Scotts Miracle-Gro Pleads Guilty to Selling Poisoned Bird Seed

By Sarah Parsons

United States - Scotts Miracle-Gro products are known for zapping weeds dead. But it turns out they could be killing decidedly more attractive creatures — birds.

Scotts pled guilty this Tuesday to charges that the company illegally put insecticides in its “Morning Song” and “Country Pride” brands of bird seed. That’s right: The company knowingly coated products intended for birds to eat with substances toxic to birds and wildlife.

According to court records, in 2008, Scotts distributed 73 million packages of bird seed coated with the insecticides Storcide II, containing the active ingredient chlorpyrifos, and and Actellic 5E, containing the active ingredient pirimiphos-methyl, intended to keep insects from destroying the seed.
The company continued to produce and market the insecticide-coated seeds despite being alerted to toxicity dangers by a Scotts staff chemist and ornithologist.

And here’s the icing on the toxin-loaded cake: Storcide II, one of the insecticides in Scotts seed, comes with a huge warning label that reads: “Toxic to birds, toxic to wildlife” and “Exposed treated seed may be hazardous to birds.” Must be that a senior exec at Scotts got shat on by a pigeon one day and took it real personal.

In addition to the bird seed, Scotts is in big trouble for selling chemical-loaded gardening products without first obtaining registration from the EPA. The federal government alleges that a Scotts manager even went so far as to fabricate documents and correspondence with the agency. It seems they find forgery easier than just not poisoning wildlife.

The judge hasn’t decided what, exactly, Scotts’ punishment will be yet, but the company has proposed paying a $4 million fine and donating $500,000 towards wildlife conservation. Maybe all the house finches, sparrows, and mourning doves Scotts has poisoned over the years will file a class-action lawsuit and push for a lot more than that.

Scientists Warn EPA Over Monsanto’s GMO Crop Failures, Dangers

By Anthony Gucclardi

United States - A group of scientists is calling for major federal action in order to deal with the threat posed by Monsanto’s GMO crops, now petitioning the EPA to address the issue head on. The group of 22 academic corn experts are drawing attention to the immense failure of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn, which is developing mutated and resistant insects as a result of its widespread usage.

Corn is critical not only as a food staple, but is heavily used in ethanol production, animal feed, and much more. As GM corn becomes the norm, currently taking over 94 percent of the supply, these scientists are seriously concerned about the future of corn production.

Joseph Spencer is one outspoken member of the group, a corn entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the University of Illinois. Spencer states that what is happening is no surprise, instead it is something that needs to be addressed. Warning the EPA over the dangers, the experts sent a letter on March 5th to the agency explaining their worries regarding long-term corn production prospects in light of GMO crops failures. Specifically, the experts are worried about the lack of protection presented by GMO crops against rootworms.

The EPA has already acknowledged that Monsanto’s GMO crops are creating resistant rootworms, which are now ravaging the GMO crops as they mutate to the biopesticide used known as Bacillus thuringiensis (BT). The EPA found that the resistant rootworms, which are evolving to resist the insecticide, are currently found Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska. After the EPA evaluated documented cases of severe crop damage as well as reports from entomologists, the EPA stated “Monsanto’s program for monitoring suspected cases of resistance is ‘inadequate’”.

Essentially, the GMO crops are doing the opposite of their supposed purpose — leading to more damage from rootworms as they become mutated to resist the defense of the crops. And Monsanto has answered by simply further genetically modifying the Bt, which research shows is extremely ineffective.

“When insecticides overlay transgenic technology, the economic and environmental advantages of rootworm-protected corn quickly disappear,” the scientists wrote.

It’s time for the EPA and other agencies to address the serious threats to nature and human health presented by Monsanto’s genetically modified creations.

Georgia Takes Top Two Spots for Worst Polluting Power Stations

By Matt Bewig

 

Georgia leads the nation for dirty power plants, which are the primary source for greenhouse gases like CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide. To put things into perspective, for cars to produce as much planet-baking CO₂ as U.S. coal-fired power plants do in a year, Americans would have to drive at least twice as much as they currently do.

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released an online Greenhouse Gas Database that allows consumers to find out which power plants are polluting the most. The database, which includes the 6,700 power plants and heavy industrial sites responsible for 80 percent of all emissions in the US, shows that Georgia is home to the two worst polluting plants in the country—Scherer coal plant in Juliette and Bowen coal plant in Cartersville. Neighboring Alabama has the third worst offender, the Miller coal plant in Quinton, Alabama, while yet another Southern state, Texas, is the locale of the fourth worst plant, the Martin Lake coal plant in Tatum, Texas.

EPA Backpedals on Water Delivery to Dimock

Dimock, Pennsylvania - The Environmental Protection Agency has decided not to ship out water to the residents of Dimock after all despite the fact at least 18 wells were ruined by fracking facilities.

The news hit the town just a day after the EPA announced they would give the townspeople water, but failed to give a reason for the change.  Instead EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara stated in an email "We are actively filling information gaps and determining next steps in Dimock. We have made no decision at this time to provide water."

Thankfully not all hope is lost, at least not at the moment.  Actor Mark Ruffalo, though his environmentalist group Water Defense, is planning to sent a tanker filled with water to the town.

The best questions asked, and yet to be answered, come from Wendy Seymour, one of residents and an organic garlic farmer.

"What happened? Who had the power here? Who had the power to change their minds? Was it the governor? Was it somebody from Washington? Was it Cabot? What happened? We don't know. We're really confused."

Someone definitely needs to be held accountable.  This is bigger than profits,, power, or politics.  It's about the lives of an entire town of people.

Dimock Water to Be Checked By EPA

Stating the residents of Dimock, Pennsylvania are claiming their wells have been polluted by a nearby fracking facility, federal regulators are considering the option of shipping fresh water to the townspeople.

This treatment is taking place after just a month after the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the water to be safe for consumption after they presented hundreds of pages of data linking their water's pollution to fracking.

If the EPA does go along with it, it's sure to be one of the strongest blows against the fracking industry. For years fracking has been theorized to be the reason water supplies across the country have become polluted or able to be set on fire. Along with the water damage, which has unknown short- and long-term effects, is the direct link between fracking and earthquakes. Some of the earthquakes are in areas which hardly ever happen to them.

The EPA said January 5^th they will conduct their own tests on the area's water. It is already aware of the effects the gas extraction process had on the Wyoming town of Pavilion. In that case the agency's report expressed the concluding chemicals related to fracking were present in the town's aquifer.

Previous to this development the company Cabot Oil & Gas was providing water to about a dozen homes for three years until state regulators said it could stop if they wish. Now that their water supplies have stopped, some are showering in pond-water.

The residents started complaining about the foul-smelling cloudy water they were getting from their faucets in 2008.

Utah Doctors Join "Occupy" Movement by Brian Moench

Utah's Bingham Canyon mine

Utah - Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke--strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.


Most of Utah’s cities are in violation of many of the EPA's national air quality standards, and for several days during a typical winter Utah is plagued by the worst air pollution in the country. The American Lung Association routinely gives Utah’s largest cities an “F” for our air quality. Last February, Forbes magazine, hardly a cheerleader for excessive environmental protection, rated Salt Lake City as the nineth most toxic city in the country, and the biggest contributor to that ranking was the mining and smelting operations at the Bingham Canyon mine, run by London-based mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/Kennecott (RTK).

This mine is the world’s largest man made excavation and has created the largest mining related water pollution problem in the world. The mine is located on the western doorstep of Salt Lake City, home to well over one million people. There is no comparable juxtaposition of an enormous mining operation this close to such a large urban center. RTK's mine and smelter operations account for 30% of the particulate matter emitted into the atmosphere over Salt Lake County, making it by far the largest source of industrial pollution in the urban areas of Utah.

The smelting operations and fugitive dust from the 1,100 foot high waste rock piles and tailings ponds are a constant source of highly toxic heavy metal contamination--lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium-- to the air, water, and soil of Utah’s largest city. The mining industry watchdog, Earthworks, states that before the most recently approved expansion, RTK was releasing 695 million pounds of toxic material into the Salt Lake City environment every year. Because heavy metals do not degrade, are not combustible and cannot be destroyed, that heavy metal toxic burden steadily increases year after year, as it has for over 100 years.

Despite this extreme burden on public health, predictably, the Utah Division of Air Quality recently issued a permit for RTK to expand their operations by 32% which will make their pollution emissions even worse.
RTK is making record profits--$15 billion last year. In August Chairman of the Board, Jan du Plessis bragged, “Rio Tinto has produced another set of record breaking results.” du Plesses apparently specializes in delivering pollution, he is also chairman of the Board of British American Tobacco. Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto’s CEO who made almost $8.5 million in compensation last year, recently lamented, “[Rio Tinto must do] a better job at managing the curse of resource nationalism... and the activism of stakeholder engagement.” Let me translate that for you: local people throughout the world are tired of being exploited for profit, they're starting to stand up for themselves, and Rio Tinto doesn't like it. Utah citizens tired of RTK’s pollution would be considered part of that “curse” to Rio Tinto executives.

This issue is simple: RTK can well afford to clean up, but they won’t, and no one is making them. Their contribution to our pollution is hurting all the residents of Salt Lake City and adding to the premature death total mentioned above. For environmental and public health advocates, RTK pursuing and receiving an approval to expand was “the last straw.”

If the core tenet of the Occupy Movement is that corporations and the 1% manipulate every level of government to serve their profit driven agendas and simultaneously disregard, if not openly undermine, the interests of the 99%, then there is no better example than RTK’s operation of Utah’s Bingham Canyon mine.
UPHE estimates that the mortality, health and environmental costs to the community from RTK pollution is between $2 billion and $4 billion, several times the value of the wages and taxes that they pay. Nonetheless, a massive PR budget allows RTK to heavily advertise themselves as “job providers”, and take virtually no responsibility for the various environmental and health consequences of their operations.

Frederick Douglass, the19th century civil rights leader, said,"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Let it be known that the people in Utah will no longer “quietly submit” to more pollution, more deaths, shortened life spans and poorer health to fatten the wallets in the London board room of Rio Tinto. We are going to “take back” the air we breathe

Odd Stories: Stay Septical people.

West Palm Beach – A three-person toilet paper scheme the perpetrators in jail.

Officials in Florida say the people involved in the con gained more than a million dollars from the plot. More than a dozen people were told they require special toilet paper to prevent their septic tanks from damage due to a federal regulation on toilet paper. They also sold customers what they call a “Septic Remedy treatment”, which would eliminate their customers' need to purge the tanks. Also available was special soap and detergent.

The trio, Christopher Lincoln, Mary Moore and Joseph Nouerand, plead guilty to the crime of wire fraud and say they will help authorities in obtaining information on another three people. The company under which they operated, FBK Products, presented itself as affiliated with the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture

For the record the EPA does not regulate septic systems despite what the company claims.

They are facing more around 20 years in jail.

Environmental Regulations Don't Kill Jobs

Washington D.C. - Anyone who tells you “environmental regulations kill jobs and hurt businesses” is at worst a liar and at best severely misinformed and there are documents to prove it.

Those who pay attention to politics, especially when it comes to regulation, knows the all-too-familiar rhetoric. After a regulation is proposed, usually by a Democrat, the Republicans moan and gnash their teeth about how it's going to destroy industries and put the country deeper into debt. While companies tell this to Republicans they are saying something completely different to their investors and financial regulators.

The Associated Press released an article in which two companies: DTEEnergy and FMC Corporation told Republican lawmakers what they want to hear regardless of the facts.

DTE Energy said on April 15^th to a House committee “Without the right policy, we could be headed for disaster.” In reality they don't know what effect it will have, saying to their investors it was “reviewing potential impacts of the proposed and recently finalized rules, but is not able to quantify the financial impact ... at this time." DTE environmental issues vice-president Skiles Boyd later said the testimony was meant to state the potential economic hardship on customers and the SEC report focused on the company's financial condition. Page 52 of the report (available if requested) states “We are subject to extensive environmental regulation. Additional costs may result as the effects of various substances on the environment are studied and governmental regulations are developed and implemented. Actual costs to comply could vary substantially. We expect to continue recovering environmental costs related to utility operations through rates charged to our customers.” In other words they will pass on the cost to the customer, but will not kill businesses or jobs.

FMC Corp's Jim Pearce, when called to a House hearing in February of 2010, said “The current U.S. approach to regulating greenhouse gases ... will lead U.S. natural soda ash producers to lose significant business to our offshore rivals...." Soda ash is used to produce glass, and is a major component of the company's business.” Just 13 days later in its SEC filings however the company said it was "premature to make any estimate of the costs of complying with unenacted federal climate change legislation, or as yet unimplemented federal regulations in the United States.

It continues to state (Note: Signing up is required to see the exact text, though I can email the document if requested) “At this point our U.S. facilities are not subject to any state or regional greenhouse gas regulation, and our foreign operations outside of Europe and Canada are not subject to national or local greenhouse gas regulation. Although some of our European and Canadian operations may be subject to greenhouse gas regulation, the cost to these facilities has not been and is not expected to be significant, and effect of European Union and Canadian greenhouse gas regulation has not been and is not expected to be material to FMC. We have considered the potential physical risks to FMC facilities and operations and the indirect consequences of regulation or business trends as a result of potential future climate change. Because of the many variables, not only with respect to the science, but also with respect to the nature and effect of future global climate change regulation itself, it is impossible to predict in any meaningful.”

However the truth isn't stopping the Republicans from touting their lies. Using the continued meme they plan to attack the President Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Environmental Protection Agency. They are also holding hearings and trying to pass several bills to stop environmental regulation from passing. None have passed the Senate. The Obama Administration doesn't help matters any when it postpones the regulations under the guise of “looking at them”, after which they silently throw it away or “give it up” in exchange for another proposal.

Thankfully not all of the Democrats break so easily. Henry Waxman, one of California's Representatives, said of the SEC filings they “show that the anti-regulation rhetoric in Washington is political hot air with little or no connection to reality." California Senator Barbra Boxer said about the bills “I will see to it, to the best of my ability, to try to stop everything...Republicans will lose seats over this.”

Thankfully some people in Washington are paying attention to not just what the businesses are saying but what they're putting in their economic reports as well. Otherwise we'd just have a bunch of people listening to and believing what is being told by them and nobody doing any fact-checking.