Morris H. Baslow (born 1933) is a co-recipient of the 1982 AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility for his role as

Whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

in a dispute between the EPA,

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

and Con-Ed's consulting firm. In 1974 Baslow was a senior scientist at the engineering and consulting firm of Lawler, Matuusky & Skelly. In 1978 Baslow investigated whether there were any significant relationships between the population of different species of fish in the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

and the characteristics of the river, including temperature of the water. This research led to a serious disagreement between Baslow and his supervisor. Baslow's research indicated that temperature was the main factor that determined fish growth rates and population size, while LMS and their client Con Edison, said that population density was the key factor controlling the fish population in the Hudson. If Baslow was right, the utility company would need to install costly cooling towers. Baslow tried to persuade his superiors for two years to tell the whole truth about his data. In October 1979 Baslow was fired from his job at LMS. A short time later he sent seventy-one company documents to the EPA, the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas and regulates the prices of interstate transport ...

and the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. LMS sued Baslow for stealing documents, and Baslow counter-sued, citing the

Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the primary respo ...

. One year later all charges were dropped. In 1982 Baslow wrote a book publishing the results of his research: "''The Hudson River Ecosystem: A Case Study''."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baslow, Morris H. 1932 births Scientists from New York City American marine biologists Living people