Like the water itself, the situation in Flint, Mich., should be crystal clear: elected and appointed officials, at the state and federal levels, have done harm, some even irreparable, to the brains and futures of thousands of kids.
A disastrous choice by Gov. Rick Snyder’s hand-picked city overseer to switch water sources brought lead, copper, fecal coliform bacteria, trihalomethanes (THMs) into the faucets of the homes of many already-struggling Flint families.
The health of the children and adults of Flint has been irremediably compromised and can never be calculated, while the bills for this short-sighted bureaucratic bungle will pile up and burden taxpayers for years to come. But the more staggering and unforgivable cost is the health of the children and adults of Flint. Residents report skin lesions, hair loss, chemical-induced hypertension, vision loss and depression. Over the years, long term health concerns issues such as cancer and liver, kidney malfunctions from exposure to coliform bacteria and trihalomethanes will likely emerge. And the worst pollutant, lead–which has been the focus of local and federal lead paint remediation efforts for years–undeniably results in permanent brain damage. Flint’s lead poisoned girls will do more poorly in school and its lead poisoned boys will be more apt to enter the pipeline to prison.
And we cannot ignore the issue of race. Is anyone surprised that 56 percent of Flint’s population is African-American, and that 41 percent live under the poverty line? The obvious and heart-rending question from many is: Would officials have acted so callously and recklessly in Ann Arbor, Grosse Point, or another majority white suburb?
Unfortunately, officials have a history of ignoring the very people they have a hand in poisoning. Residents began organizing immediately after public officials decided to use the Flint River for drinking water. Several small groups were initially formed that later banded together as the Coalition for Clean Water. They have one clear goal: To return to Detroit water, at least until a new pipeline is installed. National groups like the Center for Health, Environment and Justice worked with these fledgling activists, providing coaching and scientific technical assistance. Very early on, Flint’s residents knew their water was a problem and proved it through their own technical experts, like Virginia Tech’s Marc Edwards.
It will cost more than a billion dollars to solve the problem that Governor Snyder’s team created. In a move to reportedly save $12 million, they switched from the more expensive but wholesome Detroit-supplied drinking water to water from the Flint River, and in the end, this choice will cost more than $1 billion–with a B. All of Flint’s water pipes must be replaced because of damage from the corrosive water and mismanagement by public officials. In the name of efficiency, the state has directly hurt 99,000 people in Flint for years to come while federal officials passively sat back and responded slowly and ineptly.
As an aside–why is our country’s response to food poisoning so much quicker and more effective than the response to Flint water and the growing number of toxic waste dumps? You could argue that far fewer people are affected: Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak has affected about 500 people total nationwide. Meanwhile, more than 11,000 people live near a burning radioactive landfill in Bridgeton, Mo. About 400 properties in Birmingham, Ala., have toxic soil that prevents kids from playing outside. When a major corporation’s (Chipotle) livelihood is on the line, a situation that affected significantly fewer people was dealt with swiftly and effectively. In the meantime, families across the country affected by unhealthy water, dirty air and toxic waste dumps are waiting years, even decades, for solutions to dangers in their neighborhoods. Every health threat deserves a swift, equitable response to keep people safe; it’s our responsibility to hold corporations and the government accountable for more than just our fast food.
We need to reorder our priorities. Keeping all children, no matter their wealth, race, or zip code, safe from polluted water, air, and soil must be the first order of the day. Whether the health threat is chronic and permanent or acute and temporary, our goal needs to be ensuring that the next generation is protected from environmental threats.
Meanwhile, let’s send in the Army Corps of Engineers as soon as possible to install new water pipes in Flint, MI to make their water crystal clear and the Department of Justice into Lansing, the state’s capitol, to make the governor answer for this crime.
CHEJ founder Lois Gibbs, considered the mother of the federal Superfund program, said it was “about time polluters were held accountable” when she heard that the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to stop letting polluters off the financial hook for the contamination they cause. At the end of January, the court directed EPA to finalize its “financial assurance” regulations that have been more than 30 years in the making. The Superfund law has teeth to hold corporate polluters accountable and this is an important step towards making that happen.
The financial assurance provision of the Superfund law – officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) – ensures that responsible parties, and not the public, bear the financial burden of completing Superfund cleanups. This provision requires corporate polluters to demonstrate that adequate financial resources are available to complete required cleanup work. One of the main tenets of this law is to prevent companies who created toxic sites from declaring bankruptcy and walking away, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for cleanup, often causing long delays before these dangerous sites are cleaned up.
The court recognized that “Although CERCLA requires operators to pay to clean up hazardous releases, many avoid payment by restructuring their operations so they never have to pay. It is a common practice for operators to avoid paying environmental liabilities by declaring bankruptcy or otherwise sheltering assets.”
For 35 years since the law was passed in 1980, EPA has failed to issue regulations that describe how it would implement and enforce this provision of the Superfund law. As a result, company after company found ways to pass the cost of environmental disasters on to taxpayers. With this new ruling EPA has no choice but to finally issue these financial assurance regulations which will require polluting companies to pay up front, or place funds aside to cover the costs of cleaning up contaminated sites. It will also provide an incentive for polluters to reduce their pollution and thus reduce their liability.
As the nation’s leading source of toxic pollution (nearly 2 billion pounds per year), the mining industry was targeted to be the first in line for the new regulations. The court has ordered the EPA to complete the draft regulations by December 1, 2016, and finalize the regulations by Dec. 1, 2017. EPA must also establish regulations for three other industries, including coal ash ponds, chemical manufacturing facilities and petroleum and oil refineries by Dec. 1, 2016.
Nobody can deny that Justice Antonin Scalia was an immensely important figure asd most certainly left his mark on law in America. With his sudden death over a week ago now, I feel great sympathy for his family, friends, and colleagues mourning his loss. With that said, Scalia’s passing and the decision over his replacement will likely have enormous implications for the environment and, perhaps most immediately, climate justice.
While Scalia has offered positive opinions in regards to some cases with environmental justice implications in the past, his legacy towards the environment is most definitely a negative one. The justice regularly offered opinions in favor of property rights over the protection of human lives and the environment.
In multiple cases, he has voted against the EPA’s ability to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants. Just this summer, he wrote the majority opinion in a case that prevented the EPA from enacting important protections against mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from power plants.
But perhaps most significant, just days before his passing, Scalia was a part of a 5-4 majority that issued a stay, preventing the implementation of the new Clean Power Plan for the time being. Under the plan states would be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by 2030. This plan also played an important role in helping the U.S. achieve an agreement at the Paris climate talks. Without such a plan ensuring U.S. emission reductions, there is little reason to believe that other countries will achieve their own commitments.
With Scalia on the Supreme Court, it appeared highly doubtful the Clean Power Plan would ever be implemented. With his passing, this projection changes instantly, providing hope for achieving climate justice.
In the short-term, the decision on the future of this important plan will rest in the hands of the D.C. Circuit court, which is likely to uphold the plan. Next, it would require a majority vote from the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling of the D.C. Circuit court, but with the court now tied at 4-4, this appears unlikely. So, until a new justice is appointed, either by Obama or the next President, should Congressional Republicans get their way, the future of the Clean Power Plan appears secure.
Ultimately, the newest Supreme Court justice is will have serious implications for climate justice in the long-term. Given the recent Republicans in the Senate over Obama’s intention to appoint a new justice, the process could be a long one, and may rest in the hands of the next president.
Over the past few months the mosquito-borne Zika virus has been dominating global health headlines, especially as researchers began linking it to microcephaly, a birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and potential brain damage. Though Zika virus itself has fairly mild symptoms and is sometimes even asymptomatic, its connection to microcephaly created pandemonium. As the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began issuing travel warnings and El Salvador recommended that women not get pregnant until the virus is controlled (estimated to take 2+ years), panic began to set in. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” scientists began developing a Zika vaccine and the world prepared for the next Ebola crisis.
Yet this past week some news outlets summarized a new Argentine report claiming that an insecticide, not Zika virus, is to blame for the increase in cases of microcephaly in Brazil. This report, written by doctors from the Argentine group Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages, claims widespread exposure to the insecticide pyriproxyfen is the cause of these birth defects. Beginning in 2014, Brazil added pyriproxyfen to its water supply to prevent mosquito development. The report states that this insecticide is dangerous and is distributed by “a subsidiary of Monsanto.” (Note: the company that produces pyriproxyfen is Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese company that is actually not a subsidiary of Monsanto, but has partnered with them in the past.)
The story told by Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages has the makings of the next Erin Brockovich case, fueling the ongoing fights against Monsanto and validating the outrage leveled at chemical companies. There’s just one problem: it doesn’t appear to be true.
Unlike WHO and that majority of the scientific community that are continuing to do research on the potential link between Zika virus and microcephaly before saying anything definitive, Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages published their report based on a correlation and only 12 sources (many of which were articles about dengue).
Although a definitive link between Zika virus and microcephaly still has not been found, a growing body of research appears to support the connection. Most significantly, a Brazilian study released this week found Zika virus in the amniotic fluid of babies with microcephaly, while previous studies have detected the virus in newborn saliva and urine. The CDC reported on a study that found the presence of Zika virus in the brains and placenta of babies that had died of microcephaly. Even when Zika virus was first explained in 1952 by G.W.A. Dick, he described how it affected the brain and the nervous system. The research has provided a mechanism, or process of causation, for Zika inducing microcephaly.
Conversely, the only mechanism the Argentine report provides is claiming that the insecticide pyriproxyfen is an endocrine disruptor (affects hormones and development) and therefore would affect pregnancy. However, pyriproxyfen affects the development from hatching to pupation, stages humans (and all animals with backbones) do not go through. Therefore, pyriproxyfen is highly unlikely to affect people.
Furthermore, even if we disregard the lack of science in the Argentine report, we can address their allegations. The main claim in the report is that the increased instance of microcephaly is found only in Brazil, where pyriproxyfen was used. While it is strange that Colombia does not yet appear to have increased rates of microcephaly, George Dimech, director of Disease Control and Diseases of the Health Department in Pernambuco, Brazil, stated that Recife, Brazil has had many cases of microcephaly, despite the fact that pyriproxyfen is not used there. Additionally, the 2013-2014 outbreak of Zika virus in French Polynesia has also been associated with central nervous system problems including Guillain-Barré Syndrome and microcephaly.
Various prominent scientists worldwide have disputed the allegations raised by Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages. Dr. Ian Musgrave, a toxicologist at Australia’s University of Adelaide called their argument “not plausible,” while NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins, referred to the report as “sketchy.” Environmental activist Mark Lynas called it a “conspiracy theory.”
Science is difficult and public health risks add to the confusion that further compounds the difficulty of scientific testing. There are still unknowns regarding Zika virus and its connection to microcephaly, and looking for alternative explanations and environmental factors is necessary in order to address the risks. However, publishing claims with little scientific support does nothing for environmental health. Unsubstantiated research is not only academically unethical; it allows the crucial field of environmental health to descend into pseudo science and conspiracy theory.
The Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages report does make an important point that mosquito-borne viruses are much more prevalent in low-income communities because of fewer sanitation initiatives and less readily available potable water (a claim further substantiated by the Zika case in Texas). They connect the Zika outbreak to environmental justice. Environmental justice issues are significant and must be addressed, but jumping to conclusions without solid scientific backing hurts the movement. Without science to support our positions, industry and government can easily brush off our (very valid) concerns from pesticide use to landfill leaching. The Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages report is an unforced error; it makes us look like we have an agenda other than protecting human health.
Science is our strongest weapon. Why are we shooting ourselves in the foot with it?
Washington Post, Darryl Fears. Members of CHEJ network group Just Moms STL explain the health effects of living near West Lake Landfill and the slow movement of the EPA to stop the underground fire or provide relocation for the families. Just Moms STL visits Capitol Hill to push their bill on relocation to congress.
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]
Her first clue that something was wrong came as she ran her hands through her baby boy’s hair. “My child was losing his hair in clumps,” Meagan Beckermann recalls. A doctor traced the problem to alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that can be triggered by environmental factors.
A frantic search for a likely source ended when neighbors advised Beckermann to follow her nose. That’s when she learned that the charms of her St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton — with its green parks and quality schools — masked two massive landfills, one filled with radioactive waste, about a mile from her home. No one had mentioned them when she’d bought her house, she says.
Four years later, she and other residents now describe the situation as only more extreme. Rapidly decomposing waste 60 feet to 200 feet down is smoldering beneath one of the landfills in what scientists call a sub-surface burning event. The underground burn is only a few thousand feet from a Superfund site filled with waste from the World War II-era Manhattan Project, the federal government’s ultimately successful effort to build an atomic bomb.
The Superfund site is managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which neighbors and state officials say has done little to stop the burn from reaching the radioactive waste.
“Every day, I live with anxiety. I live in fear,” said Beckermann, a 34-year-old mother of two.
Before the agency was forced to defend itself against critics in Flint, Mich., who say it bears some of the responsibility for that city’s lead-contaminated drinking water, EPA was on the defensive in north St. Louis County. Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation have authored two bills that would strip EPA of its oversight of the 200-acre Superfund site, which is known as the West Lake Landfill. The legislation would give the Army Corps of Engineers authority over the clean-up and removal of up to 48,000 tons of nuclear waste.
[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][It’s not just Flint: Poor communities across the U.S. live with extreme polluters]
One bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, passed that chamber earlier this month, while the House bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. William Clay, is working its way through a committee. Missouri’s attorney general is urging Clay to press on.
“A burning radioactive waste dump requires the government to act with urgency, but EPA seems unable to move forward with a meaningful solution,” State Attorney General Chris Koster wrote last week in an angry letter to members of the delegation, in which he called for the Army corps’ intervention.
The federal Superfund program addresses large and highly toxic hazardous waste sites. Although no credible link has been established between air quality near the landfills and prevalence of disease, residents are concerned about adverse health impacts. Mothers such as Beckermann, whose 6-year-old son Trevor now has no hair on his entire body, worry about the possible effects of the West Lake site’s contaminants on their children. Some people have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
The burn at the closed Bridgetown Landfill has increased the stench, some say. “It makes you gag,” resident Robbin Dailey said. Families within a mile of both properties are demanding that the EPA relocate them, a move that would cost a half-billion dollars, according to some estimates. A group of mothers from the area traveled to Washington last week to press for action. While on Capitol Hill, they told lawmakers that their requests to speak with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy had been ignored.
At the EPA’s regional headquarters in Kansas City, Administrator Mark Hague counters that officials are acting as quickly as possible. “There was a lot of critical investigative work that went on for a period of time,” stressed Hague, who said he has met “several times” with the mothers and has relayed their concerns to McCarthy.
Scientists contracted by the EPA have determined exactly where the underground burn is located, and in late December the agency ordered the Bridgeton Landfill’s owner, Republic Services, to construct a barrier to isolate the burn from the other site. Hague said that barrier will take a year to build. A Republic Services spokesman said in an email that the company would be responsible for costs up to $30 million unless the project is transferred to the Army corps.
“It’s my job to get this done,” Hague said.
The scientists’ investigation showed that the burn is not moving toward the Superfund’s radioactive material, but the barrier was ordered as a protective measure along with equipment to cool what’s smoldering underground, Hague said. Air-quality monitoring to date shows readings in keeping with a metropolitan area, he added.
But Bridgeton residents and state officials have little trust in the agency’s actions and assurances. They say radioactive waste has been found beyond the area that EPA originally identified. The attorney general called for more extensive testing, and he and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources sued Republic Services for environmental violations at the Bridgeton Landfill. The company has denied the claim, and the litigation is pending.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation out there, but the science is clear,” Russ Knocke, the company’s vice president of communications and public affairs, said in a statement Tuesday. “The landfill is in a managed state.”
The West Lake Landfill is surrounded with a fence and notices identifying it as a Superfund site, but there’s no other warning in the community. An EPA website allows Americans to “Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live,” and the agency also puts notices in newspapers — although an EPA spokesman for the region acknowledged that local residents can miss seeing those.
Dawn Chapman, who lives nearby, said she’s furious that federal government, state, county and local authorities didn’t notify residents who purchased property in the area that a Superfund site had been designated there in 1989.
Chapman discovered she was pregnant with her first child a few months after buying a house 11 years ago. Each of her three children have developmental problems that require special care. “I didn’t know a landfill was there, and I definitely didn’t know a Superfund site was there,” she explained while in Washington.
“Everybody has responsibility,” Chapman said. “If you knew about this, you have responsibility. The failure to notify residents, the failure to advocate, falls on every elected official that covers the district. This is no place to raise a family.”
As the one landfill smoldered and word about it spread, Chapman and two other women co-founded a protest group. They called it Just Moms because whenever they contacted elected officials to help them, they’d be asked if they were advocates. “No,” the women responded, “we’re just moms.”
The St. Louis County health department soon will survey residents living within a two-mile radius of the Bridgeton site to determine if they have a higher rate of certain health problems compared to populations elsewhere in the county or state. Its director said the study will focus on asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and allergy-type symptoms.
Beckermann said she worries constantly. In October, a letter from her children’s school district scared her further. “Since the eastern part of our school district is only a few miles away from the West Lake Landfill,” Superintendent Jeff Marion wrote, “please know that I will be working with the city and county emergency management officials to ensure we are prepared to respond in the event of an environmental accident.”
“It was terrifying as a parent to read that letter,” she said. “It’s terrifying every morning when you drop your kids somewhere knowing you might not be able to pick them up.”
One elementary school also sent a letter home advising parents to ask their children’s doctors about medications they might need in case they are detained at the school during an emergency. Parents should consider leaving the medicine at school, the letter suggested.
Both Beckermann and Chapman were women on edge as they made the rounds on Capitol Hill last week. “I don’t want to be here,” Chapman said. “I just want to be home with my kids.”
To read the full article, click here.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
EPA has gone dark. McCarthy is awaiting the end of her termand no one is protecting the American citizens or our environment.
It is outrageous that Administrator Gina McCarthy refuses to acknowledge the citizens living near the Bridgeton/West Lake Superfund site. What is wrong with her? Just Moms STL wrote a letter requesting a meeting in May of 2015 and never even received an acknowledgement that they asked for a meeting. They traveled to Washington, DC anyway in hopes of seeing McCarthy after their federal delegation of senators and congress representatives sent a letter to encourage McCarthy to meet with them. The community received nothing from the office of the Administrator. Not a call, a letter or even an e-mail saying she had a prior commitment or was on travel.
A second letter was sent this past fall to say the community leaders are planning to travel to Washington, D.C. in February and would she please meet with them to discuss the Superfund site which has been mismanaged by her regional staff. Again there was silence. I personally called every day but one in the month of January and February leading up to the date that local people were traveling to D.C. On many occasions when I called, all I received was a voice mail message that asked me to leave a message and someone would get back to me. I left message after message and no one, not a single person from the agency returned my call.
On a few occasions I actually talked to a woman who answered the phone. She was courteous and respectful and always promised to deliver the message to scheduling department. “Someone will call you back soon.” But no one ever called. The citizens living around the site began a telephone campaign to McCarthy’s office. It was only a week until they travel to D.C. and no one provided an answer if McCarthy would meet or not. The community sold cupcakes, brownies, t-shirts, and worked hard to raise the funds to visit D.C. and meet with the Administrator to explain what was going on from their perspective.
With a slim chance of meeting with McCarthy, now two years since their first request for a meeting was made, they climbed on a plane and came to D.C. While there they met with their congressional delegation, allies in the field but never had a meeting with McCarthy. Also they were never denied a meeting; it was deafeningly silent. My goodness if the answer is “NO” then say so. To say nothing is irresponsible, inexcusable and further victomizing the victims.
I stood outside of McCarthy’s office at 9 a.m. the last day of the groups visit. From the sidewalk I called her office and explained that local leaders are downstairs and waiting for a response from McCarthy before they need to leave for the airport. The public relations office sent down a two young people to receive the letter the community had for McCarthy, outlining their concerns. They apologized that McCarthy wasn’t available to meet. She couldn’t have told the citizens before they left St. Louis that she couldn’t meet? It is not a big request to ask for a simple yes or no of availability.
My take away . . . fire McCarthy. My tax dollars should not be spent on someone who works in government and ignores the citizens of the United States. All she had to do on both occasions is say I’m sorry I’ve got a previous engagement. Common courtesy should be a requirement of feredal employment.
Next door to Ferguson, the town of Bridgton, Missouri is about to become another symbol of a system that fails the most vulnerable citizens who fall through the cracks of economic and racial disparities. While the political fight for justice for people of color still rages in our local municipalities, the ravages of toxic waste on the health of those too poor to relocate or have a place at the power tables is costing more precious lives
The thousands of tons of radioactive waste in the Westlake landfill are contaminating the air, the groundwater and the trees of the area. The toxic nuclear waste originated in the 1940s and 50s when Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed uranium for nuclear weapons. This waste was illegally dumped in the landfill in 1973 and has been polluting the waters of Cold Water Creek and the playgrounds where children have been swimming and playing for generations. You can read more about the situation here:
These toxic waters will contaminate the Missouri River, make their way to the Mighty Mississippi and there will not be enough bottled water to save us.
And now, the fires of the neighboring landfill are dangerously close to the radioactive waste. We don’t know exactly how this will make the situation worse but the local schools have all sent out letters to parents about their plans for when the fires reach the nuclear waste. They are calling for “shelter in place”— Reminds me of putting our coats over our heads under our desks in the 1950’s.
This is not a new story. A local priest tells how he served a parish in Bridgton and in just two years he buried seven children with forms of leukemia. The cancer clusters and prevalence of birth defects and other diseases in the area are well known anecdotally as well as scientifically.
The DOH surveyed the surrounding eight zip codes and found higher rates of cancer.
Advocates like Kay Drey have been collecting frightening data for thirty years to encourage the government to clean up its mess.
The Missouri Attorney General, Chris Koster, published a study that found contamination in the groundwater and the vegetation.
JustMoms STL fights tirelessly for their children and the neighbors who are too sick to advocate for themselves.
Our federal representatives have worked ACROSS THE AISLE to pass legislation that is our only hope for a safe and permanent solution. House Resolution 4100 and Senate Bill 2306 authorize the transfer of the cleanup of the landfill from the EPA to the Army Corps of Engineers FUSRAP. The Senate bill has passed and we hope the House will follow and the President will support both!
Once again the people of “Ferguson” and neighboring communities need the nation to stand up to injustice. As we demand justice and clean water as a right for the people of Flint, we need the help of a compassionate nation to ask our President to tell the EPA to step aside and make it possible for FUSRAP to remove the nuclear waste and avert more suffering and another disaster.
For more information please visit justmomsstl.org or centralreform.org.
Rabbi Susan Talve
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] An activist group of St. Louis area moms concerned about underground smoldering at the Bridgeton Landfill plans to picket outside the Environmental Protection Agency’s Washington, D.C. offices on Wednesday.
Members of Just Moms STL went to the nation’s capital this week in another attempt to get a meeting with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. The group said it hoped to discuss the proximity of the subsurface fire to the nearby radioactive West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, where World War II-era nuclear waste is stored. Residents have worried for years about what could happen if the fire reached the nearby radioactive waste.
But, despite an onslaught of calls to the agency’s scheduling department, group co-founder Karen Nickel said its latest effort Tuesday was met with silence. She said the group has tried for two years to secure face-time with McCarthy.
“We are scared, we live in fear, we are prisoners in our own homes. We are afraid to let our children outside to play,” she said. “This is unacceptable. We live in the United States of America and in mid-Missouri, we are preparing for a Chernobyl-like event.”
The EPA previously said it plans to build a fire break to prevent the smoldering from reaching the waste, and it is also testing and studying what would happen if it does.
Just Moms STL’s trip to D.C. comes shortly after the U.S. Senate passed a bill to put the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of West Lake Landfill, instead of the EPA; many residents had called for such a change because they felt the EPA is taken too long to implement remediation. Group representatives met Tuesday with Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill and Republican Senator Roy Blunt.
But Russ Knocke, spokesman for landfill owner Republic Services, said the moms group’s efforts amount to a distraction.
“This sort of stunt, along with current attempts to move the site into the (Army Corps’) FUSRAP program, only serve to delay the fix for the site,” he said in a written statement. “The EPA should be allowed to finish its work, quickly.”
But Nickel said Just Moms STL wants to plead for the EPA to use its authority in overseeing the Superfund site to evacuate residents. She said many residents are also alarmed about the strong odors produced by the subsurface fire and health problems they have experienced.
“It’s hard to breathe, we have asthma, we have bloody noses, rashes,” Nickel said. “Our children are suffering from headaches.”
The EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources both previously reported studies found no human health risks from air pollution from the site. Similarly, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) also stated that while it found higher radon levels in the air around the radioactive West Lake Landfill site, it posed no risk to human health.
But the St. Louis County health department announced Monday that in two weeks it will start a health survey of any respiratory symptoms experienced by residents living within two miles of the Superfund site.
Nickel said her group also wants the EPA to order a property assurance plan to buy out homes around the landfill at fair market value for residents who want to leave. The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment.
While in D.C., the organization is teaming up with Water You Fight For, a group made of residents affected by the water crisis in Flint, Mich. Nickel said the EPA turned “a blind eye on the children of Flint,” and it is now doing the same in St. Louis.
“Their community suffered through silence from the EPA just like we are here in Bridgeton, and I think it’s time for the moms of Flint and the moms of St. Louis to make a pact and stay strong to fight for our children,” she said.
Despite the unsuccessful attempts to get a meeting and no guarantees for the future, Ed Smith of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment is supporting the moms and their push.
“Gina is in Washington, D.C. and not St. Louis, so we have to go there to let her know that we want that meeting,” he said.
To read the full article, click here.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Chuck Raasch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Activists working with CHEJ around the West Lake Landfill controversy in St. Louis and in Flint, Mich., have joined forces to put pressure on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to respond more forcefully to both environmental crises. An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covers a joint press conference between Flint activists and JUST MOMS stl, a group organized to force the EPA to reduce the threat of radioactive waste at West Lake Landfill.
At the press conference, about a dozen representatives said they will picket EPA headquarters because of EPA administrator Gina McCarthy’s unwillingness to meet with them or to act more urgently.
That standoff with the EPA is not new, and McCarthy has previously refused to meet with representatives. What is new is the linkage between West Lake and Flint, where the EPA and other local, state and federal authorities have been under fire for allowing lead exposure in water there to persist, endangering the health of families in that community.
Flint activists say recalcitrance and stonewalling from government agencies, and especially the EPA, have left residents exposed to cancer-causing lead and other health problems.
The two groups will share share health and other information, and continue to join forces to pressure the EPA.
To read the full story, click here.
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] In this Feb. 9, 2016 photo, JUST MOMS co-creator Karen Nickel criticizes what she says was inaction of EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, pictured over her left shoulder, in the West Lake/Bridgeton landfill fire and nuclear waste controversy. The group joined with activists from the Flint, Mich., water crisis, for a press conference at the National Press Club. Chuck Raasch, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WASHINGTON • Activists around the West Lake Landfill controversy have joined with those from the Flint, Mich., water crisis to put pressure on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to respond more forcefully to both.
JUST MOMS stl, a group organized to force the EPA to reduce the threat of radioactive waste at West Lake Landfill, help families within a mile relocate, and assure property values for those within five miles, held a joint press conference with Flint activists here Tuesday.
The issue of whether, and how, to clean up waste from the federal government’s nuclear weapons programs at West Lake has been made more critical by an underground fire at the adjacent Bridgeton Landfill.
About a dozen representatives of the Maryland Heights-area group said they will also picket EPAheadquarters Wednesday, protesting what they say has been EPA administrator Gina McCarthy’s unwillingness to meet with them, or to act more urgently on their behalf to address exposure to cancer-causing agents and other health hazards from the sites.
That standoff with the EPA is not new, and McCarthy has previously refused to meet with representatives. What is new is the linkage between West Lake and Flint, where the EPA and other local, state and federal authorities have been under fire for allowing lead exposure in water there to persist, endangering the health of families in that community.
Flint activists say recalcitrance and stonewalling from government agencies, and especially the EPA, have left residents exposed to cancer-causing lead and other health problems.
“Their community has suffered through silence from the EPA just like we are here in Bridgeton,” said JUST MOMS stl co-founder Karen Nickel at Tuesday’s press conference. “I think it is time for the moms of Flint and the moms of St. Louis to make a pact and stay strong and fight for our children.”
Melissa Mays, a founder of a Flint group called Water You Fighting For, said, “I can only imagine the fear and anger that the Bridgeton families feel, because we feel it for you. We are right here with you and we are going through the same thing. To this day, no one is helping us.”
The two women said their groups planned to share share health and other information, and continue to join forces to pressure the EPA.
A special counsel appointed by the state of Michigan said Tuesday that civil and criminal charges were possible, including manslaughter, in Flint. The federal Department of Justice is also looking into that crisis.
Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo; and Reps. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, and William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, last May wrote McCarthy asking that she meet with the JUST MOMS group. But Nickel said they got no response. She said the agency was flooded this past week with about 1,000 calls from St. Louis area callers, but got no response in another request for a meeting with McCarthy.
A spokesman for the EPA pointed to efforts the agency said it is doing to confront both problems. A spokesman highlighted EPA Regional Administrator Mark Hague’s Jan., 11 report on what the agency did in 2015 at West Lake.
“We’ve completed field investigations necessary to further define the extent and location of he radio-logical materials at the site, which is a critical step to move us toward proposing a final remedy by the end of 2016,” Hague said. “We also recently announced our decision for the installation of an in-ground, physical isolation barrier on site along with other engineering controls.”
Of Flint, EPA spokesman Curtis Carey said the agency’s top priority in ‘Flint “is the safety of residents. The agency is part of a larger, on-the-ground, federal response focused on developing short- and long-term solutions to the crisis. ” Clay, Wagner, Blunt and McCaskill have also sponsored a bill that would transfer authority over the landfill from EPA to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has passed the Senate, but not yet the House. Members of the group were expected to meet with both Wagner and Clay, the two members of Congress’s spokespersons said.
In addition, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster wrote Clay and Wagner on Tuesday saying he supported their bill, charging that “the EPA has time and again made promises but failed to deliver results.”
But landfill owner Republic Services warned that the transfer could delay a cleanup the EPA has promised to have in place by the end of the year and could cost taxpayers more money.
Republic spokesman Russ Knocke called the press conference a “stunt” that, coupled with the authority transfer bill, would prevent the EPA from being “allowed to finish its work, quickly.”
A Wagner aide said that under the bill pushed by the Missouri delegation, cleanup costs would still be on Republic even if federal control shifted to the Corps. Missouri’s congressional delegation is pushing for the change because the EPA “has clearly dragged its feet on this issue,” said Wagner’s spokesperson Meghan Burris.