Macomb, IL – Unlike the mindless chatter from the Right that Progressives ooh and aah over everything President Obama does, there are serious misgivings about some of his decisions, such as appointing Timothy Geitner as Treasury Secretary and sending 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. But at least this White House accepts criticism without threatening dissenters, and it's making moves toward transparency that show up the last eight years as dark days indeed.
Weeks ago, for instance, Obama restored the requirement that U.S. industry keep close track of toxic materials released into the environment - reversing Bush's 2006 relaxation of the main reports letting communities know what's in their soil, water and air. The spending bill signed by Obama on March 11 included language restoring the previous reporting rules for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), the successful program giving the public information on pollution released in neighborhoods and the nation.
The action came about a week after hundreds of national, state and local groups and individuals called on the Environmental Protection Agency to reverse a 2006 EPA rule that limited public access to information about toxic chemical releases. The Bush de-regulation let industries withhold information on what and where toxic chemicals were released, information previously disclosed.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group's Liz Hitchcock said, "The Bush Administration's rollbacks set a dangerous precedent undermining two decades of public access to toxic pollution data."
Illinois was 1 of 13 states that sued the rule change as a violation of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, which created TRI, and other groups objecting to the de-regulation ranged from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the U.S. House of Representatives to the EPA's own Science Advisory Board and the General Accounting Office. The GAO in 2006 protested that "The TRI reporting changes will likely have a significant impact on information available to the public about dozens of toxic chemicals from thousands of facilities in states and communities across the country."
Now, TRI is back, and the timing is great. Americans observe Earth Day on April 22, a time to reflect on the environment in which we all live. Launched in 1970 with help from Wisconsin democratic U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day has become a combination celebration and teach-in, touching on issues ranging from recycling and sustainable agriculture to preventing long-term climate change and short-term pollution.
Not all pollution is illegal; some is somewhat inevitable. But the TRI keeps people informed and indirectly encourages polluters to control and reduce releases of toxic materials - sometimes saving companies money as they clean up. A couple of weeks ago, the EPA released 2007 TRI numbers. Some of the top west-central Illinois companies releasing toxic substances are: Ameren Energy Resources (Canton), Archer Daniels Midland (Galesburg), Dixline Corp (Henry County), NTN-Bower Corp. (Macomb), Farmland Foods (Monmouth), Aventine Renewable Energy (Pekin), and Peoria Disposal Company (Peoria).
Chemicals the area endured ranged from ammonia, lead compounds, and hydrochloric acid to sulfuric acid, creosote and cyanide, the EPA and RTKnet report.
For other online TRI data searchable by zip code, go to www.epa.gov/triexplorer/
And for ideas on how you might observe Earth Day, check out http://earthday.envirolink.org/
After all, people no longer can afford to be bystanders on Spaceship Earth, complaining of one captain or another.
We're all crew.