[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 155 (Wednesday, December 1, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H7832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 AMPHIBIANS: CANARIES IN THE COAL MINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, it wasn't many years ago that coal miners 
relied on a small bird, a canary, to signal that conditions were toxic. 
The canary in the coal mine would become sick before the miners, who 
would then have a chance to either escape or to put on protective 
respirators.
  Today, our ecosystems face dire threats. Toxic gases, chemicals and 
the exploitation of our natural resources have jeopardized our air, 
water, lands and the wildlife that inhabit our ecosystems. The telltale 
sign? The frog, the ``canary in the coal mine'' of our natural 
environment, is sick.
  Today, nearly 33 percent of amphibian species are threatened, and 
estimates of species extinctions over the past several decades number 
in the hundreds. Losses of these species result from the usual 
suspects, land-use change, overexploitation and disease.
  Why all the emphasis on frogs? Aside from the fact that these animals 
regulate their local ecosystems and control populations of insects that 
spread disease, they are important to our human health as well. 
Findings point the way toward new drugs for fighting diseases such as 
cancer and HIV/AIDS. Scientists have reportedly found chemicals that 
are naturally produced in the skin of various frog species that can 
kill the HIV virus.
  But these medicinal tools are disappearing at astronomical rates. 
That should tell us something. A frog's skin is relatively thin and 
permeable to water, so frogs are directly exposed to pollutants such as 
coal ash and environmental radiation. In addition, their eggs are laid 
in ponds and other bodies of water where they absorb chemicals.
  The frog, the canary in the coal mine of our natural environment, is 
first in line in an environmental pollution war, a war the frog is 
quickly losing. If we don't heed this call, much like the miners who 
relied on their singing canary, we are destined for illness and, 
ultimately, shorter, unhealthier lives.
  Sadly, this degradation of human health and quality of life is 
already happening across the country. Colstrip, Montana, is home to the 
second-largest coal plant west of the Mississippi. One boxcar-full of 
coal is burned every 5 minutes. The burning coal creates sodium, 
thallium, mercury, boron, aluminum and arsenic, which is pumped out of 
the factory and into the air.
  The chemicals that aren't pumped into the air are caught in the 
factory scrubbers and then dumped with coal ash into giant settling 
ponds. These ponds are shallow artificial lakes of concentrated 
toxicity which leach this poison into wells and aquifers. The sludge 
flows into the surrounding towns and countryside, bubbling up against 
foundations and floorings, cracking the floor in Colstrip's local 
grocery store. Ranchers in eastern Montana are now suing the plant for 
damages. Noxious water, they cite, is the only liquid that fills their 
wells and stock ponds.
  James Hansen, a renowned climate scientist, says Colstrip will cause 
the extinction of 400 species. But Colstrip burns on. Why? Because we 
have no national energy plan and because there are currently no 
federally enforceable regulations specific to coal ash. This lack of 
federally enforceable safeguards is exactly what led to the disaster in 
Tennessee, where a dam holding more than 1 billion of gallons of toxic 
coal ash failed, destroying 300 acres, dozens of homes, killed fish and 
other wildlife and poisoned the Emory and Clinch Rivers.
  From Tennessee to Colstrip and across the Nation, the story is the 
same. We have no national conservation plan, no national energy policy, 
no regulatory reinforcement powers. And the biggest environmental 
disaster the country has ever faced, the Horizon Deepwater oil spill, 
has not propelled us any further toward passing a cap-and-trade bill 
through both Chambers. Senator Reid said they were sidestepping a cap-
and-trade bill for oil response legislation, but we haven't seen that 
either.
  Worse, as we mark 40 years of cleaner air under the Clean Air Act, it 
is heartbreaking that we must now fight to protect this monument law 
from attack. Some in Congress are considering weakening this landmark 
law, seeking to bail out polluters who continue to lobby for loopholes 
and giveaways that put Americans' health and safety at risk.
  We are poisoning our ecosystems, our animals and, yes, our frogs. We 
are poisoning our families, our communities, our Nation and our entire 
world. If we do not heed this canary song, we will only have ourselves 
to blame. And by the time we take notice, it may be too late.

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