Word: epas
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...With 575 workers, the 80-acre smelter, operated by Asarco since 1905, pumps some $35 million annually into the Tacoma, Wash., area economy. Unfortunately, the smelter pumps out arsenic, a deadly cancer-causing poison that is released directly into the atmosphere as a byproduct of copper refining. Last week EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus announced details of a new federal air-quality standard for arsenic emissions. However, he left open a tough choice between a reduced but still clear risk of cancer for Tacoma residents and the loss of hundreds of jobs if the plant shuts down. Ruckelshaus' solution...
...EPA poses a choice between cancer risks and jobs...
Ruckelshaus called on Tacoma to hold public meetings on the issue next month, with EPA officials participating. Said he: "People need to hear more of what the administrator of this agency hears from the scientists: mainly, that we have a lot of gaps in our knowledge. Most people think the facts are clear, but it is often true that there is enormous dispute over what the facts are. And we just can't sit there and let nature take its course...
Ruckelshaus, who was the EPA's first administrator from 1970 to 1973, has issued new standards of conduct for relations with industry representatives, called for a uniform policy for assessing and coping with the risks of toxic chemicals, and stanched the budget cuts that critics charged were crippling enforcement programs. The new director has impressed White House officials, even the few who were initially reluctant to bring him aboard. "It's a measure of how much Reagan needed Bill," a friend of Ruckelshaus points out, "because he knew he was going to have to take Jill...
...with Reagan. Last year the President attempted to sack her, then backed down. She was due to be replaced again this year, but then her husband joined the Reagan team. Said an Administration official: "It would hardly be the thing to do to boot out the wife of your EPA director...