The Essentia Blog

The National Organic Standards Board recently approved a move to allow farmed fish to be labelled “organic”.  In addition, the farmed fish may consume up to 25% wild fish as part of their diet rather than the 100% organic feed that other sectors are required to feed their animals.

Open-net pens used to keep the fish in also pollute the ocean with concentrated fish waste and disease, making a fish farm a less than ideal aquatic environment for the fish that may end up on an organic buyer’s plate.

The Organic Consumers Association is sponsoring a petition to protest these new laws.  Take a moment out of your day to head over there and sign it if you want to keep the organic label truly organic.  Let’s not forget that when one industry is allowed to slide, others will surely follow and pretty soon the organic label won’t have any meaning.

In the 1980’s, Xerox used volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) to clean up some of their machinery.  Some of these VOC’s spilled and polluted work sites.  Xerox had 68 such sites on its hands and hit on a way to rapidly speed up the cleanup that it is now sharing with other industries.

The “2-Phase Extraction Process” removed in one weekend what Xerox had recovered in three and a half years of environmental cleanup.  Xerox is sharing the technology with anyone through a process called Eco-Patents Commons which was created by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where such processes are shared at no charge by the companies that have developed them.

Fredericton residents, including a senior taking care of her bedridden husband, are in shock after being left without any assistance after being told that they cannot use the water from their wells for any purpose at all, including bathing. 2700 litres of chromium trioxide was spilled at a business in the Evergreen Park area, Custom Machine and Hardchrome.

So far calls from the press to the local Department of Health have gone unanswered. The DOH simply issued a statement and some residents have been driving 45 kilometres to get their water from a spring.  Chromium trioxide is a known carcinogen and can also cause genetic defects.

Despite his desperation to distance himself from the Bush administration in the last few days of the presidential campaign, McCain’s record shows that he consistently voted with the Bush administration against a few key environmental policies:

Strike 1 - Corporate Polluters

Voted against making companies disclose pollution sites and making them pay for the cleanup of toxic waste Superfund sites, leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup.

Strike 2 - Drinking Water Pollution

Voted against a law requiring utilities to let consumers know what pollutants are in their drinking water.  He also voted against tightening the standard on arsenic in drinking water.

Strike 3 - Water Pollution by Mining and Oil Industries

Voted in 2002 to exempt the oil and gas industry from the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, leaving them free to add chemicals like benzene to our water.  He also voted against tightening regulations on the discharge from hardrock water companies, which have already polluted 40% of the water table in the West.

Whenever it has been a case of the environment versus big corporations, McCain will vote for the corporations every time.  His record doesn’t lie.

Marine biologist Jeffrey Levinton started a trend last year when he dumped oysters into Jamaica Bay in New York to help clean up polluted water near John F. Kennedy National Airport.  While he is still awaiting data to find out how successful his project is, similar measures are being taken in
Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Oyster Project.

As long as they aren’t being released into an area where there is too much silt, oysters will consume bacteria and organic compounds that enter the rivers in heavily populated areas through sewage runoff.  Signs must also be posted near the areas where they have been released banning shellfishing, since oysters that are so employed may sport e. coli and salmonella contamination, among other things.  150,000 oysters were recently dumped into the area where the Charles river meets the ocean and sewage runs off frequently, polluting the scenic waters that Boston is traditionally known for.

The Blacksmith Institute of New York City and Green Cross Switzerland operate the website worstpolluted.org.  They have identified the ten worst environmental threats for 2008.

They are, in no order:
- Artisinal Goldmining
- Indoor Air Pollution
- Groundwater Contamination
- Industrial Mining Activities
- Metals Smelters and Processing
- Radioactive Waste and Uranium Mines
- Untreated Sewage
- Urban Air Quality
- Used Lead Acid Battery Recycling

Check out the site at worstpolluted.org for more on each issue.  You can also download the report from their site as well.