Pollution
The Move from Riprap to Road Base Produces Rosy Numbers
By Mark Stemen PhD, CSU, ChicoThe last issue of Environmental News pointed out that in 1999 Chico diverted 48% of its waste from the Neal Road landfill. While that figure is still short of the 50% diversion rate that State law mandates by 2000, it is pretty close. The people in Chico should be proud. We have made great strides....
Reducing Plastic Waste Tops 2001 Legislative Agenda
Enacting a major Plastic Waste Reduction Law for California is Californians Against Waste (CAW's) Top Priority for 2001.Plastic recycling in California is failing. While overall recycling in the state has reached record levels, recycling of plastic containers and packaging is in...
New Pesticide Right-to-Know Law for California Schools
BEC Joins Parents, Health Professionals, & Public Interest Groups Celebrating the Signing of Healthy Schools Act of 2000On September 25, 2000 Governor Gray Davis signed the Healthy Schools Act of 2000, AB 2260, authored by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco/San Mateo). The law requires advance notification to parents and...
Media Blinded by Solar View
Variations of this letter appeared in the Chico News & Review and the Chico Enterprise-Record.Energy conservation is a laudable activity, promoted by environmental groups such as Butte Environmental Council for decades. How one accomplishes this is equally important. The Butte-Glenn Community College District failed to act...
Herger's Folly
Let Them Drink ArsenicThe House of Representatives voted 218-189 on July 27, 2001 to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose a rule set in the waning days of President Bill Clinton's term that would sharply lower levels of cancer-causing arsenic in drinking water. Nineteen Republicans joined 198 Democrats to pass the...
Communities and Organic Growers Denounce Sharpshooter Spray in San Jose
Groups Call for Sustainable Alternatives to PesticidesBy PANNA, edited by BECCALIFORNIA- Butte Environmental Council (BEC) is a member of the Pesticide Action Network (PANNA), a coalition of community groups, organic farmers, public health advocates and environmental...
Pesticides Report Released: Public Comment Crucial
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is making an assessment available for public comment regarding pesticides in food (see below). While the EPA sometimes comes through for public health, all too frequently they protect business as usual. For example, last week EPA announced that they would begin weakening requirements under...
Air Pollution Linked to Deaths from Lung Cancer
By the American Cancer SocietyAir pollution – mainly from vehicles, industry, and power plants –raises the chances of lung cancerand heart disease in people exposed to it long term,according to a report in the March 6 Journal of...
Web Sites of Interest
By Susan MasonMaps, Maps and More MapsPeople have been making maps for thousands of years. At first, these were primarily aids for navigation and education; however, in about 1150 A.D., Arab geographers took a more comprehensive approach, gathering information on climates, crops, buildings, culture, language, crafts, and...
Governor Davis Announces Support For Renewables Bill
CALPIRG-Backed Energy Bill, SB 532, Will Improve Economy And Air QualityBy California Public Interest Research GroupOn Monday Governor Gray Davis held a press conference announcing his strong support for SB 532, the California Renewables Standard. The bill, authored by Senator Sher of Palo Alto, will increase...
Creek Clean-up A Resounding Success
by Janie Teague-UrbachOnly four days after the unthinkable had happened, on September 15, Butte Environmental Council went ahead with its Fall Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2001. All around the world, shock was beginning to wear off, giving way to grief, rage and anxiety. We must let ourselves feel these emotions, so...
The Killer Among Us: Pesticide Use in California and Butte County
In Living Downstream, Sandra Steingraber reminisces about growing up in the ‘50s when pesticides were commonplace and DDT was sprayed from the back of service trucks rolling through our neighborhoods. In some neighborhoods, children would play a game, running behind the truck, competing to see who could stay in the chemical fog the longest...
New Pesticide Right-to-Know Law for California Schools
BEC Joins Parents, Health Professionals, & Public Interest Groups Celebrating the Signing of Healthy Schools Act of 2000On September 25, 2000 Governor Gray Davis signed the Healthy Schools Act of 2000, AB 2260, authored by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco/San Mateo). The law requires advance notification to parents and...
Toxic-WasteFertilizer Alert
The following call to action was published in 2000. It is included here for archival purposes. For more current information on fertilizers and toxic waste, please see the CalPIRG report, As You...
Moving?... Don't Just Throw It Away
When you're packing up at the end of the school year, it's quick and easy to throw away everything you don't want to lug home for the summer. Before you toss it, though, consider those folks who can't afford to buy food, bedding, cleaning supplies, toiletries, household goods and clothing....
CPR Wins Public Policy Partnership Award
The Nonprofit Policy Council of the California Association of Nonprofits honored Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) with the 2001 Public Policy Excellence Award for Partnership. The award was presented by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley and accepted on behalf of the coalition by CPR Director David Chatfield at a ceremony in the Governor's...
At Risk
How Much Toxic Pesticide Is Used Near Your Child's School?Environmental Working Group press release- Feb. 21, 2001OAKLAND - More than 7.7 million pounds of toxic pesticides a year are used near California schools, according to state data analyzed by Environmental Working Group (EWG). Now parents, teachers and kids anywhere in...
Bidwell Park Spraying Continues
From a City of Chico Press Release and a Spray Map The City of Chico is using the herbicide Garlon 4 to "spot" spray invasive plants such as blackberry bushes. Read the City's press release below for more information. July 16, 1999VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM CONTINUES IN LOWER...
Air Pollution Linked to Deaths from Lung Cancer
By the American Cancer SocietyAir pollution – mainly from vehicles, industry, and power plants –raises the chances of lung cancerand heart disease in people exposed to it long term,according to a report in the March 6...
Detoxifying Terrorism
by Anne Platt McGinn, Worldwatch InstituteHeightened national security concerns have renewed interest in our vulnerabilities to toxic chemicals, a health threat that has faced Americans for decades. In the U.S., around 850,000 industrial facilities routinely use hazardous and extremely...
Healthy Schools Act of 2000
California-Parents, health advocates, and public interest groups celebrated the signing on September 25, 2000 of the Healthy Schools Act of 2000, AB 2260. Governor Gray Davis signed the Act, authored by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco/San Mateo). The law requires advance notification to parents and teachers of pesticide use in and...
Herger's Folly
Let Them Drink ArsenicThe House of Representatives voted 218-189 on July 27, 2001 to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose a rule set in the waning days of President Bill Clinton's term that would sharply lower levels of cancer-causing arsenic in drinking water. Nineteen Republicans joined 198 Democrats to pass the...
Pesticides and Butte County Schools
A 1997 study by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), revealed that schools in California used pesticides that are suspected carcinogens, nerve toxins or chemicals that may cause birth defects or impaired growth and development. Eighty-seven percent of schools that...
BEC Byline: Environmental Enforcement Plummets Under Bush
Drop Prior to 9-11 Further Declines Forecast as Nearly Half of Agents Reassigned by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Washington, DC - There has been a steep decline in environmentalenforcement during President George W. Bush's first year inoffice, according to figures released today...
Creek Clean-up A Resounding Success
by Janie Teague-UrbachOnly four days after the unthinkable had happened, on September 15, Butte Environmental Council went ahead with its Fall Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2001. All around the world, shock was beginning to wear off, giving way to grief, rage and anxiety. We must let ourselves feel these emotions, so...
Pesticides and Butte County Schools
A 1997 study by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), revealed that schools in California used pesticides that are suspected carcinogens, nerve toxins or chemicals that may cause birth defects or impaired growth and development. Eighty-seven percent of schools that...
Recycling Goals and Reality
In 1989, in response to studies that showed that the state was running out of landfill capacity in many parts of the state, the California Legislature passed the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (AB 939). This Act modified existing laws and created programs to better manage the state's municipal solid waste. Its most notable feature is...
Dubya scores a D-
The League of Conservation Voters gives President George W. Bush, for his first year in office, an overall grade of D- for his environmental actions.by the League of Conservation VotersPresidential AppointmentsDPresident's...
EPA Should Emulate States, Act on Dioxin
In the wake of calls by the chemical industry and some agribusiness groups for a delay in the release of the final reassessment on dioxin's health effects, Health Care Without Harm urges the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bush Administration to release the document and begin making policy."The states of Maine and New Hampshire...
Toxic-WasteFertilizer Alert
The following call to action was published in 2000. It is included here for archival purposes. For more current information on fertilizers and toxic waste, please see the CalPIRG report, As You...
Downwind from Disaster
The following article comes to us from the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, "a non-profit public interest organization which counsels and represents groups and individual concerns with the preservation and improvement of community environmental conditions." Their...
EPA Should Emulate States, Act on Dioxin
In the wake of calls by the chemical industry and some agribusiness groups for a delay in the release of the final reassessment on dioxin's health effects, Health Care Without Harm urges the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bush Administration to release the document and begin making policy."The states of Maine and New Hampshire...
What's in that Water?
USGS Releases First Nationwide Look At Pharmaceuticals,Hormones And Other Organic Contaminants In U.S. StreamsThe United States Geological Survey's Toxic Substances Hydrology Program released a press release Wednesday 20 March concerning concentrations of human-created byproducts in waterways. President Bush has proposed in...
Electricity Demand in California
Electricity Demand in California Was Lower in Four of Past Six Months Than in 1999: Data Casts Doubt on Power Producers' Claims That Demand Has Fueled High PricesFrom Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project: WASHINGTON - January 19 - Power demand during four of the past six months in California was lower than during...
