Thursday, 06 Feb 2003

Salem Switch Trials

Massachusetts is sticking to its guns on clean air, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) announced this morning. The state refused to extend a deadline for heavily polluting power plants to reduce their emissions, meaning they'll have to clean up their acts by 2004. In 2001, then-acting Gov. Jane Swift (R) imposed the deadline on the state's so-called Filthy Five power plants, ordering them to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide by 50 percent. Since then, the owner of one plant, Salem Harbor, has pressured the state to delay the requirement, and the state Department of Environmental Protection seemed ready to concede. But in a surprise development that is cheering environmental and health advocates, Romney stuck to the earlier deadline. He blamed Salem Harbor for 53 premature deaths, 570 emergency room visits, and 14,400 asthma attacks each year.

Military Might What?

After failing last year to wrest from Congress a wholesale exemption from many environmental laws, the Pentagon is trying to rally public support for its campaign this year. The Defense Department says that laws such as the Endangered Species Act have interfered with training and other programs in the past. It's a hassle to have to worry about the well-being of critters and ecosystems, the argument goes. At an environmental forum yesterday at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., John Keane, a top Army official, said it was hard to proceed with adequate training exercises on military bases because the "Army hosts 170 federally endangered species on 94 installations." Greenies contend that enviro laws aren't preventing the military from meeting its goals; they would prefer that the Pentagon seek exemptions on a case-by-case basis, not through a blanket exception. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) seems to agree: "Using the threat of 9/11 and Al Qaeda to get unprecedented environmental immunity is despicable."

Invasion of the Habitat Snatchers

Invasive species are wreaking havoc on African wetlands to the tune of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). For example, the water hyacinth, introduced from the Amazon Basin as an ornamental plant, has spread to most of Africa's lakes and rivers, choking out other flora and fauna, making fishing impossible, and restricting water supplies. Similarly, the IUCN says, the nonnative Nile perch has driven more than 200 native fish to extinction. Meanwhile, across the world, the Union of Concerned Scientists says that 122 harmful invasive species -- some of them from Africa -- have set upon Texas, threatening native species and agricultural lands.

No Credence to Clearwater Revival

Stormwater runoff flowing into restored Seattle-area creeks and rivers appears to be killing salmon, according to a groundbreaking study by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. Eighty-eight percent of coho salmon studied last fall died within hours of swimming into a stream that was being inundated by runoff. Rainwater pours off streets, roofs, and parking lots into the waterways, carrying with it oil, grease, pesticides, and loads of other pollutants. The study suggests that federal efforts to protect salmon and return higher numbers of them to rivers and creeks in the Puget Sound region will face even more challenges than initially anticipated.