http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/tnw/today/cs/front.htm

relevant quote:

"It's already been described as the potential cause of a variety of plagues. Now, on top of everything else, Britain's Environment Agency has found that the Y2K bug could cause serious environmental damage as well. The agency questioned more than 400 businesses under its watch about their Y2K awareness and compliance and also examined what checks had been performed on computer systems that control pollution emissions. The companies' millennial preparations were then classified as "good", "medium", or "poor", with results being broken down by industry. The findings? Good news and bad. Two key sectors  utilities and the chemical industry  are best prepared, the survey revealed. But even in the high-risk chemical sector, 30 percent of companies questioned had preparations classed as "poor" or "medium". No other industry had a majority of companies that ranked "good". Overall, just 42 percent of companies earned the "good" rating, meaning more than half must still do significant work to overcome potential polluting risks."

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), May 07, 1999

Answers

"Chief Executive Ed Gallagher warned as early as last year that no millennium bug excuses would be accepted if system failures caused environmental damage, and the agency still promises a tough stance on any bug-related pollution. Says Dr. Paul Leinster, the agency's director of environmental protection: 'We will not regard Year 2000-related failures as mitigating circumstances when considering whether or not to prosecute.'"

Thanks for catching this, Arlin. Sounds very similar to EPA's enforcement approach. (Now let's just hope someone's paying attention.)

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 07, 1999.