DISPATCHES
Saving the Shenandoah
 Signs posted along the banks of the south fork of the Shenandoah River and the South River in Virginia warn visitors not to eat any fish caught there; they contain dangerous levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Although 55 years have passed since the DuPont textile plant in Waynesboro stopped discharging mercury into the rivers, the toxin still remains. NRDC filed suit against DuPont in 2003, charging that the contamination posed an imminent threat to public and environmental health. Last spring DuPont settled the suit by agreeing to conduct a rigorous ecological study of the extent of the contamination downstream and what can be done to restore these once splendid American rivers. The study, to be overseen by NRDC, will be the first to assess thoroughly the damage to the rivers after decades of industrial pollution. "NRDC will closely monitor the study and we will go back to court, if necessary, to pursue the cleanup," senior attorney Nancy Marks says. "I'm confident that sometime in the future, we will see the rivers healthy again."
Viva Vaquita Marina!
The California Gulf porpoise, or vaquita marina, is the rarest of sea mammals, living only in the upper Gulf of California. Biologists estimate that just 500 of the porpoises remain, and as commercial fishermen continue to snare them in shrimp and fishing nets, this animal inches closer to extinction. Last summer, just five months after NRDC named the upper Gulf of California as one of its BioGems, U.S. and Mexican conservation groups, led by NRDC, reached an agreement with local fishermen and the San Diego-based company Ocean Garden Products -- the largest importer of Mexican shrimp -- that aims to prevent the small porpoises from being drowned in nets. The agreement also establishes a monitoring program to prevent illegal fishing and to reduce the accidental killing of other species. "We hope to save one of the world's rarest animals while assuring a strong, sustainable future for the fishing communities of the upper Gulf of California," says Ari Hershowitz, director of NRDC's Latin American BioGems campaign.
|
|
|
Lake Powell is Florida's largest coastal dune lake, situated just inland from the Gulf of Mexico in the state's wetlands-rich panhandle. The wetlands act as a natural water filter for the region's aquifer, and also as a natural hurricane buffer. The St. Joe Company, Florida's largest private landowner, wants to build golf courses and 1,300 houses along the shores of the lake, as well as the shores of nearby West Bay and Choctawhatchee Bay. And in what can be seen as nothing other than a giant handout to the real estate industry, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted Florida developers an unprecedented general permit that does not require environmental review for new construction projects throughout a 48,000-acre area that includes the lake and both bays. As a result, St. Joe and other developers are free to fill in wetlands with few restrictions. NRDC filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent St. Joe's plans from moving forward, and last November, the federal court in Jacksonville granted it. In February, the court will rule on a suit filed by NRDC last spring challenging the legality of the corps' general permit.
|
|
|
|
