- The Army Corps of Engineers' dumping of toxic sludge
into the Potomac River protects fish by forcing them to flee the polluted
area and escape fishermen, according to an internal Environmental Protection
Agency document.
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- The document says it is not a "ridiculous possibility"
that a discharge "actually protects the fish in that they are not
inclined to bite (and get eaten by humans) but they go ahead with their
upstream movement and egg laying."
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- The House Resources Committee will hold a hearing today
on the sludge dumping, first reported by The Washington Times, calling
in top Cabinet officials to explain why they allow it.
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- "To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because
it prevents them from being caught by man is like suggesting that we club
baby seals to death to prevent them from being eaten by sharks. It's ludicrous,"
said Rep. George P. Radanovich, California Republican and chairman of the
subcommittee on national parks, recreation and public lands.
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- "This is one of the most frightening examples of
bureaucratic ineptitude and backward logic I have ever seen," Mr.
Radanovich said.
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- A spokesman for the EPA was not available to comment
on the document, which was included in the administrative record. The federal
agency used that information to allow the dumpings through the C&O
Canal National Park and into the Potomac, a designated American Heritage
river.
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- The Corps began the discharges in 1989 under a permit
issued by the EPA, but the permit expired in 1993. The Corps was allowed
to continue dumping under the expired permit until this year. A new permit
was issued in March.
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- The National Wilderness Institute is suing the EPA to
stop the discharges, which they say violate the Endangered Species Act.
The EPA shared the document with the National Wilderness Institute as part
of the court process. The author is not named.
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- The document instructs officials to focus less on the
concerns of fishermen who say the sludge dumping is killing fish and more
on the ability of the fish to complete their spawn without interference
from the discharges.
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- The Corps dumps 200,000 tons of "toxic sludge"
into the river every year in violation of the Clean Water Act and Endangered
Species Act, according to the House committee.
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- William Colley, a retired environmental engineer who
worked for the EPA for 29 years, said he was removed from leading the new
permit process in 1999 after advocating eliminating the discharges.
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- "I had written the permit, public notice, draft
fact sheet and had everything ready for the permit to be issued, and the
effluent limits I developed for the permit were such they would have had
to terminate the discharges," Mr. Colley told The Washington Times
yesterday.
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- Mr. Colley took over the permit process in 1997 and said
his predecessor also believed that the discharges should be stopped.
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- Mr. Colley said he made it clear "the discharges
are illegal and violate the Clean Water Act and EPA regulations."
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- Mr. Radanovich yesterday sent a letter to the White House
asking the administration to clean up the "environmental disaster"
inherited from its predecessors.
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- "Some of the same EPA officials who decided not
to forbid the dumping are still committed to giving special treatment to
this plant. Their intransigence now threatens to link your administration
to the indefensible notion that Washington, D.C., should be exempt from
the environmental laws that are enforced throughout the country,"
Mr. Radanovich said in the letter.
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- http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020619-13558.htm
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