Article which will appear in the March, 1998, Loma Prieta Sierra Club
newsletter.

NOT TIRED YET
A case study in environmental activism
by Dr. Donna Ghoul

When a small group of Cupertino residents attended that first gathering in Feb, 1996, organized by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition to investigate the proposal of their neighbor, Kaiser Cement, to burn tires as fuel, they never dreamed that their committment would extend beyond a few months. They weren't even sure that tire-burning was unsafe. After all, weren't the regulatory agencies there to protect the health of citizens and the environment?


Two years later, West Valley Citizens' Air Watch (WVCAW), the grass-roots organization that has emerged from those tentative beginnings, has garnered the support of the Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment, NRDC, Greenpeace, Bay Area Action, and many other groups. Members have conducted extensive research, met with city, county and state elected officials, sharing information through speaking engagements, radio and TV interviews and newspaper articles and letters, even a sign-waving demonstration. They have testified before the Air Board in San Francisco and traveled to Sacramento, successfully opposing a bill promoting tire burning. Last October, their efforts paid off when Kaiser, a subsidiary of a British multinational corporation, announced its plans for tire burning would be put on hold for the time being. "We're pleased that we've won a stay of execution, but the struggle is by no means over," says Leslie Fowler, a founding member. "Kaiser has simply shifted its attention to the state level, lobbying for favorable legislation and resolutions from regulatory agencies."


In fact, WVCAW's most recent challenge involved the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). This agency, charged with the disposition of all solid waste, was about to enact a resolution that promoted the burning of tires by "streamlining the permit process", and developing "workshops" jointly with "the interested industry..." targeted to help industry overcome citizen opposition. This inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars threatened to undermine all WVCAW's accomplishments by creating statewide momentum for tire burning. WVCAW members testifying before the CIWMB this October learned of the Dames and Moore (D&M) Report, which the Waste Board was citing as evidence that tire burning was safe. Two members, after pouring over this document, found a startling number of inconsistencies, unfounded conclusions, errors in data entries, mathematical calculations and statistical analyses. "The Dames and Moore report is seriously flawed to the point of absurdity," asserts Morgan Hoff who with Tim Brand prepared a six-page Critique which was sent to the Board.


In addition, WVCAW formed a completely independent panel of seven Ph.D.'s in the physical sciences from around the country. They were asked to evaluate the Dames and Moore Report on its merits to determine its scientific credibility and usefulness. They agreed unanimously that a report of the quality of Dames and Moore would be unacceptable in their professions, and that they would not be able to make a very important decision with wide- ranging implications for the health of millions of Californians based on the report.


Their comments were even more scathing. "The report is so imprecise in its explanations of its methodology and draws so many unsupported gratuitous conclusions that it seems more like a Public Relations press release than an actual scientific report," Jerry Wyss, Ph.D. Physics. "Although the data on which the D&M Report is based are voluntary submissions from facilities with vested economic interests in promoting tire burning, no attempt was made to determine whether or not the data is unbiased. Even if unfavorable data were not withheld, the quality of the data is so poor that any relative comparison of toxic emissions will be statistically meaningless," Paul Okamoto, Ph.D. Engineering Science. "Across-the-board approval based on the report would not be a scientifically sound action, and could be quite dangerous for some population centers," Richard Satterlie, Ph.D. Neurobiology.


After hearing these evaluations and critiques of the Dames and Moore Report at their January 28th hearing, the Board has sent the report back to the authors for a response. Tim Brand, who also wrote the WVCAW Critique, is blunt: "It is chilling to realize that a government agency could approve a report that ignores all the basic rules of research and science in order to rationalize incineration of potentially hazardous substances."


Indeed, one of the unintended repercussions of WVCAW's efforts at the state level may be that the California EPA will begin to subject such reports to closer scrutiny and more rigorous peer review. Marylin McCarthy of WVCAW observes, "We'd like to give our state agencies the benefit of the doubt; their staff may be overworked and unduly trusting of supposedly professional companies paid to generate legitimate reports. We're following the process with the Waste Board, and have asked them to inform us of the final fate of the Dames and Moore Report. We wonder how many other unacceptable reports like this are being used to justify and support policies that affect our health and our environment?"


Although the D&M Report was thoroughly debunked in WVCAW's dramatic testimony before the CIWMB in January, the Board backpedaled at the last minute and claimed that the report was never meant to be a risk assessment document. They then passed a new resolution that reconfirms their policy placing tire burning at the bottom of the hierarchy for used tire disposal.
Unfortunately, they continue to support tire burning as the major option and have not put all their energies into the numerous reduction and recycling alternatives to incineration. WVCAW believes they have achieved a partial victory, but they are committed to their mission to eliminate the threat of tire burning from the entire state. Joyce Eden speaks for the group when she says, " We've set our sights high...we realize that as long as tire burning is seen as a legitimate activity, no one in California living near one of the numerous cement kilns or cogeneration plants can be certain that tire burning will not arrive in their own back yard sooner or later. We've also learned a lot...about how to organize, mobilize support, get the attention of policy-makers, not be discouraged, and have fun at the same time !" To join WVCAW or for more information, email [] or call [] .
Their Web page is at http://members.aol.com/airwatch1/
2/98