Carter crack-down on pollution

Press, 25 May 1977, Page 8

Carter crack-down on pollution

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Carter has told Congress that he is ordering stricter enforcement of antipollution laws and improved protection of wildlife and wilderness areas of the United States. In a special message, Mr Carter promised a crackdown on the presence of toxic chemicals in the environment, and instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to develop standards requiring industry to use fhe best available technology to clean up chemical discharges by 1983.

“The presence of toxic chemicals in our environment is one of the grimmest discoveries of the industrial era,” the President said. The President’s message did not request large new spending programmes but emphasised better and stricter enforcement of existing laws, especially those dealing with water and air pollution. The message also contained an executive order restricting the introduction of potentially harmful foreign plants and animals into the United States.