in this week's Weekender, Sioux City's alternative weekly. Sierra Club slams Bush admin's pollution record By Casandra Peck 07/01/04 Calling on voters to "Hold Polluters Accountable," with slogans like "Clean Energy Not Dirty Secrets," and "Big Oil and Clean Water Don't Mix," Sierra Club members protested the Bush Administration's failure to protect the environment by weakening clean air and water acts. They did so in a protest last Friday as Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to throngs of Republican backers at Morningside College. The Sierra Club, the oldest and largest grass roots advocacy group in the country, is especially worried about mercury pollution in Sioux City and the region caused by coal-fired power plants owned by MidAmerican Energy. Mercury pollution, most commonly found in contaminated fish and shellfish, is mostly a risk to children and pregnant women, causing damage to the nervous and digestive systems. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one in six women in the U.S. of child-bearing age has enough mercury in her blood to be harmful to a developing fetus. Sioux City's power plants, two of the largest in the state, alone gave off an estimated 634 pounds of mercury in 2002. This and other coal-plant emissions cause as many as 47 premature deaths in Siouxland, according to the organization Clear the Air. The Sierra Club says the solution to the mercury pollution problem is simple. An EPA plan involving the Clean Air Act and technology would have cut mercury pollution by 90 percent by the year 2008. However, the Bush administration replaced it with a plan of its own to cut pollution by 70 percent by 2018. "Thirty years of environmental progress has taught us that there is a better way," says Tarah Heinzen, conservation organizer for the Sierra Club. "That's why Sierra Club members are here - to ask the Bush Administration to enforce the Clean Air Act; to hold polluters responsible for the damage they do; and to protect public health and our environment by investing in modern technology for a cleaner future." Since coal-fired power plants give off more mercury pollution than any other source, it is important that power plant operators employ new technology to cut the amount of pollution. "America has made great progress cleaning soot and smog from our air, pollution from our water and toxic chemicals from our communities," says Heinzen. "But the Bush Administration's commitment to 19th century energy technology has put that progress in peril and Iowa's communities at risk." Find more at www.sierraclub.org <http://www.sierraclub.org>. http://www.siouxland.net/index.cfm?cat=57&artid=4161 Tarah Heinzen Sierra Club Conservation Organizer 3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280 Des Moines, IA 50310 (515) 251-3995 [log in to unmask] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-FACTORY-FARMS-FORUM list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]