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--> --> EPA chief: Water supplies fine PORTLAND (AP) - Terrorists would have a tough time poisoning the nation's drinking water supplies, and public awareness since the Sept. 11 attacks makes it even tougher, Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman said Friday. Poisoning the reservoir of a city would require dumping a tanker truck load of chemicals or biological agent, and heightened public awareness makes the prospect of anyone getting away with that very unlikely, Whitman told the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Since terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., the EPA has been working with the FBI so it can train local law enforcement agencies on what to watch out for around the nation's 168,000 drinking water systems, Whitman said. "Poisoning the water supply is an extremely difficult proposition," Whitman said. "It's gotten much more difficult since Sept. 11." Water supplies around the country have come under new security since the Sept. 11 attacks. California, for example, has stepped up patrols of reservoir, aqueducts and other waterways. A judge recently delayed enforcing a ruling requiring the city of Akron, Ohio, to make its main source of drinking water open for recreational boating, citing the need to guard against terrorist attacks. Whitman and Interior Secretary Gale Norton were part of a panel discussion on the Bush administration's environmental policies. In other matters, Norton said she simply made a mistake when she gave incorrect information to a Senate committee requesting information about the impacts of drilling for oil on caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Washington Post reported Friday that when Norton responded to the committee, she said caribou calving has been concentrated outside the area where the Bush administration wants to drill for oil in 11 of the past 18 years. Information provided her by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service correctly stated that calving had been inside the area in 11 of the past 18 years, Norton said. "We did make a mistake," Norton said. "In sending that letter, we transposed" the numbers. "We will take steps to clarify that." Norton also said the Bush administration would be concentrating on finding long-term solutions to the water supply problems in the Klamath Basin, where Endangered Species Act demands for endangered fish forced the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to shut off irrigation water to more than 1,000 farms. She made a point of saying the Department of Interior would be paying special attention to suggestions from farmers and ranchers in the region. "Farmers and ranchers are often the best stewards of the land," she said. "We can achieve more by working with them, and capitalizing on their intimate knowledge." The Klamath Water Users Association, representing farmers depending on the Klamath Project for irrigation water, recently dropped out of federal mediation which has brought together environmentalists, Indian tribes, commercial fishermen and other interests to look for long-term solutions on which they all can agree. The farmers have also filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the federal government, claiming shutting off the water last summer violated private property rights guaranteed by the Constitution. "One thing is clear. There are no easy answers," Norton said. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing