Wednesday, 05 Dec 2001

The Dredge Great-Scott Decision

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said yesterday that her agency would order General Electric to spend almost $500 million to dredge PCBs from the upper Hudson River. In doing so, Whitman disregarded a multi-million-dollar P.R. campaign by the giant company claiming that dredging would not improve the river's health. Enviros, who had feared that closed-door meetings between the EPA and GE would result in a scaled-back cleanup plan, said the announcement was a big-time victory.

Once More Out of the Breach

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week that it would recommend against breaching four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state to help restore salmon populations. The agency's stance on salmon restoration, which is shared by the White House, is that it would be less disruptive to communities in eastern Washington and more cost-effective to modify the dams in smaller ways, such as improving fish ladders. Farmers, barge operators, and some recreational users of dam reservoirs also oppose the idea of breaching the dams. But environmentalists say breaching the dams would be the cheapest and most effective way to help endangered salmon populations.

Cod Peace

Concerned that some fish populations are bottoming out, the European Commission has proposed deep new cuts in fishing quotas. For example, cod catches in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden would be reduced by 60 percent; haddock catches in the Irish Sea by 52 percent; and sole in the North Sea by 25 percent. Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler said some fish species would disappear unless the dramatic cuts were approved. Meanwhile, about 400 government officials and environmentalists have been meeting in Paris this week to draft recommendations to protect the world's oceans, in preparation for next year's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Now We're Cookin'

A British supermarket chain said today that it would begin fueling its delivery trucks with chicken waste and used cooking oils. The Asda chain, which includes 258 stores in the U.K and is a part of the Wal-Mart company, generates about 36,500 gallons per year of chicken waste and cooking fat that currently winds up in landfills. But starting in April, the gunk will be transformed into biodiesel to power the company's trucks. For fact-happy readers: According to Asda, the U.K. produces as much as 23 million gallons per year of used cooking oil.

Tree? No Thanks, I'm Trying to Cut Back

Indonesia said this week that it would tighten its forestry laws to rein in illegal logging. Under the new rules, companies will lose their licenses to log in 2003 unless they can prove they are managing forests sustainably. Enviros cheered the change, though it remains to be seen just how the theory will translate into practice. This week's move follows a policy shift in October, when the government banned some log exports to help slow the pace of logging in the country's tropical rainforests. The World Bank estimates that Indonesia lost about 3.7 million acres of forest per year from 1985 to 1997; by 2000, the country's forests had been reduced to 49 million acres, down from 106 million pre-1985.