EDITORIAL
Toxics legislation
must cut loopholes
Today's campus Toxic Tuesday event brings local
attention to a national issue needing an increasing
amount of attention: Toxic contamination of our land
and water.
As part of one of this country’s biggest student
campaigns, the University’s chapter of Oregon Student
Public interest Research Group has joined with ftti oth
er campus PIRG chapters to support two pieces of leg
islet ion meant to tighten regulations surrounding toxic
substance production, use and disposal.
PIRG is calling for passage of amendments to the
Glean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act as part of a larger agenda to reduce the
use of toxins. Statute changes will be drafted this year,
with final rcauthorization occurring next year.
The question is, if these amendments pass, will
they he enough?
Hoth laws have been in place for some time now.
both have been amended and upgraded, and both re
main largely ignored by perpetrators.
The 1948 Water Pollution Control Act was re-legis
lated in 1972 as the Clean Water Act. with more revi
sions following in 1977 and 1987. RCKA began as the
Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. later revised to its
present form in 1976. supposedly regulating hazardous
waste from “cradle to grave."
Each new and improved version has passed un
heeded by industry and unenforced by government.
Both laws retain loopholes through which violators can
escape, and strategics have never been concretely de
veloped to reduce the production and usage of toxins.
Not that spelling the rules out would help. The En
vironmental Protection Agency’s budget for creating
and enforcing hazardous waste regulations saw a 25
percent decrease between 1981 and 1985. while state
funding for inspection of toxic risk sites, such as land
fills, ended in 1982. Most offenders are never caught,
and if they are. there are rarely the funds or manpower
to prosecute.
With funding for pollutant standard enforcement
occupying the usual low rung on the Reagan Bush lad -
der of priorities, further amendments to environmental
laws are hollow
There is hope, however. Included in PIRG’s toxic
reduction plan is the promotion of Thu Community
Right to Know Act of 1991. This hill would require in
dustries to report the amount of chemical toxins they
use. release and produce, and would also mandate in
dustries to come up with plans for reducing their use
of toxins.
This could work because it would force polluters
not only to develop a plan for lessening toxic chemical
use, but to be held publicly accountable for adhering to
their plan. Currently, only about 5 percent of chemical
releases are reported.
Industry is now allowed to remain generally at
large regarding its toxic dumping, proving to be one of
the biggest problems of hazardous waste control, and
resulting in problems to which the public hasn't a due.
For example. Portland officials were warned by
EPA and Department of Environmental Quality admin
istrators not to use reserve water supplies during the
city's recent drought, said Quincy Sugarman, Portland
based OSPIRG environmental advocate. The reason:
Contaminated waters close to backup ground water
supplies might lie moved into the reserve aquifer if the
saved waters were drawn for use.
These amendments need to pass, along with legis
lation designed to increase accountability and enforce
ment. It's time to start thinking about these problems in
real terms. The issue of toxic waste isn't going to disap
pear: wo need to begin acting now to prevent future ir
reversible damage.
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LETTERS
Bad karma
To Mic haul McCee. in re
sjionse to I it n loiter 'ham it,
(OIM:. Oct 23)
Where did you get the im
pression thill those who cannot
idlord health i are are drunks
who hicks the integrity and
dis< ipline to pull him/hersulf
out of the gutter " 111 need of
a liver transplant? l-’or your in
formation, many of those in
need of health i are are working
people, some working several
minimum wage jobs to support
their families If (lies or their
i htldren fail ill or .ire Injured, I
guess you think they should
just die. thus eliminating the
problem
May!*! your parents pay your
living expenses Mavis- you are
still covered bv their health
plan I was on my own parents'
health plan until I rear lied 22
v ears of age
Hopefully. I won't get sick or
injured, or at least until 1 gradu
ate and become a teat her I am
a full-time student and I work
to jiav my rent and hills But if
I do get sick, I suppose you
would want me to die, too
I can only hope for continued
good health, and that your kar
ma w ill t att h up to you
Susan Oswultl
Romance languages
High time
1 would just like to say that
I'm tired of all this pansy
whimpering about the evils of
Christopher Columbus and the
alleged genocide of the aborigi
nal Americans
When are these descendants
ot such people going to admit
that they were physiologically
and politically Incapable of
dealing with the European dis
eases and social changes
brought about by the introduc
tion of diversity to their shores '
It's high time they admit to
their societal evils instead of
solely glorifying their past, and
spreading condemnation for
Europe's
Why aren't the facts of hu
man sacrifice, starvation, and
constant warfare between trilies
ever mentioned by adherents of
the "paradise" propaganda?
Civil i/at ions come and go,
and I believe it's high time to
end this 500-year-old cry festi
val, and realize the past is gone
and people need to start living
Mutt kokkeler
History/politii ai science
Legality
Some of the claims made by
Michael Motion justifying our
current health care system
(OOP, Oi ! 23) are incorrect.
Ho believes the U S Consti
tution guarantees "life, hlierty
and (lie pursuit of happiness "
Because of this assumption,
Mr Met lee claims the Constitu
tion entitles U S citizens the
ability to "earn (their) own
profits," and does not entitle
them "to demand from others
what (they) are unwilling to
earn "
Since the ” pursuit of hap
piness" phrase is actually from
the preamble to the Declaration
of Independence, not the Con
stitution, it has no true legal or
social significance and entitles
its citizens to nothing.
This phrase will not protect
your wallet from the wretched
poor who desire health care,
nor will it protect you if you
become one of these unlucky
millions
Dan Kaufman
Eugene
Labels
Why is it that whun individu
als iiavti something provocative
or upsetting to disclose, they
an> automatically labeled as liv
ing hopelessly emotional and
confrontational, and conse
quently dismissed' Moreover,
wiiy are these accusations more
easily hurled at women in gen
eral7
I recognize my questions are
by no stretch of the imagination
un p r eced e nt ed H o w ev er ,
when 1 recently realized that I
have been branded "emotion
al" and "confrontational" be
cause I happen to question vo
ciferously the plight of exiled
Palestinians like myself who
were displaced from their
homeland following the so
called 1948 Israeli War of Inde
pendence, I was aghast at the
cowardice of (some of) my ad
versaries
Could 1. a Palestinian wtio
happens to fie residing in Hu
gene and not in Palestine pre
cisely because of the 1948 dis
placement of her Palestinian fa
ther from his homeland by Zi
onist Jews, be in any way hallu
cinating? Or maybe 1 simply
forgot that truth and fact are so
conveniently made relative
Or better yet, maybe I am not
being realistic enough, in
which case realism translates
into an acceptance of the status
quo no matter how appalling
that very status quo may be
f or sure. I have become con
fident of at least one tiling I
take great pride in being subject
to these labels, and 1 gladly
welcome more.
Hunan Raniahi
Student
P(?tsiD£A/r bush was
proposed rox curs
por rw£ Middle cuss
7\
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7 CicH Aft£ G0//V6 TO
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