Category: News Archive

A lawyer for two Southwest Memphis landowners is challenging eminent domain lawsuits filed by Byhalia Pipeline against his clients, asserting in court filings that the building of an oil pipeline through residential properties does not serve residents and is a threat to the water supply.

“There is no public purpose here for the citizens of Memphis,” said attorney Scott Crosby. “It is crude oil being taken from a plant across people’s yards, across people’s homes, across people’s property they’ve had for generations into Mississippi and connecting with another part of their pipeline. At no time is the crude oil going to stop in Memphis (or) be used in Memphis.”
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Photo Credit: Andrea Morales/MLK50

Although Betty Byrd Smith has been retired from disability advocacy since 2007, she will not let perceived injustices happen on her watch — even after a recent hip replacement.
Smith, who has lived in Lansdowne for more than 30 years, had created flyers and had led door-to-door petitioning, though not for quite some time.
However, a recent moment of “serendipity” during a walk to buy a newspaper at a local market changed all that: Smith saw a sign about at a special exception being sought for a solid waste management facility at 41 S. Union Ave. in Upper Darby Township — right across the street from her home.
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Photo Credit: Kimberly Paynter/WHYY

Nearly 300 people – including representatives of 72 civic, environmental, veterans and health organizations from around the nation – have issued a joint statement <https://cswab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Public-comment-to-EPA-TDEC-opposing-open-burning-of-PFAS-by-U.S.-Army-FINAL-SIGNED-16-Jan-2021.pdf>  calling on state and federal regulators to prohibit open air burning of PFAS and other toxic chemicals at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee. The burning, which has been going on for decades, produces toxic smoke that often envelops neighboring homes in the city of Kingsport.
The letter follows a recent announcement <https://cswab.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Holston-Clean-Air-Act-Title-V-Modifications-and-Public-Notice-Dec-2020.pdf>  that U.S. EPA Region 4 and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation intend to re-issue a Title V (Clean Air Act) permit that will allow the Army to annually open burn as much as 1,250,000 pounds of munitions wastes that may contain as much as 15% PFAS by weight.
“PFAS are not destroyed in an open fire and are therefore widely dispersed to the air and the surrounding environment where they accumulate in people, as well as fish, wildlife and food crops. At higher temperatures, poisonous hydrogen fluoride gas may be generated,” the commenters emphasized. “Hydrogen fluoride is a listed hazardous air pollutant subject to regulation by U.S. EPA and authorized states under the Clean Air Act, as are other air emissions from open burning at Holston.”
Exposure to PFAS has been shown to affect growth and development, reproduction, thyroid function, the immune system, injure the liver and increase risk for certain cancers.
For this reason, military sites like the Blue Grass Army Depot <https://cswab.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bluegrass-Army-Depot-OBOD-Final-Permit-PFAS-prohibition-Nov-2018.pdf>  in Kentucky are expressly prohibited from burning PFAS and dozens of other toxic wastes including pesticides, dioxins, PCBs, white and red phosphorus, and depleted uranium. Both the Blue Grass and Holston Army bases are located in EPA Region 4.
“We are adamant that Tennessee residents, workers and environment are afforded the same level of protection as their Kentucky neighbors,” the joint statement concludes.
The national effort was coordinated by Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger <https://cswab.org/action-alert-u-s-military-is-open-burning-pfas/>  – a grassroots organization that has been monitoring military cleanups for 30 years – in collaboration with Volunteers for Environmental Health and Justice <https://www.facebook.com/Volunteers-for-Environmental-Health-and-Justice-210370109297120/>  in Tennessee.
The U.S. Army at Holston Army Ammunition Plant has announced that it will be hosting an online (virtual) public meeting on Thursday, January 28, 2021 starting at 4:30 PM CST. For more information, visit Holston’s facebook page.
*  *  *
IMPORTANT NOTES:
The organizations emphasize that the submitted joint public comments are not to be construed as supporting ANY open burning at Holston – the public notice specifies that regulators are only accepting comment on proposed conditions and permit modifications and our comments are submitted in this specific context.
References for this action include 35 reports and scientific studies posted here <https://cswab.org/action-alert-u-s-military-is-open-burning-pfas/> .

For more information, contact:
Laura Olah, Executive Director, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger 608.643.3124
Mark Toohey, Volunteers for Environmental Health and Justice (TN) 423.765.3947

Photo Credit: WCYB

Rivers may seem like immutable features of the landscape but they are in fact changing color over time, a new study has found.
Researchers compiled a database of satellite images of major rivers in the United States from 1984 to 2018 and learned that about a third have significantly changed color in less than 40 years.
The overall significance of the changes are unclear and could reflect various ways in which humans are impacting the environment, said lead author John Gardner, an assistant professor of geology and environmental science at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Photo Credit: USGS/NASA Landsat

Tribal leaders in South Dakota are applauding President Joe Biden’s day one move to halt the Keystone XL Pipeline at the country’s northern border, calling the action a willingness to listen to Native American voices.

Tribes in South Dakota have been opposed to and protesting the pipeline’s construction for more than a decade. Biden canceled its permit as part of a number of promises to address climate change.

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Photo Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP

President Joe Biden signed sweeping actions to combat climate change just hours after taking the oath of office, moving to rejoin the Paris accord and imposing a moratorium on oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Environmentalists said Biden’s actions — some of which could take years to be implemented — renew the U.S. commitment to safeguarding the environment and signal to the world that America has returned to the global fight against climate change.
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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

WASHINGTON (January 14, 2021) — As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) extensive efforts to address PFAS, today the agency is making new information available about EPA testing that shows PFAS contamination from fluorinated containers.
Through a coordinated effort with both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a pesticide manufacturer, the agency has determined that fluorinated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers that are used to store and transport a mosquito control pesticide product contain PFAS compounds that are leaching into the pesticide product.
While the agency is early in its investigation and assessment of potential impacts on health or the environment, the affected pesticide manufacturer has voluntarily stopped shipment of any products in fluorinated HDPE containers and is conducting its own testing to confirm EPA results and product stability in un-fluorinated containers. In addition, EPA has issued a request for information under the Toxics Substance Control Act (TSCA) to the company that fluorinates the containers used by certain pesticide manufacturers. The TSCA subpoena requests information about the fluorination process used to treat the containers.
As EPA evaluates this issue, the agency asks that pesticide and other companies using fluorinated containers, and entities that provide container fluorination services, engage in good product stewardship and examine their distribution chains to identify potential sources of contamination. EPA will also continue to work closely with the entities involved and their supply and distribution chains, mosquito control districts, the pesticide and packaging industry, federal partners, states, and tribes that may be affected to provide information and guidance on next steps. EPA understands the need to provide guidance to states, tribes, and other users as they prepare to purchase mosquito control products for 2021 and will provide more information as it continues its investigation.
EPA will update the following webpage with information as it becomes available: https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/pfas-packaging
Background
Since first becoming aware of the PFAS contamination issue in early September 2020 through citizen science testing of a pesticide product for mosquito control, EPA has been working to investigate the source of the contamination. Throughout October and November 2020, EPA has worked diligently in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to request samples of the pesticide product and analyze the identified product at different steps of production and manufacturing to determine whether PFAS are present, including issuing an information request to the pesticide registrant on October 5, 2020 seeking information on the affected pesticide’s production, sales, and distribution.
In late December 2020, EPA studied the fluorinated HDPE containers used to store and transport the product and determined the containers are a possible source of PFAS contamination. EPA has been in close contact with Massachusetts, the pesticide registrant and the fluorinated HDPE container treatment company to discuss the issue, as well as to obtain the materials needed to test for PFAS in the product and the fluorinated HDPE containers.
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), EPA is charged with approving active and inert ingredients in the registered pesticide products sold in the United States. EPA has confirmed that PFAS is not a known ingredient or additive in the company’s affected product and is collaboratively working with the registrant as EPA laboratories test samples of the product at different steps of production and manufacturing, in addition to the agency’s study of the containers themselves.
Photo credit: Politico

Oil and gas companies are not doing enough to decrease the release of methane gases, a main source of planet-heating emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report released Monday.
In 2020, the fuel industries emitted about 5% of all global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, the IEA report said.
The energy sector is the second-largest emitter of methane worldwide, following agriculture, according to the IEA’s Methane Tracker. The agency noted that methane emissions have decreased by 10% in the past year, but added it is mostly because of a decrease in economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Photo Credit: AP

Environmental advocates have largely been critical of President Trump, but some still offer praise for the Trump EPA’s attention to toxic sites.
The Trump administration has also touted its successes in deleting Superfund sites, which allows those areas to begin revitalization efforts and apply for grants to bolster economic growth.
Under the leadership of former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and current chief Andrew Wheeler, the agency prioritized Superfund delistings as well as partial delistings. Pruitt, in particular, said Superfund cleanups would be a focus of his EPA when he took the reins in 2017. After Pruitt’s departure in July 2018, Wheeler continued to emphasize the Trump administration’s “renewed focus” on Superfund.
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Photo credit: Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News(illustration); Francis Chung/E&E News(Wheeler); Gage Skidmore/Flickr(Pruitt); markzvo/wikipedia(Superfund sign)

“Prevention is the cure for child/teen cancer.” This is the welcoming statement on a website called ‘TheReasonsWhy.Us‘, where families affected by childhood cancers can sign up for a landmark new study into the potential environmental causes.
The study is a joint project between Texas Children’s Hospital, part of the world’s largest medical center, and The Oliver Foundation, founded by the parents of a 12-year-old boy who died 36 hours after he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, one week after the onset of headaches.
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