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Introducing The People’s Task Force on the Future of Superfund

Introducing The People’s Task Force on the Future of Superfund

Voices from Contaminated Communities Across the Country

 
The Trump Administration and newly-appointed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt claim they want to return Superfund cleanups “to their rightful place at the center of the EPA’s core mission.” However their actions speak differently: their proposed budget includes a 30 percent cut in funding to the Superfund.
Last month, Pruitt assembled a Task Force to provide recommendations for the future of Superfund. His memo raises major concerns about decreasing cleanup oversight, privileging corporate interests over public health, and a lack of community involvement.
We aren’t going to let him get away with this. We will not allow our voices to be drowned out by corporate interests. Superfund victims and activists from sites around the country have come together to create The People’s Task Force to advocate for our recommendations on the future of Superfund, based on our years of on-the-ground experience.
Representatives of 25 Superfund sites and 70 environmental organizations have signed on to the People’s Task Force, which we are releasing to local and national media outlets today.
“Scott Pruitt must advocate with the White House to reinstate the Superfund Polluters Pay Tax. The American taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for corporate wrong doing.” 
                                      – Lois Marie Gibbs, Love Canal Leader, Mother of Superfund, CHEJ Founder
Here are the People’s Task Force recommendations,  and a list of some of organizations that make up The People’s Task Force. Below are quotes from people living near Superfund Sites around the country.
So far, the Pruitt’s EPA has been markedly secretive. Unlike previous administrators, he has never made his schedule publicly available and ignores Freedom of Information Act requests. His Task Force has been similarly opaque: he has not disclosed who staffs the Task Force aside from Albert Kelly, a prior bank chairman with no environmental experience.
Furthermore, even though the 30-day time frame has expired, he has not released the Task Force recommendations or comments. Superfund cannot be lead like a business – decisions that affect the health of thousands of communities cannot be made behind closed doors by financially motivated industry stakeholders. This is why we have come together to publicly release our recommendations, and we urge Pruitt to act with integrity and do the same.
 
Quotes People’s Task Force Members 
(Here is a list of some of The People’s Task Force members.)
“Scott Pruitt must advocate with the White House to reinstate the Superfund Polluters Pay Tax.  The American taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for corporate wrong doing.”
Lois Marie Gibbs, Love Canal Leader and Mother of Superfund.
Center for Health, Environment & Justice
CHEJ.org
(703)-237-2249
chej2@chej.org
 
“Public health has to be the top priority in cleaning up toxic waste sites. The communities most affected by Superfund sites must be included in the process, but unfortunately that was not the case with Scott Pruitt’s Task Force.”
Robin Schneider (512) 326-5655
robin@texasenvironment.org
 
“Scott Pruitt’s plan to streamline the Superfund process in favor of cutting costs will lead to incomplete cleanups of contaminated neighborhoods, as demonstrated in the past at sites like MDI in Houston’s 5th Ward. Painted as a quick way to boost economic development, Pruitt’s recommendations are more akin to a fast track to injustice.”
Rosanne Barone (713) 337-4192
Rosanne@texasenvironment.org
Texas Campaign for the Environment
San Jacinto River Waste pits and other sites in Texas
 
“EPA leadership should prioritize the appropriate remedial solutions for sites on the NPL and assure the continued support from regional staff to local community members dealing with the hazardous situations.”
Josue Ramirez
Texas Low Income Housing Information Service
(956) 295-6868
Josue@texashousing.org
Texashousing.org
 
“A toxic plume is spreading through Pensacola’s drinking water aquifer because the Superfund Program is starved for money. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt must make polluters pay for cleanup though the Superfund Tax.”
Francine Ishmael, Executive Director
Citizens Against Toxic Exposure,Inc
(850) 432-2228
fishmael@cate.gccoxmail.com
Pensacola, FL
 
“We need a strong EPA with strong enforcement authority to ensure our Superfund Alternative Site cleanup will be protective of our health and our environment.  Now is not the time to cut either EPA’s enforcement authority or community involvement in ensuring the best possible cleanup.”
Marilyn Welker
People for Safe Water
937-484-6988
mwelker@ctcn.net
Tremont City Barrel Fill – Ohio
 
“The Tar Creek Superfund Site needs a strong EPA that is fully funded if it is to ever finish our three- decades long cleanup.”
Rebecca Jim
LEAD Agency, Inc.
(918) 542-9399
leadagency@att.net
Tar Creek Superfund Site
 
“Superfund is the only chance we have at getting the Waste Pits fully cleaned-up before a major hurricane strikes our coast. The parties responsible for the Pits don’t want to clean them up as the EPA has proposed and we need the EPA to hold the companies responsible to protect our environment and future generations!”
Jackie Young
San Jacinto River Coalition
(281) 608-6213
jyoung@txhea.org
San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site
 
“All Americans deserve the right to clean air and clean water. Hold corporate polluters accountable and give our children a healthy future.”
Michele Baker,
Founding Member, New York Water Project
(518) 461-7270
michele.baker@upstatewatergroup.com
 
“Public health and constituent welfare need to become the top priority in all Superfund legislation to ensure that inexcusable events like those which occurred in Sellersville, Pennsylvania won’t ever happen again.”
Gregory Bulfaro
Sellersville x 3 / Sellersville Truth
(267) 227-8433
gbulfaro@aol.com
 
“Scott Pruitt’s plan to streamline the Superfund process in favor of cutting costs will lead to incomplete cleanups of contaminated neighborhoods, as demonstrated in the past at sites like MDI in Houston’s 5th Ward. Painted as a quick way to boost economic development, Pruitt’s recommendations are more akin to a fast track to injustice.”
Rosanne Barone
Texas Campaign for the Environment
713-337-4192
rosanne@texasenvironment.org
San Jacinto River Waste Pits
 
#  #  #
 
The Center for Health, Environment and Justice has been on the frontlines in the fight for environmental health for 40 years. We train and support local activists across the country and build local, state and national initiatives that win on issues from Superfund to climate change.
 
People’s Action Institute is a national organization of more than a million people across 29 states working for economic, racial, gender and climate justice – with a goal of reversing the growing economic inequality by building an economy that expands opportunity for low-income families.
 

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Sen. Booker: Corporate polluters attack families, ‘steal folks health,’ livelihoods

sen
“… it’s corporate villainy where folks are outsourcing the costs and the burdens of their economic enterprise onto others and privatizing all their profits,” Booker said at Mount Triumph Baptist Church in the heart of southeast Louisiana’s industrial corridor along the Mississippi River. “It is absolutely unacceptable to steal folks’ livelihoods, to steal folks’ health and, literally, drive down the cost of their land.”
Read the full story here: http://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/article_995ea5f4-5a8e-11e7-b1ab-476028b29dde.html

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Just Moms Plead For Relocation Away From Superfund Site

Dawn Chapman, Just Moms STL,  had listened with surprise and skepticism as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency vowed to clean up West Lake, the nuclear waste dump that has filled her days and nights with worry.
Read full article.
 
 
 
 

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Homepage News Archive

NAACP Florida Demanding Govenor Scott Deny Permit

NAACP Florida State Conference Joins the NAACP Jackson County Branch to demand the Scott Administration deny the pending deep injection well permit. “The NAACP Jackson County Branch joins hundreds of citizens, community groups and elected officials in opposing a pending Waste Management permit by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  Environmental injustice has a disproportionate impact on low income and rural communities in Florida and around the world.  The ultimate goal for this well is to dispose leachate (garbage juice) into the ground.  This technique will have a negative impact on the Florida Aquifer, thus resulting in irreversible damage to the communities’ water and health.  Our community has raised too many questions and we won’t sit on the sidelines as we see environmental injustices in North Florida” says Ronstance Pittman, President of NAACP Jackson County Branch.  

 “The NAACP Florida State Conference is outraged at the Scott Administration’s pending decision after hearing from State Senator Gainer, the Jackson County Commission and local residents.  This is yet another example of the egregious pattern of unsafe dumping of waste in low income communities and African American communities. In Jackson County, once again, another African-American community sits in peril, due to the too-often reckless practices of the waste industry,” says Adora Obi Nweze, President of NAACP Florida State Conference and member of the National Board of Directors.   
 Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities.

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Backyard Talk News Archive

Superfund Task Force Headed by Bank Chairman – Cuts in Budget- Appointing Lawyer Who Represented Polluters to EPA Enforcement

What a nightmare.
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt promised to restore Superfund and the EPA’ s land and water cleanup efforts “to their rightful place at the center of the agency’s core mission.”  He made this announcement in April while visiting a site in Indiana where hundreds of families must relocate because it is unsafe to live there. When I heard the announcement, I was excited. Unfortunately, soon afterwards his action spoke louder. Pruitt is not being honest. But judge for yourself.
On May 12th Susan Bodine was nominated to be assistant administrator for the EPA’s office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Qualified? Well in a way, if she was fighting for the polluters. She represented polluting industries as a partner at Barnes & Thornburg, LLP a law firm.  Bodine represented the American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA) from 2011 to 2014. Members of the AFPA have hundreds of EPA enforcement actions against them, including violations of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. She defended these industries against EPA.
This is the classic revolving door appointment. Since the enforcement office handles negotiations between the companies responsible for the pollution and the EPA, Bodine would be able to decide how extensive some cleanups are — and how much polluters have to spend cleaning them. Some of those enforcement action will be against her former clients.
How does she feel about poisoned communities? In testimony before a Senate hearing on Superfund in 2014, Bodine said she didn’t think most problems with the program were due to a lack of funding. Instead she blamed some of the delays in cleanups on community members who block access to sites.  “If the agency can’t get access to the site, they can’t do the cleanup,” she said, adding that she believed the agency was doing its best.
Superfund’s progress has slowed to a near standstill in recent years, not due to communities who want the best cleanup possible, after all they live there. No, the problem is due to a lack of funding. A tax on polluting industries originally paid into a fund for the cleanups expired in 1995, leaving regular taxpayers to pick up the tab when the government can’t identify a polluter — or when a polluter doesn’t have enough money to pay.
Since there are fewer clean up actions the number of people exposed to dangerous pollution has climbed. In 2010, there were 75 Superfund sites where the government had yet to bring toxic exposure to humans under control. By last year, that number was up to 121, according to the most recent EPA data.
This week there were two other significant announcements related to Superfund. The budget cuts and a new taskforce. Superfund budget was cut by a third, 330 million dollars. Enforcement efforts will be cut by 40%. How does Pruitt think he’s going to keep his promise to fulfill the program, move it front and center with less money and a lead attorney who has been on the other side of the table for years representing polluters.
Pruitt’s new Superfund Task Force is even more absurd. He chose Albert Kelly to chair the taskforce an Oklahoma banker who has no prior experience with the program or with environmental issues at all, according to his résumé. However, Kelly has donated twice to Pruitt’s campaigns in Oklahoma, has spent the past 33 years working at Spiritbank, served as its chairman, which is headquartered in Tulsa. The “core competencies” listed on his résumé, include motivational speaking, business development, and “political activity.”
Washington D.C. seems to get crazier every passing day. For all of you who care about our environment, public health and fairness, take the time to get involved. Together we need to talk with our representatives at the home offices and demand change. If you don’t think that representative is listening or supporting your core issues than find someone to replace them and work on that person’s campaign. We can’t whine our way through this insanity we must get out and take actions.

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Homepage News Archive

Longtime Dunmore Mayor Ousted

Lackawanna, PA –
“Borough Councilman Timothy Burke defeated Mayor Patrick “Nibs” Loughney in Tuesday’s Democratic primary by a razor-thin three-vote margin…”
One important issue brought to attention during the race was the expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill. Burke opposed the expansion and won the election, ousting the incumbent who had been in office for 24 years.
This story highlights the importance of running your own candidate in local elections and how every vote counts.
Read more here

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Homepage News Archive

OHIO’s 1st Human Rights Tribunal

The first human-rights and environmental-justice hearing ever held in Ohio took place in Athens Saturday. The hearing was part of a tribunal process on impacts of fracking as a human-rights issue.
Sixteen presenters from around Ohio testified to a panel of four citizen judges at the First United Methodist Church in Athens, providing more than six hours of testimony.
The event is part of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Fracking, which is gathering testimony from around the world to deliver to the Permanent People’s Tribunal and the United Nations.
The Athens hearing, one of two planned for Ohio, was initiated by the Buckeye Environmental Network , and organized with support from Torch Can Do!, the grassroots group founded by residents living in and near Torch in eastern Athens County, and a grant from the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice. Torch is the site of one of the largest fracking-waste injection facilities in Ohio. Read more.

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Open Burning at Military Sites Angers Activists

Soon after Erin Card moved to within two miles of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia two years ago, she began to notice threads of smoke that occasionally rose above the heavily wooded site. She started asking about the source, and eventually was stunned by what she learned: Toxic explosives were being burned in the open air.
“It just seems crazy to me,” said Card, 36, who lives with her husband and their three young boys.
The open burning and open detonation of hazardous waste explosives is banned in many countries, including Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. Likewise, in this country, private industry long ago was forced to abandon the primitive disposal practice. Read more.

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Ohio fines pipeline builder -water, air violations

Ohio’s regulators have issued a $430,000 fine against a company building a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Michigan. Energy Transfer is the company building the $4.2 billion pipeline. It will carry gas from West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Energy Transfer also worked on the contentious Dakota Access pipeline. Read more.

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Homepage News Archive

mark! Lopez Fights for East Los Angeles, Wins Goldman Environmental Prize

Born and raised in a family of community activists, mark! Lopez persuaded the state of California to provide comprehensive lead testing and cleanup of East Los Angeles homes contaminated by a battery smelter that had polluted the community for over three decades.
Bordered by the Los Angeles River and crisscrossed by the area’s notoriously congested freeways, LA’s Eastside is home to the densest population of working-class Latino communities in the country. Residents bear the brunt of the region’s pollution, with heavy cargo traffic coming in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and industrial plants operating well within breathing distance of homes, schools, and parks.
Among these facilities was an aging battery recycling plant, which had been in operation since 1922 with minimal updates and repairs. Georgia-based Exide took over the smelter in 2000 and ramped up the volume of batteries processed at the plant—and with it, emission levels of dangerous pollutants such as lead and arsenic.
A sampling of dust on rooftops of nearby buildings found lead levels of 52,000 parts per million—where 1,000 parts per million is considered hazardous waste. Lead is a powerful neurotoxin that accumulates in the body over time. It can cause learning disabilities even at very low levels, and as such, there is no safe lead level in children. Read more.