EMERSON: LEAD SINKER BAN DOESN'T FLOAT

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson hopes to drown the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to ban lead fishing sinkers.

The EPA's proposal to ban the manufacture, sale and use of lead fishing sinkers doesn't float with Emerson.

"This latest EPA gimmick to supposedly save waterfowl is ridiculous," the Cape Girardeau Republican said Wednesday from his Washington office.

"The president claims to be a friend of outdoors people, but in the last few weeks we've seen him try to take target guns out of our hands and now lead sinkers from our fishing lines. I have to ask, what's next?"

On Wednesday Emerson sent a letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner questioning the agency's planned action.

"Any outdoors person can tell you, lead fishing sinkers are a necessary device for their sport; they're not the Grim Reaper for waterfowl, such as common loons and trumpeter swans, as your agency purports," he wrote.

Emerson questioned the EPA's whole reasoning for considering such a ban.

He said that, using EPA supported numbers, only 42 birds -- out of 336 studied between 1975 and 1992 -- died from lead poisoning from ingesting the sinkers.

"And although I may question the validity of your selected numbers, even they're not enough to convince me that lead sinkers are a major threat to the entire waterfowl population," Emerson said.

Emerson said he'd been told by the EPA that the agency would prefer to see fishermen use plastic sinkers. "How ridiculous," he said. "What happens if one of your studies finds that they're being caught in the windpipes of waterfowl or cannot be properly digested? Will they be banned next?"

Like Emerson, Don Beard -- who operates Beard's Sports Shop in Cape Girardeau -- finds fault with the idea of banning lead sinkers.

"I think environmentalists are probably getting carried away," said Beard, who sells lead sinkers as well as other sporting equipment.

Lead sinkers work well on fishing lines, he said. "You have to be able to throw your bait and sink your bait." Beard said he doesn't know of a suitable substitute.

Bill Coomer of Jackson is an avid fisherman. He often goes fishing two or three times a week during the summer.

He said he's not against protecting the environment. "We have to save something for our kids."

But Coomer's not ready to abandon lead sinkers. In fact, he doubts that lead sinkers pose a significant problem for birds.

He believes the government's overreacting. "That's like saying if we choked on a soup spoon eating soup, we need to ban all soup spoons."

Besides, fishermen don't lose that many sinkers, he said. "On average, you might lost a sinker twice out of a whole day of fishing."

Said Coomer, "Sometimes you get snagged and break one off." But he said, "There aren't many birds that can duck dive under the water to get lead sinkers."

He said, "Most of the sinkers fishermen use are galvanized, so they won't come apart in the water for hundreds of years."

Plastic sinkers make no sense, he said. "Plastic is buoyant. It would float unless they would put a piece of lead inside the plastic."

Coomer said he's frustrated that the government paints hunters and fishermen as the bad guys in environmental matters.

He said it's the hunters and fishermen who are the biggest supporters of conservation efforts in the nation. "We are the only ones footing the bill for conservation."

As for sinkers, Coomer hopes the EPA proposal doesn't snag his line.