EPA Targets Salmon-Killing Chemical Used in Car Tires
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- Created on Monday, 06 November 2023 15:06
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By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin the process to limit and possibly eliminate a chemical commonly used in car tires, after scientific studies found that the chemical — commonly known as 6PPD — is fatal to salmon.
The EPA announced its regulatory plans Thursday, answering a petition from three Native Tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut also supported the petition.
It likely will take years for the EPA’s rule-making process to take effect; the agency’s first step will be to require tire manufacturers to share their unpublished health and safety studies, but that’s not expected before the end of 2024.
A University of Washington study, funded by the EPA and published in late December 2020, conclusively linked 6PPD to mass die-offs of coho salmon in urban waterways around Seattle.
Followup studies by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, among others, have repeatedly confirmed the results.
The 6PPD chemical is used by all major tire manufacturers to reduce degradation and cracking. Tires deposit small amounts of rubber on the road with each revolution, and those deposits contain 6PPD, which then washes into neighboring waterways with snow and rain.
Limited testing has been done in Alaska, home to the nation’s largest salmon runs, but preliminary sampling in Anchorage in 2021 found levels of 6PPD that are lethal to coho salmon.
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20 YEARS AGO
November 2004
Sitka Community School’s Thanksgiving Turkey Trot drew 112 runners and walkers. In the 2.5-mile fun run Robert Sowers won in 17:15; Gary Smith was second in 17:54; Eric Speck was third at 18:11; George Wathen fourth at 19:50; Lincoln Wild fifth at 19:53; Torin Lehmann sixth at 20:06; Daniel Erickson seventh at 20:16; Andrew Friske ninth at 21:28; and Dan Baier tenth at 21:28.
50 YEARS AGO
November 1974
The Soroptimist Club met at Revard’s Thursday and began plans for the progressive dinner marking the 25th anniversary of the club’s beginning in Sitka, in 1949. The dinner will start at the home of Betty Shennett at Whitcomb’s Trailer Court, proceed to Marta Ryman’s, then to Bette Shupp’s and end up at Carolyn Young’s.
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