[hits:
2011]
NYTimes Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01water.html
LINK TO: http://www.cleanwateraction.org/
LINK TO: http://www.cleanwateraction.org/
EPA Could Keep Millions of Pounds of Toxic Metals Out of Waterway and Ocean
REF: http://www.sys-con.com/node/1605163
After decades of delays... exposing millions of American children to neuro-toxic arsenic, lead, chromium, and mercury.
Thirty Year(s) Ago... these rules were supposed to have been written... 30 YEARS ago... and these are not new requirements. Now re-slated to 2014... the EPA promises to issue rules to protect Americans from Millions of Tons of highly toxic industrial waste thrown away into our air and water. The EPA is now on notice by the EIP and Earthjustice, representing Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club.
For decades local water treatment plants have been the primary dumping site for industrial waste... then it goes to the Oceans...
Lobbyists roll out the red carpet for politicians to wine and dine at our expense while turning a blind eye to exposing American children to tons of neuro toxins like arsenic, lead, chromium, mercury, and selenium in drinking water and fishing rivers, that now pose serious human damages even in very low doses.
Arsenic is a known carcinogen that causes cancer of the skin, bladder and lungs. Just imagine the wonderful pink ribbon photo ops for politicians.
Mercury accumulates in fish and, when eaten by pregnant or nursing mothers, seriously impacts a child's ability to write, read, and learn, so there will be fewer letters written to congress and more time for golf.
Selenium concentrates straight up the food chain in seafood, impeding growth and causing bizarre skeletal deformities.
Polluters give favors to get a free pass and for decades have been allowed to dump toxic waste into creek beds, poisoning those living downstream.
Now Coal Power plants have taken the lead of all the polluters producing more toxic chemical waste than most other industries in America.
Shifting the air pollution to the US waterways and Oceans, as companies install pollution controls to meet Clean Air Act requirements, bypassing the toxic chemicals are easily transferred from the air to highly concentrated toxic chemicals dumped into wastewater leaving the health of the American citizens at risk, especially American children, suffering with permanent brain impairments, while utility stock values promise attractive dividends.
[hits:
2011]
LINK TO: http://www.cleanwateraction.org/
EPA Could Keep Millions of Pounds of Toxic Metals Out of Waterway and Ocean
REF: http://www.sys-con.com/node/1605163
It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to reveal everything it knows about a massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign shores. "The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels." Brian pointed me to the Daily Press's in depth coverage of this whole issue. Registration is free and only takes a minute or two and is extremely worthwhile. Included at the site are maps of disposal sites (downloadable as pdfs), stories, descriptions of items dumped including nerve and mustard gas, and rather depressing pictures some are below the fold (all from the Daily Press).
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Hundreds of dolphins washed ashore in Virginia and New Jersey shorelines in 1987 with burns similar to mustard gas exposure. One marine-mammal specialist suspects Army-dumped chemical weapons killed them. (Photo courtesy of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in New Jersey) The SS William Ralston filled with 301,000 mustard gas bombs and 1,500 1-ton canisters of Lewsite -- sinks in the Pacific off San Francisco in 1958 (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army) http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/06/munitions_dumping_at_sea.php |
Defending our Oceans
The front line of environmental crime
On the surface, the ocean may look calm and serene. But, beneath the surface is a different story. All around the world, our oceans are in crisis. Whale slaughter continues to put endangered species at risk and pollution from land-based sources is turning the oceans into a dumping ground. Throughout the seven seas, there are many industries committing crimes against nature, but no one is holding them accountable.
http://Greenpeace.org/oceans/http://Greenpeace.org/the-front-line-of-environment/
Greenpeace and the Italian environmental group Lega Ambiente have been compiling lists of ships that have disappeared off Italy and Greece as they pursue reports of boats laden with toxic substances being sunk.
A Greenpeace official, Alessandro Gianni, told Associated Press Television News in an interview that his organization tried to learn the fate of ships that might have been involved in toxic dumping.
http://EcoDelMar.org/sea-x-ray/
http://www.mnn.com/robot-sub-hunts-toxic-waste-off-italian-coast
http://Greenpeace.org.uk/blog/nuclear/mafia-accused-of-trafficking-nuclear-waste
With the glaring exception of the military and reckless industrial tycoons... WE THE PEOPLE demand that the common industrial "money saving" practice of TOXIC OCEAN DUMPING BE STOPPED... ... and because no one can manage what they can't measure... we need to know the FACTS that have been hidden from the public, who simply don't understand why they are dying of cancer, please see the most current data at: http://WorldoMeters.info/view/toxchem/
Think about protecting Life in the Oceans, including the phytoplankton... what about all of those GIGA TONS of toxic chemicals and toxic dispersants, solvents, and PCBs dumped by industry and the military into the only known Living Oceans in the entire universe... these chemicals were known to be Toxic to Living cells, such as phytoplankton... thereby impairing the ability for Earth's Living Oceans of phytoplankton to absorb giga tons of industrial soot and CO2... and to make the Life giving OXYGEN that PHYTOPLANKTON has freely produced for millions of years before the industrial revolution started burning mountains of COAL and tankers of OIL that is currently driving all Life on Earth to the brink of extinction... for profit... virtually stealing the raw materials from Mother Nature... from "The Commons"... some will call that greed.... it is in fact A Crime Against Nature...
The environmental problems we all face today are directly related to the giga tons of toxic chems dumped (and still being dumped) into the atmosphere and waterways leading to the Oceans...
Reported to the public at http://www.worldometers.info/view/toxchem
http://EcoDelMar.org/pcb
http://EcoDelMar.org/clean_water
http://EcoDelMar.org/phytoplankton
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Planned "Toxic Chemical Release", Report On Rising Levels:
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Mercury and PCB Pollution RISE Dramatically (EPA)
Releases of mercury, PCBs, lead and dioxin into the environment increased significantly between 2006 and 2007, according to the annual "Toxics Release Inventory," published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
"This information underscores the need for fundamental transparency and provides a powerful tool for protecting public health and the environment," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "Serving the public’s right to know is the crucial first step in reducing toxic chemicals in the places where we live, work and raise children."
The "Toxics Release Inventory" classifies all releases together, including legal and illegal dumping, disposal in mine reclamation ponds (which leach into groundwater) and disposal in toxic dump sites.
Between 2006 and 2007, PCB releases INCREASED by 40 percent, due to disposal of supplies manufactured before the substances were banned in 1979. Mercury releases, mostly due to mining, INCREASED by 38 percent. Dioxin releases increased by 11 percent, and lead releases INCREASED. Overall releases of all persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals or metals also increased.
PCBs and dioxins are well know to be highly toxic to marine life and children. Both accumulate in animals (including human) bodies and disrupt the body’s hormonal and reproductive systems. Lead and mercury can cause neurological and behavioral problems, particularly in children. All four pollutants are especially dangerous to pregnant women and children, due to their effects on the body’s development.
According to the "Toxics Release Inventory," slight decreases in air and water pollution occurred between 2006 and 2007 -- 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
In December 2006, the Bush administration implemented a rule diluting the thoroughness of the EPA’s toxic release reporting program. In March of this year, however, President Obama signed a law overturning the Bush policy.
"The public does have a "right to know" about the toxic chemicals in the air and water," said New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who authored the law. "The Bush administration diluted the law and let industrial facilities hide the critical data about the toxic chemical emissions. It is time to restore the public’s "right to know" about the release of toxic chemicals in their communities."
Source: www.ens-newswire.com and
REF: http://dprogram.net/2009/07/07/toxic-chemicals-release-report-shows-mercury-pcb-pollution-rise-dramatically/
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Research: http://EcoDelMar.org/pcb
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Scuba divers: http://EcoDelMar.org/maya
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Cousteau: http://EcoDelMar.org/results
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Petition: http://EcoDelMar.org/clean_water
Cooking with Natural Gas...
www.epa.gov
PCBs are also present in natural gas pipelines as a result of the historical practice of oil 'fogging'. Reclaimed transformer oils, containing PCBs, were used...
http://epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/monitoring/tsca/manuals/pcbinspect/pcbinspectappg.pdf
US Clean Water Act
no longer "Navigable"
no longer "Navigable"
The CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972 was clearly created to protect Americas rivers, streams, and tributaries that carry water for drinking and eventually arriving to the only Living Oceans in the known universe.
Now a single word, "navigable", threatens to undo years of protection against the industrial dumping of millions of tons of known carcinogens into our Rivers and Oceans.
Because of the wording "navigable waters", the law might not apply to small creeks that lead to rivers... "Court Cases are now being "lost" because industry is dumping into a "small stream" that flows into a river, rather than the river itself," said David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan who led the environmental crimes section of the Justice Department.
Hundreds of Million of Americans get their drinking water from sources fed by waters that are now vulnerable to exclusion from the "Clean Water Act" of 1972.
Half of the major polluters might become outside the "navigable" regulatory reach.
In many US states, big polluters say the "CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972" no longer applies to them... and are therefore refusing to renew or apply for permits, making it impossible to monitor what they are dumping, say US officials.
Setting an example, the US Air Force Base near Clovis, N.M., for instance, recently informed the E.P.A. that it no longer considers itself subject to the CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972.
More than 200 "oil spill" rulings have recently become "delayed".
"We are, in essence, shutting down our Clean Water programs in some states," said Douglas F. Mundrick, an E.P.A. lawyer in Atlanta. "This is a huge step backward. When companies figure out the cops can't operate, they start remembering how much cheaper it is to just dump the tons of toxic leftovers into a nearby creek."
"If you can get Glenn Beck to say that government storm troopers are going to invade your property and check into your mud-puddles, farmers will panic in the Midwest and "light up" their congressmen’s switchboards," said the coalition member, who asked not to be identified.
Source: NYtimes.com/2010/03/01/us/water
Our task must be to free ourselves of this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. (including phytoplankton :-)
-Albert Einstein
US Military Goes Green: http://EcoDelMar.org/Green_Military/
http://EcoDelMar.org/clean_water/