I had already received this.  Here is a response from an ecologist at Fairmont State University.

 

Karen,

 

I read the letter that Ms. Fox would like to send earlier today, and appreciate some of her frustration.  But the problem as I see it is not the inability of the EPA et.al to communicate, but that chemicals do not have to get any toxicity testing before they are used in the environment, unlike medicines and the FDA.  The is due to the power of the industrial complex which controls congress and the state legislature.  Having worked in ecotoxicology for a while as a PhD student I called it bio-prostitution.

 

I found it very funny, but not unexpected that Manchin and Tomblin who are in the back pocket of the extractive industry in WV are both NOW calling for inspections.  You can bet that they already talked to the buddies and said “hey look I’ve got to say this now, but you know I’ve got your back”. 

 

Anyway from what I know the letter would not do any good.  It is congress that has to say “before you can use this substance in the environment you have to show it does no harm” the EPA does not have the money or the legal right to do so, so the MSDS don’t have adequate information to protect the public or the environment.

 

Phil

 

From: Paul Wilson [mailto:pjgrunt@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 11:47 AM
To: Gary Nelson; Gwen Jones; Yarnell, Karen
Subject: Fwd: WV water situation - response requested

 

Thought you guys might be interested in signing on to this letter from WV scientists and health Professionals.  best, paul 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Danielle Fox <DFox@ucsusa.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 11:15 AM
Subject: WV water situation - response requested
To: "pjgrunt@gmail.com" <pjgrunt@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Wilson,

I'm writing to see if you would be willing to sign on to a letter from scientists and health professionals regarding the current water crisis after the Elk River chemical spill. I have a PDF here the letter for your review: http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/center-for-science-and-democracy/letter-to-epa-cdc-from-wv-scientists.pdf .

To say the least, there has been significant confusion and often contradictory information regarding the safety of the water supply. Part of the problem is that the EPA, CDC, and other government agencies have failed to make scientific experts available to the public and the press to share what is known and what is not known about the chemical that leaked into the river.  My colleague Gretchen Goldman has a blog post that details some of the concerns we have: http://blog.ucsusa.org/is-the-water-safe-the-west-virginia-chemical-spill-and-the-importance-of-scientists-speaking-to-the-media-380. 

This ongoing situation allows us to demonstrate to federal officials that their decisions limiting the ability of government scientists to share their expertise with the public have significant real world consequences. After we send the letter to EPA and CDC officials and make it public, we will use it in follow-up meetings with agency staff. 

It would be helpful if you could respond to this message by tomorrow evening so that we may get the letter ready this week. When you respond, assuming you are willing to sign the letter, please let me know how you would like to be listed: 

FULL NAME:

TITLE, IF APPLICABLE: 

DEPARTMENT, IF APPLICABLE: 

INSTITUTION (for identification purposes only): 

CITY: 

ZIP CODE:

FIELD OF STUDY: 

HIGHEST DEGREE ACHIEVED: 

Also, please feel free to send this letter on to colleagues. The letter is open for signature by scientists and health professionals with or working towards advanced degrees in their fields who live or work in West Virginia. 

I look forward to hearing back from you, and am happy to answer any questions you might have. 

Best, 

Danielle Fox