TITLE: 3 STATES' U.S. SENATORS PROPOSE BILL TO PURSUE RESEARCH INTO PFIESTERIA
BYLINE: LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
EST. PAGES: 1
DATE: 09/26/97
DOCID: NFLK72690971
SOURCE: The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA; NFLK
EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA; SECTION: LOCAL; PAGE: B1
(Copyright 1997)
One day after scientists said they found the first cell of
pfiesteria off the Outer Banks, a group of North Carolina, Virginia
and Maryland senators introduced congressional legislation that
could increase federal funds to study the micro-organism that
has killed millions of fish.
Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., co-sponsored the Pfiesteria Research
Act of 1997, which was introduced Thursday. The bill authorizes
the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
and the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate
research.
It also paves the way for federal funding for research at state
universities - including the Applied Aquatic Ecology Center being
established at North Carolina State University. N.C. State scientist
JoAnn Burkholder, a leading researcher of pfiesteria, helped discover
the microorganism in 1990.
Pfiesteria is a common organism but can take on a toxic form
under certain environmental conditions. Scientists believe pollution
triggers the transformation.The toxic form of pfiesteria has killed
or sickened millions of fish in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland
and is suspected of causing health problems among watermen and
researchers.
It usually is associated with inland waters. But on Wednesday,
a North Carolina water quality expert said a single cell of pfiesteria
was found about a mile south of Corolla, in the ocean off the
northern Outer Banks. He said swimming and fishing in that area,
however, could continue.
"Pfiesteria has become more than North Carolina's problem
and, as such, a federal response is needed," Faircloth said
Thursday. "The No. 1 need is research into this mystery,
what causes it and how we can stop it."
The federal legislation authorizes Congress to appropriate
$1.8 million for the N.C. State center. U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones
Jr., R-N.C., is planning to introduce the bill into the House
within the next few weeks. Then, if it becomes law, the federal
funding process would have to approve any appropriation.
"We're trying to get federal monies to study pfiesteria
from other bills, too," said Sean Callinicos, an environmental
attorney who works in Faircloth's Washington, D.C., office. "It's
pretty much a done deal that the EPA's spending bill will include
$3 million for pfiesteria research. And there's another $500,000
or so that's still up in the air for NOAA research at the Beaufort,
N.C., lab.
"The bill that was introduced today," Callinicos said Thursday, "sends a strong signal that pfiesteria is one of the most deserving research projects out there."
DESCRIPTORS: PFIESTERIA