The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting to weaken the Clean Water Act’s pollution controls on selenium, a metal that in high doses has caused deformities and death in fish and waterfowl. Numerous scientists with years of experience examining the impacts of selenium on fish, birds, and other wildlife–including the author of a key study that is the basis of the new regulation–believe the EPA made egregious errors when developing the proposed selenium limit. In addition, they worry that it will not be easily implemented and will ultimately fail to adequately protect the health of organisms that could be poisoned or even killed by unsafe levels of selenium in their food. More…
