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January 12, 2000
"Some of those proposals include building golf courses, resort hotels, office and industrial parks and an aquarium. There has also been a proposal to build a spaceport, where space planes could launch and land if they are ever invented." -- From an AP story on the future of Homestead Air Force base in FL
1) U.S. EPA CALLS FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN GREAT LAKES WATER QUALITY INITIATIVE
2) MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT VICTORY
3) BIRD-DOGGING SENATOR BURNS
1) U.S. EPA CALLS FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN GREAT LAKES WATER QUALITY INITIATIVE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently called on the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to make 14 changes to the pollution-reduction plan the state agency submitted in 1998. The changes will permit the use of more sophisticated chemical tests and will close a loophole that has allowed unmonitored discharge of toxic chemicals.
The changes called for would require every industry discharging waste into Lake Michigan to monitor and control all toxins contained in the waste.
In 1986, the eight states bordering the Great Lakes began negotiating the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative, which called for the states to adopt consistent and stricter water pollution rules by 1994 so that no one state would try to become a polluters' haven at the economic and environmental expense of the other states bordering the same lake. The plan also focused on reducing the discharges of the toxic pollutants that posed the greatest threats to human health and wildlife.
Implementation of the plan has been delayed since the mid-1990s when opposition to environment regulations became popular in Congress. Seven of the states' governors resisted the guidelines proposed by the U.S. EPA.
Thanks to growing popular support for cleaning the environment, the anti-environmental tide has reversed. The changes called for by U.S. EPA for Illinois' plan is a sign that the remaining conflicts about the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative may be resolved within a couple months.
2) MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT VICTORY
On Friday, December 3, 1999, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a decision to send the Cook hog facility permit back to the Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board. The decision led to an agreement that the Cook facility would request an air quality permit within 10 days.
In 1997, the Oktibbeha County Chancery Court ruled that the MDEQ acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in issuing Cook's 7,000 head hog facility a permit for waste water without an air permit. The action effectively grants the relief sought by Everett Kennard, a private citizen who lives near the hog facility, that Cook must have an air permit including odor restrictions.
It is now up to the Permit Board to do what it should have done two years ago. If it again fails in its responsibility, the right to appeal back to the chancery court is preserved.
LOUIE MILLER, MS Chapter staffer, believes this action reflects for the first time the recognition by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as well as the commercial hog industry in Mississippi that the air emissions from these facilities will have to be regulated just as any other industrial air polluter. The decision makes it likely that, from now on, every new significant and existing commercial hog growing facility will be required to have an air permit as a condition of operation in this state.
This result would not have come about without our perseverance in the face of overwhelming political and economic odds. It is a classic example of what individual citizens can do when they are united and committed.
While this is a significant milestone in this battle, it is by no means over. It is now incumbent on us to monitor what DEQ produces by way of air regulations governing these facilities and be prepared to offer evidence in support of the need for strict regulations at the appropriate time before the appropriate body.
The Sierra Club and the citizens of Mississippi owe a huge debt of gratitude to Danny Cupit and his firm for the outstanding legal representation they provided in this case. Without their expertise and representation Mississippi would have easily become another North Carolina disaster story.
3) BIRD-DOGGING SENATOR BURNS
On Thursday, January 6, in Billings, MT, Sierra Club launched our voter education campaign early by bird-dogging Senator Conrad Burns at a panel discussion during an agricultural conference. The panel included the BLM, Forest Service, a MT rancher, the MT Extension Service and Sierra Club's very own Louisa Willcox.
The day before the panel, we learned Senator Conrad Burns was attending to talk about Clinton's wild forest initiative and predator control in MT, including bears and wolves. In spite of this last minute news, Mary Wiper and Christine Phillips generated forty dedicated local conservationists to attend the discussion on Montana's wildlands. The other half of the audience contained Montana ranchers and farmers.
Conservation questions dominated the Q&A session, which was extended by an hour and half to fit in the numerous inquiries.
A particular highlight was when Louisa Willcox pointed out that unroaded areas were good for farmers and ranchers since they curtailed the spread of noxious weeds. The BLM and Forest Service backed her up and the positive response from the audience left Conrad Burns noticeably silent and contemplative and eventually nodding in agreement.
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