News of the Week

order was based on the threat to wildlife and the finding that the leaking reservoir threatened to pol­lute water supplies.

Since the simultaneous announce­ment of the decision in Washington, D.C., and in Los Banos, a town near the reservoir, at a Congressional hearing chaired by Rep. George Mil­ler (D.-Calif.), there have been fran­tic efforts to delay its implementa­tion, at least for this growing sea­son. Interior Department Solicitor Frank K. Richardson met last week in Sacramento with affected farm­ers to discuss alternatives to the im­mediate cutoff of irrigation water.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Richardson planned to recommend that Hodel delay the decision to cut off irriga­tion water for one year and to alter the decision to close the San Luis Drain so that farmers could dis­charge some drainage into Kesterson Reservoir. The changes would al­low farmers to plant and harvest crops this year and give them time

The White House's Council on En­vironmental Quality has issued a study recommending that the gov­ernment make long-term environ­mental research a higher priority. In the report, four scientific panels point out specific areas that they say need significantly increased re­search support.

A. Alan Hill, CEQ chairman, says the Environmental Protection Agen­cy requested the study to give EPA a broader outlook on research needs for the remainder of this century. The report, which consists mostly of the individual panel discussions and recommendations, is more tech­nical than most government R&D reports. That, Hill says, is what it is supposed to be. No additional funds were recommended for research, be­cause, Hill says, this would put sci­entists in a public policy making role, which was not one of the goals of the study.

Hill says a look at the issues found that environmental concerns could be divided into four areas, hence four panels . These are: human health impacts, geochemical and hy-

Hodel: Migratory Bird Treaty Act

to develop alternative methods for disposing of their tile drainage.

At press time, no decision on a l ter ing the decision had been reached, according to an Interior Department spokesman. •

drologic processes, environmental impacts, and monitoring and assess­ment of pol lutants . Richard M. Dowd, former head of EPA research, and spokesman for the individual panels, says many of the scientists believe that when it comes to envi­ronmental research "we're really running blind; we don't know what is going on."

Three topics came up continually in all of the panels, Dowd says: monitoring, institutional capacity, and multimedia approaches. Data measurements today are generally poor and definitely not adequate for making decisions, he adds. Monitoring has to get increased at­tention. There is no agency or of­fice in the government responsible for long-term research, the panels believe, and to carry out such a pro­gram, that kind of focus is required. The panels also recognize that pol­lution problems no longer can be simply defined as being in air, wa­ter, or soil. The time has come for more research into the relationships among these media.

Although these problems have all

been described before, Hill says, CEQ will make a determined effort to get the report's recommendations implemented. Funding for the proj­ect was provided by the National Science Foundation, National Insti­tute for Environmental Health Sci­ences, Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commis­sion. •

All uses of 2,4,5-T and silvex pesticides banned It's the end of the road for what were once the two most commonly used weed- and brush-killer pesti­cides in the U.S. The Environmen­tal Protection Agency last week ter­minated all registrations for the use of 2,4,5-T and silvex on rice fields, orchards, sugarcane, rangeland, and other noncrop sites.

The two pesticides—both chlori­nated phenoxy compounds—were first registered in 1948. But they ran into trouble in 1970, when ani­mal tests of 2,4,5-T showed poten­tial teratogenic effects. The Depart­ment of Agriculture halted use of the pesticide in instances in which there was a high human exposure potential, including its use on all food crops, except rice. Then in 1979 EPA took emergency action in sus­pending almost all uses of 2,4,5-T and silvex. The suspension was based on evidence that a contami­nant in the pesticides, 2,3,7,8-tetra-cholorodibenzo-/?-dioxin, posed po­tential risk of miscarriage, birth de­fects, and cancer.

The pesticides' fate was actually sealed in October 1983 when Dow Chemical requested the cancellation of all its registrations for the use of 2,4,5-T and silvex. The company had stopped producing the pesticides in 1979 but still spent more than $10 million defending them from charg­es that they were dangerous. At the time, a Dow vice president main­tained that "the great weight of the scientific evidence confirms that 2,4,5-T can be used safely without undue risk to people or the envi­ronment. But we believe further ex­penditures of Dow and EPA re­sources on the issue are not likely to be productive." •

More funds for environmental research urged

6 March 25, 1985 C&EN