----- forwarded message -----
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 22:03:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CITIZENS SUE EPA TO PREVENT FARMLANDS AND GARDENS FROM BECOMING
HAZARDOUS WASTES
PRESS RELEASE: CITIZENS SUE EPA TO PREVENT FARMLANDS AND GARDENS FROM
BECOMING HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL SITES
For Immediate Release, October 22, 2002.
For more information, contact:
Melissa Powers, Western Environmental Law Center (541) 485-2471
Patty Martin, Safe Food and Fertilizer (509) 679-8711
Farm, consumer, and environmental health groups today filed a lawsuit to
overturn an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
rule allowing hazardous wastes to be used in fertilizers. Under the rule,
toxic heavy
metals, including lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium may be recycled into
zinc-based fertilizers. The hazardous waste-derived
fertilizers would not be labeled and may be applied to farm lands and home
gardens
without further restrictions. While industries have long been disposing of
their hazardous wastes through fertilizers, the practice
was not officially authorized until this rule.
Many of the heavy metals that will be recycled into fertilizers are highly
toxic substances. Lead has been known to cause behavioral
problems, learning disabilities, seizures, and even death. Mercury may
also cause neurological abnormalities, including cerebral palsy in children
and severe deformations in animals. Arsenic and
cadmium may damage internal organs, skin, and nerve function. The rule would
allow
these heavy metals to be applied to farms and gardens in concentrations that
exceed the limits set for disposal of the hazardous
wastes in lined and monitored landfills.
"The government's own studies show that, over the past few years, heavy
metal levels in children's diets have risen," said Patty
Martin, a former mayor of Quincy, Washington, and the founder of Safe Food and
Fertilizer. "Rather than take steps to reduce the toxic burden on children,
however, the EPA is illegally authorizing a practice that
will put our children at even greater risk from exposure to lead, arsenic,
and other toxic heavy metals."
Groups are concerned that farmers and consumers could unknowingly buy and
use hazardous waste-derived fertilizers, because
the fertilizers will not be labeled. Once applied, heavy metals in the
fertilizers could migrate through the soil, run off into streams,
and leach into waterways, affecting neighboring lands. "In Oregon alone,
over 1.6 billion pounds of fertilizers are used each year,"
said David Monk with the Oregon Toxics Alliance. "On a national level, the
cumulative effects of these fertilizers could be
staggering."
Safe Food and Fertilizer, Family Farm Defenders, the Oregon Toxics Alliance,
and the California Public Interest Research Group
(CALPIRG) claim that the "land ban" provisions of the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) prohibit the EPA from allowing hazardous wastes to be
put in fertilizers that end up on farm fields and home
gardens.
While treated wastes may be placed in land disposal facilities, the
facilities must be designed to prevent migration of the hazardous
wastes and have, at a minimum, double liners and leachate collection systems.
The EPA's rule defies this scheme, by allowing hazardous wastes - including
untreated wastes - to be disposed of on farmlands and
home gardens.
In 1994, the EPA banned a similar type of practice, in which hazardous
wastes were being used in road de-icing chemicals. The
EPA justified that ban by noting that hazardous wastes could not legally be
applied to
the land in an uncontrolled manner. "The EPA has already recognized that
it has no authority to allow this type of uncontrolled
land disposal of hazardous wastes," said Melissa Powers, an attorney with the
Western Environmental Law Center, the law firm representing the plaintiffs
in this case. "This rule will not withstand judicial review."
Safe Food and Fertilizer (SFF) is a grassroots citizens' group whose mission
is to proactively protect human health and the
environment, by advocating for a ban on the use of hazardous and other
industrial wastes
as fertilizer, soil amendments and animal feed. SFF works to empower other
grassroots organizations and consumers locally,
nationally, and internationally. SFF was founded by Patty Martin, who learned
of illegal
hazardous waste recycling while she was the mayor of Quincy, Washington.
Her discovery of this practice was featured in
reporter Duff Wilson's investigative report in The Seattle Times, "Fear in
the Fields: How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizers." The
report became the topic of a subsequent book, Fateful Harvest: The True Story
of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic
Secret.
Family Farm Defenders (FFD) is a coalition of organizations and individuals
committed to the creation of a farmer controlled and
consumer-orientated dairy industry. FFD adheres to the principle of
democracy by empowering farmers to speak for and represent
themselves in the quest for economic justice and sustainable agricultural
policies.
The Oregon Toxics Alliance (OTA) is a statewide grassroots organization
working to eliminate contamination and unnecessary toxics
use and the harm they cause to human health and the environment. OTA is
committed
to achieving fundamental changes in the practices and policies that permit
toxics use and contamination. OTA supports citizens'
efforts to avert the dangers of toxics use in their communities and
throughout Oregon.
CALPIRG monitors government and corporate decisions and advocates on the
public's behalf. The mission of CALPIRG's toxics
program is to stop the dumping of toxic chemicals into our air, water and on
our land,
reduce the use of toxic chemicals, and guarantee citizens the right-to-know
about toxic chemical use and exposure.
The Western Environmental Law Center is a not-for-profit public interest law
firm with offices in Eugene, OR, Taos, NM, and
Ketchum, ID. WELC provides litigation services to grassroots groups, Native
American Tribes, and local governments seeking to
enforce our nation's environmental laws.
Kelly O'Grady RN
Lead Environmental Awareness and Detection l.e.a.d.
www.webhart.net/lead
219 Welland St.,
Pembroke, ON
K8A 5Y5
Tel: (613) 735-0717
Fax: (613) 732-2859
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lead Environmental Awareness and Detection (l.e.a.d.) is a non-profit
organization dedicated to identifying and preventing
pediatric neurotoxicity in Canada. We promote the development of optimal
social and physical environmental conditions for
healthy productive children by recognizing the need for targeted early
childhood blood lead screening of at-risk populations,
and the need for raising public and professional awareness of this issue.
