research plans and improving the pro gram's transparency to stakeholders, but he maintained that the drinking water research program is tighdy plugged into regulatory needs.
Showdown on environmental justice at U.S.―Mexican border Citizen activists from Mexico and the United States have asked EPA to encourage the cleanup of several maquiladora industrial sites located below the U.S.-Mexican border that have been abandoned by their American owners. The request was one of almost 100 voiced during a groundbreaking meeting hosted by EPA on environmental justice issues last August. On Oct. 1, 1999, William Nitze, EPA's assistant administrator for inter national activities, sent a 35-page re sponse to the activists' requests. Al though a good deal of the letter boiled down to "we can't do anything," sev eral responses outlined actions the agency might take, said Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition, a San Diego, Calif.-based group that has focused on improving conditions in border towns for the past 15 years. Many programs developed under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) support envi ronmental justice principles, agency officials said. There is a "broad col lection of environmental issues" al ready under discussion, said Wendy Laird-Benner, border coordinator for Region IX in San Francisco. But the EPA officials emphasize that their authority stops at the bor der. The activists recognize Mexico's sovereignty but insist that the United States has a responsibility to force American-owned companies to abide by U.S. health and safety laws, both inside and outside Mexico. To stimu late economic growth, Mexico encour aged foreign-owned companies to build facilities, known as maquiladoras, along the border to produce parts or assemble goods for export to the United States. The passage of NAFTA made it easier for U.S. compa nies to build there and now 60% to 70% of the maquiladoras are U S owned said Takvorian Few follow U S or Mexican environmental law the activists said Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions hazard
ous waste dumps, contaminated wa ter, and uncontrolled contamination from industrial facilities dominate life in most border towns, added Jose Bravo of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. The activists urged EPA to act in formally. For example, EPA can pro vide the Mexican government with approaches it might take to clean up a specific site. Their demands range from includ ing local concerns in NAFTA-related remedies to providing the results from the Lower Colorado River Toxics Mon itoring Study to residents. Several pri ority requests emerged: that two abandoned industrial sites and one waterway be cleaned; that the United States improve the tracking system it uses to determine whether hazardous materials trucked into Mexico for manufacturing or recycling are re turned to the United States for proper treatment and disposal; and that an Environmental Justice Border Com mission be created to ensure that en vironmental justice issues are recog nized throughout existing border
NRC studies wetlands mitigation techniques The National Research Council (NRC) has embarked on a review of wetland mitigation practices that EPA will use in drafting guidance for wetlands per mits. Due in January 2001, the review will document the successes and fail ures of techniques used to restore and create wetlands, said John Goodin, chief of EPA's wetlands and aquatic resources regulatory branch. The review is one of the major recommendations in the Clinton ad ministration's Clean Water Action Plan {ES&T 1998, 32 (23), 535A), which has called for restoring or cre ating 200,000 acres of wetlands an nually, beginning in 2005. This should compensate for the approxi mately 100,000 acres of wetlands lost each year. Activities that destroy wetlands include cropland drainage and urban development, Goodin said. Roughly 25,000 acres of wet lands lost annually are destroyed through permits that require com pensatory mitigation meaning that other wetlands must be restored or new ones created on the order of 55 000 acres per year he added To help meet the administration's
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action plan goal, EPA needs "informa tion to improve the ability to restore and enhance wetlands," Goodin said. But according to Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Envi ronmental Responsibility, "The goal is a mere rhetorical commitment that is not being matched by changes on the ground." Ruch pointed out that EPA is shirking its wetlands-related enforce ment responsibility and relaxing rules "to the point that ultimate achieve ment of the wetland restoration goals seems less and less likely" (ES&T 1999 4 (10), 407A).
"We need to put the [reduction of] the Gulf dead zone and wetlands restoration together, and no one is doing it." —Bill Mitsch, Ohio State University
Mitigated wetlands have a mixed record, but scientists are beginning to understand how to make mitiga tion work, said Bill Mitsch, director of the Olentangy River Wetland Re search Park at Ohio State University in Columbus. NRC's report could have a significant impact by laying out a blueprint for how to restore and create the structure and func tion of wetlands, added Mitsch. The NRC review follows the Octo ber release of the joint EPA-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis tration report calling for the restora tion of 5 million acres of midwestern wetlands to eliminate the oxygenstarved dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, Mitsch said. Nutrient runoff that drives the hypoxia problem could be trapped by restored wet lands in the Mississippi watershed. "We need to put the [reduction of] the Gulf dead zone and wetlands restoration together, and no one is doing it," Mitsch said.
Fuel efficiency has slipped in favor of auto weight The average fuel efficiency for new "light-duty" vehicles was at its low est value in 1999, largely due to the surge in sales of sport utility vehicles
