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BUSHGREENWATCH
How are we GOING TO STOP THIS GUY. THE AUTOMATIVE GUN REGULATION COMES OFF MONDAY. TEN YEARS WITHOUT AUTOMATIC WEAPONS....AND NOW. THE BRADY BILL IS DEAD.
Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental Misdeeds
bushgreenwatch.org
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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 ea |
