Most Recent Issue:

May 20, 2002

A publication of the State Environmental Resource Center (SERC) bringing you the most important news on state environmental issues from across the country.

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In this Edition:
Headliner: New Report Maps State Incentives for Habitat Conservation 
Issue Spotlight: Bottle Bills
Watchdog: Efforts to Kill Bottle Bills
News From the States:
Protecting Wildlands
*SC: Judge Rules Against Agency Protection of Isolated Wetlands
*AK: Boreal Buffer Bill Stuck in Senate Committee 
*WA: Court Says Multi-Well Developments Must Obtain Water Permits
Funding
*CA: Groups Say State Could Save 28 Billion, Protect Environment
Protecting Wildlife
*WI: Critics Charge State Could Have Kept CWD Out
*WY: State Bans Introduction of Foreign Fish
Clean Energy
*NE: New Emission Rules for Ethanol Plants Considered
*MA: State to Give Mortgage Incentives to Public Transit Users
*IL: Tax Incentives for Biodiesel Sought 
Safe Air & Water
*MD: Gov Signs Hazardous Chemical Right-To-Know Law
*NH: Gov Issues MTBE Well Contamination Order 
Anti-Terrorism
*NY: Over Half of Water Facilities Vulnerable
Land & Water Use
*MI: Medical Society Calling For CAFO Moratorium

Headliner: New Report Maps State Incentives for Habitat Conservation 
Last week Defenders of Wildlife released a report entitled "Conservation in America: State Government Incentives for Habitat Conservation." The report is the result of comprehensive research done across the 50 states on a wide range of incentives available to private landowners from state governments. "Private landowners have a vital role to play in the conservation of our nation's wildlife heritage" notes Mark Shaffer, Senior Vice-President for Programs at Defenders. "Until now, there has been no single source of information available to understand the existing tapestry of state incentive programs." Information on the different incentives, types of land and species protected, benefits to landowners, and strengths and weaknesses of the programs is included in the report.

Issue Spotlight: Bottle Bills
We can save energy and protect the environment by recycling our beverage cans and bottles through beverage container deposit programs or "bottle bills." For example, recycling aluminum cans saves 65% of the energy required to make these cans from bauxite ore and other raw materials—in fact, recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for five hours! Reduced energy and raw materials consumption also means a reduction in pollution from manufacturing: pollution that causes acid rain, smog, mercury-poisoned lakes and streams, and global warming. In addition, recycling beverage containers greatly reduces litter; reduces the demand for oil drilling, damming for hydroelectricity, and environmentally destructive strip-mining for coal and other minerals. It also lessens the burden on landfills in our own backyards. Last month, the Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment, James Jeffords, proposed a national container deposit law. The energy savings alone from such a measure would be enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 5 million households a year. Senator Jeffords bill has been endorsed by the Container Recycling Institute, Friends of the Earth, GrassRoots Recycling Network, and many other of the top recycling and environmental groups. To learn how you can implement bottle bill program in your state identical to the Jeffords model, visit www.serconline.org/bottlebill.

Watchdog: Efforts to Kill Bottle Bills
Although no state bottle bill has ever been repealed, the beverage industry’s well-funded campaigns have been extremely successful in stopping new bottle bills or the expansion of existing ones. Hawaii recently became the first state in 20 years to pass a bottle bill – in large part because during that time industry opponents have spent tens of millions on anti-bottle bill propaganda, outspending proponents by as much as 30 to 1. Last year, the Grocery Association spent thousands to kill Iowa’s bottle bill, claiming that returning a beverage container to a grocery store was a threat to public health – an argument that was quickly refuted by the state’s department of public health. Another argument commonly used is that return-deposit system should be dumped in favor of a government-managed curbside recycling programs. Industry prefers curbside recycling because it places responsibility for recycling beverage containers out their hands. However, in states without bottle bills, curbside recycling, drop-off, and buyback programs together recover only 191 beverage containers per person per year, compared to 490 containers per person per year depsosit- return states. (The ideal system is a deposit system for beverage containers, complemented by curbside and drop-off systems for other products, including food containers, newspapers, cardboard, mixed paper, and yard waste.) To learn more about efforts to kill bottle bills and other harmful activity, visit our Watchdog page.

News From the States:

Protecting Wildlands
South Carolina Judge Rules Against Agency Protection of Isolated Wetlands
Last week state Circuit Judge Thomas Kemmerlin ordered the state's coastal management office not to consider wetlands in processing a land-clearing permit request for a 400-home project. South Carolina uses state land permits, which control storm water runoff from development, to limit destruction of isolated wetlands on the coast. Kemmerlin said state law does not allow the agency to regulate development in isolated wetlands. South Carolina has no specific freshwater wetlands protection law and, like many states, relies largely on the federal government, which in the last two years has backed away from protecting isolated wetlands. To learn about how to protect isolated wetlands in your state, click here.

Alaska: Boreal Buffer Bill Stuck in Senate Committee 
The Northern Alaska Environmental Center is reporting that with the state legislature in extended session, HB 131-- the Boreal Buffer Bill -- is still stuck in the Senate Rules committee.  The bill has already passed overwhelmingly in the House, and needs only to be passed out of this one final committee and heard on the Senate floor. The group says that the establishment of buffer zones will help protect salmon spawning areas and other important fisheries resources. A very diverse group of stakeholders reached agreement on this bill, including loggers, fishers, conservationists, land managers, Native interests, and other forest users.

Washington: Court Says Multi-Well Developments Must Obtain Water Permits
The state Supreme Court ruled recently that housing developments that would be served by multiple drinking-water wells need a water-right permit before construction begins if the wells together would withdraw more than 5,000 gallons a day. The case began in 1999 when a developer proposed a 20-house subdivision with multiple wells withdrawing less than 5,000 gallons a day, to avoid seeking a water-right permit. "This decision protects streams and rivers as well as senior water-right holders by preventing large, unregulated groundwater withdrawals, which have been a controversial issue in the Yakima basin and statewide," said Joe Stohr, who supervises state’s water-resources program.

Funding
California: Groups Say State Could Save 28 Billion, Protect Environment
Last week a coalition of 26 environmental and consumer groups released the "Green Watchdog 2002,” a report that says the state could save money while protecting the environment and improving public health. The report recommends eliminating subsidies, tax loopholes and other activities that encourage environmentally harmful practices. The recommendations include: requiring refineries instead of taxpayers to pay for the clean up of MTBE contamination, charging fees of timber harvesters, and requiring the agricultural industry to pay for the clean up of pesticide runoff. The governor and the state legislature are facing the worst budget crisis in California history with the gap between state revenues and expenditures having widened to an estimated $23.5 billion. 

Protecting Wildlife
Wisconsin: Critics Charge State Could Have Kept CWD Out
AP reported that last week during Congressional hearing, Gov. Scott McCallum was grilled by Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington for ignoring a 1998 memo warning of the possibility of chronic wasting disease being introduced to the state by game farm animals. "Our concern is that states may be too interested politically in the game farm industry, and therefore resulting in the infection of a public asset, which are the wild herds," said Inslee. Meanwhile, Wayne Pacelle, a lobbyist and vice president with the Humane Society of the United States, called for legislation banning the shipment of deer and elk across state lines, which he said was the root cause of the problem.

Wyoming: State Bans Introduction of Foreign Fish
A 5/17 AP article reported that Game and Fish Department is hoping to reduce the risk of introduction of foreign diseases and animals, including the prolific zebra mussel, by shutting its borders this year to nearly all imported fish that stock warm- and cool-water fisheries. GFD managers said the one-year moratorium on stocking those waters will give them a chance to ensure that imported fish in the future won't be tainted with diseases or organisms that can cause problems in the state's ecosystems. "Our main concern is making sure we don't have any unwanted hitchhikers," said Mike Stone, the department's fisheries chief. "This is a national concern right now." State officials have become increasingly worried about the spread of "nuisance species" that often piggyback unseen from state to state on other animals, boats or in water. For related information about aquatic invasive species in ballast water, click here.

Clean Energy
Nebraska: New Emission Rules for Ethanol Plants Considered
The 5/17 Lincoln Journal-Star because of concern that ethanol production plants are emitting dangerous pollutants, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality is considering more stringent regulations for the plants. The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently raised concerns that the drying process causes toxic emissions that either are not yet regulated or exceed existing regulations. One solution is the use of a thermal oxidizer, said Clark Smith, the state agency's supervisor for the air quality permitting process. Ethanol plants are not yet required to install the oxidizers, Smith said, but the recent concern over emissions may lead to it or a similar emissions-controlling process. The number of ethanol plants in the state and nationwide will increase significantly due to new federal demands for more ethanol production and state incentives that take effect in 2004.

Massachusetts: State to Give Mortgage Incentives to Public Transit Users
The 5/14 Boston Globe reported the state will soon begin the “Take the T Home Mortgage Program,” which is the first program in the nation to give no-money down and low interest rate mortgage incentives to public transit users. MassHousing, the state's bank for affordable housing, will insure the loans, which will be administered by 21 participating banks. No state or federal funds are being used by the program, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will advertise the program to attract home buyers. Supporters said targeting public transit commuters makes sense: They are a better credit risk because they may not have car payments and, in a boost to the environment and the region's traffic-choked roads, they may end up buying near public transit, eliminating the need for a car.

Illinois: Tax Incentives for Biodiesel Sought 
Rep. Julie A. Curry has sponsored HB 3709, which would create a sales tax credit to spur the use of bio-diesel, and it would extend an existing credit for ethanol. The sales tax credit for bio-diesel blended fuel would be equal to the existing one for ethanol blended fuel. Currently, the 6.25 percent state sales tax is applied to 70 percent of the purchase price of ethanol blends. That keeps the price of ethanol blends below the price of standard gasoline. 

Anti-Terrorism
New York: Over Half of Water Facilities Vulnerable
5/20 reported last week that a new report compiled by the state Assembly Committee on Oversight Security found that security at over half of the city water facilities fail to meet federal and state guidelines, making them vulnerable to potential biological or chemical attacks. The committee's findings were based on several months of analysis using a 21-point security checklist. 

Safe Air & Water
Maryland: Gov Signs Hazardous Chemical Right-To-Know Law
Last week, Governor Parris Glendening signed HB 291, which establishes the Community Right-to-Know Fund in the Department of the Environment. The measure requires the department to establish fees for hazardous chemical users and authorizes inspection of facilities and records.

New Hampshire: Gov Issues MTBE Well Contamination Order 
Gov. Jeanne Shaheen last week ordered the Department of Environmental Services to notify abutters, public water suppliers, and community health officers when any well tests positive for MTBE above five parts per billion. She also ordered the agency to issue notice when other contaminants are detected at levels exceeding drinking water standards. The governor said order will keep residents informed of contamination to their drinking water supplies.

Land & Water Use
Michigan : Medical Society Calling For CAFO Moratorium
The Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) is calling for a moratorium on all new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The group passed a strongly worded resolution saying: "Animal factories pose very significant public health and environmental risks to communities and the general public. Threats range from hastening the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria to contaminating ground and surface water to releasing ammonia gas. Michigan must impose an immediate moratorium on animal factories until public health and environmental risks are addressed." Further, the resolution critiqued the State of Michigan for developing a system which fails to contain animal factory pollution including no permit system for discharges in waters, no public input mechanism for the people impacted by animal factory pollution, and no monitoring of adjacent drains, streams or wells. In light of these failings the resolution calls for an immediate moratorium on new CAFOs, a mandatory permit process, mandatory monitoring of adjacent waters and a phase out of open air lagoons. To learn about how other states are dealing with CAFOs, click here.