although there are only a handful of days before the inauguration of our new President, the legacy of the Bush Administration will remain for days, months, and maybe years, to come.

In his final days, we have seen the passing of a handful of midnight rulings that will greatly impact the environment. In addition, it was announced today that the administration will ending efforts to come up with better fuel efficiency rules, leaving that to Obama. (Which may benefit from being in the better hands, honestly.)

Here is some information of the midnight rulings that have a negative impact on the environment.

Endangered Species Act: A rule change was put in place removing a provision that requires Fish and Wildlife Service scientists to make sure that endangered species won’t be harmed by federally approved logging, mining and road-building projects. The evaluations will now be handled by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration. But many argue that their best interest is in the approval and implementation of the new projects, not the species affected.

In a separate announcement, the Fish and Wildlife Service said that it will prevent the effect of greenhouse gases on threatened wildlife from being factored into the Endangered Species Act.

Oil-Shale: An issuance of new rules that take the first step toward tapping an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil trapped in sedimentary rock in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock that contains trace amounts of oil, which can be extracted at high temperatures. But turning shale into usable oil is expensive, and the industry hasn’t been able to do it in a way that is profitable yet. There are also serious environmental consequences at every step. Digging the shale out of the earth damages the landscape, refining it dirties the air and both steps require massive amounts of water and energy.

Hazardous waste and air pollutants: The list of regulations about to get approved is astounding. Essentially, the EPA has opened the doors to a host of hazardous chemicals into our air and water. Here is a sampling:

-the definition of solid waste is revised
-fungicide limits are relaxed
-power plants are exempt from pollution controls
-ease of restirictions on power plants by national parks and wilderness
-hazardous waste to be used as fuel
-less reporting of animal pollution
-factory farms allowed to decide if they need a permit, or not, prior to dumping animal waste discharge
-lead standards lowered in air quality

and, believe it or not, the list goes on

Mining waste to be dumped in rivers and streams: The 25 year old ban disallowing the dumping of mining waste within 100 yards of rivers and streams has been lifted. Companies are allowed to place the bi-product of mining anywhere they like, even if it blocks the flow of important waters leading to towns or other ecosystems.

You can get a full listing of the midnight regulations from ProPublica

another top ten list

This one comes from PlanetSave. They got together top conservationists and scientists and came up with the top ten animals in most need of protection from extinction. Many of these, I didn’t even know were in trouble.

1.) Pacific Walrus – Alaska
2.) Red Knot bird – Texas
3.) Wolverine – Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington
4.) Gunnison Sage-grouse (bird) – Colorado, Utah
5.) Fluvial Arctic Grayling (fish) – Montana
6.) Island Marble Butterfly – Washington
7.) Southern Rockies Boreal Toad – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho
8.) Mason’s Skypilot (plant) – California and Nevada
9.) Great White Shark – Coastal States
10.) Wood Turtle – Great Lakes and Northeastern States, Virginia and West Virginia

You can find all of their adorable pictures HERE.OK… so the plant picture may not be “adorable”, but you get the point.

midnight ruling, 12/16/08

This is a good one….

Rule OK’s chemical tankers through cities, via the Christian Science Monitor.

The Bush administration has finalized a controversial regulation that will allow railroads to continue to ship dangerous chemicals through major cities.

Federal security officials have long considered railroad tankers full of such chemicals as chlorine or anhydrous ammonia to be potential weapons of mass destruction. If attacked by a terrorist or disturbed individual in the middle of a city they could cause thousands of deaths.

In this instance, the regulation leaves the decision of which route to take with deadly chemicals primarily in the hands of the railroads. Critics contend that this leaves too many communities vulnerable to a serious security threat and that state, local, and federal officials should have more input to ensure the chemicals are transported along the shortest, safest, and most secure routes.

I don’t think more needs to be said…. read the article

37 days and counting

In 37 days, we will have a new president. However, in the meantime, we will have announcement after announcement of rulings by the current administration.

Yesterday, was no exception.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new regulation yesterday exempting an estimated 118,500 tons of hazardous waste annually from strict federal incineration controls, and it separately exempted factory farms from a requirement to report hazardous air pollution to the federal government.

The incineration control ruling is of particular interest because the language can be loosely translated as “if you can burn it, it is not hazardous waste.” Which we all know is just simply not true.

This ruling is also particularly timely as the EPA is coming under attack for not testing the air quality around schools, as investigated by USA Today. The FDA and the EPA seem to be passing rule after rule that supports big business and not the citizen.

The article can be found HERE, via Washington Post.

I would like to remind the EPA, however, on their own mission statement, as found on their website:

EPA leads the nation’s environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

i don’t need to explain

The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated one step in the effort to protect endangered species, as it will now allow federal agencies to bypass consultation with government scientists about whether new rules will harm threatened wildlife.

The U.S. Interior Department issued a rule that allows agencies to avoid consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service if Interior concludes that any actions they fund would not harm an endangered species.

are you chicken?

In the final days of Bush’s administration, there will be many press releases on last minute rulings. As has been posted in the past, this administration seems to have it out for the environment.

One of the midnight regulations expected to occur is a ruling on poultry farms that exempts them from having to report there emissions due to ammonia or other noxious pollutants. This comes on the heals of an investigation from the Environmental Integrity Group (EIP) that shows the levels of ammonia released from these farms is at higher levels than most factories.

Multiple studies have shown that broiler producers in the top 10 states released an estimated
481,764,049 pounds of ammonia in 2007, or more than eight times the combined total reported
by industrial sources – such as steel mills and oil refineries. Egg laying operations released an estimated 221,551,888 pounds of ammonia in 2007

Ammonia is an irritant to the mucus membrane system (eyes, nose, throat), causing burns and respiratory issues. Although the EPA has never placed limits on acceptable levels, OSHA has. The concentrations released at factory farms greatly exceeds OSHA levels. The poultry industry has requested the exemption under the “right-to-know” laws; which essentially translates into “if they don’t ask, don’t tell”. Implications are that rural towns could be completely left in the dark about the air quality in their towns and the potential health impact.

You can get more information through the EIP press release, HERE.

hope you saw before this…

Are there no limits to where this man goes?

In the latest attempt for George Bush to destroy the environment, he has found his way to the Grand Canyon. If you can believe it, he has reversed a congressional ruling that stops all mining in the area until adequate research can be done on the impact to the area if mining were to occur.

The issues surrounding this are very interesting, to say the least. It seems that Congress put an order in place that the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, had to immediately the withdraw the public land surrounding the Grand Canyon from mining. He never did. In response, three major groups, including the Sierra Club, filed a law suit against the government calling for an immediate cease and desist.

In response to the lawsuit, and instead of complying with the law, the Bush administration is attempting to change the rules by removing its own regulation requiring compliance with the congressional resolution. Adding insult to injury, the Administration allowed only 15 days for the public to comment on its proposed withdrawal of this significant rule. The proposed rule was published on October 10th, and the final rule will be published December 5th.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Bush administration places a higher priority on helping the mining industry than it does on protecting the Grand Canyon,” said Roger Clark, of the Grand Canyon Trust. “They are attempting to erase emergency provisions enacted in 1976 rather than comply with federal law. Their actions are contemptuous of Congress and an insult to the American people.”

You can find the whole article HERE, via ENN

latest news on bpa

A coalition of health advocates, looking to seize the momentum of a new administration, will meet with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team next week in Washington, D.C., to push for a ban on bisphenol A.

The fact that Obama’s team is willing to meet now – with all the other pressures facing the incoming administration – sends a strong signal that the president-elect is open to making environmental health issues a higher priority than the Bush administration.

BPA has been linked to heart disease and diabetes in humans and has been found to interfere with chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. Animal studies have linked it to prostate and breast cancer, obesity, reproductive failures and behavioral problems, even at extremely low doses.

go HERE for more on this news.

remember that point I gave to the epa, yesterday? taking it back….

So, yesterday, The White House approved a plan that allows for debris from coal mining to be dumped into nearby streams and valleys.

Edward C. Hopkins, a policy analyst at the Sierra Club, said: “The E.P.A.’s own scientists have concluded that dumping mining waste into streams devastates downstream water quality. By signing off on this rule, the agency has abdicated its responsibility.”

The issue at hand is that this opens the doors for coal companies to blast the tops off of mountains, hauling the debris into valleys, with no concern for dumping on top of streams and blocking their flow. Which, of course, can have a negative impact to the ecosystems downstream.

And, as if that isn’t enough:

The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to finish work on a rule that would make it easier for utilities to put coal-fired generating stations near national parks. It is working on another rule that would allow utility companies to modify coal-fired power plants and increase their emissions without installing new pollution-control equipment

The Bush Administration argues that these allowances means a lessening on our dependency to foreign oil. Although, critics argue that there are much more environmentally safe ways to mine with out blowing the tops off mountains. The Bush Administration is sending a message that you can’t have both an environment and choosing clean coal, which many argue is just not the case.

This is also a slap to the face of the new administration. President-elect Obama has stated many times that he does not agree with this ruling. The Bush Administration has stated it would participate in a smooth transition from one administration to the next; then turns around and creates these “midnight” rulings, that the next administration now has to spend time overturning.

Why does it not surprise me that Bush and Cheney would much rather support energy industries, then stay true to their word?

You can find the full article HERE, via the New York Times

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