No one should ever have to wonder if their water is safe. Across NY state, drinking water contamination has been hurting communities. Read more. On a federal level there is a bill in the Senate that force all schools to test their drinking water and provides grants to replace pipes where necessary. Take action button is on the left side of our webpage. Please let your representative know you care.
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A 2013 lawsuit regarding the Bridgeton landfill finally reached a settlement in Missouri courts. The settlement holds Bridgeton accountable and is a step in the right direction according to Missouri’s Attorney General. Republic Services will still manage the site. Additionally, Bridgeton will create a$12.5 million restitution fund and pay $3.5 million in fines and damages.
Read More.
June 27, 2018
More than 200 people participated in the opening session of the first of several regional summits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PSAS) and related chemicals that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to sponsor over the coming year. The summit held in Exeter, New Hampshire included both a public forum Monday, June 25 and a series of workshops the following day which involved environmental officials from the state, the federal government, municipal officials and interested parties. This regional summit was a follow-up to the EPA’s National Summit held in Washington, DC in May as it considers new standards and regulations to deal with the threats posed by this group of chemicals and the development of effective environmental cleanup methods. For more information on these chemicals and the community engagement process.
David Bond, from Bennington College, gave one of several presentations before the gathering. Bond said different regulations in every state and different levels of enforcement have made it more difficult to address the complex challenges posed by PFAS. Bond contrasted Vermont’s quick action when contamination was found in Bennington County with the slower, less vigorous response from New York state to PFAS contamination in the Hoosick Falls, New York, area.
However, Bond did praise a recent lawsuit filed by New York in an attempt to hold companies that released the chemicals into the atmosphere responsible for the costs of dealing with the contamination. He also said “I think of Vermont as a model for how to respond,” when Former Gov. Peter Shumlin and other officials, swooped in immediately after the tainted wells were discovered and held informational sessions. The governor ensured that water was delivered to residents, and the state pressured Saint Gobain to extend a water line to affected residents, as well as, having the Vermont Department of Health hold screening clinics.
Bond explained that exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and similar chemicals, primarily through drinking water, has been associated with high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension. These highly soluble chemicals can be spread through spills, dump sites or through factory stack emissions, working their way into groundwater or reservoir water sources, where it is believed they will not dissipate for many years, if ever.
Bond recommended a uniform, national approach guided from the federal level, including legal action if necessary by the Department of Justice against polluters.
Bond also stated that the EPA released an 850-plus-page draft report on June 21 that indicated the standards for the level of PFOA in drinking water should be lowered significantly. The EPA has set a safe drinking water standard at 70 parts per trillion, while Vermont set its standard at 20 parts per trillion. Bond stated, that both might need to be lowered, according to the draft report. The Comment Period for the draft report, prepared by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) must be submitted by July 21.
Source:
https://vtdigger.org/2018/06/26/pfoa-summit-vermonts-response-to-contamination-a-model/
The EPA, U.S. Department of Justice, and the state DEP reached a $100 settlement from Emhart Industires Inc. and Black & Decker Inc. will clean up the dioxin-contaminated soil at the Superfund site in Northern Providence and Johnson. The site covers nine acres on the Woonaskqutucket River.
Read more here
Minden, West Virginia has been contaminated by toxic and cancerous PCBs for decades after Shaffer Equipment Company buried electrical waste in the town. The activists are protesting a sewer project in the town that has exposed residents to PCBs. West Virginia Governor, Jim Justice, originally supported the communities efforts to put their town on the EPA’s Superfund Priority list and halt the sewer project, but the Governor has since reversed the order.
Read more.
Our founding fathers would be ashamed of the moral standards that Independence Day represents TODAY. A far reach from what was intended when they proclaimed:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This has been called “one of the best-known sentences and the most potent and consequential words in American history.” The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive.
Lincoln considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.
Today, we place refugee families in cages. Thousands of children have been separated by our government from their parents. Three-month-old infants, toddlers, teenagers are alone and terrified.
Today, we trap poor families and families of color in communities, with industrial chemicals in their air, water, and land that makes them sick. Children born in such polluted communities will not likely reach their birth potential due to toxic exposures, through no fault of their own.
Today, land is being stolen from farmers, ranchers, and the public so that big gas and oil can transport their product through pipelines then offshore. Public and private land is being destroyed forever in the name of profits, while American citizens are assaulted and robbed of their Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Today, we hear about how parents must work two to three jobs just to feed and house their families. As the cost of living rises, hardworking Americans salaries have remained stagnant. America provided tax breaks for corporations while refusing to establish a national living wage.
Yes, America’s moral standards and principles, demonstrated this year, has hit bottom. Our founding fathers would be ashamed of where America is today.
At this moment, nothing could be more patriotic than protest. Our country was founded as an act of bold resistance. The Declaration of Independence we celebrate on July Fourth was not merely the expression of one’s right to protest; it was the exercise of that right.
The Declaration justified the independence of the United States asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. It is again time for a revolution.
So let’s build a bigger, stronger and more strategic REVOLUTION. We can build on groundwork already laid by thousands of organizations. Let us start today in honor of the Declaration of Independence.
Let’s stand up and fight back–not as separate issues paths or geography but together on the core elements that are taking America down. Everyone needs to vote, many need to run for seats of power at city hall or Congress, we need to speak up locally to representatives’ office. Support the fight in any way that you can. Together we can bring back our moral standards the core principles that our founding fathers established.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said there will be no relocation camps established in Concord or anywhere in California, at this time.
Concord’s Mayor sent a letter explaining that the acreage within the site is still undergoing assessment and cleanup of Navy contamination and is not suitable for transfer nor for human occupation. The city and the Navy have been working over the last 12 years through the BRAC [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”][base realignment and closure] process.
The area currently has no useful infrastructure to provide water, sewer, or electricity. These concerns make it unsuitable for consideration. Read More.
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Is Radium Being Spread on Your Roads?
Radium has been widely spread on Pennsylvania roadways without regulation: Study
Wastewater from the oil and gas industry that’s being spread on roadways to control dust and ice in at least 13 states, including Pennsylvania, poses a threat to the environment and to human health, according to a study released this week. Read more.
Residents told EPA about a long-standing lack of job training in New Bedford for racial minorities, including jobs doing EPA-run Superfund work. Other large Superfund sites around the country have job training for local residents, but New Bedford does not. Read more.
“When it comes to exposure to hazardous waste, Chicago is a tale of two cities divided by color and income.
On the South Side, neighborhoods like Roseland, Englewood, and Riverdale are over 95 percent black. Across the Windy City, fewer than one in five households live below the poverty line, but eight of nine communities on the West Side – many of which contain Superfund sites – exceed that level. The concentration of toxic risk suggests that Chicago continues to fail to live up to a fundamental principle of environmental justice: a person’s race or income level should not increase their likelihood of living near hazardous waste. With more than half of the city’s Superfund sites on the South Side and more than a third on the West Side, maybe this injustice can be best addressed if we call it by its true name: environmental racism.
Disarray within Environmental Protection Agency’s leadership has drawn attention away from the urgent threat facing Chicago neighborhoods. There are 116 hazardous waste areas in Chicago classified as Superfund sites, 100 of which are on the city’s South or West sides. To cite but one example, the H. Kramer & Co. metal smelting facility in Pilsen has emitted airborne lead for decades, much of which settled in backyards and near a public high school.
A recent EPA policy shift favoring private redevelopment (led by former Superfund head Albert Kelly’s Superfund Task Force) may do more harm than good. In January, EPA published an incomplete list of Superfund sites with significant “redevelopment and commercial potential” based on factors like outside interest and land values. The EPA has also indicated a willingness to “work with developers,” perhaps even after sites are cleaned up. This sudden, proactive emphasis on private redevelopment screams gentrification. Whether the EPA can work with outside developers (whose primary interest is profit) while honoring its obligation to prevent community displacement is an open question. No matter the answer, the EPA has wrongly assumed that outside redevelopment is uniformly in the best interest of communities containing these hazardous sites.”
Read More Here