123 



Columl.us's Mayor at ihe time 

 tana Duck Rinchnn. n Republican' 

 romplly named Mi Pompili chair-' 

 '.-in of ihc . y team ihai published 

 ic environmental slucty in Mav 1991 



The report said lha, to meet ckuens 

 f Fcdera' cnvironmcmal require- 

 .cms. Columbus laced Si 3 billion lo 

 1 u billirm ■ new expenses from 1991 

 uough ihe end of ,hc decade dc- 

 ending on he inflation rnte Virtual 



ill ul i 



• fi or 



Of Hi' SVil milium | Ml cuv ImuVul 

 $62 million, o, II percent, was dc! 

 voted to environmental protections 

 Mi." year, ihc average Columbus 

 household paid i 1 GO fui that purpose 



The study said Hint by the end of 

 the dread':, il cvciy Federal require- 

 ment were met. Columbus's environ 

 menial budgci would more than 

 triple to -2IS million, or roughly 27 

 percent ..; the city's SSIO million 

 budget p:ii|ccted fin the year 2000 

 The cost hi .-i household lor environ- 

 mental protection would be $856 that 

 ycai - more than the cost of fire or 

 police protection 



"When we came up with these 

 kinds of costs, we also looked for the 

 justification and just couldn't find 

 much there,'' Mr Pompili snid "I 

 had to v.ondcr. Am I out of touch' I 

 have worked all mv life to protect 

 people bom environmental harm 

 Am I looking at these issues in the 

 wrong way?" 



Now. he said. "I no longer ask those 

 questions because I'm convinced that 

 we are doing the right thing." 



Mr. Pompili said he wants clean air 

 and water as much as anyone else 

 ("This city will not survive without a 

 clean environment"), but he added' 

 "What bothers me is thai the new 

 rules coming out of Washington are 

 taking money from decent programs 

 and making me waste them on less 

 important problems It kills you as a 

 city official to sec this kind of money 

 being spent lor nothing " 



The Revolt 



Battling Radon: 

 Changing Targets 



Officials in many other cities leel 

 (he same way Late last year, Has- 

 tings. Neb. began its own review of 

 environmental costs and concluded 

 thai ttjc single biggest drain on its 

 treasury was the $65 million it would 

 take to build a treatment plant to 

 meet a proposed E PA rule for re- 

 moving radon from the city's water. 



Radon is a radioactive gas formed 

 naturally when radium decays in 

 rocks and soil. It is frequently found 

 at trace levels in water pumped from 

 the ground Before the EPA pro- 

 posal, made under authority of the 

 Safe Drinking Water Act, almost no 

 public-health specialist had consid- 

 ered radon in drinking water to be 

 any son of threat. And for years 

 Hastings had been boasting that its 

 water supply was so clean that it 

 rouid be pumped from an under- 



ground oquife, ajrecu 

 homes of 23.000 residents 



Lnsi year, however, ihc E P A said 

 Hastings did have a problem with 

 water: Radon levels exceeded the 

 proposed safety limn Dm critics of 

 the proposal, including some agency 

 olficials. said the EPA 's decision lb 

 tackle the issue was a lesson in the 

 dangers of using weak scientific as- 

 sumptions lo vine an expensive new 

 regulation, even while many experts 

 found the idea absurd. 



Many studies of radon have shown 

 'nm it is harmful only if inhaled at 

 high levels ovc, a longpcnod Almost 

 30 yrnrs ago. the Government did 



nfi 



thai 



nets 



ihe 



West contracted lung cancer after 

 years of working in the mines, where 

 they were exposed io some of the 

 highest levels of radon ever recorded 

 Among those who died, though many 

 were heavy smokers 



Then, during the 1980s, the E P A 

 found significant levels of radon in 10 

 percent of the homes they surveyed 

 across ihe country That led the 

 t PA lo call radon the most serious 

 environmental public health threat 

 the nation faced. It was a menace so 

 great, the agency said, that radon 

 was probably causing up to 20.000 



cases ol lung cancer a year. 



That estimate has come under in- 

 tense criticism from many radiatton- 

 health specialists, who have called it 

 unscientific and wildly exaggerated. 

 Going After the Water 



But the EPA ignored the criu- 

 cism and set an unofficial guidehrjj'. 

 for the amount of radon it considered 

 safe in homes. The agency has bee* 

 reluctant to make the limit legally 

 enforceable because of the backlaslV 

 that some E.P.A. officials feared- 

 from homeowners. Hundreds of ihouV 

 sands would have had lo spend thou- 

 sands of dollars on ventilation equip"! 

 mem to clear radon from basements^. 



Since the agency was unwilling to 

 regulate the air in private homes, 

 EPA. scientists and technical ex- 

 perts chose to defend their assess^ 

 ment that radon was a menace by 

 taking action against the only other' 

 source in homes: tap water. So the 

 EPA. proposed a legally enforceable, 

 limit on radon in water. 



Scientists who have looked ai thtr 

 issue said the threat to health from 

 radon in water, if there is one at all, 

 can come only from inhaling radon; 

 that evaporates, particularly during'! 

 showering. In other words, the Gov^' 

 ernment was frying to prevent some- 

 one from getting lung cancer from 

 their morning showers. 



Independent radiation-health ex- 

 perts said that in virtually every area 

 of the United Stales, ihe amount of 

 radon that evaporates from water is 

 only onc-thirlieih to one one-hun- 

 dredth of what is already naturally in 

 the air These experts said Ihe regula ; ' I 

 lion docs nothing to proieci health'! 

 "II 's a silly thing that EPA. is pro-." 

 posing because radon in waler is an ' 

 insignificant public health hazard."' 

 said Dr Ralph E Lapp, a radiation 

 physicist in Alexandria. Va.. and au- 

 thor ol 22 books on radialion and 

 public health. 



If the regulation becomes final the 

 cost to Install filtering equipment ,n 

 public water systems in.ihc Uniied' 

 Siaici would be JI0 billion to $20" 

 billion, according to estimates made 

 by several states. The Association of 

 California Water Agencies recently 

 estimated that the cost in California 

 would approach %4 billion 



How do we explain to our resi- 

 dents the need for a regulation that 

 costs as much as tins one will and' 

 doesn't prov.de any public-health 

 l>ciieliis->" asked Dr Adi Pour the 

 'oncologist lor the Nebraska Depart-, 

 mem ol Health "if this kind of rule- 

 making continues, it's going to hurt 

 public confidence in environmental 

 protection." 



The protests prompted Congress' 

 last year to pass legislation spon- 

 sored by Scnaior John H. Chafec 

 Republican of Rhode Island that pre!'- 

 vented the E.P.A. from making the 

 radon rule final until the agency 

 looked at the benefits and costs again 

 When asked about the rule. Martha G. - 

 Prothro. the acting Assistant Admin- 

 istrator for Water at the EPA ac- 

 knowledged: "We may have gone' fur- 

 ther than we need to in human health 

 concerns. It's appropriate to go back 

 and look at this proposal." 



So for now, Hastings. Neb., has.,', 

 been given a reprieve. 



Back In Columbus 



As for that parking lot in Columbus ' 

 City engineers are still working on , 

 ihe problem. One idea they proposed - 

 was lo dig up ihe dirt, turn it over and 

 allow the chemicals lo evaporate 



But Ihc slate said Federal law for- -, 

 bade thai. The engineers ihen pro--' 

 posed inserting pipes beneath the 

 ground, pqmping air lo Ihe surface 

 and trapping and filtering chemicals 

 lhat arc released. The slate environ- 

 mental agency is considering that 

 idea. The estimaicd cost: $250 000 lo 

 $500,000. 



