NEXT PAGE -->
|
January 26, 1999
"When the 106th Congress convened earlier this month, the Southern Co. went out of its way to make sure Idaho's new senator felt welcome, even though none of the giant utility company's customers are constituents of Sen. Mike Crapo." ----Associated Press 1/23/99 (See "Global Warming", below)
Contents
1) TAKE ACTION: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT
2) GLOBAL WARMING: POLLUTER GIVE$ A$ MUCH A$ IT EMIT$
3) OKLAHOMA HOG FARM VICTORY
TAKE ACTION: PIGS PIGS PIGS...AND CHICKENS
As dedicated SC-ACTION readers know, there is a new threat to our health and drinking water coming to a community near you. Traditionally, pigs and chickens were raised on family farms, where the impact from their wastes was relatively minor. But the big pig and chicken corporations have been building animal factories that raise thousands of animals on just a few acres. Putting so many animals in such a tight spot has lead to real threats to our health, and our environment.
Pfisteria outbreaks, believed to result from factory-farm pollution, have killed thousands of fish and sickened 27 people in Maryland. In Utah, 50,000 acres have been set aside for a swine operation with an annual production of 2.5 MILLION hogs. In Arkansas, nearly 300 miles of streams are too polluted for swimming due to chicken waste. In Olivia, Minnesota, hydrogen sulfide emitted from hog lagoons caused six kids to miss 140 school days due to illness.
Those are only a few of the dirty details. For more, check out our website's "Pig Map." In the meantime, we need your help letting the EPA know that these corporate animal factories cannot be allowed to continue to threaten our health and environment. Please write a letter to the editor of your local paper, and ask the EPA to stop these facilities from being built, and clean up the ones we've got. If you know about problems in your local community, please include them.
Thanks! Your efforts make all the difference!
GLOBAL WARMING: GOOD OLD $OUTHERN HO$PITALITY $outhern Company Wines and Dines Members of Congress
The Southern Company is well known as one of the most polluting corporations in America. Their coal-fired power plants spew horrendous amounts of pollution into our air, contributing mightily to problems like acid rain and global warming. So when the Southern Company decides to expand its Washington DC lobbying efforts, environmentalists get nervous.
According to a 1/23/99 Associated Press Story, we should be. In 1997 the Southern Company spent $2.4 million dollars to lobby the United States Congress. Political action committees formed by the company shelled out another $326,250 in contributions to federal candidates during the most recent election cycle. Three-fourths of that money went to Republicans.
During 1997-98, soft money donations by Southern and its subsidiaries totaled $350,000, a 660 percent increase over the $46,000 the companies gave just two election cycles earlier.
According to the article, the Southern Company takes the broad view when it comes to lobbying. "When the 106th Congress convened earlier this month, the Southern Co. went out of its way to make sure Idaho's new senator felt welcome, even though none of the giant utility company's customers are constituents of Sen. Mike Crapo." (AP, 1/23/99)
The Southern Company sponsored a reception for the new Senator in the plush Powerscourt Room of Capitol Hill's Phoenix Park Hotel. Crapo had been one of the company's key allies on the House Commerce Committee before his election to the Senate.
"They handled the guest list, the arrangements, everything," said Susan Wheeler, Crapo's press secretary.
On the same day, Southern's operatives on Capitol Hill also staged a reception for Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the newly elected speaker of the House who just happens to be "thoughtful on a lot of key energy issues," said Southern Co. spokesman Buddy Eller.
Southern's lobbying factory includes both its own 10-member Washington staff and a stable of hired guns, including former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour and former Alabama Rep. Ronnie Flippo. Their top issues? Creating a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, deregulation of the utility industry, and blocking ratification of the modest Kyoto global warming treaty.
ANOTHER VICTORY AGAINST HOG FARMS IN OKLAHOMA
Since the state legislature passed new regulations that went into effect last summer, the hog industry has only made three applications for new sites. This week we learned that Tyson's Pork Group has decided not to pursue one of their two construction permits due to efforts of the Sierra Club and its coalition partners in Hughes County. The landowners there pointed out the potential problems to the state Agriculture Department, which in turn discussed that with Tyson.
The site would have been a 1,000 animal unit off-site nursery to be located no more than one-half mile from the South Canadian River. The location is close to nesting sites of Least Terns, an endangered species. It is no more than 30 miles from Lake Eufaula, a popular recreation area. Karl Rystad and other OK activists will continue to birddog Tyson, in case they find another location to pursue.
"If you want to build a big house in Bhutan, it's going to take a long time."
--Thinley Dorjee, a ranger in Bhutan where logging is strictly limited to sustainable levels, and where, by law, forest must cover no less than 60% of the country.
Contents
1) TAKE ACTION: Urge Support for the Lands Legacy Initiative!
2) ON THE HILL: Landmark Initiative Deserves Congressional Support
3) IN THE FIELD: Opposition to Land Sale Makes the Papers
TAKE ACTION:
Write your Representative and Senators and urge them to support the Lands Legacy Initiative in the upcoming appropriations process. Let them know that the President's initiative represents the overwhelming support among the American public for protecting our special wild places. The initiative can't miss with constituents, because this far-reaching proposal seeks to protect a broad range of our natural heritage from the most remote wildlands to the "small and sacred" green areas closer to home. For more information, read the story below.
THANK YOU!
Landmark Initiative Deserves Congressional Support
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Clinton reaffirmed the Administration's commitment to protecting our nation's natural treasures. The President told the nation that the recently proposed "Lands Legacy Initiative" is a top priority. Our next step is to ensure that this landmark initiative gets the support in Congress that it deserves!
The Lands Legacy Initiative will provide a tremendous boost to our Wildlands Campaign by recognizing the importance of protecting our most grand wild places. The proposal increases federal land acquisition funding to $442 million, and would provide for land acquisition in California's Mojave Desert, New England national forests and wildlife refuges, and the Florida Everglades, among others. In addition, it calls on Congress to grant permanent wilderness designation for over 5 million acres in some of our most valued national parks, refuges and monuments.
At the same time, the initiative stresses the need to preserve natural wonders in our very backyards, by providing $588 million to state and local governments, private lands trusts, and other non-profit groups for land acquisition, forest habitat protection, urban park restoration, and other open space and species protection initiatives. Finally, the initiative includes funds for federal and state efforts to protect valuable ocean and coastal resources.
The initiative includes a $900 million funding request for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, marking the first time an Administration has requested full funding for the LWCF. Moreover, the Initiative presents a commitment to seek legislation to take the LWCF "off-budget," virtually guaranteeing its full funding in the future!
The "Lands Legacy Initiative" will help ensure the protection of our natural treasures -- from neighborhood parks, to our national wildlands. Contact your Representative and Senators in congress to voice your support of this far-reaching proposal.
Opposition to Land Sale Makes the Papers
Kirk Koepsel in the Northern Plains field office reports that a press conference Monday (1/18) opposing the sale of North Dakota's state school lands -- especially tracts in the National Grasslands -- garnered good coverage.
The conference, held by The Teddy Roosevelt Group of the Sierra Club, North Dakota Chapter of the Wildlife Society, North Dakota Wildlife Federation, and the North Dakota Audubon Society, hit the front page of the Bismarck Tribune. Both local TV stations and three radio stations also showed up at the conference
EPEC organizer Wayde Schafer was quoted as saying "The Land Department and the Land Board say they have no intentions of selling land, so why have they devoted so much staff time and resources on the issue if they are not going to sell?"
In addition, the Bismarck Tribune published a letter to the editor by Teddy Roosevelt Group Chair Jan Swenson questioning the State Land Board's truthfulness on this issue.
Jan stated, "[t]he board...has repeatedly accused the Sierra Club of lying for even suggesting [the board is wanting to sell land], why is it holding eight hearings across the state to discuss it?"
Way to go in North Dakota!
"This company - a chronic and habitual polluter - has run out of time" - Ken Midkiff on Premium Standard Farms - one of the nation's top three hog producers.
Contents
1) TAKE ACTION: New Congress Will Renew Efforts on Environmental Bills
2.) VINDICATION by Ken Midkiff in the Ozark Chapter
TAKE ACTION
1.) New Congress Will Renew Efforts on Environmental Bills
During the last Congress Sierra Club put much effort into building support and generating cosponsors for a number of important environmental bills. As the new congress gets underway, our champions are planning to reintroduce these bills. We want to have the bills introduced with as many original cosponsors as possible.
We are hopeful that those who cosponsored the bills last session, and who are still in Congress will reup, but it never hurts to send a reminder. In addition, there are many newly elected members who need to hear from their constituents that these bills are good for the environment, and they should be encouraged to join our past champions as cosponsors.
A short list of key environmental bills follows. We anticipate these will be reintroduced this year, and once again be the subject of cosponsorship drives. PLEASE WRITE OR CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND URGE HIM OR HER TO SIGN ON TO THESE BILLS WHEN THEY ARE REINTRODUCED.
This is not a comprehensive list of bills that the Sierra Club will be supporting this year, but just a few key measures for which we want to line up early support. Check the SC-ACTION next week for a list of bills to talk to your Senators about.
*Defense of the Environment Act -- Waxman (D-CA) A bill to assess the damage done to the environment by any action Congress takes.
*Children's Environmental Protection and Right to Know Act -- Waxman (D-CA) and Saxton (R-NJ) A bill that requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish thresholds for toxic chemicals which may present significant risks to children's health or the environment, and Expands information to be included in toxic chemical release forms, including the number of employees and occupational exposures at reporting facilities as well as materials accounting information
*Morris K. Udall Wilderness Act -- Vento (D-MN) A bill to permanently protect the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as wilderness.
*Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act -- Shays (R-CT) and Maloney (D-NY) A bill to provide comprehensive ecosystem protection for wild lands in the Rocky Mountains.
*America's Redrock Wilderness Act -- Hinchey (D-NY) A bill to protect Utah's Red Rock wilderness.
*Sequoia Ecosystem and Recreation Preserve Act -- Brown (D-CA) A bill to establish a National Forest Preserve in California's Sequoia National Forest to protect and preserve remaining Giant Sequoia ecosystems and to provide increased recreational opportunities in connection with such ecosystems.
*Endangered Species Recovery Act -- Miller (D-CA) A bill to ensure that our nation's unique natural heritage of fish, wildlife, and plants is protected for future generations.
*National Forest Protection and Restoration Act -- Leach (R-IA) and McKinney (D-GA) A bill that would end commercial logging on our National Forests and public lands and protect many of America's last wild and pristine forests for future generations to enjoy.
2.) VINDICATION by Ken Midkiff, Ozark Chapter
Today, Attorney General Jay Nixon announced that his office was filing a suit to, among other things, seek fines of up to $10,000 per day against PSF and to order the company to "stop breeding hogs" until compliance with state and federal clean water laws is attained.
The AGO's press release was assertive and eloquent:
"PSF has failed in its obligation to obey the law, to not despoil the environment, and to be a good neighbor to those Missourians whose families have been farming this land for generations," Nixon said. "The violations have been numerous, they have been ongoing, and, in some cases, they have been unreported. PSF has stymied our efforts to reach a resolution without filing suit. We are now asking the courts to stop those violations and assess penalties."
The press release listed specific violations cited in the lawsuit. Many of those are ones that we highlighted in our recent complaints based on the video.
Our follow-up press release is below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 19, 1999 - 1:30 PM SIERRA CLUB APPLAUDS AG'S SUIT AGAINST PREMIUM STANDARD FARMS.
"This company - a chronic and habitual polluter - has run out of time" - Ken Midkiff
The Missouri Sierra Club responded enthusiastically to an announcement by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon that his office had filed an encompassing law suit on Premium Standard Farms - one of the nation's top three hog producers.
The company has been cited many times for violations of state and federal environmental laws: fish kills from spills of hog manure and urine, overapplication of hog wastes onto neighboring lands that ran into streams and adjacent landowers' properties, and poorly and erroneously constructed piping systems that broke, leaked and discharged untreated hog sewage. In addition, neighboring farm families had been subjected daily to the face-slapping reek of hundreds of thousands of hogs.
The Sierra Club gave copies of videos taped at PSF's facilities to the Attorney General and the Department of Natural Resources to document the ongoing problems at the confinement facilities and associated cess pools. Evidence of overtopped cess pits, the apparent leakage of these into the groundwater, recent usage of emergency containment structures and pipes discharging wastes away from the cesspools were shown in the tapes, among other concerns. In addition, a study of PSF files showed bacteriological contamination of the company's freshwater lakes used for employee showering and for hog watering.
"We are pleased and gratified that the AG has taken this action. Our patience with this polluting industry was exhausted some time ago. When it was demonstrated to the AG that PSF was not making any real effort to clean up its act and in fact was polluting almost daily, Attorney General Nixon apparently decided that 'enough is enough'" said Midkiff. "This company has attempted to intimidate us into silence - that didn't work."
"We applaud Jay Nixon for his strong and assertive role in attempting to bring this polluting company into compliance with state and federal laws." concluded Midkiff.
Congratulations to Ken and the Ozark Chapter!
"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt defined our "great, central task" as "leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." --President Clinton during last night's State of the Union Speech
Contents
1) RE-ACTION: To President Clinton's initiatives.
2) TAKE-ACTION: Comment on the unique partnership in the Tallgrass Prairie.
3) LEO-ACTION: Every little bit helps.
REACTION: STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS PROPOSES BOLD ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director:
"The Sierra Club applauds President Clinton's State of the Union Address and his leadership in making environmental protection a priority. The President's proposals represent a strong investment in our children's heritage -- America's special wild places -- and an increased commitment to clean air, clean water, protecting forests, farmland, and open space and fighting global warming.
"The proposals work to combat urban sprawl -- now the fastest growing threat to our environment. They increase protection of America's special places from the Mojave Desert and the Lewis and Clark territory in the West, to the Maine Woods and the Everglades in the East. In addition, the President proposed the creation of a clean air fund that will help communities reduce global warming and air pollution, and tax incentives to encourage companies to produce less polluting vehicles, homes, and buildings.
"President Clinton has taken a step forward and shown that he is listening to the 80 percent of Americans who define themselves as environmentalists. Now, we ask Congress to embrace the Administration's goals and the people's wishes. They must implement these proposals and fulfill their promise to Americans to protect our environment -- for our families, for our future."
LET'S GET READY TO COMMENT!!!
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was created in 1996 under a unique public/private partnership between the National Park Service and the National Park Trust. The partnership allows for more land to be protected with no additional cost to taxpayers. The NPT purchased the 10,894 acre remnant of the Tallgrass prairie in 1994 for future management as a unit of the National Park System.
This once vast Tallgrass Prairie is being preserved as a critical resource for the enjoyment and benefit of everyone. Only a small portion of the Preserve will be owned by the federal government with the NPT owning the vast majority--almost 11,000 acres!!
The National Park Service is continuing to work on the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve General Monument Plan. At this stage of the planning process, the team has developed a draft preferred alternative for the future management of the preserve. Open houses have been scheduled to allow for us to hear about this alternative and to share ideas with the planning team.
It is important that we the public make our views heard on this unique partnership. Once completed, the general management plan will provide a vision for the future of the Preserve as well as a practical framework for the future. The plan will describe the general direction the Park Service will follow in managing the preserve. Here are the dates, times, and places.
Monday, February 8, 1999 Tuesday, February 9,1999 5:00-7:30 5:00-7:30 Chase County Middle School Council Grove Christian Church 5th& Chase Streets 106 E. Main St. Strong City, Kansas Council Grove, Kansas Wednesday, February 10,1999 Thursday, February 11, 1999 6:00-8:30 5:00-7:30 Great Plains Nature Center Topeka High School 6232 E. 29th Street North 800 SW 10th Wichita, Kansas Topeka, Kansas Friday, February 12, 1999 6:00-8:30 Holiday Inn 200 McDonald Dr. Lawrence, Kansas
LEO LENDS A HAND (OR AN EYE):
Leonardo DiCaprio vowed Monday that he would not allow his new movie "The Beach" to do any damage to the remote Thai Island were it is being filmed. In a statement aimed at quelling environmental protests Leonardo said, "I have seen extraordinary measures being taken to protect the island, and I pledge to remain vigilant and tolerate nothing less than these maximum efforts"
Local authorities and villagers oppose the filming, alleging that pre-production work on the movie, which entailed the removal of some native plants and the planting of non-native coconut trees, has damaged Maya Beach on Phi Phi Le island, a Thai national park. With Leo there I feel confident that no harm will be done, don't you?
NEXT PAGE -->
|