‘Poisoned Waters’ Press Event Features CLF Director, EPA Administrator
Environmental experts came together in Washington last week to highlight the challenges the United States faces to maintain a clean, safe water supply—and the opportunities for action based on scientific evidence and a renewed political will.  | CLF Director Dr. Robert Lawrence addresses the “Poisoned Waters” press conference. Listening, from left, are FRONTLINE Correspondent Hedrick Smith; EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson; Former EPA Administrator William Ruckleshaus ; and Ron Sims, King County, Washington, executive. |
At a sneak preview of the upcoming PBS documentary, Poisoned Waters, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday April 8, 250 members of the national news media, nongovernmental organizations, broadcast executives and environmental activists—joined by thousands watching via webcast—heard from a panel representing government officials and the scientific community. The panel of experts included Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator; William Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator; Dr. Robert Lawrence, CLF Director; and Ron Sims, county executive, King County, Wash. Poisoned Waters, produced for PBS’s FRONTLINE series by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Hedrick Smith, focuses on the states of both the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound 30 years after passage of the Clean Water Act. The film features interviews with several environmental experts, including Lawrence. “EPA is back on the job,” Administrator Jackson told the audience, noting the agency has some “extraordinary challenges” ahead. “Do we need to change? Yes, in everything from policy to enforcement, to an understanding, that, for better or worse, the hardest part of the issue is in front of us.” Jackson called attention to jurisdictional issues, one of the agencies’ roadblocks in tackling pollution complaints. “We need a legislative fix to clarify these jurisdictional issues,” she said, receiving a long round of applause. Hedrick Smith, who moderated the panel discussion, explained how research for the documentary led them to CLF Director Lawrence. “Science is giving us warnings…and one of the most interesting parts was the ‘new pollution’—the spreading of something called endocrine disruptors.” “There are 100,000 chemicals in use today…increasing at a rate of more than 10 new chemicals a day,” Lawrence told the audience, urging a heightened understanding of the effects of these chemicals, particularly persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, dioxin, and DDT. The food system is an entry point for many of these pollutants, he noted. “To raise the row crops to feed the 8 billion animals produced in the U.S. for human consumption, we add 1.3 billion pounds of pesticides per year to the environment.” Atrazine was banned in the European Union (EU) in 2004 because of its persistent groundwater contamination. In the United States, however, atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides, with 76 million pounds of it applied each year.  | Dr. Lawrence is interviewed for the “Poisoned Waters” documentary by Correspondent Hedrick Smith. The interview was conducted last June at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. |
“One of the things that I was told in my early days as a young physician was our genes cock the gun and the environment pulls the trigger,” said Lawrence. “There’s been a revolution in understanding how the human genome, through our genes, expresses itself. We now know there are genes that can be modified by environmental exposures, and that gene then behaves differently than it would have at the time of our birth. Some of the problems associated with these persistent organic pollutants in our waterways is the fact that they can fundamentally alter gene expression through a process known as epigenetics in addition to functioning as endocrine manipulators,” he said.
“Now, how good is the science?” asked Lawrence, repeating a question posed by crrespondent Smith. The CLF director referred to a recent study that showed women who had high levels of DDT in blood samples taken when they were teenagers had five times the risk of developing breast cancer over their lifetime than those in the same study group whose levels of DDT were low. “The literature is now filled with studies like this,” he warned. “We can take some of the pressure off the environment,” said Lawrence, calling attention to the large amount of pesticides and herbicides used in industrial agriculture. “The USDA recommends a daily allowance of meat one-third lower than we currently consume. Choose a meal tonight that is not dependent on intensive application of atrazine or pesticides,” he urged, using the Center’s Meatless Monday campaign as an example. The intensive cultivation of row crops is necessary to create the massive amount of grain needed to produce beef, pork and poultry products, said Lawrence. It is estimated that up to seven tons of grain is required to produce one ton of beef; four tons of grain to produce one ton of pork; two tons to produce one ton of poultry. “We can do better," he said. "Our own individual behavior is obviously the key.” Lawrence continued: “We have an opportunity, under the leadership of EPA Administrator Jackson, President Obama, and people at the local and state level, to do what the Institute of Medicine stated in its 1988 report on The Future of Public Health: ‘It is the duty of government to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy.’ That is our duty. It’s our responsibility in public health to identify not just the low-hanging fruit, but also help identify some of the really challenging problems and then work together on individual accountability, coupled with societal, regulatory guidance and enforcement.” William Ruckleshaus, who served during the Nixon administration as the first EPA administrator, compared the issues being faced by the EPA today with those three decades ago. “The difference today and 35 years ago is quite profound. There was an explosion of concern about the environment then,” he said, noting pollution from smokestacks and in streams, rivers and lakes was highly visible. “President Nixon responded to this demand because he could see the public was demanding it. It’s important to realize that all of this crying out has not been in vain. We should take hope in this progress and use it as a platform to address the more complex and difficult problems facing us today. We need a better scientific understanding of the interaction between human activities and the ecosystems we share,” he said. Ron Sims, a proponent for smart growth and preservation of green space, congratulated Administrator Jackson on her appointment, noting that, in his view, King County had lacked a federal partner that understood the environment issues related to the Puget Sound. “Rules that lead to good environmental outcome are important,” he said. “I’ve never been more excited for us to believe there is going to be a change in something as fundamental as our environment.” FRONTLINE’s Poisoned Waters can be viewed at http://www.pbs.org/frontline/poisonedwaters.
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