Point Reyes Light - September 29, 2005 Somewhat logically John Hulls
BS in Tomales Bay traced to Oakland Princeton University professor Harry G. Frankfurt has done us all a valuable service in looking into the true nature of institutional deception and its effect on society. In a small book (Princeton University Press), titled On Bullshit, Professor Frankfurt reviews numerous ways BS can be so widely disseminated as to affect all aspects of modern life. Scientific BS, for example, often consists of leaving out crucial information. Take the "intelligent design" advocates. You simply cannot have an honest debate with these folks, so they should simply be called on their BS and then ignored. The Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank in Seattle that is the source of much of this malarkey, claims that "intelligent design" is not religious, nor motivated by religion, and merely makes "scientific" claims that Darwin is incorrect. Their "science" is BS, but it is BS with a purpose. The institute’s "Wedge Strategy," which has now been leaked to the public, consists of a 20-year program that seeks to drive a wedge between the "devastating cultural consequences of scientific materialism" and "the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God." As an excellent article, A Skeptics Guide to Intelligent Design, reported in the July 9-15 New Scientist, the Discovery Institute’s response to it agenda being exposed is that it is "just a fundraising document." This disingenuous spin is a prime example of Professor Frankfurt’s description of institutional BS. A West Marin example of leaving out crucial information to advance a very questionable agenda was demonstrated last week by staff of the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is based in Oakland. At a meeting where the board established maximum-pollution levels for Tomales Bay, staff so jiggered research data that it became pure BS. The "TMDL" (Total Maximum Daily Load), the board adopted last week sets a limit on how much bacteria-laden waste can go into the bay. Many West Marin folks, myself included, met the deadline for submitting questions to the RWQCB, but the staff’s only action was to post largely non-responsive answers on the web only days before the meeting, simply not enough time to analyze and respond. I will dwell on only one staff response because it is the most disturbing. When questioned about the large amount of waste from wildlife, which has been documented in bays up and down the West and East Coasts, staff responded that their data show that wildlife doesn’t make a significant contribution to the bacterial load. This assertion is directly contradicted by the RWQCB’s own data. Water samples had been taken at White Gulch below the tule-elk range in the Point Reyes National Seashore. The RWQCB staff had sampled creek water below White Gulch to use as a baseline on bacterial pollution from wildlife because there are no livestock or septic systems anywhere near the area. David Lewis of UC Cooperative Extension noted that even though RWQCB staff themselves selected White Gulch as free of human and agricultural bacterial influence, the measured pollution levels are several times higher than the new pollution standards for creeks flowing into the bay, and are therefore clearly from wildlife. Worse yet is how RWQCB staff simply ignored data from another water-sampling site (labeled Marshall Near Shore No. 44). This site was chosen to test for bacteria from septic tanks in the area, but the amount of bacteria here was not significantly different from the amount of bacteria at water-sampling sites without houses. Dr. Brian Schrag at Indiana University heads a National Science Foundation program on research ethics. As such, he insists that when researchers substitute data that reinforces their theory for data that contradicts it, the researchers are obliged to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that any interested party must be made aware of the contradictory data that is being ignored; moreover, the researchers must clearly explain and document the scientific rationale supporting their ignoring uncomfortable data or substituting more favorable data. In their presentation to the RWQCB, staff never directly mentioned their White Gulch data. A couple of times the staff made vague allusions to the White Gulch testing, but in no way did they cpme close to observing scientific ethics, as outlined by Professor Schrag. What is doubly frustrating is that the US Environmental Protection Agency’s handbook, Protocol for Developing Pathogen TMDLs (the recently approved standard) mentions many of the potential sources of bacterial pollution that West Marin residents have been specifically concerned about, such as how much bacteria can be attributed to septic tanks, domestic animals and wildlife. It also gives examples of TMDLs developed with an EPA computer model (called BASINS). BASINS, which is available at no charge from the federal government, allows a rapid analysis of where bacterial waste comes from and what the result would be if those bacteria were reduced in individual creeks within a watershed. The EPA gives examples of using DNA and other bacterial/microbial tracking methods to determine the specific animals waste in a creek is coming from – something many folks in West Marin want to see done. RWQCB says no and claims the EPA says such tracking isn’t practical. However, when you actually read the EPA’s Microbial Source Tracking Guide document, it’s not the negative document that RWQCB say it is; rather, it’s a thorough guide to the many tracking techniques. It indicates when to use tracking and gives examples of TMDL standards developed with bacteria tracking. As federal EPA staff have told The Light, there is a huge disconnect between the EPA in Washington and what occurs at the regional level. So, what’s to be done? The TMDL approved by the regional board must still be approved by the State Water Resources Control Board, the state Office of Administrative Law, and the federal EPA. If the regional board is not called to account for its jiggering of data – that the bay is seriously polluted by bacteria from failed septic tanks – the lie, through repetition, will become embedded in the bureaucratic consciousness and used to justify widespread expensive engineering and replacement of septic systems. Simple tracking of the source of bacteria can block the RWQCB’s cavalier approach to setting TMDL standards. Failure to scientifically determine sources of contamination will result in endless studies, evaluations, and projects. These will create uncertainty and ongoing costs for county government, residents of the Tomales Bay watershed, ranchers, and shellfish growers. The RWQCB seems to be at the beck and call of bureaucrats, not scientists, and their TMDL would provide them high-paid employment for years. By the RWQCB staff’s own admission, the new TMDL is going to cost Marin County and its citizens millions of dollars. And in the end, Tomales Bay may not be any better protected than it is right now. For as scientists – as opposed to bureaucrats – know, wildlife really can and really do account for much of the fecal bacteria in coastal waters and only good science will tell us how much. Dr. Corey Goodman, a Marshall resident and member of the National Academy of Sciences, previously offered to assist RWQCB in assembling a world-class panel of scientific experts to provide advice on Bacterial Source Tracking. Dr. Goodman is a past chairman of the academy’s Board on Life Sciences, which has already conducted studies of waterborne pathogens for the EPA. He has also generously offered to allow his own ranch land to be used for the proposed East Shore community septic system. Perhaps RWQCB could be persuaded to ask Dr. Goodman to assemble a truly independent academy review panel and determine if their TMDL is science, or as Proefssor Frankfurt’s book put it, that substance which is "a greater enemy of the truth than lies are". No bull. Editor’s note: Not only are the misrepresentations in the regional board staff’s report so egregious that any attempt to use it for legal enforcement is bound to fail. Attempts to secure grant money virtually guarantees litigation against the grantor and the grantee. In the meantime, The Light is asking the Marin County Grand Jury to investigate how residents here will be affected if county government acquiesces to the new TMDL. |