[talk about a media and activist event! and here in Seattle - Will]
------ forwarded message -----
Subject: Get Toxic Waste OUT of our Fertilizer!
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 13:13:08 -0800
From: "Lisa Ramirez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
EPA National Public Hearing
Thursday, November 29, 2001
1:00pm to 4:00pm and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Town Hall
1119 8th Ave. (corner of 8th and Seneca)
Seattle, Washington
It's true! Toxic wastes from mining, steel mills, pulp mills, and other
industries are made into fertilizer with virtually no regulations. These
wastes contain dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, dioxin, and other poisons.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding only ONE hearing for
the entire country, here in Seattle, on its proposed rule to regulate toxic
waste in fertilizer. Your voice is needed to stop this hazardous scam.
Steel mills, paper mills, and other major polluting industries are turning
their waste into fertilizer which is spread onto food-producing lands. As a
result, poisons such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and dioxins wind up in
fertilizer products used for farms and backyard gardens.
This practice has been going on for several decades but went unnoticed by
the general public and virtually unregulated by the government. A group of
determined farmers and then-Mayor Patty Martin in Quincy, Washington
discovered this unbelievable practice when they were searching for answers
for failed crops and dying livestock. What the farmers and mayor eventually
helped to uncover for the nation was that it is a common practice for toxic
wastes from major industrial polluters to be made into fertilizer.
There are a number of ways toxic waste winds up in fertilizer, including:
* Large industries that produce cement, metals, and wood products turn
the toxic by-products of their manufacturing processes into fertilizer.
* Toxic waste is collected from pollution-control equipment in
smokestacks and made into fertilizer.
* Some industries pay farmers to take waste directly and spread it on
their farms.
No thorough study has ever been done to determine whether adding wastes to
fertilizer could be a safe method of disposal. Limited testing that has been
done on fertilizer products shows that they often contain the highly toxic
heavy metals lead, cadmium, and arsenic, as well as dioxins. Steel smelter
waste contains as much as one percent lead and 800 parts per trillion
dioxins.
Exposure to toxic metals, dioxins and other chemicals in fertilizers is a
health concern for farmworkers and farmers who handle these products,
workers who manufacture fertilizers, communities where these products are
applied, and consumers who eat the food grown with these products.
The buildup of metals and other contaminants in agricultural soils may cause
crop damage, contamination of groundwater or surface water, and the
contamination of food. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, and dioxins are all harmful
to children and adults at low doses and they persist in the environment.
Public interest groups including the Washington Toxics Coalition and
WashPIRG are calling for:
* An immediate halt to the practice of adding toxic wastes to
fertilizer. Certain types of waste, such as cement kiln dusts, pulp mill and
other wastes that contain dioxins and are clearly not appropriate for use as
fertilizer. There is no evidence that other wastes are safe to apply as
fertilizer.
* Full disclosure of the contents of all fertilizers, for both
nutritive elements and non-nutritive constituents.
* Standards based on non-degradation for all fertilizers, to protect
our soils for the future.
Government officials must act immediately to protect health and the
environment. We cannot allow further contamination of farmland and further
toxic exposures for farmers, farmworkers and consumers, while government
agencies study and discuss the problem, determining whether there may be a
few instances where waste in fertilizer is both safe and beneficial.
Come to the hearing and tell EPA:
* Keep toxic waste out of our food supply by banning toxic waste in
fertilizer, especially wastes containing dioxin.
* As an interim step, adopt stringent standards for metals in
fertilizers and close loopholes that give special treatment to mining waste
and steel-mill waste.
* All fertilizers should be fully labeled with the actual levels of
contaminants, and EPA should establish a comprehensive tracking system for
all wastes going to fertilizer.
Ask EPA to also support standards for ALL fertilizers based on keeping our
soils clean for future generations.
If you cannot attend the hearing, please send your comments into:
Christine T Whitman
1101A
U.S. EPA Headquarters
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Washington, DC 20460
For more information, go to www.watoxics.org or call:
Aisling Kerins, WashPIRG (206) 568 - 2850
Laurie Valeriano, Washington Toxics Coalition, (206) 632 - 1545
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Lisa Ramirez
Friends of the Earth
6512 23rd Avenue NW, Suite 320
Seattle, WA 98117-5728
phone: 206-297-9460
fax: 206-297-9468
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.foe.org
"Hatred can be overcome only by love.
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
-- Mahatma Ghandi
