October
1996
Clinton's
Environmental Record
By Paul Clarke
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On Earth Day 1996,
Bill Clinton and Al Gore took the opportunity to paint themselves
green by participating in a river clean-up/photo op in Virginia.
At the same time they were sweating for the cameras, activists
from Greenpeace were cruising the Anacostia River in inflatable
boats to draw public attention to a newly-discovered source
of massive PCB contamination on this river: the United States
Navy. This kind of high-level contamination is occurring in
the governments back yard, while the Clinton administration
has focused more on environmental image than environmental
policy.
Clinton's Earth Day reliance on style over substance should
not be surprising, given his administrations record on several major issues
regarding the publics exposure to toxic chemicals. What is alarming
is that these same issues have been pushed to the side in the months
approaching the election, and Clinton is not being held accountable
for his caving in direct response to pressure from the pollution lobby.
Consider these examples of what the Clinton Administration did, or
is proposing to do:
Reversed a 17-year ban on importing PCBs, solely to
benefit the overbuilt U.S. incineration industry to the tune
of $50 to $150 million a year. Because PCBs are such a dangerous
class of chlorine-based chemicals which have been tied to
many adverse health effects in humans and animals, Congress
passed the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) in 1974. This
Act banned the manufacture and import of PCBs and outlined
steps for a PCB phaseout from U.S. industries. Pressure from
citizens groups for toxics-use reduction and pollution prevention
has worked so well that many of the dirty burners of hazardous
waste are now short on toxic materials to burn. However,
lobbyists for the incinerators recently convinced President
Clinton that lifting the ban on PCB imports and incineration
would be good for their business. This is a nasty form of
corporate welfare for an extremely toxic industry.
Is proposing to gut regulations on the ocean dumping
of 450 million tons of harbor-dredged sediments contaminated
with dioxin, PCBs and heavy metals. The use of our oceans
as a toxic dumpsite has led to devastating consequences for
marine life, and resulting impact on commercial fisheries
and the communities that depend on these fish for food. Plans
to dredge and dump dioxin-tainted sludge have been met with
staunch opposition by groups as diverse as environmentalists,
fishing communities, and Vietnam veterans.
Is proposing to repeal the Delaney Clause that prohibits
cancer-causing pesticides from being added to processed foods
(e.g. baby foods). Proposed reforms in pesticide legislation
would exchange the Delaney Clause for a negligible risk standard,
which institutionalizes cancer risks. Rather than weakening
the Delaney Clause, Clinton should expand it to prohibit
carcinogens in raw foods as well as processed foods, and
other toxic pesticides should also be phased out.
Has delayed by at least one year Clean Air Act regulations
on medical waste incinerators, and is likely to propose much
weaker regulations next year. The EPA estimates that there
are 6,700 medical waste incinerators in the U.S., and that
these incinerators spew 53% of total known dioxin emissions
into the air. Burning medical waste results in the release
of dioxin for two reasons: the first is the large amount
of chlorine in the waste stream, mainly from polyvinyl chloride
plastic (PVC); the second is the fact that because these
incinerators are small, emissions are not well controlled.
Is about to weaken regulations to promote the incineration
of sludge from sewage which contains heavy metals, dioxins
and other toxics. Although currently only a small amount
of sewage sludge is burned, sludge incinerators in the U.S.
release a significant amount of dioxin.
Is about to retreat on regulations for the pulp and
paper industry that will allow the industry to continue using
chlorine dioxide bleaching. While the pulp and paper industry
has been leaping on the environmental bandwagon by shifting
away from the use of elemental chlorine, the alternative,
chlorine dioxide bleaching, is still a polluting process
that threatens our rivers and the communities that depend
on them. This proposal will also undermine stronger state
regulations on dioxin producing pulp and paper mills.
Retreated on promises during and after the 1992 campaign
to prohibit the start up of an incinerator in East Liverpool,
Ohio. This hotly contested incinerator is located 1,100 feet
from an elementary school in a predominantly low income African-American
neighborhood. During the 1992 campaign, candidates Clinton
and Gore promised that this incinerator would not receive
permits for a test burn until the General Accounting Office
completed a full investigation of the facility. Once in office,
this promise was quickly forgotten.
Retreated on campaign promises to implement a moratorium
on new hazardous waste and garbage incinerators. Municipal
incinerators are the second largest source of dioxin in the
U.S., with between 170 and 190 burners spewing contaminants
across the entire country, affecting even communities located
great distances away.
Retreated on his own proposal to allow the federal
government to buy totally chlorine-free (TCF) paper and is
now wavering on the current procurement policy to purchase
recycled paper. After pressure from paper industry lobbyists,
Clinton dropped plans to shift government usage to paper
that does not generate dioxin in the manufacturing process.
Several states, including Vermont, Oregon, Massachusetts,
and Washington are purchasing paper products that do not
create dioxin; Seattle and Chicago have also passed paper
procurement laws favoring non-chlorine bleached paper products.
The message from these few examples is clear:
Clinton needs to be held accountable by mainstream environmentalists
and grassroots activists across the country for his broken promises
and his caving in to the pollution lobby. The past four years have
been about Bill Clintons environmental style; now we need the substance.
Paul Clarke works for Greenpeace. He lives in New
Jersey.
