Pollution choking county waterways
Cars,
pickup trucks and cement trucks zoom over the Spring Creek overpass on
Below,
the stream of water shows both signs of life and signs of distress, with
sediment built up just under the overpass... http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stories/20040629/localnews/740082.html
Mercury emissions on Congress' list
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=9&screen=news&news_id=34044
Mercury Deposition a Growing Threat In
(TEC's press release of April 2004)
Bush Mercury Plan Ignores Children in
(
“These
regulations should be designed to protect vulnerable populations, especially
with regard to children’s health and development; instead, they’ve been
designed with loopholes to protect the economic interests of the
administration’s supporters,” said
Many
have criticized the Bush Administration’s proposed mercury regulations as being
too little, too late. Today groups in
six states, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin,
are claiming in comments submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
that the proposal may result in only limited mercury controls in those states. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) recently
voiced similar concerns to the EPA.
“The
proposed regulations may do little, if anything, to protect children in our
state from the adverse impacts on their memory, language and attention
abilities associated with the levels of mercury found in fish today,” said
Callaway.
A
closer look at the details of the Administration’s complex proposal reveals
that instead of the advertised 70% mercury reductions by 2018 the regulations
would require fewer reductions in many states, including
“The
Bush Administration’s cap and trade provision creates a loophole in these
regulations that you could drive a coal train through, and the utilities will
do just that. We know that TVA has purchased emission credits for years,
worsening air pollution in
“EPA
and the Administration were so intent on making these regulations flexible and
friendly for industry that they may do next to nothing to protect children in
The
comments from the diverse state groups were submitted after leaked memos showed
that Bush Administration officials made numerous changes to the proposed EPA
regulations downplaying the health impacts of mercury poisoning.
Five
national parks - including the Sierra Nevada's Sequoia and
Administration seeks to replace roadless
rule in national forests
Story about roadless areas in national
forests. This would require the governor, not forest service, to protect
these areas in
7/1/04
Associated Press 13:19 PDT
Administration
seeks to replace roadless rule in national forests
By
Matthew Daly, staff writer
Governors
would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote
areas of national forests under a proposal by the Bush administration to open
more woodlands to logging.
Environmentalists
say the proposed rule change, outlined this week in the Federal Register, would
signal the end
of the so-called roadless rule, which blocks road
construction in nearly one-third of national forests as a way to prevent
logging and other commercial activity in backcountry woods.
Without
a national policy against road construction, forest management would revert
back to individual forest plans that in many cases allow roads and other
development on most of the 58 million acres now protected by the roadless rule, environmentalists say.
"Basically
I think this proposal takes away protections on a national level" against
road-building and logging, Robert Vandermark,
co-director of the Heritage Forest Campaign, said Thursday. He and other
environmentalists said it is unlikely that governors in pro-logging states
would seek to keep the roadless rule in effect.
"I
can't imagine the governors of
A
Forest Service spokeswoman stressed that the proposal was preliminary, but
called it an accurate statement of the administration's intentions.
Officials
had said last year they would develop a plan to allow governors to seek
exemptions from the roadless rule. The latest plan
turns that on its head by making governors petition the Agriculture Department
if they want maintain restrictions on timbering in their state.
"The
roadless rule is struck down nationwide,"
spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said, referring to a
2003 ruling by a federal judge in
The
The
three-year-old rule has twice been struck down by federal judges, most recently
in a
Valetkevitch disputed a claim by environmentalists that
requiring governors to petition for changes means the demise of the roadless rule.
"They
could do a number of things -- make adjustments to it, add acres or change the
boundaries," she said, noting that some areas now counted as roadless actually have roads in them, although many are
impassable.
"I
don't think it's as cut-and-dried as you are in or out" of roadless areas, she said.
The
Federal Register notice calls for public comment to begin later this month and
continue into September.
Claudia
Schenck
phone 615-248-6500
fax 615-248-6545
email tec@tectn.org
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