Peter Dykstra, journalist for the Environmental Health News, pays tribute to the 30 years of reporting from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Founded in 1990, the SEJ is comprised of over a thousand reporters from various news media across the United States and a number of countries across the world. Every year, the group hosts an annual conference to bring together some of the greatest minds in environmental journalism, research and activism, including CHEJ’s own Lois Gibbs. Even through the ups and downs of reporting, journalists continue to report on the pressing issues concerning the environment today. Read More.
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Residents of Juliette, Georgia have received answers to what has been contaminating their drinking water. A coal ash pond at the Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer is contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a cancer causing heavy metal. The pond is partially connected to an aquifer that supplies some of the community’s drinking water.
Water testing revealed levels of hexavalent chromium in Juliette that is 500 times the health advisory limit in California and 150 times the limit in North Carolina. Georgia does not have limit and the EPA has not yet determined a guideline for the human toxicity limit for hexavalent chromium. Therefore, the contamination and poisoning of Georgia residents from this cancerous metal is currently considered legal. Read More.
20 years of waiting and finally The Portland Harbor will be cleaned up. It’s highly contaminated with dozens of pollutants from more than a century of industrial use. Yesterday, EPA announced additional agreements with more than a dozen companies for cleanups of the river.
The companies that have signed agreements include NW Natural, Arkema Inc., Bayer Crop Science Inc., General Electric Company, Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Kinder Morgan Liquids Terminals LLC, McCall Oil and Chemical Corporation, Phillips 66 Company, Shell Oil Company, Atlantic Richfield Company, BP Products North America Inc., Brix Maritime Co., Exxon Mobil Corporation, Kinder Morgan Liquids Terminals LLC, Union Pacific Railroad Company and FMC Corporation, PacifiCorp, Cargill, Inc., CBS Corporation and DIL Trust, Glacier Northwest, Inc. Read More.
DuPont, a large contributor of PFAS production and contamination may have found a loophole to avoid assuming primary liability for PFAS cleanup and damage compensation. Beginning in 2015, the New Jersey company initiated transactions to The Chemours Company, Corteva Inc, and a new DuPont that would transition the responsibility of cleanup. However, these smaller companies do not have the funds to support the tens of billions of dollars needed to cover all damages. Read More.
The Alaskan Alutiiq, an indigenous tribe residing on the Alaskan coast, has long relied on shellfish for food. Recent instances have found that some shellfish has become contaminated by a natural occurring poison that can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning. This reactive condition could become more frequent as water temperatures rise and toxin production increases. Read More.
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An Air Pollution Pandemic
While the world is increasing its concern for the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, scientists have stated that another pandemic has been plaguing the world for years. The European Society of Cardiology has released a report claiming that air pollution is the cause of an underlying pandemic that causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and on average 5.5 million premature deaths a year. Read More.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University and Stanford University released a comprehensive study on the impacts of fracking in the Appalachian Basin. The study focused on premature deaths in relation to air quality, regional climate changes and employment opportunities from industry expansion. Read More.
In honor of Women’s History Month, NextAvenue highlights the incredible work of Lois Gibbs and Linda Garcia. Both women have won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for their work against environmental injustices. Although their fights are decades apart, the work at Love Canal and against the Tesoro Savage oil company demonstrate how environmental activism is still as important today as was in 1978. Read More.
Hunters in the United States commonly use lead based ammunition that can cause lead contamination in meat. Hunters have expressed that they are either unaware of these concerns or are mistrustful of the sources that have presented the research. In either case, public health officials are seeking a line of open communication to warn hunters and their families about the dangers of lead consumption. Read More.
Schools in New Hanover and Brunswick counties in North Carolina have set plans in motion to install a new water filtration system to protect school drinking water from industrial contamination. The plan comes after Brunswick county was determined to have the highest levels of PFAS water contamination in the country. Actor Mark Ruffalo, among others, spoke at a press conference at the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh explaining that more needed to be done to address the water contamination problem and the health of children in schools. Read More.