Posts Tagged ‘Feds’

Chinese Drywall Complaint Center Now Demands The Feds Take Charge Of…

Posted by admin on September 17th, 2012

(PRWEB) September 17, 2012

The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center says, “We believe the number of US homes that contain toxic Chinese drywall exceeds 200,000 in Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. and Southeast Texas. We know an average air conditioning coil in a toxic Chinese drywall home in Florida lasts about year before it fails-because the toxic Chinese drywall off gasses hydrogen sulfide. Our biggest problem is because there has been no meaningful federal leadership, the Toxic Chinese Drywall Disaster continues to fester, and get worse-impacting more people. So what is President Obama’s position on the Toxic Chinese Drywall Disaster-we don’t know-he has never mentioned the topic one time in public?” The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center has been expressing deep concern over the long term health effects related to exposure to toxic Chinese drywall for over three years, there is no EPA protocol on repairing a toxic Chinese drywall home, and in most states Fannie Mae, or banks have no requirement to disclose if a home foreclosure contains toxic Chinese drywall-or not? The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center says, “If we do not get some meaningful federal leadership on the toxic Chinese drywall disaster in places like Florida, or Virginia more people will have their lives damaged, or destroyed by toxic Chinese drywall. It really is time for a change.” http://ChineseDrywallComplaintCenter.Com

The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center is now demanding the following federal rules, and or regulations be applied to the Toxic Chinese Drywall Disaster in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Southeast Texas, and Virginia:

  • “According to the US Consumer Products Safety Commission’s web site toxic Chinese contains hydrogen sulfide. Please Google Hydrogen Sulfide. “The US EPA needs to immediately establish a uniform protocol to remediate a toxic Chinese drywall home, or condominium in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia.”
  • “There needs to be an immediate moratorium on the sale of all toxic Chinese drywall home foreclosures until the US EPA can establish if these homes are even fixable. Why sell a home foreclosure to an unsuspecting home buyer-if as soon as they find out the home contains toxic Chinese drywall-the home becomes a foreclosure all over again?”
  • “At the present time there is no valid disclosure requirement for banks selling a toxic Chinese drywall foreclosure in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas. Further, there is no stringent requirement that would force a seller, or a landlord to disclose the existence of toxic Chinese drywall in a home, condominium, or townhouse. A seller, or a real estate agent has to disclose lead paint, and not toxic Chinese drywall? This needs to change, and the change needs to occur immediately.”
  • “Because toxic Chinese drywall has touched so many thousands of lives in Florida, Virginia and the US Southeast, the US EPA, and the US Centers for Disease Control need to initiate immediate studies aimed at determining if a toxic Chinese drywall home is even safe enough to live in? Once again, if toxic Chinese drywall will turn copper electrical wires black, in six months or less, and or degrade a copper air conditioning coil within a year. What is this toxic Chinese drywall import doing to the health of US homeowners, renters and their families-who live in these homes?”
  • “The Chinese government needs to pay for the mess they have created for US homeowners, at this point the government of China will not even acknowledge there is a problem with their toxic Chinese drywall product called Taishan. We believe there are at least 100,000 homes in Florida, Virginia, and the US Southeast that contain Taishan toxic Chinese drywall. Why should these homeowners get left holding the bag for a very toxic building product made in China-by the Chinese Government?” Further the Chinese Drywall Complaint Center considers the initial Knauf Tianjin toxic Chinese drywall a settlement that only helps about 5000 homeowners-to be a backroom deal. The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center is now urging the Federal District Court in New Orleans to reopen the window for Knauf Tainjin homeowners to be identified by the court. The group estimates only one in twenty Knauf Tianjin homeowners has been identified thus far.

The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center says, “Where is the change you can believe in, if you are a mother living with her children in a Florida home, that contains toxic Chinese drywall? No real disclosure laws for toxic Chinese drywall, no required remediation protocol for the tens of thousands of homes involved? At what point does the federal government show up, for the victims of the toxic Chinese drywall disaster? We are talking about a US Disaster, and US citizens in the biggest mess of their lives, and we are demanding a federal response-now.” http://ChineseDrywallComplaintCenter.Com
(United States District Court-Eastern District of Louisiana MDL Case # 2047)


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Alabama Ends Commercial Harvest of Wild Freshwater Turtles; Other States, Feds Should Follow Suit

Posted by admin on April 10th, 2012

MOBILE, Ala.— Alabama moved to protect its wealth of diverse, native freshwater turtles when the state’s conservation advisory board voted unanimously to approve emergency regulations banning all commercial collection and killing of wild turtles and their eggs in public and private waters. The new regulations, which went into effect on Sunday, are among the most protective state rules to prevent export-driven overharvest of native turtles in the southern United States.


“Way to go Alabama! We’re so glad that states across the South are finally beginning to clamp down on the slaughter of native turtles,” said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who specializes in protecting reptiles and amphibians. “Turtle harvesters in the United States are catching and exporting millions of wild freshwater turtles every year, devastating populations that are already suffering from a lot of other threats, like habitat loss, water pollution and road mortality.”


The United States is a turtle biodiversity hotspot, home to more types of turtles than any other country in the world. U.S. turtle traders capture and sell more than 2 million wild  freshwater turtles each year — mostly to supply food, pet and medicinal markets in Asia, where soaring turtle consumption rates have already decimated the local turtles.


Because freshwater turtles live for a long time — some up to 150 years — and breed late in life, with low reproductive rates, they are highly sensitive to overharvest. Alabama hosts 30 native turtle species — more than half of all the native freshwater turtles in North America. Alabama herpetologists sounded the alarm that the state’s turtle populations were plummeting because of demand and a lack of regulation.


In 2011 the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for international trade restrictions to end unsustainable export of freshwater turtles. The petition seeks protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for 20 species of native midwestern and southern freshwater turtles, including the alligator snapping turtle, map turtles, softshell turtles, spotted turtle, Blanding’s turtle and diamondback terrapin.


In Alabama, personal collection of turtles (for pets or food) is now limited to two per day, and these animals cannot be sold. Turtle consumption poses a human-health risk; because turtles live longer and bioaccumulate considerably more contaminants than fish, many turtles sold as food are contaminated with mercury, PCBs and pesticides.


Background

Alabama’s new regulations void all commercial turtle harvest permits, which previously allowed catching and keeping up to 10 turtles per day. Alabama turtle farmers can continue to propagate native turtles, but brood stock must come from other permitted turtle farmers or from legal sources outside of Alabama. Turtle dealers can continue to buy, sell, import and export legally acquired turtles, but the state now requires stricter annual reporting from turtle dealers.


Along with a coalition of conservation and health groups, the Center submitted regulatory petitions in 2008 and 2009 to 12 states without adequate turtle protections (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas). These petitions ask for state bans on commercial harvest from all public and private waters to prevent further depletions of native turtles.


In response to the petition, Oklahoma enacted a moratorium on commercial harvest of turtles from public waters in 2008. In 2009 Florida banned almost all commercial harvest of freshwater turtles; the same year South Carolina limited turtle harvest for nine native species. Earlier this year Georgia set annual catch limits for eight species of native turtles, but they are not sufficiently protective of vulnerable turtles. 

Contact Info: Collette Adkins Giese, (651) 955-3821

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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Smart Indoor Growing Systems Good for Patients as Feds Begin High…

Posted by admin on April 7th, 2012

Gardena, CA (PRWEB) April 07, 2012

The armed Oaksterdam medical cannabis school and dispensary raid that occurred in Oakland earlier this week has called into question if dispensaries are truly able to provide patients safe access to medical marijuana. Phototron Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: PHOT) (OTCQB: PHOT), the Los Angeles hydroponic grow box company behind the “grow your own” revolution, says patients, even those with brown thumbs, can take themselves out of harm’s way—and save themselves a lot of money—by growing their own in an intelligent, self-contained system like the Phototron Pro-LED.

The Phototron PRO-LED is a pre-assembled fully self-contained hydroponic grow box with ECO-brain that constantly monitors growth and environmental conditions and alerts the grower, turning non-growers into pros by eliminating guesswork and the need for manual governance. Using common household 110 electrical, it can be placed almost anywhere in the home, and its LEDs utilize only about 20 cents worth of electricity a day for power to operate.

“Now that the attacks on the medical marijuana industry have escalated to armed raids, patients have to be feeling apprehensive about visiting their local dispensary,” said Craig Ellins, Phototron’s Vice Chairman. “We want patients to know that they have a really simple alternative—and that alternative could not only save them from the real danger of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but save them money.”

Each Phototron grow cabinet allows the grower to grow indoors easily and optimally with very little investment, since it requires no additional lighting, plumbing or electrical upgrade. Everything is self-contained with the Phototron.

Phototron says that there are many other advantages to consider, including:

#1 Grow Year Round

Being able to grow in a controlled environment is one of the greatest benefits of an indoor growing system. In addition to providing shelter from inclement weather, snow, frost, humidity and heat waves, gardeners can control the number of daylight hours.

#2 Grow in Small Areas

Would-be gardeners with space limitations like apartments and condos, can still garden indoors. All of the Phototron grow cabinets are only 21 inches wide and deep, so they take up less than 2 square feet of indoor floor space. That means that they can be located almost anywhere—even a kitchen countertop.

#3 Protected from Invaders

There is nothing worse to a gardener than going out to harvest their crops and finding that a gopher, rabbit, or burglar literally ate their lunch. Indoor growing prevents these types of situations.

#4 Guaranteed Natural

Personal indoor gardens eliminate the health risks associated with things like pesticides, E. coli and salmonella. Indoor gardeners also get the 100% of the available nutritional value because their fruits and veggies go directly from the plants to their plates.

#5 Water Efficiency Makes it Really Green

In a Phototron indoor hydroponic system, water is conserved because it only uses 10% of the water typically used in an outdoor garden and only requires 10% of the nutrients.

#6 Energy Efficiency Makes it Affordable

Phototron systems take advantage of energy-saving LED technology. Phototron’s vertical system, which produces only the red and blue spectrums that the plants want and need to grow, cost on average 20 cents per day to operate.

Requiring only standard 110 voltage, Phototron’s LED systems generate very little heat and last for up to five years with no degradation in performance after the first year. Phototron’s reflective panels also increase efficiency by increasing lumens without having to turn up the power.

#7 Automation through Advanced Technology

Phototron’s smart systems make the indoor growing experience less cumbersome and more rewarding. Phototron’s patent-pending Eco-Brain is a “set it and forget it” system that not only monitors the crops and optimizes plant growth, it literally teaches indoor gardeners how to grow with onscreen alerts and red alarm light.

Phototron suggests purchasing a system that is proven to last. Phototrons are built to last for decades. In fact, many indoor growers continue to order nutrients and other supplies for Phototrons they purchased more than two decades ago.

For more information about indoor growing, or to purchase or inquire about carrying Phototron products, call (800) 651-2837 or go to http://www.phototron.com.

About Phototron Holdings, Inc.

Phototron Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: PHOT) (OTCQB: PHOT) designs and manufactures cutting-edge indoor mini-greenhouses capable of year-round growth of herbs, vegetables, flowers, fruits and medicines, better, stronger and faster than traditional farming methods.

The Phototron Hydroponic Indoor Grow System, commonly called grow boxes, is built upon decades of research on the optimal temperature, light, water and nutrient needs of plants. The Phototron System uses proprietary lighting that mimics the sun’s rays to grow nutrient-rich, pesticide-free, eco-friendly crops faster and in more bountiful quantities than those of traditional gardening methods, resulting in fruits and vegetables of superior taste and quality.

Phototron systems and accessories are available for purchase from the Company’s website. Phototron supports the sale and use of its products to the home medical marijuana market where compliant with applicable laws. Phototron also supplies a full range of parts, accessories and advanced nutrients to more than 50,000 customers.

For comprehensive investor relations material, including fact sheets, presentations, conference calls and video, please follow go to http://www.phototron.com.



Environment

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Feds OK Unproven Oil-spill Response Plan in Arctic; Move Toward Offshore Drilling Off Virginia

Posted by admin on March 29th, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced approval Wednesday of Shell Oil’s unproven oil-spill response plan for offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska. At the same time, the secretary announced plans to move forward with seismic exploratory surveys for oil in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Virginia. Both announcements move these areas that have largely been closed to offshore drilling closer to becoming industrial oil fields.


“It’s deeply disappointing that President Obama is choosing to ignore the enormous risks of opening the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “All signs point to environmental disaster if an oil spill were to occur in the harsh Arctic waters — it’s just absurd that Shell’s unproven response plan got the green light.”


Drilling in the extreme conditions of the Arctic — home to the most pristine ocean habitat in the world for polar bears, whales and walruses — could put human lives and wildlife at risk. Shell’s oil-spill response plan relies on largely untested technology. Incredibly, the company claims that it can recover 95 percent of an oil spill in the Arctic, even though just 3 percent of oil was recovered in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill. In the Arctic, where the nearest Coast Guard station is 1,000 miles away, oil spill crews would likely face harsh, icy, stormy and remote conditions that would make clean up vastly more difficult than in a place like the Gulf of Mexico.


Earlier this year, Shell Oil sued the Center and other environmental organizations, asking the court to declare that its oil-spill response plan for the Chukchi Sea was adequate — a move seemingly aimed at intimidating organizations opposing Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic this summer.


The government also announced plans on Wednesday to conduct seismic surveys along the Atlantic coast in hopes of finding oil deposits that could lead to leasing Atlantic waters for offshore drilling. The seismic surveys pave the way for new drilling.


“Seismic surveys are, in and of themselves, very harmful to marine life. The blasts are like explosions that can cause hearing loss, disturbance and even stranding for animals like whales,” said Sakashita. “And besides hurting marine animals, these exploratory surveys are the gateway to more risky drilling.”


The Center and its allies are part of a pending lawsuit challenging seismic surveys for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico that were approved without the permits needed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act.

Contact Info: Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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Feds Plan to Strip Endangered Species Act Protection From Gray Wolves Across United States

Posted by admin on March 2nd, 2012

Portland, Ore.— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday recommended removing federal protections from gray wolves that remain on the endangered species list after wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and upper Midwest had their protections stripped last year. The move could be devastating to wolf recovery. Fish and Wildlife conceded it will still consider protection for subspecies or breeding populations (including Mexican gray wolves, a recognized subspecies) and for populations in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast; its recommendation came in a five-year review of the Endangered Species Act listing for gray wolves in the lower 48.


“The agency’s saying protection for wolves should be taken away from them anywhere they don’t live right now, even if they lived there for thousands of years before we exterminated them and even if those places are still good habitat for them,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has worked for decades to restore wolves. “If this approach had been taken with, say, bald eagles, we’d never have recovered eagles across much of the Midwest, Southeast or Northeast, where they didn’t exist when they were protected. This is a frightening example of the Fish and Wildlife Service abandoning the recovery mandate of the Endangered Species Act.”


According to the agency, ongoing status reviews of Mexican wolves, northwestern wolves and eastern wolves in New England will conclude by Sept. 30, 2012, when the agency signaled national-level protection for wolves would cease, likely including protections for wolves anywhere they are not currently found, such as the Northeast, Great Plains and central Rocky Mountains.  


“Scientists have identified extensive wolf habitat in the Northeast, Southwest, Rocky Mountains and West Coast,” said Greenwald. “Protections should stay in place in all these wild areas, and recovery plans should be written allowing wolves to return safely.” 


Wolves may retain protections in portions of California and western Washington and Oregon. Two packs now reside in Washington, and wolves have been moving west from newly established packs in eastern Oregon — including OR-7, or Journey, who traveled 1,000 miles to become the first wolf in California in almost 90 years. The situation is less clear in the Northeast, where there are no breeding packs, although there are wolves a mere 100 miles north of the Canadian border.  


“We hope wolves in the Southwest and Northwest will retain protection and gain the benefits of scientific recovery plans,” said Greenwald. “But stripping protections for wolves in the central Rocky Mountains of Utah and Colorado, and in verdant New England where overlarge deer populations are devouring tree seedlings and stopping forests from regrowing, hurts these ecosystems and is tragic for pioneering wolves.”


In the vacuum of federal leadership for wolf recovery, and in light of OR-7’s ongoing two-month-long journey into Northern California, a hopeful precursor of other wolves’ arrivals, the Center petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission on Monday to list wolves as endangered under the state’s Endangered Species Act and develop a state recovery plan.


Scientists have found that wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 forced elk to move more, allowing for recovery of streamside vegetation and helping beavers, fish and songbirds. Wolves also benefit scavenging animals such as weasels, eagles, wolverines and bears; and they increased numbers of foxes and pronghorns in Yellowstone and nearby Grand Teton National Park by controlling coyotes.


“If we want to keep any part of America wild, we need to keep our wolves,” said Greenwald.


Read the federal recommendation at:http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/five_year_review/doc3978. lupus 5-YR review PDF.pdf


Read more about the Center’s work to save wolves at:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/gray_wolves/index.html

Contact Info: Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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Protection for Rare Lizard Delayed As Feds Cave to Big Oil

Posted by admin on December 2nd, 2011

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Caving to political pressure from the oil and gas industry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it will delay Endangered Species Act protection for the dunes sagebrush lizard by six months. The Service had been slated to finalize protection for the increasingly rare lizard on Dec. 14 but backtracked in the face of mounting pressure from the oil and gas industry and its advocates in Congress, including Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.).


“There’s no scientific dispute that the lizard needs and deserves protection, so this delay looks a lot like the subversion of science for political expedience,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Let’s hope this needless delay will finally put an end to the false claim being spread by Rep. Pearce that helping to save this creature will put an end to oil jobs. The oil and gas industry is not in danger of extinction. This lizard is.”


More than a decade of scientific research on the dunes sagebrush lizard demonstrates the species has very specific habitat requirements across a narrow strip of habitat. The lizard declines or disappears in the face of oil and gas development or herbicide spraying, both of which are rampant in the species’ habitat. Fish and Wildlife’s proposal for protection was extensively reviewed by scientists who universally supported the need for protection. 

Claims by Rep. Pearce and the oil and gas industry that protection of the lizard will decimate jobs are grossly overblown. A new analysis released this week by the Center for Biological Diversity shows that the lizard’s habitat occurs on just 2 percent of all lands in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico.

“Facts are stubborn, and they simply don’t back up the hysterics being pushed by the oil and gas industry,” said McKinnon. “This lizard’s habitat is minuscule compared to the scope of oil and gas development in the basin — development that, by the way, will continue even if the animal is protected by the Endangered Species Act.”

In Texas, using geographic information systems and spatial data supplied by the state of Texas and Texas A&M University, the Center analyzed lizard habitat distribution relative to developable oil and gas lands within the Texas portion of the Permian Basin. 

The analysis found that:

  • Within the six Texas counties where lizard habitat occurs, that habitat makes up less than 5 percent of all lands.

  • Within those six counties, lizard habitat makes up about 5 percent of state lands where the state government collects oil and gas royalties.

In New Mexico, an analysis by the Center earlier this year that found that protecting the lizard in the New Mexico portion of the Permian Basin would affect less than 1 percent of public lands where drilling was proposed in 2010 and 2011.
Oil and gas extraction will continue in lizard habitat despite a federal listing, because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is likely to require only reasonable measures to conserve populations, such as avoidance of occupied sites. The Service maintains that it is “absolutely not true” that protecting the lizard under the Endangered Species Act will prohibit development.
“While insignificant in terms of oil and gas acres, these last slivers of habitat are all the lizard has — and they’re critical to preventing its extinction,” said McKinnon. “Industry’s refusal to yield even an inch to prevent an extinction makes a stark case for federal protections.”
The Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned for the lizard’s protection in 2002. In December 2010, the Service proposed protecting the lizard under the Endangered Species Act.

Contact Info: Taylor McKinnon, (928) 310-6713

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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Public to Feds: No New Uranium Mining, Clean Up Mess

Posted by admin on August 17th, 2011

TELLURIDE, Colo.— The public voiced strong opposition to new uranium mining at a series of regional public forums recently hosted by the Department of Energy focusing on its 42-square-mile uranium-leasing program in southwestern Colorado. Dozens told the department to prohibit new uranium mining and create new jobs by cleaning up pollution from past mining. The meetings in Telluride, Colo. and other towns added to a groundswell of opposition to uranium mining on western public lands, including those near Grand Canyon, in northwestern New Mexico and other parts of the United States.


The Department of Energy was asking for public comments on a new environmental impact statement, which it had launched to avoid a still-pending lawsuit from conservation groups challenging its 2007 approval of the uranium program. On June 11 the department concurrently published a Federal Register notice of the new environmental impact statement and filed a legal brief citing that same notice and asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit. The department claims the lawsuit and the new impact study are unrelated.


“Instead of promoting mining when DOE has plentiful uranium stockpiles, the public has requested DOE turn its focus to the environmental and economic benefits that would flow from requiring the immediate and comprehensive reclamation of 13 of the leased tracts,” said Hillary White of Sheep Mountain Alliance. “This would require no federal monies as the reclamation responsibilities must be met by the private companies who leased these tracts.”


Since approving the leasing program in 2007, and despite having sidestepped environmental laws, the Department of Energy has approved 31 lease agreements authorizing mining for 10 years. The program includes 13 previously active but unreclaimed uranium leases; uranium tailings have contaminated the Dolores and San Miguel river watersheds, affecting water quality and fish populations in both rivers.


“Pollution from uranium development can be fatal for people, fish and wildlife, and can last for hundreds and even thousands of years,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Department of Energy works for the public and the public is right to insist on reclamation rather than more uranium pollution. It’s time for the government to start listening.”


Uranium development threatens to further deplete and contaminate the Colorado River and its tributaries with toxic and radioactive waste products. Selenium and arsenic contamination in the Colorado River basin from abandoned uranium-mining operations has been implicated in the decline of the four endangered Colorado River fish species and may be impeding their recovery.


“The Dolores, San Miguel and Colorado rivers and watersheds are too precious to subject to another round of uranium contamination,” said Matt Sandler of Rocky Mountain Wild. “Communities, hunters, fisherman and endangered species all depend on these waters. Their protection should be our first priority.”


The Colorado Environmental Coalition, Information Network for Responsible Mining, Center for Native Ecosystems (now Rocky Mountain Wild), Center for Biological Diversity and Sheep Mountain Alliance sued the Department of Energy and Bureau of Land Management in July 2008 for their 2007 approval of the leasing program after incomplete and absent National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act reviews. The groups are represented in that litigation by Travis Stills of the Energy Minerals Law Center and Jeff Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project.

Contact Info: Hilary White, Sheep Mountain Alliance, (970) 728-3729

Matt Sandler, Rocky Mountain Wild, (303) 546-0214 x 1

Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 310-6713

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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EPA Partners with Philabundance on Feds Feed Families Campaign (DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV)

Posted by admin on August 11th, 2011

 

Release date: 08/10/2011

Contact Information: Donna Heron 215-814-5113 or [email protected]

PHILADELPHIA (August 10, 2011) – Today EPA’s Mid-Atlantic regional office presented Philabundance with the first in a series of food donations as part of the Feds Feed Families program.

Food banks across the country are facing severe shortages of non-perishable items because demand increases in the summer as children are left without school nutrition programs.

Federal employees nationwide are stepping up to meet this challenge by gathering two million pounds of food for families in need this summer

Food donations will be distributed in the local communities by organizations such as Philabundance. Nationally, EPA’s goal as an agency is to collect 100,000 pounds.

EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin presented a partial donation today to Philabundance Executive Director Bill Clark in a ceremony held at EPA’s Public Information Center. Employee donations will continue to be collected until Aug. 31.

“While protecting public health is at the core of our mission, I’m very proud of our employees for stepping up to help the needy in our communities” said Garvin. “This isn’t the first time EPA and Philabundance have worked together to feed the hungry. Our region has been conducting food drives with Philabundance for more than five years. The voluntary donations come from our EPA staff.”

Philabundance is also an EPA sustainability partner which is helping the organization put more meals on more tables by identifying sustainable practices. These practices may reduce their operating costs while providing positive benefits for the environment.”

“EPA has been a longtime supporter and partner of Philabundance,” said Bill Clark, Philabundance president and executive director. “Feds Feed Families comes during a time when families’ budgets must be stretched further as meal programs are harder to access when school is out.”

Philabundance was created in 1984 with the simple belief that no one should go hungry. Philabundance provides food to approximately 65,000 people per week through direct services and a network of 500 member agencies including emergency food kitchens, food cupboards, senior centers, and more.

Feds Feed Families is a government-wide effort led by the Chief Human Capitols Officers Council in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For more information on Feds Feeds Families go to: www.fedsfeedfamalies.gov
For more information on Philabundance go to: www.philabundance.org

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Feds Set High Fishing Quotas for Already Overfished Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Posted by admin on July 5th, 2011

WASHINGTON— The National Marine Fisheries Service announced, late last week, the highest limits allowable under international law for the U.S. catch of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a magnificent species ravaged by overfishing. The catch limits follow recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which has failed to effectively regulate bluefin tuna fishing for more than 40 years.


But only last month, in response to a Center for Biological Diversity petition, the Fisheries Service designated the bluefin tuna as a species of concern due to the agency’s own concern over the health of the Gulf of Mexico — the only spot where western Atlantic bluefin tuna spawn — and the threat of overfishing of eastern Atlantic bluefin, which are plagued by illegal fishing in the Mediterranean.


“Western Atlantic bluefin tuna are critically imperiled, and yet our course for fishing is full-steam ahead,” said Catherine Kilduff, a Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney. “The new catch levels are too high for decimated bluefin tuna populations, especially given the state of the Gulf of Mexico and continued illegal fishing overseas.”


Last April the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred during prime bluefin tuna spawning season, April and May. Although larvae and juveniles cannot survive oil contact, scientists are most concerned about impacts to adult bluefin tuna, whose reproductive ability is key to persistence of the species. The Fisheries Service will reconsider whether the species should be listed as endangered or threatened in two years with additional knowledge of impacts from the oil spill.


Also last week the Fisheries Service announced that bluefin tuna harvested by Libyan vessels in 2011 may have been illegally harvested and could be subject to increased scrutiny and potential liability for U.S. importers. One reason the Fisheries Service denied the Center’s petition to list Atlantic bluefin tuna as endangered this May was that “assuming countries comply with the bluefin tuna fishing quotas established by ICCAT, both the western and eastern Atlantic stocks are not likely to become extinct.”


“This announcement is yet more evidence of inadequate compliance in the Mediterranean, risking extinction of the Atlantic bluefin tuna,” said Kilduff. “Business as usual — relying on the international community alone to save Atlantic bluefin tuna — is not enough.”


Western Atlantic bluefin tuna do not cross the Atlantic, but migrate from the Gulf of Mexico nursery areas to rich feeding grounds off New England. Those bluefin tuna spawning in the Mediterranean, however, traverse the ocean in a matter of weeks as early as age one. Overfishing in Europe means that fewer eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna reach U.S. waters. The United States’ continued overfishing compounds the problem, and as a result western Atlantic bluefin tuna have failed to recover as expected halfway through a 20-year rebuilding period.

In response to the decline of the bluefin, the Center for Biological Diversity last year launched a nationwide boycott of bluefin tuna. (Visit bluefinboycott.org for more information.) More than 22,000 people have joined our campaign and pledged not to eat at restaurants serving bluefin tuna, and dozens of chefs and owners of seafood and sushi restaurants have pledged not to sell bluefin.



For more information about the Center’s campaign to save the Atlantic bluefin tuna, visit: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/fish/Atlantic_bluefin_tuna/index.html.


 

Contact Info: Catherine Kilduff, (415) 644-8580

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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Feds Announce Plan to Address Sea Turtles Drowning in Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Trawls

Posted by admin on June 24th, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO— The National Marine Fisheries Service announced plans Thursday to finally address the rash of sea turtle deaths in the Gulf of Mexico due to the shrimp trawl fishery. The Center for Biological Diversity, along with partner conservation groups, had notified the agency May 31 of its intent to sue over the government’s failure to protect endangered sea turtles from entanglement and drowning in shrimp trawls. A record number of dead sea turtles (more than 375) have turned up this year on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama beaches — and government documents point to the shrimp-trawl fishery as the likely leading cause.


“We are encouraged that the Fisheries Service is finally taking steps toward addressing a long-known cause of sea turtle mortality,” said Jacyln Lopez, an attorney at the Center. “The agency needs to move quickly to fix this problem because while they weigh the options, sea turtles continue to drown in the Gulf of Mexico.”


Shrimp trawling has historically been a primary threat to sea turtle survival in the Gulf. Last year’s BP spill is likely to have weakened sea turtles, making them more vulnerable to drowning in shrimp nets. All sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, including Kemp’s ridleys and loggerheads, are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Killing or harming sea turtles is prohibited under the Act, although federal officials have created special rules allowing an exception for the shrimp-trawl fishery. Currently the rules require that most shrimp trawlers use turtle excluder devices that allow turtles to escape fishing gear meant to catch shrimp. Unfortunately, due to poor compliance with this rule and the recent popularity of “skimmer trawls” — which do not use the turtle excluders — there has been an unprecedented increase in sea turtle mortality.


“The Gulf of Mexico is a highly threatened ecosystem that is still reeling from the BP oil spill,” said Lopez. “Efforts to conserve sea turtles and restore the Gulf of Mexico should be a high priority.”


In Thursday’s announcement the Fisheries Service committed to evaluating several measures to better protect sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. The Center will continue to push for increased enforcement and on-boat observers to reduce turtle deaths from shrimp trawls, protections for sensitive areas, and broader requirements for shrimp boats to use gear that reduces turtle deaths.

Contact Info: Jaclyn Lopez, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9682 x 305, [email protected]

Website : Center for Biological Diversity


ENN Network News – ENN

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