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EPA GIVES $125,000 FOR BAY AREA DIOXINS PROJECTS

Release Date: 10/16/2000
Contact Information: Leo Kay, U.S. EPA, (415)-744-2201

     SAN FRANCISCO--   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded two grants totalling $125,000 to the Association of Bay Area Governments that will fund pollution prevention efforts to reduce dioxins emissions from local municipalities.

     The funding will be used to help Bay Area cities and towns to explore and implement projects that could reduce dioxins emissions. Projects could range from retrofitting diesel vehicles to purchasing chlorine-free paper.  It also will fund a community liaison who will provide information to local governments, regulatory agencies, and community groups on dioxins-related issues.

    In the past two years, Oakland, Palo Alto, and Berkeley have passed zero dioxins resolutions, as have the city and county of San Francisco and Marin County.  ABAG has convened a Dioxins Task Force to help these local governments and other Bay Area communities address dioxins contamination.

     "This funding will help local governments who are showing leadership on this issue to come up with measures that can be taken to cut dioxins emissions, which in turn will benefit the entire Bay Area," said EPA Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus.  "We all know that dioxins are a serious public health threat   now it's time to reduce them at their myriad sources.  That's especially difficult for a compound that is so potent it's measured in parts per quadrillion.  Every little bit will help."

     "As with all types of pollution, government, industry and the public share responsibility for stopping dioxins pollution," said  Eugene Y. Leong, Executive Director of the Association of Bay Area Governments. "We are very happy that EPA is helping support our regional work. The community liaison will help those of us on the government side better understand local concerns about dioxins pollution and work together towards a solution. The pollution prevention initiative will provide the technical support to local governments to get them off the ground. Our work over the next few years will demonstrate our resolve towards the goal of stopping dioxins pollution."

     Dioxins are an extremely toxic group of man-made chemicals that are byproducts of various industrial activities.  In June, the U.S. EPA issued a draft reassessment on dioxins a known human carcinogen that found the compound to be ten times more toxic than originally believed.  The report found that most people carry a certain amount of the compound in their blood stream from eating dioxins-contaminated food, such as animal fat.  

   Last year, the EPA's San Francisco Office listed dioxins as a high priority environmental issue for the San Francisco Bay.  The decision set a timeline for federal, state and local regulators to search out dioxin sources in the Bay Area, and then devise pollution prevention projects to reduce dioxins emissions into air and water.  Many low-income men and women who subsistence fish in the bay are at enhanced risk from eating striped bass, white croaker and other fish contaminated with dioxins and mercury.