Sierra Club Bucks County Group
Meetings at Churchville Nature CenterEvery 2nd Thursday - 7 PM to 9 PM
Directions: ChurchvilleNatureCenter.org
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CommentaryPlease Note: In keeping with Sierra Club policy, this website does not endorse candidates for Sierra Club office on the Group, Chapter, or National level. This website is a forum for policy discussion and debate among those truly concerned with protection of the environment. Opinions expressed herein are those of their authors and may or may not reflect Sierra Club policy.What EPA does not want you to know! Visualize the following: a man standing on the banks of a river with in one hand a glass of city drinking water and in the other a glass of beer. EPA's water pollution regulations, will not allow him to throw the drinking water into the river, but would allow him to throw in half the beer. He also could drink both glasses, wait and be allowed to urinate into the river. If this makes sense to you, you can ignore the following. The Interstate Highway Program was the largest federal public works program, but if, instead of building four-lane highways, the government had built one-lane highways, the public would have been outraged. This is exactly what happened with the second largest federal public works program, the Clean Water Act of 1972. The Act promised to eliminate all water pollution by 1985, but EPA only required part of fecal waste to be treated and did not require treatment of urine and protein waste. This, while this waste not only exerts an oxygen demand, as fecal waste does, it also represents a nutrient and stimulates algae growth, directly responsible for eutrophication of our waterways, i.e. the 8000 square miles 'dead zone' in the Golf of Mexico. Where is the outrage? Some, who already have made up their minds that government cannot do anything right, will shrug their shoulders, while others will claim this issue 'too technical'. Since the food chain in our biospheres is an essential part of life, it could be a challenge for the media to educate the public so that individuals can become more involved on a factual rather than emotional basis in environmental issues and thus become better guardians of our environment for future generations. Although there are many technical papers raising red flags regarding the impacts of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment of our biosphere, i.e. 'dead zones', destruction of coral reefs, global warming, the planet's biodiversity and even the wild fires, the media has mostly ignored them. If you like to know more, why 'nutrient enrichment' has been and still is ignored, click your 'reply' button and I will sent you an article not only explaining the problems, but also what has caused these problems. pmaier@erda.net Sincerely, Peter Maier, PhD, PE Stansbury, UT pmaier@erda.net Up to Top |