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- From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment
- Subject: NEWS: Call to Abolish Government System of "Legal Pollution"
- Followup-To: talk.environment
- Date: 1 Sep 1992 22:21:30 GMT
- Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
- Lines: 188
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Message-ID: <Greenpeace.1Sep1992.7am1@naughty-peahen.org>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
- Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu
-
- [Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]
-
- GREENPEACE CALLS FOR ABOLITION OF GOVERNMENT SYSTEM OF "LEGAL
- POLLUTION" - AND LAUNCHES NATIONAL BOAT TOUR TO INVESTIGATE WHY
- THE UK IS THE LARGEST POLLUTER OF THE NORTH EAST ATLANTIC
-
- LONDON August 11, 1992 (GP) The British Government's policy of
- giving companies "consents to pollute" [Note 1] has led the UK to
- be the largest polluter of the North East Atlantic [1],
- Greenpeace said today on the first day of a 5 week "No Legal
- Pollution" boat tour of the UK.
-
- Greenpeace condemned the system as leading to the "legalised"
- pollution of Britain's rivers and seas and called for its
- abolition.
-
- The latest Government data shows that nearly twenty years after
- signing the Paris Convention and agreeing to eliminate marine
- pollution [Note 2], Britain continues to pour effluent from the
- 12,000 "legal" discharges around the UK [2] and to discharge
- 5,046 tonnes of toxic pollutants per annum into our seas. [3]. An
- NRA (National Rivers Authority) report [4] to be released at next
- months's Ministerial meeting of the Paris Commission shows that
- the Government's "consents" system has resulted in nine pollution
- "hot spots" throughout England and Wales : the Thames, Humber,
- Tees, Tyne, Wyre, Mersey, Severn and Solent [see attached map].
-
- "The level of pollution in Britain's rivers and seas is an issue
- of national and European embarrassment," said Tim Birch,
- Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner. "The public need to know that the
- Government and the National Rivers Authority are allowing British
- industry to destroy our rivers and seas."
-
- Action needed
-
- In the face of Britain's "pollution overload", Greenpeace is
- calling for a fundamental shift in Government policy which, as
- stated in the 1990 White Paper, is that "rivers have to be used
- for waste disposal by industry" [5]. The Government should
- abolish the consent system which legalises pollution and enact
- the Precautionary Principle accepted at the 1990 North Sea
- Conference [Note 3]. It must commit itself to the elimination of
- toxic discharges into the marine environment by a phase out
- programme with clear timetables and take the lead at the Paris
- Commission meeting on 21st/22nd September.
-
- The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution recently
- recommended that "progressively less reliance should be placed on
- the environment as a mechanism for processing wastes" [6]. Even
- the Chemical Industry realises that zero emissions of
- chemicals entering the environment will be required in the
- future. Eberhard Leppin, European Environmental Affairs Director
- of Du Pont, stated in 1991 that : "The chemicals industry must
- face the fact that hazardous waste disposal in any form will
- eventually be impossible - prevention is the great chemical
- industry challenge for the nineties" [7].
-
- Wildlife at risk
-
- A series of environmental crises in and around the UK in recent
- years have revealed a stressed marine environment : the seal
- virus of 1988 which wiped out half the population of common seals
- in the Wash; massive algal blooms which closed shell fisheries
- from the Humber to Scotland; and breeding failures in seabirds in
- Scotland. Post mortem analyses of dolphins have shown high levels
- of organochlorine and heavy metal contamination [8].
- Crisis in our rivers
- There has also been a marked deterioration in river quality in
- the UK. In 1980 3,900 km of rivers were classified as being badly
- polluted; in 1990 the figure was 4,680 km [9]. In 1981 there were
- 12,600 reported water pollution incidents in England and Wales;
- in 1990 there were 28,143 [9].
-
- Reasons for the failure of the system
-
- Greenpeace blames the failure of the "consents" system on a lack
- of understanding as to the true scale and nature of river and
- marine pollution. The NRA currently monitor only four elements of
- discharges on a regular basis to assess river quality :
- dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids and
- sometimes ammonia. As stated by the Royal Environmental
- Commission the NRA monitoring does "not give a comprehensive
- picture of the state of UK rivers. Many water uses are profoundly
- influenced by the presence of other substances including plant
- nutrients, pesticides and metals" [6].
-
- There is no information on the ecological effects of 99.99% of
- all chemicals currently discharged into rivers and seas [10].
- Furthermore, the concept of "dilute and disperse", long adopted
- by the Government, has failed to protect the environment. In
- reality, high levels of pollutants are accumulating in British
- rivers and seas. An unpublished Quality Status Report for the
- North Sea Task Force shows that high levels of heavy metals
- including cadmium are to be found as far out to sea as the Dogger
- Bank [11].
-
- The tour
-
- The Greenpeace "No Legal Pollution" tour with the MV "Solo" will
- investigate the state of Britain's polluted waters and visit many
- of the "hot spots" identified by the NRA [see schedule]. In each
- region Greenpeace will identify key polluters and release the
- results of recent discharge samples. Greenpeace will also be
- taking further samples as the tour progresses.
-
- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT GREENPEACE PRESS OFFICE:
- 071 359 4837. [Greenpeace UK, London]
-
- NOTES
- 1. Government "consent" system Companies are allowed, as stated
- in the 1989 Water Act, to discharge pollution into the water
- environment by obtaining a "consent to discharge" from the
- National Rivers Authority (NRA).
-
- As a result of this policy industry can legally discharge toxic
- heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, lead and copper and other
- dangerous chemicals including organochlorines such as PCBs,
- chlorinated solvents, pesticides, cyanide, oils and phenols. The
- NRA must monitor a company's consent to check that the limits of
- pollution set are adhered to.
-
- 2. Paris Convention
- The Paris Convention - The Convention for the Prevention of
- Marine Pollution from Land Based Sources - is a regional
- convention covering the North East Atlantic. It was signed in
- 1974 and has 13 member states which include Belgium, Denmark,
- Germany, France, Ireland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway,
- Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
- Article 1 of the Paris Convention states that "the contracting
- parties pledge themselves to take all possible steps to prevent
- pollution of the sea."
-
- The Paris Commission was established to prevent pollution of the
- marine environment by virtually all substances that can reach the
- sea from land based sources. All types of land based sources are
- covered in the convention - discharges directly into the sea,
- discharges into rivers, through land run-off or emission into the
- atmosphere that eventually reach the sea.
- In order to give more political impetus to the work of PARCOM and
- OSCOM (see regulatory bodies sheet) the 1989 Joint Meeting
- between the two Commissions decided to hold their meetings
- together this September at a Ministerial level in Paris. A new
- Convention will then be agreed that will merge the Oslo and Paris
- Conventions.
-
- 3. The 1990 North Sea Conference and the Precautionary Principle
- At the 3rd North Sea Conference the UK committed itself to a
- fundamental change of policy by adopting the Precautionary
- Principle which stated that : "Action should be taken to avoid
- potentially damaging impacts of substances that are persistent,
- toxic and liable to bioaccumulate in living organisms, even where
- there is no evidence to prove a causal link between emissions and
- effect."
-
- REFERENCES :
- 1). Report on Land Based Inputs of Contaminants to the Waters of
- the Paris Convention 1989. 13th Meeting of the Paris Commission,
- The Hague, 1991.
- 2). Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics,
- No.14, HMSO London, 1992. 1991. Published March, 1992.
- 3). Discharge consent and compliance policy : a blueprint for the
- future. NRA, London, 1990.
- 4). The Paris Commission 1990 Survey, Report of the National
- Rivers Authority for England and Wales
- 5). White Paper on the Environment, HMSO London, 1990, (p.164).
- 6). Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution Report on
- Freshwater Quality, HMSO London, 1992.
- 7). Environment Matters Journal, January, 1990.
- 8). Morris RJ, Law RJ, Allchin CR, Kelly CA, Fileman CF (1989);
- Metals and Organochlorines in Dolphins and Porpoises of Cardigan
- Bay, West Wales.
- 9). Digest on Environmental Protection and Water Statistics,
- No14, DOE London, 1991.
- 10). At a conference on Eco - Toxicology in Brussels , 1991 Dr.
- C. J. Van Leeuwen stated that :
- "In the European Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances
- (EIECS) about 100,000 chemicals are identified. From these
- 100,000 chemicals approximately 10-20 chemicals are monitored in
- important european aquatic ecosystems. If we take a closer look
- at the effect data of these chemicals we may state that for 20-30
- chemicals adequate information on their long term eco-toxicity
- and environmental fate is available. Thus for 99.99% of all
- existing chemicals adequate information in sources, effects and
- concentrations is lacking which implies that the risk of not
- managing important chemicals in almost 100% ."
- 11). Quality Status Report (QSR) of the North Sea. Draft Sub
- Regional Report for Region 7A, Germany, 1992.
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