And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 23, 1999 Interior Appropriations Rider Would Gut Northwest Forest Plan Bill to Undermine Critical Habitat Designation Gets 1st Hearing White House Launches Wind Power Initiative Jet Travel Accelerates Global Warming Nuclear Commission Puts Brakes on Yucca Mountain Defenders of Texas Coast Sea Turtles Urge Marine Reserve New Jersey Wildlife Refuge Expands Continental Divide Trail Alliance Accepted by Federal Agencies Lawsuit Filed to Protect Rare California Plants Free Flea Beetles Aim to Purge Spurge Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999 For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-23-09.html AmeriScan: June 23, 1999 * * * BILL TO UNDERMINE CRITICAL HABITAT DESIGNATION GETS 1ST HEARING The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing today on a Republican sponsored bill that would bypass current requirements in the Endangered Species Act covering critical habitat designations. The bill, S. 1100, would require that determinations of critical habitat for threatened or endangered species be part of the development of recovery plans for the species. Now critical habitat is supposed to be designated as part of the listing of the species, early in the protection process. S. 1100 would allow the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to decline to designate critical habitat if the agency cannot determine what the habitat area should be. This "not determinable" loophole was removed by Congress in 1983 because it was often used to avoid critical habitat designations. Environmental groups are lobbying heavily against the bill. * * * WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES WIND POWER INITIATIVE The latest White House renewable energy initiative, Wind Powering America, which seeks to increase the use of wind energy in the United States has been launched by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. The program would supply at least five percent of the nation's electricity needs with wind energy by the year 2020. More than 5,000 megawatts of wind energy would be installed by 2005, and 10,000 megawatts would come on line by 2010. Eight states now have more than 20 megawatts of wind capacity. The initiative seeks to double that number to 16 by 2005, and triple it to 24 by 2010. The federal government's use of wind generated electricity would go up to five percent by 2010. Speaking to Monday's opening session of WINDPOWER �99, the annual conference of the wind energy industry, Richardson also announced nearly $1.2 million in Department of Energy grants to promote wind energy projects. "Wind energy has been the fastest growing source of energy in the world during the past decade and now represents a major economic opportunity for the United States," Richardson said. "Wind Powering America, together with these latest grants, will help combat global climate change by reducing carbon emissions while also helping us promote regional economic development and increased energy security." <snipped * * * JET TRAVEL ACCELERATES GLOBAL WARMING By the year 2050, contrails from jet airplanes will impact global climate, says a study in the July 1 issue of the journal "Geophysical Research Letters." Contrails, ice clouds formed by jet engines, are short lived in dry air, but can persist for hours in moist air and become indistinguishable from natural cirrus clouds. A research team of American and German scientists, headed by Patrick Minnis of the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, reports that contrails cause atmospheric warming. Though the impact of contrails is currently small compared to other greenhouse effects, it may grow by a factor of six over the next 50 years as air traffic increases, the study says. In 1992, contrails added an estimated 0.02 watts of warming per square meter globally, about one percent of all manmade greenhouse effects. In areas where air traffic is concentrated, including the U.S. and Europe, warming effects from contrails reach up to 0.7 watts per square meter, or 35 times the global average. In parts of Europe with the heaviest air traffic contrails now cover up to 3.8 percent. In eastern North America, contrails cover up to 5.5 percent of the sky. Minnis and his colleagues report that global air traffic rose by seven percent per year from 1994 to 1997, in terms of passenger miles flown. By accounting for number of flights per day, fuel consumption, and altitudes flown, they conclude that by 2050, average contrail coverage over Europe will be four times higher than at present - about 4.6 percent. In the United States, the increase will be 2.6 times current levels, or 3.7 percent coverage nationwide. * * * NUCLEAR COMMISSION PUTS BRAKES ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says further information must be gathered before the proposed permanent repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada can be approved. The NRC has reviewed a viability assessment performed by the Department of Energy (DOE) for Yucca Mountain. In a written report sent to the DOE, the Commission calls for further studies on: repository design; waste package corrosion; quantity and chemistry of water contacting waste packages and waste forms; saturated zone flow and transport of radioactive materials; volcanic disruption of the waste package; and quality assurance of all safety systems. The DOE wants to complete license application procedures by 2002 for the proposed repository, if the Secretary of Energy decides to recommend the Yucca Mountain site. The review of the viability assessment and the letter transmitting it to DOE is online at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports/va.htm. * * * DEFENDERS OF TEXAS COAST SEA TURTLES URGE MARINE RESERVE Today, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and Texas based Help Endangered Animals-Ridley Turtles placed a full page advocacy ad in the "New York Times" raising doubts about the ability of Republican presidential hopeful Texas Governor George W. Bush to deal with environmental problems. The groups placed the ad because of Bush's inaction in protecting the Kemp's ridley, the world's most endangered species of sea turtle and a concern that Bush may ignore Texas environmental problems while running for president. <<snipped * * * NEW JERSEY WILDLIFE REFUGE EXPANDS The Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey is 366 acres larger, thanks to a land purchase by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The groups announced Monday they have bought Wallkill Farms, a property near the center of the refuge that once was three dairy farms. The farmland is the refuge�s largest acquisition to date and includes 1.5 miles of frontage along the Wallkill River and 200 acres of wetlands. "The Wallkill Farms property ties together several other acquisitions and provides a strong core in the center of the refuge," said Libby Herland, USFWS manager for the Wallkill Refuge. The seven year old refuge is now 56 percent complete, <<snipped * * * CONTINENTAL DIVIDE TRAIL ALLIANCE ACCEPTED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES Three federal land management agencies will sign an agreement Thursday recognizing the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) as the primary non-governmental partner in completing what has been called "the Appalachian Trail of the West." Participants at the signing ceremony will include U.S. Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck; National Park Service director Robert Stanton; Tom Fry, acting director of the Bureau of Land Management; and CDTA Directors Bruce and Paula Ward. The Continental Divide Trail traverses 3,100 miles through five western states and stretches from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico. It connects national parks, wilderness areas, and other public lands in some of the most rugged areas of the country. Though Congress authorized development of the Continental Divide Trail over 20 years ago, little was accomplished until the CDTA was founded in 1995. The group�s mandate is "to promote, construct, and manage a primitive trail along the Continental Divide and to link and protect significant resources along the trail by the support of volunteers and public and private partnerships." In four years, CDTA has organized thousands of volunteers to work on the Trail and has secured over 2.5 million dollars in financial support from both public and private sources. About 1,000 miles of trail remain to be completed. * * * LAWSUIT FILED TO PROTECT RARE CALIFORNIA PLANTS The Arizona based Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society filed suit June 17 in San Francisco to force the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list and protect 10 California plants as endangered species. All but two of the plants were included in a 1975 Endangered Species Act listing petition by the Smithsonian Institute. The USFWS proposed to list all ten in 1976, but withdrew the proposals for what they call technical reasons. The groups claim political pressure has prevented the plants� listing, and say some of the species are now on the brink of extinction. Two species, the Baker's larkspur and the yellow larkspur, have been reduced to 50 individual plants in Marin and Sonoma counties. The other eight species included in the lawsuit are: Santa Cruz tarplant; Keck's checker-mallow; kneeland prairie penny-cress; La Graciosa thistle; Lompoc Yerba Santa; Gaviota tarplant and two subspecies of purple amole. * * * FREE FLEA BEETLES AIM TO PURGE SPURGE On July 1, scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture�s Agricultural Research Service plan to give away up to 10 million flea beetles (Aphthona species) to ranchers and land managers to help control a noxious invasive species called leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula). The weed covers at least five million acres in 29 states, increases about 10 percent annually, and causes millions of dollars in production losses each year. The insects will be distributed at Spurgefest '99, a field event for The Ecological Areawide Management of Leafy Spurge, or TEAM Leafy Spurge, held June 29 to July 1 in Medora, North Dakota. The Agricultural Research Service established TEAM Leafy Spurge in 1997 as its first areawide integrated pest management program to address rangeland weeds. Biological control using the one-eighth-inch long flea beetles is the cornerstone of a plan to curb the spread of leafy spurge, which is native to Europe and Asia. Leafy spurge infests about 4,200 acres of the 70,448 acre Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the North Dakota Badlands, the site of Spurgefest �99. Since 1987, the National Park Service has released more than four million flea beetles. ********* HCWH Press Release June 15, 1999 http://www.noharm.org/ Contact: Charlotte Brody, R.N., Co-coordinator, Health Care Without Harm, 703-237-2249 Gary Cohen, Co-coordinator, Health Care Without Harm, 617-524-6018 Jackie Hunt Christensen, Co-coordinator, Health Care Without Harm, 612-870-3424 MORE THAN 180 HOSPITALS, PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS PETITION FDA TO PROTECT PATIENTS New University of Massachusetts Report Confirms Health Risks of Vinyl IV Bags and other Vinyl Medical Products Washington, DC, June 15, 1999 -- Following the release of a new, comprehensive study of the scientific literature on di-ethylhexyl phthalates (DEHP), a coalition of more than 180 health, religious, labor and environmental organizations today petitioned the FDA to warn patients and health care providers about the potential health risks from this toxic chemical. More than 500 million IV bags are used in the United States every year to deliver blood, medication and other essential fluids to sick and injured patients. Eighty percent of these are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which requires a plasticizer to make them soft and flexible. DEHP -- the softener used in PVC products -- has been shown to leach from IV bags into the solutions they contain and directly into patients. The peer-reviewed report, released today by the University of Massachusetts' Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, evaluated more than 100 studies on DEHP. The review confirmed that the toxic chemical leaches, potentially causing damage to the heart, liver, ovaries, testes, lungs and kidneys, and interfering with sperm production. The Lowell report was commissioned by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), the same coalition who today called on the FDA to take the following actions: Require all PVC medical devices that leach plasticizers to include a warning label and additional information on the potential health risks caused by DEHP leaching and FDA-approved alternatives. Warn pregnant women, infants, hemophiliacs, dialysis patients and others receiving long-term intravenous or tube-feeding treatment that they are more likely to receive high doses of DEHP. Expedite the development of safer, PVC-free alternatives to all PVC medical devices that leach plasticizers. While the FDA has not set any limits on plasticizer leaching from medical devices, the agency does restrict the amount of plasticizer to 30 percent of the weight of food containers. PVC IV bags, blood bags and tubing all contain more than 30 percent DEHP by weight. "Current FDA regulations make no sense," said Charlotte Brody, RN and Co-Coordinator of HCWH. "Why should plastic food containers be regulated more strictly than plastic medical products? And why should the FDA warn cancer patients of DEHP leaching with certain medications, but not infants or hemophiliacs, who may be even more exposed?" Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
