🚀 go-pugleaf

We filed our final brief October 16 and this important environmental
is now in the hands of three federal judges, without the benefits of
any public participation. Even the media does not to seem to
interested. Is this too technical to understand?

NEWS RELEASE
October 1995


"Flushing Toilets Causing Major Shift In Food Chain" ; "Waterways Not
Cleaner, Only Greener" ; "Coral Reefs Disappearing" ; " Estuaries and
Wetland Endangered as Breeding Grounds for Fish" ; "Red Tide Kills
Dolphins" ; "Surface Water Unsuitable for Drinking Water" ;
" Waterways Still Urinals for Cities" ; "Billion of Public Funds Down
he Sewer" ; " New Plant Designed to Treat Wrong Waste" ; "Odors
PlagueNew Plant".  All these headlines could be supported by articles,
based on scientific evidence and are caused by the fact, that:  "EPA
Failed to Implement the Clean Water Act, due to Incorrect Testing".

A coalition of environmental groups and individuals filed a PETITION
FOR REVIEW with the UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH
CIRCUIT against the Environmental Protection Agency, in order to force
the nation's guardian of the Clean Water Act to implement the Act as
it was intended by Congress and promised to the American Public.  
The Petitioners are:  Peter Maier, P.E.(Utah), Intermountain Water
Alliance (Utah), Utah Wilderness Association,  Atlantic States Legal
Foundation (New York) and Kay Henry (Idaho).

 Present regulations control only 35% of the pollutants in sewage.
Urine and proteins (nitrogenous) waste is completely ignored and so is
a significant portion of the fecal (carbonaceous) waste.  As Peter
Maier, professional engineer , explains : "The present regulations are
based on 1972  treatment technology, mainly developed to address odor
problems.  This technology used the BOD5 (Biochemical Oxygen Demand
after 5 days) test parameter, while the ultimate BOD test would take
30 days.  The 5-day test reading represents only 40% of the BOD
pollution elements and also does not distinguish between nitrogenous
or carbonaceous BOD waste.  SEWAGE STINKS, but  sewage is also an
essential link in the food chain.  Nutrients discharged from sewage
treatment plants, at least equal to two million bags of fertilizer per
day, are causing a major shift in the food chains.  If modern men
wants the convenience of flushing toilets, we have to make sure that
such action will not affect the food chains of our ecosystems.  AND,
in order to design the best sewage treatment, we have to know the
waste elements in raw sewage.  A multi million dollar public facility
should NOT be designed and based on faulty assumptions, made in 1920."

As Matt Kenna, attorney for the petitioners, states:  "the EPA has the
legal obligation to revise its regulation when it is clear that better
sewage treatment can be achieved at competitive cost.  EPA's own data
shows, that much better sewage treatment can be obtained at equal or
even lower cost.  Present regulations are obsolete and not
scientifically defensible.  EPA can not avoid this issue any longer".

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT PETER MAIER AT (801) 882-5052 OR
MATT KENNA AT (970) 385-6941.