By Teresa Mills
Today the Trump administration finalized its 49th de-regulatory action since he took office. What will be the next human and environmental protection to hit the chopping block?
The administration says this move will make less of a burden on chemical plants by getting rid of “unnecessary regulatory burdens.” The regulation was updated after a fertilizer plant exploded in Texas that killed 15 people, injured 160 and damaged or destroyed 150 buildings. A crater 93-foot-wide was almost all that was left of the plant site.
In January 2017 under the Obama administration and reacting to the explosion in Texas the Risk Management Plan (RMP) rules were update to protect local communities from chemical disasters. However, the Trump administration claims that the Obama update was burdensome and that little data showed that the Obama rule did not reduce accident rates.
Under the new Environmental Protection Agency’s risk management program (RMP), chemical plants will be rid of what the chemical industry says are “unnecessary regulatory burdens,” aligning with the wishes of the chemical industry.
The original plan was developed in 1996, with almost 12,500 facilities falling under the RMP.
EPA’s finalized rule Thursday comes two years after the agency tried to suspend the Obama rule, but in March of 2018 a federal judge reinstated the rule.
Of Course the American Petroleum Institute (API) applauded the Trumps administration gutting of the rule. Welcome to the United States of Petroleum.
While the agency said that from 2007-2016 about 90 percent of the facilities that were required to report, reported no accidents. Well gee do you think that might have been because they were required to clean up their act. The rule was working as it should have. Now however we will have to wait and see if they threw out the baby with the bath water. I pray that someone will be there to catch that baby. Read more.
Day: November 22, 2019
The EPA finalized a rule relieving chemical plant facilities from some of the major safety regulation set by the chemical disaster rule. The EPA explained in their press release Thursday that the updated rule will no longer require facilities to consider safer technology alternatives. In combination with other regulation easements, the update is expected to save American $88 million a year. However, groups are not as convinced that the change will keep chemical plant employees and surrounding communities safe. Read More.
The Center for Health, Environment & Justice has established a report on the U.S. EPA’s Superfund Program Under the Trump Administration. CHEJ has closely followed Superfund under President Trump since he made the program a central part of his EPA. The findings presented in the report conclude that President Trump has targeted Superfund sites with majority white communities, medium income communities and where there are deep corporate pockets to pay for cleanup. Further, the Trump administration has cut Superfund funding to a new low. To continue funding, Representative Blumenauer (D-OR) has proposed the Superfund Reinvestment Act (H.R. 4088).
A study released Tuesday, August 20, 2019 by the University of Chicago has linked proximity to air pollution to an increased rate of neuropsychiatric diseases. The study examines the worst polluted counties in both the United States and Denmark and associated data in those counties on cases of bipolar disorder and depression. Counties in the United States with the worst air pollution had a 27 percent increase in bipolar disorder and a 6 percent increase in depression compared to counties with the best air quality. A similar result was observed in polluted counties in Denmark.
Computational biologist and member the University of Chicago research team, Atif Khan, explains, “Our study in the United States and Denmark show that living in polluted areas, especially early in life, is predictive of mental disorders.” <Read More>
Exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos has been linked to brain damage in infants and children. California banned it earlier this year, and last August a federal court ordered EPA to ban the chemical. EPA announced last week that it would not ban the pesticide, citing insufficient data. <Read more>
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New EPA Drinking Water Grant Programs
For More Information, Click Here!
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of nearly $87 million in grant funding to assist states, tribes, and territories with improving drinking water. States, tribes, and territories are eligible to receive funding from two new EPA drinking water grant programs established by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN):
- Under EPA’s new Voluntary Lead Testing in Schools and Child Care grant program, EPA will award $43.7 million in grants to fund testing for lead in drinking water at schools and child care programs. Testing results carried out using grant funds must be made publicly available.
- Under EPA’s new Assistance for Small and Disadvantaged Communities grant program, EPA will award $42.8 million in grants to support underserved communities with bringing public drinking water systems into compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Funding can also be used for conducting household water quality testing, including testing for unregulated contaminants.
For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/safewater/grants.
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Dangerous anti-protest legislation is working its way through state assemblies all across the U.S., chipping away at the right to protest and undermining social justice movements. <Read more>
The study suggests that as the Portland Harbor Superfund site is cleaned-up, salmon recovery efforts in the Willamette will get a major boost. Read more here
We support the people of our county who desire to live, once and for all, free of PCBs. For way too long, Berkshire residents have had to endure the consequences of GE’s half century of willfully dumping hundreds of thousands of pounds of PCBs into the Housatonic River, and of spreading large amounts of PCB-contaminated soil all around the county. Read More.
In a victory for environmental justice, a California appeals court on February 15 dismissed the California Independent Petroleum Associations’s lawsuit against youth organizations from South Los Angeles and Wilmington, the Center for Biological Diversity and the city of Los Angeles. Read more.