I went Thursday to hear a talk on international cooperation re climate change by a Dr. Alfred Fuchs, a German Green who is in this country to assume the lead in a Washington-based foundation on climate change. It was a fairly standard "got to do something about climate change" talk, except that he emphasized government policies that would bring market forces to bear on the problem, an emphasis one doesn't often hear from American Greens. He also focussed more than I am used to on soil degradation. At the reception afterward, I got talking to Olof Hansen of the EPA, who has been working with the city on the biofuels from waste fats and oils project. So I asked him our question about toxins in the portion of the raw material that they intend to scrape out of the sewers. He was rather nonplussed, then asked what kind of toxins I had in mind. Well, I wasn't sure either, so I said, "How about heavy metals?" He replied that in general that was not a major issue in SF, because we don't do much manufacturing. He went on to say that restaurant waste would constitute the vast majority of the raw material, to the tune of 10 million gallons of oil per year. And since restaurants usually pay to have the stuff hauled away, they are happy to donate it to the city. FYI Jeanne -- Jeanne Rosenmeier 415 751-0901