Poison Spring
Page 31
7 Dodd letter to Clay, June 29, 1983.
8 See U.S. EPA, “Regional Environmental Management Reports,” 1983.
9 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Migratory Bird Management, Pesticides and Birds, March 2000.
10 Rebecca Clarren, “Pesticide Drift,” Orion Magazine, July/August 2008.
11 Lynne Peeples, “Pesticide Drift, Sick Rural Residents Force Face-Off with Big Agriculture,” Huffington Post, July 23, 2012.
12 Brad Balukjian, “Pesticides found in frogs far from crops,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2013.
13 Anne C. Mulkern, “Pesticide Industry Ramps Up Lobbying in Bid to Pare EPA Rules,” New York Times, February 24, 2011.
14 PEER press release, “NJ DEP Employees Say Whitman Administration Soft on Polluters,” December 22, 2000.
15 Schaeffer resignation letter, February 27, 2002.
16 Although federal and Supreme Court judges leaned on the EPA to enforce the law—especially the 1970 Clean Air Act—Bush’s EPA remained firmly in the grip of the energy industry. Judges ordered the EPA to require factories under renovation to upgrade pollution control technologies and (in the case of coal-fired power plants) to reduce their emissions of mercury, a brain poison. The Supreme Court even ordered EPA to start regulating greenhouse gases from cars. See Schaeffer’s article, “Clearing the Air,” in the July/August 2002 issue of the Washington Monthly.
17 See note from Lyons Gray, EPA Chief Financial Officer, to his senior colleagues, June 8, 2006. Bush pulled similar tricks at the U.S. Forest Service, weakening or eliminating the government’s protection of forests and easing restrictions on the timber industry.
18 Brian Litmans and Jeff Miller, “Silent Spring Revisited” (Center for Biological Diversity, San Francisco, 2004), 58–60.
19 Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan, “Silent Spring for Bay Area Raptors?” San Francisco Chronicle, May 11, 2012.
Chapter 13: The Obama Administration: Yes, We Can?
1 Dina Cappiello, “EPA Tells Nation’s Dirty Power Plants to Clean Up,” Associated Press, December 21, 2011.
2 See letter, “Dear President-Elect Obama and Members of the Transition Team,” signed by 102 organizations, dated January 9, 2009.
3 Bill Moyers and Company, “Crony Capitalism,” January 20, 2012, PBS.
4 Friends of the Earth Newsmagazine, Fall 2009, p. 2.
5 See CBS News, “Critics Slam Obama for ‘Protecting’ Monsanto,” March 28, 2013, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57576835/critics-slam-obama-for-protecting-monsanto/.
6 “Wikileaks Cables,” Democracy Now! December 23, 2010.
7 In the Supreme Court of the United States, Monsanto Company et al., Petitioners, v. Geertson Seed Farms et al. On Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Brief for the Federal Respondents Supporting Petitioners, Elena Kagan, Solicitor Genera, March 2010. See also “Elena Kagan: Toward a Pro-GM Supreme Court?” The Atlantic, May 12, 2010.
8 Michael Antoniou et al., “Roundup and Birth Defects: Is the Public Being Kept in the Dark?” Earth Open Source, June 2011; Carey Gillam, “Roundup Herbicide Research Shows Plant, Soil Problems,” Reuters, August 12, 2011.
9 Carol Glatz, “GM Crops Breed Economic Dependence, a New Form of Slavery,” Catholic News Service, January 5, 2012.
10 May 2, 2011, letter to Huber from Gregory Parham, Administrator of APHIS, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
11 http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ENmc9kHnvbo.
12 Huber met with Parham in the summer of 2011. Parham promised he might fund research proposals from Huber.
13 Don Huber letter, July 31, 2011.
14 Don M. Huber, “The effects of glyphosate (Roundup) on soils, crops and consumers” (presentation to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology, House of Commons, UK, November 1, 2011).
15 Huber email to the author, August 2, 2012.
16 Carolyn Lochhead, “Genetically Modified Crops’ Results Raise Concern,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 2012.
17 Ian Macleod, “ ‘Big Farma’ Companies Seek Federal Approval of 2,4-D-resistant corn, soybean seeds,” Ottawa Citizen, May 12, 2012.
18 Michael Antoniou, Claire Robinson, and John Fagan, “Genetically-Modified Organisms, Myths and Truths: An Evidence-Based Examination of the Claims Made for Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Crops,” Earth Open Source, June 2012. See also Charles M. Benbrook, “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the U.S.—the First Sixteen Years,” Environmental Sciences Europe, September 28, 2012.
19 Center for Biological Diversity, “Lawsuit Initiated to Protect Hundreds of Endangered Species from Pesticide Impacts,” January 28, 2010; Center for Biological Diversity, “Notice of Violation of the Endangered Species Act Related to the Registration of Pesticides,” January 27, 2010.
20 Peter Galvin et al., “Ensure Pesticide Evaluations Protect Endangered Wildlife and Human Health,” Letter to Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, Washington, DC, early 2011.
21 Center for Biological Diversity, “Landmark Lawsuit Filed to Protect Hundreds of Rare Species from Pesticides,” January 20, 2011. See http://www.biologicaldiver sity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/Jan_?27_?2010_?ESA_?NOI_?CBD.pdf.
22 In the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America, Plaintiffs, v. Environmental Protection Agency and Lisa Jackson, Administrator, U.S. EPA, Defendants, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, January 19, 2011.
23 The former commissioner of environmental protection in New Jersey, Jackson was “not a viable candidate for redeeming a battered, politicized EPA,” Jeff Ruch, director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, wrote to Obama. Jackson embraced “a highly politicized approach to environmental decision-making that resulted in suppression of scientific information, issuance of gag orders restricting disclosures and threats against professional staff members who dared to voice concerns.” See Ruch letter to Obama, December 5, 2008.
24 In the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America, Plaintiffs, v. Environmental Protection Agency and Lisa Jackson, Administrator, U.S. EPA, Defendants, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, January 19, 2011.
25 Peter Galvin et al., “Ensure Pesticide Evaluations Protect Endangered Wildlife and Human Health,” letter to Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, Washington, DC, early 2011.
26 Kieran Suckling, “Help Stop Dangerous Pesticides from Killing Wildlife” (Center for Biological Diversity, September 27, 2011). Sadly, it wasn’t just Obama’s EPA ignoring endangered species. In fact, in January 2012, the Fish and Wildlife Service solicited comments on whether or not it should sharply limit the number of threatened animals and plants receiving any government protection under the Endangered Species Act. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, such a proposal “ignores entire populations of imperiled species.” Center for Biological Diversity, January 23, 2012.
27 Lisa P. Jackson, “Too Dirty to Fail?” Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2011.
28 Environmental Integrity Project press release: “Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Texas are top states in terms of toxic power plant air pollution,” Washington, DC, December 7, 2011.
29 Associated Press, “House approves bill to delay, scrap EPA rules,” Washington, DC, September 24, 2011.
30 John M. Broder, “Re-election Strategy Is Tied to a Shift on Smog,” New York Times, November 16, 2011.
31 Editorial in New York Times, May 27, 2012. Obama was elected with the Senate under Democratic control. Yet his indecisiveness, and his apparent ignorance about the country’s environmental challenges, compromised the few promises he made to control the corporate abuse of public health and the natural world. It’s not as if the environment
was somewhere outside the public’s gaze during his tenure: in 2010, BP poisoned the Gulf of Mexico, and a year later, Japan experienced the catastrophic Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown. Suzanne Goldenberg, “Obama Administration Criticized over Failure to Disclose Coal Dump Locations,” The Guardian, June 18, 2009.
32 “Poisoned Places,” Center for Public Integrity, November 7, 2011.
33 Mark Guarino, “New EPA Guidelines on Soot,” Christian Science Monitor, June 15, 2012.
34 Saundra Young, “Dirty 30 Want EPA Air Pollution Rule Repealed,” WTNH.com, June 14, 2012.
35 Mark Guarino, “New EPA guidelines on soot,” Christian Science Monitor, June 15, 2012.
Conclusion: Better Living and a Healthier Natural World Through Small Family Farms
1 Jerome A. Paulson et al., “Policy Statement Chemical-Management Policy: Prioritizing Children’s Health,” Pediatrics, April 25, 2011, 983–90.
2 Bob Herbert, New York Times (October 5, 2006).
3 Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation vs. United States Environmental Protection Agency, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 00-10381, EPA No. 65-02889, December 21, 2001.
4 Kate Sheppard, “For Pennsylvania’s Doctors, a Gag Order on Fracking Chemicals,” Mother Jones, March 13, 2012.
5 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, “Evaluation of Impacts to Underground Sources of Drinking Water by Hydraulic Fracturing of Coalbed Methane Reservoirs” (Final, June 2004), ES-1.
6 Weston Wilson, “EPA Allows Hazardous Fluids to Be Injected into Ground Water: A report on EPA’s failure to protect America’s ground water from the impacts of oil and gas production” (October 8, 2004).
7 Josh Fox et al., “Affirming Gasland.” See http://one.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/affirming-gasland.
8 Written testimony of Theo Colborn before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hearing on The Applicability of Federal Requirements to Protect Public Health and the Environment from Oil and Gas Development, October 31, 2007.
9 Ian Urbina, “Pressure Stifles Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas,” New York Times, March 4, 2011, A1, A14.
10 Fox et al., “Affirming Gasland,” 7, 9.
11 See Ian Urbina, “Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas,” New York Times, March 3, 2011. See also Abrahm Lustgarten, “Feds Link Water Contamination to Fracking for the First Time,” ProPublica, December 8, 2011.
12 Abrahm Lustgarten, “Buried Secrets: Is Natural Gas Drilling Endangering U.S. Water Supplies?’’ ProPublica, November 13, 2008.
13 Fox et al., “Affirming Gasland,” 6. See also Ian Urbina, “Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas,” New York Times, March 3, 2011.
14 “Obama’s Support for Natural Gas Drilling ‘A Painful Moment’ for Communities Exposed to Fracking,” Democracy Now! February 2, 2012.
15 John M. Broder, “New Proposal on Fracking Gives Ground to Industry,” New York Times, May 4, 2012.
16 Sharon Hart, “An Approach to Solving Onion Production Problems in an Energy and Chemical Limited Future” (Department of Resource Development and Entomology, Michigan State University, February 1980). The report of Sharon Hart was part of an EPA-funded project at Michigan State University: “An Economic Analysis of an Agroecosystem for Pest Control,’’ May 1980. EPA Grant R806065020. Principal Investigators: Thomas C. Edens and Dean L. Haynes.
17 Don Paarlberg, “The Land Grant Colleges and the Structure Issue,” in A Time to Choose: Summary Report on the Structure of Agriculture (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, January 1981), p. 129.
18 Memo from David Menotti to Jodie Bernstein, September 23, 1977.
A Note on the Authors
E. G. Vallianatos is the author of five books, including Harvest of Devastation and This Land Is Their Land, as well as more than two hundred articles, including recent pieces in Alternet.org and Truth-Out.org. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post. Vallianatos worked in risk evaluation at the EPA for twenty-five years and now lives in Claremont, California.
His coauthor, McKay Jenkins, has been writing about humans and the natural world for just as long. His most recent book, What’s Gotten Into Us: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World, was hailed as “a Silent Spring for the human body” by Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone. Jenkins is the Cornelius Tilghman Professor of English, Journalism, and Environmental Humanities at the University of Delaware, where he has won the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Copyright © 2014 by E. G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins
Published by Bloomsbury Press, New York
Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise
make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
(including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying,
printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. For information,
write to Bloomsbury Press, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York, 10018.
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Vallianatos, E. G.
Poison spring : the secret history of pollution and the EPA /
by E. G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins.— 1st U.S. edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN 978-1-60819-925-9
1. Pollution—Research—United States. 2. United States. Environmental Protection Agency.
3. Corporate power—United States. 4. Environmental responsibility—United States.
I. Jenkins, McKay, 1963– II. Title.
TD170.93.V35 2013
363.730973—dc23
2013041923
First U.S. Edition 2014
This electronic edition published in April 2014
Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books
You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can sign up for
newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.