UD Restricts Farm Access

An Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award Winner THE Bring a New Orleans Hens beat Seahawks in worthy night to Newark, bird·battle at the Bob, Bl Cl 250 University Center University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 Tuesday & Friday • • FREE Volume 130, Issue 32 l,Vvyw.review.udel.edu February 24. 2004 UD restricts Groups file farm access mercUry suit BY ALIZA ISRAEL authorized personnel gain access BY STEPHEN MANGAT The mercury is used in Contribllling Editor to poultry farms on the Staff Reporter the electrolysis process when As of last week, the Delmarva Peninsula. Two environmental electricity is passed through Delaware Secretary of The gates leading to these groups filed a complaint Feb. saltwater to make chlorine. Agriculture ordered all poultry trails are locked in compliance 17 objecting to federal regu with this order, she said. Muller said while farms on the Delmarva lations on factories that use Peninsula to be restricted to only Morgan said she authorized Occidental Chemical is in authorized personnel because of the sign posted at the gym. mercury to produce chlorine, charge of the factory, the real the recent outbreak of the H7N2 A flier stating the same including one factory 10 problem lies in the political avian· influenza. information was distributed to miles south ofNewark. process. In compliance with this all university farm personnel, The complaint, filed by "In Delaware, industry is order, the university posted a she said. the Natural Resources in control of the political sys sign on the front door of the "The people who work on Defense Council and the tem, so enforcement of envi Carpenter Sports Building warn our farms really need to know Sierra Club in the U.S. ronmental regulations is lax," ing distance runners to refrain [about this restriction], because THE REVIEW/Erin Biles District Court of Appeals of he said. "It's the price we pay from traini ng on the farm roads they are likely to have contact Concerns about the avian flu found in Delaware prompt the District of Columbia, for letting industry control and trai Is. with other farms in the region," specifically asked the court to politics." The sign reads: "Attention she said. ed the state to close all poultry farms to the public, address the unclear limits for Distance Runners! Due to the Morgan said they could Muller said Delaware including the university farm on South Campus. mercury emissions set by the avian flu outbreak the transport avian influenza to the politicians need to have the Environmental Protection Agriculture Department has university farm, which is unin do to keep it from spreading." through those trails, so [now] we political will to tell chemical quarantined its flock and closed fected, from another location. Senior Mary Martini is a just run around South College Agency. plants to cut down on their all the roads on the farm to foot Anne Fitzgerald, chief of member of the cross country and Avenue and around the neigh The NRDC and the mercury emissions. and vehicle traffic. Please plan community relations for the track teams who frequently ran borhood by Park Place." Sierra Club contend that the "We have 'Governor your runs not to include any of Delaware Department of on the now gated trails with Fitzgerald said the regula EPA neglected as -much as 65 Pollution' in Dover who gets the farm roads." Agriculture, said humans cannot other distance runners. tion will be revoked approxi tons of poisonous mercury all her information from lob Maryann Rapposelli, assis contract this strain of avian She said she received notifi mately 30 days after the last case that escaped from a total of byists," he said, "so change tant director of recreational serv influenza, but they do spread it. cation of the restricted access of avian influenza was recog nine factories since 2000. isn't likely." ices, said employees of the "Avian influenza is easily through an e-mail from her nized. Jim Pew, attorney for Cynthia Bergman, spread by people who have Carpenter Sports Building and coach. "The last case that we have Earthjustice, who filed the spokeswoman for the EPA, various other university depart manure on their shoes or pick it Martini said the trails are had was Feb. 10. I hope it stays suit, said his clients want the stated in an e-mail message ments recei ved an e-mail from up in areas of poultry farms," ideal to train on because they are that way and I think it will," she the College of Agriculture and she said. "There's no history of EPA not just to figure out that the problem lies m the close to the Field House and run said. "We've had no new reports where the· mercury is going Natural Resources stating the this particular strain affecting ners know their exact length. since then and all tests from the nature of mercury. but also to set emissions stan restriction. humans, but it kills chickens. "We typically run there laboratory have come back neg "Since mercury is so Robin Morgan, dean of the "The reason that the popula once a week, but there's plenty ative as of Wednesday. dards for mercury. dense, a small volume College of Agriculture and tions are depopulated is because of other places to run on campus, "If no new results come in, "The legal hook is that accounts for a significant Natural Resources, said the it spreads so rapidly that the ini so it's not really an inconven the earliest [change] will be in the Clean Air Act set stan mass," she said. " Several tons Delaware Secretary of tial reaction of getting rid of the ience," she said. "We do a two or mid-March." dards for emissions," he said, of mercury could easily be Agriculture ordered that only flock is the safest thing you can three mile run when we run "but the EPA says that it is caught in the thousands of impossible to measure mercu pipe in one plant." ry emissions when they actu Bergman also said while ally have measured the emis the complaint filed alleges sions themselves. that 65 tons of mercury were "Not only are their emitted, EPA calculations Hearing to decide alcohol permit actions dangerous, but they yielded a much lower num are disingenuous, too." ber. Pew said after being Based on studies and BY TIM NICHOLS Bariglio declined to reveal the name of the rather see a restaurant that serves alcohol used, mercury often seeps emission estimates, EPA esti Staff Reporter restaurant moving into the former Main than the other way around," he said. into the ground surrounding mates total mercury emission A controversy has emerged as to Street Tavern property, but said the new Cpl. Tracy Simpson of Newark Police the factories, contaminating currently from this industry whether a proposed restaurant in Main Street business would be run well. said when The Brickyard occupied the space, water and hurting wildlife. to be 5.6 tons per year, she Galleria will be able to serve alcohol. "It's a company that has control, man police dealt with underage drinking and Allen Muller, executive said. The property, which formerly housed agement and is credit worthy," he said. unruly behavior. director of Greei1 Delaware, Bergman said the NRDC the Main Street Tavern and Grill, is current "They' re just a great company." "We used to get called up there several said the contamination of did not pro¥ide any data to ly waiting to receive a liquor license from City Councilman David Athey, 4th times for disorderly conduct," she said. wildlife and fish in particular support its assertion that 65 Delaware Alcohol Business Council District, said Main Street Galleria is located " When it changed hands and became the poses the greatest ri sk to tons were emitted. Commissioner John H. Cordrey. inside a zone prohibiting the sale of alcohol Main Street Tavern, we didn't have as much humans. Repeated phone calls However, Cordrey said the request by within 300 feet of buildings such as schools, trouble. I can't say there wasn't criminal "The mercury bio-accu ·made to Occidental Chemical Epicurious Restaurant Group, LLC, was churches and dormitories. activity, but our calls did go down." mulates and so bigger fi sh headquarters in Dallas were protested by a group of 24 citizens. However, Roy Lopata, the planning She credited the decline in disorderly have more mercury in them," not returned. A hearing is set for March 4 at the director for Newark, wrote in a letter to the conduct to greater adherence to the city's he said. "So, for example, Muller said he fully sup Carvel State Building in Wi-lmington, where ABC dated Oct. 30 indicating that a restau alcohol rules and the threat of a tine. tuna is now becoming unsafe ports the NRDC and the Cordrey will hear both sides and make his rant serving alcoholic beverages would not As for the possibility of a new restaurant -to eat." Sierra Club. decision. violate any existing zoning law. opening up shop in that location, Simpson He said the greatest dan "It's a simple no-brainer City Solicitor Roger Akin said the city Under a "grandfather clause," Lopata said that adhering to the city's alcohol regu ger is to pregnant women and to stop using mercury tech harbors concerns that establishments are said, the proposed restaurant would be zoned lations is a good way fo r the establishment to growing children ·because nology," he said. "There is no restaurants in name only and in reality to sell alcohol because the property sold stay out of trouble.

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