White House Sewage- Pollution Plan Withdrawn

CLEAN WATER—Scenes like this would have become more common under a recently defeated Bush administration proposal to allow inadequately treated sewage to be dumped into the nation’s waters after heavy rains.

[Ed. note: At press time, after massive public outcry from citizens in Florida and much of the country, the Bush administration has withdrawn its sewage dumping plan in Florida’s waterways.]

The Bush administration is proposing a new, industry-friendly plan that would threaten the safety of the nation’s water supplies and pose health risks to the public.

Under the plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would allow water treatment plants to dump inadequately treated sewage into our waters when it rains.

“EPA’s proposed policy has serious implications,” says PIRG Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt. “More of the bacteria, viruses and parasites in sewage would end up in our drinking water and the waterways we use for fishing, boating and swimming.”

This policy would roll back 30 years of progress by allowing sewage treatment plants to skip the important step in the treatment process that removes many of the pathogens in the water.

The PIRGs are working with a coalition of environmental groups to convince the Bush administration to increase funding for wastewater systems improvements.

Recent Accidents Highlight Chemical Security Lapse

On January 6, a train crash in Graniteville, South Carolina, left eight dead and more than 200 injured, after some of the train cars containing chlorine gas ruptured, releasing a cloud that blanketed the town. The entire town was required to evacuate, hundreds had to be decontaminated, and the governor declared a state of emergency.

The incident was followed in the headlines three months later, when a Texas BP oil refi nery explosion killed 15 workers.

More than 100 chemical facilities in the U.S. each put at least 1 million Americans at risk of injury or death in the event of an accidental release of a toxic chemical.

Reports by the Homeland Security Department, Justice Department, General Accounting Office, U.S. Army’s Surgeon General, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Control and others reveal that chemical plants are attractive terrorist targets, that their physical security is ineffective, that they can be made safer, and that voluntary efforts by the industry are insufficient.

The PIRGs will work with Sen. Jon Corzine (N.J.) to advance legislation requiring chemical facilities to use safer chemicals and processes wherever it is possible to do so.

Toys On PIRG Dangerous Toy List Recalled by CPSC

Two toys identifi ed as unsafe in the state PIRGs’ November 2004 “Trouble in Toyland” report have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Although CPSC regulations prohibit marketing toys containing small parts to children under three, PIRG identifi ed several toys with dangerously small parts.

In January 2005, CPSC and Kids Station, Inc., announced the voluntary recall of 10,500 toy drum sets, called the Fun Years Music Big Drum Musical Set, sold exclusively at Toys-R-Us stores. The toy was recalled because it contained small parts that could “break off during use, posing a choking hazard to young children.”

The following month, CPSC announced the voluntary recall of another toy identifi ed in the PIRG report, the Toy Tunes Light & Sound Musical Toy. CPSC again agreed with PIRG’s concerns, stating that the “ball on the end of the drumstick sold with these toys can break off during use, posing a choking hazard to young children.”

In the last 19 years, the CPSC and manufacturers have taken more than 120 safety actions as the result of our reports.

Anti-Consumer Class Action Bill Passes

In February, the president signed the so-called Class Action Fairness Act into law.

Class action lawsuits involve groups of victims pooling their resources to challenge corporate wrongdoing.

“While the bill was presented as merely a procedural change moving many larger class action lawsuits from state courts into federal courts, it includes a catch- 22 that will keep the federal courts from hearing many of the cases,” explains National Consumer Advocate Ed Mierzwinski.

The PIRGs supported an amendment by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) to erase the catch-22, which, unfortunately, was defeated on the Senate floor 38-61, leaving victims of predatory lending practices, environmental contamination, or unsafe products locked out of the courthouse.