I apologize for duplicate postings. Environmental Quality Activist March 2002 Issue TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. President Bush's New "Clear Skies" Proposal: A Smokescreen for More Pollution 2. Tell the Bush Administration Not to Bury Our Streams and Wetlands with Waste 3. Sierra Club Joins Campaign to Reduce Threat of Chemical Releases 4. Urge Congress to Restore Funding to our Nation's Passenger Rail System 5. Sierra Club's Ken Midkiff Tours Industrial Livestock Factories 6. Big Win For Clean Water in Illinois 7. Senate Passes Improved Farm Bill - Debate Continues 8. Sierra Club Environmental Quality Contacts and Other Resources 1. President Bush's New "Clear Skies" Proposal: A Smokescreen for More Pollution On February 14, President Bush unveiled his plan to reduce air pollution, the "Clear Skies Initiative." Instead of reducing air pollution, the President's plan will actually result in more air pollution than allowed under current law. In addition, the Administration is considering weakening New Source Review, an important Clean Air Act program that requires antiquated power plants and factories to install modern pollution control equipment when they expand. It is vital that we educate both the public and members of Congress on the true merits of Bush's new "clean air" plan. Please visit http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/action/clear_skies.asp to find a sample letter to the editor and talking points. 2. Tell the Bush Administration Not to Bury Our Streams and Wetlands with Waste What happens when the tops of mountains are blown off to mine for coal? 1. Streams are smothered underneath millions of tons of mining waste -- more than 1,000 miles of streams in West Virginia alone have been buried so far. 2. The landscape is severely and permanently altered due to the filling of entire valleys. 3. Surrounding neighborhoods are inundated with noise, dust, and debris from blasting. 4. Drinking water becomes polluted. 5. The quality of life of people living near these mines is severely diminished. Blasting off the tops of mountains to reach coal seams is known as 'mountaintop removal coal mining' and is widespread in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The legality of mountaintop removal has been called into question time and time again since the passage of the Clean Water Act; however, the Bush Administration is poised to finalize a rule that would legitimize mountaintop removal. The rule would not only further degrade the environment and public health in regions where mountaintop removal occurs, but could also lead to the degradation of rivers, streams and wetlands all across the nation. To find out more information and how you can take action, please visit http://www.sierraclub.org/wetlands/mining.asp, or contact George Sorvalis at [log in to unmask] or (202) 675-6693. 3. Sierra Club Joins Campaign to Reduce Threat of Chemical Releases Earlier this month, with the release of the "Safe Hometowns Guide", the Sierra Club joined in the kick-off of the Safe Hometown Initiative. The Safe Hometowns Initiative is a coalition of environmental and public health organizations that share a common concern about the threat posed by the use and storage of hazardous chemicals in thousands of communities across the country. The best way to protect families from the risk of chemical exposure is to ensure that communities identify nearby chemical facilities and reduce the threat that disastrous chemical releases pose to nearby residents. This information enables communities to participate in environmental decision-making and to hold companies accountable. Using inherently safer technologies to reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals produced and stored at facilities is the best way to reduce risks. "This is an excellent project for the Sierra Club for many reasons," says Doris Cellarius, Sierra Club's volunteer leader who has worked to involve Sierra Club in the Safe Hometowns Initiative. "We have a long history of promoting "Right to Know". This initiative is an exciting new opportunity for citizens to work together to reduce chemical hazards in their communities." To download the report, please visit http://www.safehometowns.org. For more information on chemical plant safety issues, please visit http://www.sierraclub.org/toxics/. To become involved in the Safe Hometowns Initiative, please contact Doris Cellarius at [log in to unmask] 4. Urge Congress to Restore Funding to our Nation's Passenger Rail System Congress established the National Railroad Passenger Corporation in 1971 to provide energy-efficient and cost-efficient passenger transportation between urban and rural areas throughout the country. Unfortunately, our nation's passenger rail service, Amtrak, is severely underfunded and may be facing another budget cut. Amtrak currently receives $521 million per year, but it needs $1.2 billion per year to continue to offer nationwide services that many citizens expect and need. Amtrak serves nearly 50 million riders each year while diverting traffic from highways and eliminating tons of air pollution. The Northeast Corridor yearly ridership between New York City and Washington, DC equates to 7,500 fully booked 757 airplanes. The Acela service, Amtrak's high-speed service, alone reduces acid rain-forming nitrogen oxide emissions by 15% and significantly reduces other harmful air pollutants by taking people out of their cars and airplanes. Further cuts to Amtrak's budget will eliminate jobs and reduce the already limited, but important services Amtrak provides. Americans deserve a safe, efficient, and reasonably priced rail service. Investing in the national rail system will reduce the need to build expensive new airports and add more lanes to already-crowded highways. A better Amtrak with a fully functional nationwide network would provide an environmentally friendly transportation choice to all Americans. To send a letter to your Senators and Representative, urging them to restore funding to Amtrak, please visit http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=74 5. Sierra Club's Ken Midkiff Tours Industrial Livestock Factories Ken Midkiff, lead staff on the CAFO/Clean Water Campaign, helps communities organize against the threat of industrial livestock factories, otherwise known as CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). CAFOs are massive agribusiness operations, usually housing tens of thousands of "animal units" in a single facility. This practice generates massive amounts of waste that pollutes local streams and rivers and is a terrible nuisance for neighbors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken and cattle waste are responsible for polluting 35,000 miles of U.S. rivers. To make matters worse, the industry is largely unregulated and out of control. In many cases, unless local communities organize against the big livestock operations, the pollution goes unchecked. That's where Ken comes in, concluding a tour of CAFOs. He has made his way across the flatlands, up and over the Continental Divide, all the way to the Central Valley of California. During his journey he brought information and advice to local organizers to help them protect their communities and periodically reported back with news of his doings. Sierra Club has documented his travels online at http://www.sierraclub.org/roadtrip/lowplainsdrifter/. 6. Big Win For Clean Water in Illinois The Sierra Club's Illinois Clean Water Campaign won its biggest victory to date on February 5, when the Illinois Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) approved new rules proposed by the Illinois Pollution Control Board (Illinois PCB) to keep clean Illinois waters clean. This approval caps almost five years of efforts by the Sierra Club, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Prairie Rivers Network, and other clean water advocates to obtain Illinois regulations providing protections against the degradation of water quality in Illinois rivers, lakes and streams. On December 6, 2001, the Illinois PCB had issued proposed rules that are among the strongest rules in the country protecting rivers, lakes and streams from new or expanded sources of pollution. These rules should have been approved by JCAR in January, but were stalled for a month by backdoor lobbying by the organization representing Illinois' biggest polluters. However, with only non-substantial changes, these rules have now been approved for final adoption. Thanks to everyone who contacted members of JCAR to approve the rules. Illinois now has rules that give substantial protection against new pollution to every river, lake and stream in the state. The rules do not contain loopholes for small additions of new pollution. In addition, the Illinois rules contain procedural safeguards requiring the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that new permits will not harm drinking water, swimming, or aquatic life. The rules also require applicants seeking permission for any new or expanded discharges to prove that the new pollution is really necessary after considering alternatives. Further, the Illinois rules allow a fair chance for designation of exceptionally high quality waterways as "outstanding resource waters" through a citizen petition process. For more information, please contact Albert Ettinger. Albert Ettinger is the Illinois Chapter Water Issues Coordinator, Senior Staff Attorney at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Chair of Sierra Club's Clean Water Committee and author of this article. He can be reached at [log in to unmask] 7. Senate Passes Improved Farm Bill - Debate Continues The Senate recently passed a farm bill that is a major improvement over the House bill and current law. The Senate Farm Bill would provide more money to help farmers safeguard clean water, protect wetlands, and prevent suburban sprawl and would double funding for conservation programs, which the House Farm Bill sorely neglected. The farm bill is currently in conference committee where the differences between the House and Senate versions are being worked out. If your congressional representatives are members of the conference committee, please call them and urge them to support the Senate version of the farm bill. The Senate conservation provisions: limit subsidies to polluting corporate livestock factories; provide for more conservation incentives for smaller farmers and ranchers; and require that operations receiving commodity and crop insurance payments forfeit their benefits if they bring wetlands or grasslands into agricultural production. House Conferees: Boehner(OH), Chambliss(GA), Clayton(NC), Combest(TX), Dooley(CA), Everett(AL), Goodlatte(VA), Hansen(UT), Holden(PA), Kind(WI), Lucas(OK), Moran(KS), Peterson(MN), Pombo(CA), Stenholm(TX) Senate Conferees: Bachus(MT), Cochran(MS), Conrad(ND), Daschle(SD), Harkin(IA), Helms(NC), Leahy(VT), and Lugar(IN) The farm bill will authorize billions of dollars in spending. How this money is spent will have a substantial impact on America's landscape. To find out more about the farm bill, please visit http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/waterquality/farmbill.asp 8. Sierra Club Environmental Quality Contacts and Other Resources COMMITTEE CONTACTS: Air Committee, Bob Palzer, [log in to unmask] Wetlands Working Group, Robin Mann, [log in to unmask] Water Committee, Albert Ettinger, [log in to unmask] Environmental Justice Committee, Phaedra Pezzullo, [log in to unmask] Genetic Engineering Committee, Laurel Hopwood, [log in to unmask] Waste Committee, Jim Mays, [log in to unmask] Sprawl Committee, Tim Frank, [log in to unmask] CAFO/Clean Water Committee, Hank Graddy, [log in to unmask] Community Health Committee, Michael McCally, [log in to unmask] Workplace Environment Committee, Libby Samaras, [log in to unmask] OTHER RESOURCES: This newsletter and links to all pollution campaigns are available at www.sierraclub.org/eqst Sierra Club Legislative Hotline - 202-675-2394 Sierra Club National Headquarters - 415-977-5500 Sierra Club World Wide Web - http://www.sierraclub.org Sierra Club Vote Watch Website - http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111 White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461 Bush's e-mail - [log in to unmask] Cheney's e-mail - [log in to unmask] White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500 US Capitol Switchboard - 202-224-3121 To contact your senators - http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm To contact your representative - http://www.house.gov/writerep/ To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, or for more information on Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Campaigns, please email George Sorvalis at [log in to unmask] Erin Jordahl Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club 3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280 Des Moines, IA 50310 515-277-8868 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]