Source: Natural Resources Defense Council
Published Dec. 3, 2008

In the latest move by the Bush administration to undo environmental protections, the US Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to relax the conditions under which mining companies -- particularly those engaged in mountaintop removal -- may bury waste. According to experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council, this change, which undermines the Clean Water Act, will weaken environmental standards for mountaintop removal mining operations. The changes to the Stream Buffer Zone rule will bury hundreds of miles of streams with rock, soil, mining sludge and other wastes, contaminating drinking water supplies throughout Appalachia, one of the poorest regions in the country.
 
The following is a statement by Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist at NRDC:
 
“The EPA’s concurrence and approval of this defective rule governing coal mining is ecologically and economically indefensible. Today’s action by the EPA, under Administrator Johnson, threatens the health and environment of thousands of people and hundreds of communities in Appalachia, which is why the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee both urged the Bush administration to reject the rule change proposed by the Office of Surface Mining.
 
“Only a few companies, and bad actors at that, will benefit from this rule change, which makes it legal to use the most environmentally harmful coal mining technology available. This action, once again, solidifies the disastrous environmental legacy of Bush administration.”
 
Background:
 
In 2004, when the Office of Surface Mining first proposed relaxing the buffer rule, NRDC urged the agency to abandon its proposal and to focus instead on better enforcement of the existing rule.  An environmental review of the proposal released last year estimates that over 700 miles of streams in central Appalachia have already been buried by valley fills, and that over 1,200 miles of streams in the region were directly harmed by coal mining activities, including waste disposal, between 1992 and 2002 alone.  That analysis also confirms that mining projects approved between 2001 and 2005 directly affected over 500 miles of streams.
 
Despite these conclusions, and ignoring the pleas of scientists and protests of thousands of concerned citizens, the EPA has offered its approval to the OSM to finalize changes to the rule.

New Report Details Cuts That Hide Health Threats And Leave People At Risk From Toxic Substances
SOURCE: National Resources Defense Council

WASHINGTON (December 4, 2008) – Millions of Americans have been left in the dark about hazardous pollutants being released into their communities, according to a new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The new report provides a comprehensive look at the Bush Administration’s systemic cutting of health and environmental programs that monitor toxins across America.
 
“The Bush administration has turned off the tap on data and monitoring, depriving scientists, agencies, and Americans of information crucial to ensuring public health protections,” said Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, research scientist at NRDC. “Immediate action is needed by the next administration to restore, strengthen and fund these crucial monitoring programs.”
 
The report, Deepest Cuts: Repairing Health Monitoring Programs Slashed Under the Bush Administration, evaluates the current state of federal environmental and health monitoring programs at the end of the Bush Administration in five key areas – air quality, water quality, food safety, toxic substance and human health.
 
The report demonstrates that during the eight years of the Bush Administration, the federal government has quietly eliminated or crippled more than a dozen essential monitoring programs. Budget cuts, restructuring, program termination, and removal of industry reporting requirements have been steadily undermining or eliminating the information that alerts us to problems in our air, water, food, and communities.
 
Programs that directly track human health have also been slashed, creating information gaps about infectious disease outbreaks, chemical exposures in people, and chronic disease.
 
Some of the worst examples of the program cuts include:
 

• Hundreds of communities near lead polluters will not have air quality testing, and the lead monitoring network has been cut by half over the past decade, hampering the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the new air standard for lead.
• The Bush Administration has proposed to eliminate requirements that “factory farms” and similar facilities report the air pollution from animal waste. This proposal may be finalized before January, even though many such facilities pollute the air more than large industrial factories.
• Budget cuts at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will devastate two programs that test groundwater and surface water for pesticides, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, hormone disruptors, and other toxic chemicals.
• The already tight budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that tracks food-related illness was cut by more than $2 million, at a time when some foodborne illness outbreaks have been increasing.

 
The report provides specific recommendations for the government to restore these programs that are critical for setting strong public health protections. The cost of reinstating these programs would total approximately $133 million. According to NRDC experts, these costs could be offset by identifying and preventing pollution and disease problems before they cost our health care system and taxpayers many more millions of dollars.
 

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Editor's note: The studies were conducted in Indiana, Texas, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

Low levels of certain man-made chemicals remain in public water supplies after being treated in selected community water facilities.
Water from nine selected rivers, used as a source for public water systems, was analyzed in a study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Most of the man-made chemicals assessed in this study are not required to be monitored, regulated or removed from water treatment facilities.

Scientists tested water samples for commonly used chemicals, including pesticides, solvents, gasoline hydrocarbons, personal care products, disinfection by-products, and manufacturing additives.