SERC Wildlines Report #29

July 22, 2002

  In this Edition:
  Issue Spotlight: Cyanide Use in Mining
  Headliner: California Governor Signs Landmark Emissions Bill
  Watchdog: CAFOS Hurt Family Farms
  News Important to the States:                _
Clean Energy
*Iowa Governor Suggests Renewable Energy Projects
*Alaska On Thinning Ice
Recycling and Waste Disposal
*Massachusetts Gets Tough on Recycling
Protecting Wildlands
*Michigan Voters to Decide on Conservation Funding
Land and Water Use
*Delaware Requires Farmers to Track Animal Waste, Fertilizer
*North Carolina Water Conservation Ethic Soaks In
Children’s Health
*New Jersey Cancer Tracking Program in Doubt

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Issue Spotlight: Cyanide Use in Mining

It only takes one teaspoon of a 2% cyanide solution to kill a person and an even smaller dose can kill wildlife. It is the poison of choice for gas chamber executions and has the ominous potential to be a terrorist's weapon of mass destruction. Regardless of these dangers, however, the use of one of the world’s most deadly poisons, cyanide, has been growing in hard rock mining operations throughout the United States. This is despite several well-publicized disasters. In January 2000, in what has been described as Europe’s worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl, thousands of fish were killed and hundreds of miles of water were polluted due to a Romanian spill of cyanide-laced mine wastes. In 1986, a cyanide spill in Colorado killed nearly all wildlife in the Alamosa River. Such disasters prompted Romania and Colorado to ban the use of cyanide in mining operations. Billions of gallons of cyanide have been spilled into the environment since the 1970s. To learn how your state can prevent cyanide disasters, visit our website at http://serc.com/mining/ .

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Headliner: California Governor Signs Landmark Emissions Bill

As reported in the 7/22 Washington Post, California Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed legislation today that makes that state the first to directly cut greenhouse emissions, or carbon pollution, from automobiles in order to reduce global warming. Global warming is caused primarily by carbon dioxide emissions from cars and power plants that add to a thickening layer of carbon pollution that traps heat in the atmosphere. The resulting climate change could result in the spread of infectious disease, increased asthma, drought, and other environmental consequences. The law, AB 1493, grants the California Air Resources Board the authority to set "maximum" but "economically feasible" emissions standards for gases such as carbon dioxide. Technological solutions to reach the new standards vary, but could include ‘low friction’ tires; vehicles with a higher number of gears and computerized transmissions, advanced catalytic converters; and improved air-conditioning coolants. Structurally, cars could be made of safer and stronger lightweight composites. The standards must be set by 2005 and within automobiles by 2009. Once California sets the standards, every other state can then adopt the stricter rules. For more on how your state can reduce carbon pollution and global climate change right now visit http://www.serconline.org/clean/index.html.

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Watchdog: Farm Bureau – Family Farm Foe

Large corporate owned farms, or CAFOs, pose enormous health and environmental threats, generate extensive air and water pollution, and push family farmers out of business.  The Farm Bureau, an organization that small family farmers rely on for support, often turns its back on the family farmer and instead, promotes factory farms. In one instance the Iowa Farm Bureau led the unsuccessful effort to defeat family farm friendly legislation, SF 2293. The bill increases DNR and local control over CAFO construction and reduces the air and water pollution caused by these massive corporate owned operations. Despite the Farm Bureau’s success in substantially weakening the effect of the essential bill by delaying its effective date, the family farmers still won this battle. To learn more about this and other efforts to undermine environmental laws visit SERC’s Watchdog page at http://www.serconline.org/watchdogpage.htm.

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News Important to the States:

Clean Energy

Iowa Governor Suggests Renewable Energy Projects

On 7/18 the Des Moines Register reported that Gov. Tom Vilsack has proposed spending $50 million of Iowa's share of the national tobacco settlement on alternative energy projects across the state. Vilsack stated that the goals of the effort were to reduce the amount of money Iowa spends on out-of-state energy and develop energy as a commodity that Iowa could sell to other states. For more on how your state can promote the development of renewable power see http://www.serconline.org/RenewableEnergyIncentives/.

Alaska On Thinning Ice
The 7/19 Anchorage Daily News reported on a study that found Alaska's glaciers have been shrinking even faster than scientists had previously thought, producing more meltwater over the past half-century than any other icy region on Earth. The findings suggest that scientists may be underestimating how much sea levels will keep rising. The meltdown doubled during the late 1990s and has flooded the ocean with enough runoff to raise global sea level as much as 0.27 millimeters per year. Spread over all the world's seas, this runoff amounts to about 8 percent of the recent rise in sea level. This fact is especially troubling as more than 100 million people live within one meter of mean sea level. “What's happened in the last 100 years is huge compared to anything that's happened in the past 10 centuries,” said Keith Echelmeyer, the study's lead scientist. While it has not yet known what relationship these changes have to climate warming, carbon pollution remain a serious concern. For more information on how states can control such emissions visit http://www.serconline.org/clean/index.html.

Recycling and Waste Disposal

Massachusetts Gets Tough on Recycling
The 7/19 Boston Globe reported that as Massachusetts moves toward its goal of recycling 70 percent of its solid waste by 2010, environmental officials are becoming more aggressive about targeting violators. Under the aegis of the state's Solid Waste Disposal Act, which prohibits certain materials from being dumped in landfills, the attorney general's office and state environmental officials forced the town of Wayland to pay a $25,000 civil penalty for one infraction. The state Environmental Strike Force discovered the infractions when they followed up on tips it received about recyclables being buried in the Wayland town landfill. For more on state recycling efforts check out http://serc.com/bottlebill/ .

Protecting Wildlands

Michigan Voters to Decide on Conservation Funding

The 7/19 Detroit Free Press featured a report on a strange political coalition for conservation funding.  The Michigan Oil and Gas Association, the Michigan Environmental Council, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, UAW, and several others are all supporting Proposal 2 on the Aug. 6 ballot. The proposal would amend the Michigan Constitution to allow more aggressive investing of state funds for land conservation instead of the current practice of investing the money in low-interest government securities. For more on how states can fund conservation visit http://serc.com/conservationfunding/.

Land and Water Use

Delaware Requires Farmers to Track Animal Waste, Fertilizer

ENN reported on 7/19 that Delaware is instituting a law requiring farmers to track their fertilizer use as part of a statewide effort to reduce farm animal waste runoff. The law requires management plans for all fertilized land, including crop fields and golf courses, and animal waste management plans for manure generated by livestock. The regulations require some landowners with excessive manure to remove it and transport it to land that's in need of fertilizer. The regulations were established in an effort to limit runoff of phosphorous and other components of fertilizer into the state's waterways. Problems develop when farmers use more fertilizer and manure on their fields than they need to grow their crops. Excess phosphorus and nitrogen often end up in waterways, where they can harm underwater vegetation and fish. For more on how some states are regulating farm waste see http://www.serconline.org/cafos.html.

North Carolina Water Conservation Ethic Soaks In

The Raleigh News and Observer reported on 7/22 that some cities like Cary are leading the way towards making water conservation a way of life rather than a response to occasional droughts. The severity of the current dry spell is prompting officials in other towns in the region to consider more aggressive and permanent conservation efforts to deal with continued growth and dwindling sources of new water. For more on what some states have done to conserve water visit http://www.serconline.org/waterconservation/stateactivity.html.

Children’s Health

New Jersey Cancer Tracking Program in Doubt

According to the 7/22 Atlantic City Press, funding for a program that could make New Jersey a national leader in responding to suspected cancer clusters has been cut from the state budget, leaving officials unsure of the program's fate. In order to identify such clusters, researchers had planned to work with the state Health Department to use computers to look for areas of the state that have high exposure to pollution and other risk factors. That data would be combined with data from the state cancer registry to find neighborhoods with high cancer rates. For more on what other states are doing to track environmental risks visit http://www.serconline.org/trackingbirthdefects.html.

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