From: sjimerfield@sw-center.org
Sent: Monday, September
20, 1999 1:24 PM
To: tortuga@sw-center.org
Subject:
BIODIVERSITY ALERT #196
Original-recipient: rfc822;tortuga@sw-center.org
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
http://www.sw-center.org
ALERT #196 7-30-99
§ FOSSIL CREEK UPDATE
§ EPA WARNS TUCSON'S
GROUNDWATER SUPPLY MAY
BECOME SUPERFUND SITE
§ AMPHI SCHOOL SITE ADDED
TO SONORAN DESERT
PROTECTION PLAN
§ SILENT SPRING 2: THE TERMINATOR
TREE
FOSSIL CREEK UPDATE
The battle continues to restore full
flows to Fossil Creek, a
rare 14 mile perennial stream that has been dammed
for
90 years by the Arizona Public Service Company (APS)
The hydroelectric
plants, which the Fossil
Creek water fuel, produce only .02 percent of
APS'
profits.
Negotiations between APS and a group of
environmental
organizations is ongoing, while the Center for
Biological
Diversity proceeds with a more aggressive
campaign. The Center has notified
the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, US Fish and Wildlife
Service,
and US Forest Service we will sue for violations of the
ESA and
the National Forest Management Act.
APS executives say that they will
decommission the
plants if the costs and liability of doing so can
be
eliminated. After earning profits from the dam for over
90 years, APS
is refusing to pay the price of cleaning
up after
itself.
_________________
EPA WARNS TUCSON'S GROUNDWATER SUPPLY
MAY
BECOME SUPERFUND SITE
The Environmental Protection Agency warned
in a July 14
letter that groundwater contamination is moving toward
dozens
of city wells and four University of Arizona
wells. The EPA also announced
that they are considering
placing the source of the contamination on
the
Superfund National Priorities List.
Based on results from the site
inspection completed
in April 1999, the EPA concluded that the,
"Mission
Linen Site poses a significant threat to public health,
welfare,
or the environment." A groundwater sample
collected from the supply well
found
tetrachloroethylene (PCE) at a concentration of 11,000
part per
billion (ppb), the federal maximum in drinking
water is five ppb.
The
Tucson regional aquifer is one mile downstream from
the site. Approximately
53 active groundwater
production wells are located down gradient from
the
site. These wells provide water for approximately
600,000 people in
the City of Tucson and for the University
of Arizona.
The size and
extent of the PCE plume emanating from
Mission Linen has not been defined or
controlled. The
Center has requested that a current stormwater
detention
basin project be put on hold until Army Corps
completes a new Environmental
Impact Statement which
accurately addresses the cumulative effects of the
PCE
plume, surface and groundwater contamination, hazardous
material
remediation, and cleanup as they relate to Tucson's
drinking
water.
_________________
AMPHI SCHOOL SITE ADDED TO SONORAN
DESERT
PROTECTION PLAN
The Amphitheater School District's 73-acre high
school site
in pygmy owl habitat has been added to Pima County's
plan to
protect Sonoran Desert habitat. The site's
future for development is
currently under judicial review.
The conservation plan proposes to
allocate $500 million
to buy hundreds of thousands of acres to
preserve
riparian areas, ironwood forests, ranch land, and
mountain parks.
Upon the completion of studies to determine
the most ecologically important
areas, the county could
then move forward in purchasing these
lands.
Although it's just a small portion of what will be
needed to
make the plan a reality, Rep. Ed Pastor D-AZ,
is attempting to obtain
$100,000 in federal funding to
help the plan get started. The county has set
aside
$1.5 million, and Congressman Jim Kolbe has obtained $1
million for
the plan.
_________________
SILENT SPRING 2: THE TERMINATOR
TREE
Shell and Monsanto are developing a new tree for the
future,
known as the "GM Tree." This tree will not
provide food for bugs, birds, or
mammals. This tree
will not have flowers, produce pollen, or yield any
fruits
whatsoever, it won't even reproduce itself. They claim
the tree
will be the perfect timber producer. Their vision
is huge plantations of
sterile, fast-growing, bug-proof
trees. They claim this will relieve, the
pressure on
natural forests to produce the worlds demand for
lumber.
However, current lumber producing
plantations do not even come
close to relieving the
pressure. Ecologists and environmentalists
are
concerned that GM Tress will only increase the demand to
replace vast
acres of natural forest with lifeless trees.
Field testing of these trees
has already begun in the
United States and Europe. What would spring be like
in
a future with out biologically diverse forests? No
birds chirping, no
cicadas buzzing, and no squirrels
and chipmunks calling, just
silence.
___________________________________________________________
Shane
Jimerfield
Assistant Director
Center for Biological Diversity
Tel:
520.623.5252, ext
302
Fax: 520.623.9797
PO Box 710, Tucson AZ
85702-0710
http://www.sw-center.org
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