An environmental scientist who recently named the Ames power plant as a top dioxin polluter in the county defended his charge Wednesday in Ames.

About 120 people gathered in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union to listen to Barry Commoner, former director of the Center for Natural Systems at Queens College, City University of New York. Commoner’s trip to campus is part of the ISU “Institute on World Affairs” lecture series, sponsored by the Committee on Lectures.

“The fuss in Ames just fits in with the talk about globalization,” Commoner said. “Global warming is a planetary problem.”

He said his report that named the Ames power plant as one of the top 10 dioxin emitters should be a wake-up call for the city of Ames.

“The proper response to our report is to test the plant,” he said. “The Ames power plant is affecting the Arctic Circle in Canada where no dioxin emitters are found.”

City staff and administrators listened to Commoner’s lecture, which focused primarily on the Ames power plant. Ames staff said they were surprised after the report was released in October, and they came to the lecture in search of answers.

“I am still struck by the many assumptions built into [Commoner’s] models,” said Assistant City Administrator Bob Kindred. “Yet, I learned more about what Commoner is trying to explain.”

Kindred continued to deny Commoner’s continued reference to the Ames power plant as an incinerator. He said Ames is one of only two “co-firing” plants in the country, which burns both coal and garbage.

Commoner said he obtained his figures from the Environmental Protection Agency. He said dioxins contain 17 toxic compounds that can cause cancer in humans, and that the majority of the dioxins humans consume come from animal fat. Milk farms in southern Wisconsin, which contribute to the Ames dairy supply, may have been affected by the Ames power plant, Commoner said.

“His 1993 study on [milk] farms in Wisconsin was surprising,” Kindred said. “It’s the first we have heard of this idea.”

While the city will not tell researchers how to do their job, Kindred said they are disappointed Commoner released his report before contacting city or plant officials.

“We simply didn’t have enough money,” Commoner said in response.

Some city officials said they deserve a broader explanation from the researchers, but Commoner said a visit would not have changed the research findings.

“We got all of our answers from figures from the EPA,” he said.

Officials said they want to be informed of city problems, but Kindred said it is hard to accept the charges made by a scientist who had never visited the city.

Commoner said the Ames plant can limit its dioxin emission with more controls on the plant, or it can shut down and use an alternative source, such as solar power.

“There are definitely cheaper ways to produce energy,” Kindred said. “[The Ames power plant] was designed to deal with environmental issues in regards to land fills. [The city] thought this was a better way to deal with garbage than digging more holes to put our waste in.”

He said an investigation of the plant will consider regulations, methods of testing and qualified firms to conduct such a test.