ES&T
CURRENTS INTERNATIONAL The Sixth European Campaign on Remote Sensing of Air Pollution was conducted at Fos-l'Etang de Berre in southern France in early June. Seven European countries and Canada participated in the aircraft- and ground-based exercises that used up-to-date technology— some of it for the first time. Objectives included determination of SO2 and its transport and total budget, the rate of change of S 0 2 into sulfates, and enhanced knowledge of pollutant behavior under stable meteorological conditions with weak winds aloft. A set of validated data will be stored on computer tape so results can be analyzed and compared with predictions from models.
to document the safety of several widely used chemicals including Monsanto's herbicides Roundup and Lasso and Chevron Chemical's Capton. This does not mean that the products are unsafe, but it does mean that some chemicals will have to be retested. Federal prosecutors charge that evidence they have introduced proves that several companies knowingly submitted flawed IBT data to EPA.
agency's waste program, proposed that Superfund grants be announced at times that would favor certain Republican candidates. Included in the evidence presented by the subcommittee is a memorandum from Lavelle to presidential staff member Michael K. Deaver proposing that President Reagan travel to Seymour, Ind., and to New Jersey to announce Superfund grants for toxic cleanup. In May, Lavelle was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before Dingell's subcommittee. She stated there was "no political manipulation of the fund."
STATES
WASHINGTON EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus, who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in May, dismissed five more top officials at the agency. Kathleen M. Bennett, assistant administrator for air, noise and radiation, and Frederic A. Eidsness, Jr., assistant administrator for water, submitted their resignations. The regional administrators in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco have also resigned. The regional administrators in Seattle and Denver had left previously. Ruckelshaus is apparently removing these officials to make room for his own management team. He praised Bennett and Eidsness for their "dedicated and professional service." Testing of nearly 15% of all pesticide chemicals approved for use in the U.S. has been called into question. Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories, Inc. (IBT, Oak Brook, ill.) performed at least one invalid test on each of 212 pesticide chemicals, according to a recent EPA study. It found that invalid data were used 278A
Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 17, No. 7, 1983
Bush: "fact, not premise"
The Reagan administration "intends to make certain that no American is exposed to danger because of bureaucratic 'snafus' or legal disputes over responsibility" for hazardous waste cleanup, Vice President George Bush told a meeting of the American Paper Institute/National Forest Products Association. He said that EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus "has instructions to put Superfund to good use." Bush also said that administration officials met with the Canadian government representatives to try to resolve differences and restore progress toward solving the acid rain problem. "We are serious on this problem, but we want to base action on fact, not premise," he added. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) has charged that materials obtained by his subcommittee reveal that Rita M. Lavelle, former head of the
New York City: hazardous wastes in landfills
"Massive quantities" of hazardous chemical wastes have been dumped into New York City landfills built for garbage, the New York Public Interest Research Group reported in a year-long study. Six of the city's 10 landfills are contaminated with hundreds of tons of chemical wastes placed there before 1979, with the permission of the Sanitation Department. The city's sanitation commissioner, Norman Stei-
0013-936X/83/0916-0278A$01.50/0
© 1983 American Chemical Society
