 Dayton Daily News
July 17, 2000 TWICE IN RECENT DAYS, CONGRESS has gotten mud on its face from efforts to undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the first case, involving the Clean Water Act, members of Congress attached a rider to an emergency spending bill they knew the president would not veto. The provision would have barred the EPA from issuing rules aimed at cleaning up the 40 percent of waterways that are too dirty for fishing and swimming. The bill hasn't been signed - which the EPA has taken advantage of. The new regulations require states to survey bodies of water and develop cleanup plans They have 15 years to finish. To nullify the regulations, Congress would have to vote directly on the plan, as it should have in the first place. Besides, states ought to be taking such cleanup actions on their own. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has instituted a waterways cleanup plan, and surveys are being done on two rivers in the Miami Valley. In the second case, involving the Clean Air Act, a panel from the National Academy of Sciences backed EPA research that supported more stringent levels of protection against airborne mercury particles. That was not what Congress wanted to hear. Congress had asked for the scientists' review in an effort to block the U.S. EPA from issuing tougher standards. Utilities claimed there were gaps in the EPA's data. Yet the scientists concluded that there is strong evidence to link mercury exposure to serious health problems. The risk is low for most, they said, but as many as 60,000 children a year suffer disabilities caused by mercury exposure. In Ohio, coal-fired utility plants account for 54 percent of the mercury in the air, according to a National Wildlife Federation report. The EPA is not without faults, but consider how much better off we'd be if states and industries worked with the EPA to reduce contaminants rather than spent millions to fight regulations. Back to Ohio state page
|
|