Pubdate: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 Source: Blade, The (OH) Copyright: 1999 The Blade. Contact: 541 North Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 Website: http://www.toledoblade.com/ EDITORIAL: ENVIRONMENTAL CATCH 22 The road to environmental ruin may be paved with good intentions, but disastrous ends don't differentiate between good and bad. It's not too late for Florida to avoid a potential environmental disaster, but the Environmental Protection Agency learned the hard way about defending air-cleaning ingredients added to gasoline sold in big cities. Turns out the stuff that was cleaning the air was also polluting the water. Now the EPA, which had previously promoted the use of the pollution-fighting chemical called MTBE, is backpedaling about its dubious benefits. After receiving a report detailing how easily the chemical additive dissolves in water and can contaminate tap water systems with suspected carcinogens, the agency is rushing to reverse a rule mandated by the Clean Air Act of 1990. EPA administrator Carol Browner wants Congress to withdraw the order that oil companies supplying those regions of the nation that have heavy air pollution must add the chemical to all gasoline sold so that engines run better and tailpipe pollution is reduced. A panel studying the adverse environmental effects of MTBE discovered it had seeped into local water supplies either through gas spills or underground storage tank leaks. Besides tainting the drinking water, the chemical also disrupted the beneficial work of microbes in the soil that digest natural hydrocarbons, rendering them harmless. Much to its dismay, the EPA realized what was curing one ill - namely air pollution caused by exhaust fumes - was actually creating another type of harmful pollution. California was so concerned that significant amounts of its water supply would be made unusable by MTBE that it ordered oil companies to phase out use of the chemical by 2002. The EPA granted the state special dispensation to develop its own clean air policies because smoggy Los Angeles is more polluted than the rest of the country. In weighing the advantages and disadvantages of environmental policy, the EPA's balancing act is similar to a dilemma facing Florida. The state wants to introduce a foreign, living substance into the environment - a marijuana-eating fungus - to eradicate a thriving criminal crop in the state. Florida drug czar Jim McDonough notes that 47 per cent of the marijuana seized in the United States comes from the Sunshine State and much of it is home-grown. The proposed solution is a bioherbicide, specifically engineered to attack only marijuana plants. But, like the EPA's move to stem air pollution, Florida's fungus battle plan also portends environmental problems. While the state is studying the pros and cons of using biological agents to destroy illegal narcotic plants, critics are voicing alarm about what the soil fungus could wind up destroying besides marijuana. Bill Graves, senior biologist at the University of Florida Research Center, worries about the fungus possibly mutating, with nightmarish consequences. "I believe that if this fungus is unleashed for this kind of problem, it's going to create its own problems. If it isn't executed effectively, it's going to target and kill rare and endangered plants," he said. We hope Florida will scrap its latest strategy to fight the state's marijuana growers before it gains much more support. As even the EPA can attest, good intentions are not always reason enough to mess with Mother Nature. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck