20030179 Ver 6_Public Comments_20071025 (4)

James R. Fouts, PhD
19 little Cove Rd.
Sylva, N.C. 28779
Mr. Steve Tedder
c/o Mr. John Dorney
N.C. Division of Water Quality
401/ Wetlands Unit
Parkview Building
2321 Crabtree Blvd.
Raleigh, N.C. 27604
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Re: The environmental and water quality effects of the Diilsboro Dam.
Sir:
Some of my credentials:
I am basically a Toxicologist and Pharmacologist, teaching at Medical Schools
for over SO years. E.g. The University of Iowa, Duke University, The
University of North Carolina, N.C. State University and the University of
Zurich [Switzerland] mostly while an employee of the National Institutes of
Health.
I was a Senior Executive Service Scientist at the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health [NIEHS/NIH].
I was Scientific Director [top executive of Intramural Science] and later,
Senior Scientific Advisor to the Director, NIEHS.
In my last years there my chief expertise was in air pollution, water pollution,
waste sites, pollution from sewerage treatment, and health effects of
pollutants. i was asked to over see toxicity from heavy metals, plastics, and
pesticides, as well as air particulates.
I retired from NIH in 1995, but continued to serve the Advisory functions to
The Director, NIEHS, until 2002 under contract. I was heavily involved in
issues of Global Climate Change, and served on several international
committees from 1990 to and beyond my retirement.
My Chief Comments on the Dam Removal at Dillsboro:
i. This is a very complicated issue -particularly with respect to health
issues--animal, vegetable and human. These health effects cannot
likely be determined or defined for several years. Sufficient study for
good guesses on or to human health would be very costly and take
years. The effects on animals, vegetation and particular species would
be difficult to assess.
2. The likely effects include adverse effects of the mud released at the
destruction of the dam--duration and most susceptible species.

3. The loss of flood protection when sudden storms and heavy downpours
occur. We have looked at human health effects after floods on the
Mississippi River in the Midwest and in the aftermath of Katrina. There
are adverse effects.
4. Ecological changes after dam removal-short term and long term--
speed of flow changes will cause ecological effects and loss of species,
both plant and animal.
5. loss of species may not be understood for years. But the chronic
effects could be large. All components of our environment are like a
web--change one, and all will be affected. Thus "trivia!" animals,
plants, etc. are never really "trivial".
6, So-it appears there is no basis for assuming that removal will not
adversely affect ecological, and animal, plant and human health. i
would caution against an approval that would lead to this dam removal
without some better input from biological, ecological, and toxicological
experts. Conflicts of interest are legion among experts and ethical
codes are seldom based on anything more than what is legal.
Respectfully
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James R. Fouts, Ph.D.