Tales of our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
Science and big city news have an old problem that is far worse for the news: How do you measure something without changing it by measuring? Be aware.
The news airs oddities about people. Popular issues in the news highlight celebrities. “Liar” appears in the news more than would be provable. Most (though not all) of these claims in fact hinge on which parts of the truth are left out of the picture. The news says the least of all about fruitful means of judging issues.
Ways that remedy public problems have certain traits. They all rely on field work done by plain people guided by a process of judgment. These dynamics bear fruit slowly, although likely faster than the fads in the news. Strange to say, old-school methods win brand-new results.
To keep things real, I have a firsthand example that is full of relevant work products. For 18 years, I have been involved with the Community Environmental Working Group (CEWG) associated with the Intel computer chip plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Others involved in the CEWG for 18 years were Mike Williams and Hugh Church. The mission of the CEWG is to make environmental improvements at Intel New Mexico, including reducing chemical emissions, and to improve community dialogue. A $20 billion Intel plant in the works near Columbus, Ohio, and its neighbors might well benefit from fruitful means of judging issues.
The CEWG has a long record that documents ways of sorting out problems. The full record can be seen at https:////www.cewg.org/. The value of any work group begins with how it is formed. The makeup of the CEWG reflects a pragmatic process seen in court trials. That is, the CEWG has capable members to advocate against Intel, capable advocates from Intel, and capable advocates for the process of gathering and judging evidence. Strength in all three areas is required to achieve well-tested answers to real concerns.
Trials show how greatly the quest for truth depends on each competing interest having able advocates. An “able advocate” does not deal in generalities nor insults. Rather, an able advocate knows the range of needed evidence and knows ways to gather it. For work in any other format, the quest to find the truth also needs able advocates on all sides. The need follows from human nature itself.
Able advocates know the value of probing questions and their prospects. The CEWG keeps asking Intel about aspects of their operations. Questions led Intel to seeing that the necessary maintenance work on pollution controls could be done in less time, which reduced air emissions. Choice questions spurred Intel to install backup (redundant) pollution controls, which cut emissions further. Other questions gave Intel ideas for reducing the chemical usage and chemical emissions from their cooling towers. For more examples, see https:////www.cewg.org/. None of these results can be required by law, or in court.
The CEWG keeps asking Intel questions about regulatory processes. From these questions, the CEWG got ideas for using smart (digital) tools to meet regulatory needs better, faster, and cheaper. Smart tools are welcome assets in countless tasks. Using these ideas more would benefit regulation and its aims, taxpayers, and industry.
The Intel plant in New Mexico started up back in 1984, 20 years before the CEWG. Reports of nighttime chemical odors and ills in homes grew slowly in the neighborhood of Corrales. These reports invited queries into bad diseases in Corrales—pulmonary fibrosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), and various forms of cancer.
Over time, state health agencies studied the numbers for these diseases in Corrales and released a formal report on each—in 2011, 2017, and 2019 respectively. Nothing unusual was found. The CEWG invited speakers and panelists with differing interests to critique the nationwide methodology used for the studies. Speakers addressed written questions from the CEWG. The diverse panels agreed that standardized treating of data is the only way the disease rates in Corrales can be fairly compared with rates seen elsewhere.
The work continues.
