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Help Protect Kentucky’s Fish from Toxic Selenium
Two headed trout, a result of selenium pollution. Courtesy of USFWS.
The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet is currently attempting to significantly weaken the state’s water quality standards for selenium.
Selenium is a pollutant common at some coal mines and it kills and deforms fish. At high enough concentrations it becomes toxic to people as well.
Selenium is very expensive to treat, so by loosening the standards, the Cabinet is trying to protect the bottom line of polluters at the expense of the health of the state’s waterways and those that depend on them.
To learn more about selenium and why it is a problem in Kentucky, click here to read our selenium fact sheet (PDF).
Public comments are still being accepted through Friday, March 1. Please help protect Kentucky’s fish from the toxic effects of selenium. Make your voice heard by clicking here to submit comments; it will only take a minute.
The Daily Show did a piece on selenium pollution from phosphorus mines in Idaho. The similarities between what happened there and what is going on in Kentucky are striking.
Protecting the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountain Region
2013-02-27 12:47:08
Source: http://appvoices.org/2013/02/27/help-protect-kentucky%e2%80%99s-fish-from-toxic-selenium/
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