qdavid, is there any room on that soap box so I can hop up there too?
My degree is through my state school's college of environmental sciences as well. I don't want to get into specifics, or what my major was, but I've done work in fish tissue and sediment sampling for mercury and other heavy metals, and coordinated an acid rain monitoring program for a while. Shit where we eat is right. Next time you are in a city on a nice summer day, go drive around until you find a bridge or park or any sort of water access, and see how many immigrants are standing there fishing. They're there getting protein for their families, and those fish are LOADED with mercury, which is linked to autism and other developmental issues, and PCBs, which are linked to endocrine disruption. What are you going to do, say 'you can't eat those because of the risk of something you can't conceptualize', when the reality is, that's dinner? Wetlands for a long time were seen as useless, places to dump rubbish- you ever hear the quote, 'the solution to pollution is dilution'? It's bullshit. Shit slides down hill is more like; EVERYTHING ends up in wetlands eventually.
Okay you can have your soap box back. I'm actually affiliated with the SUNY system as a researcher now... cool!