"A Tale of Two Toxic Cities"
"The EPA’s bungled response to an air pollution crisis exposes a toxic racial divide".
Source: The Intercept, 02/26/2019
Environmental Health
"U.S. Lawmakers To Grill Trump's EPA On Enforcement Drop-Off"
"U.S. lawmakers will grill the Environmental Protection Agency’s top pollution enforcement official on Tuesday after the agency’s recent annual report showed a big decline in civil penalties and site inspections."
Source: Reuters, 02/26/2019
"EPA Regulator Skirts The Line Between Former Clients And Current Job"
"Less than a month into his tenure as the top air-policy official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Bill Wehrum hopped into the EPA’s electric Chevy Volt and rode to the Pennsylvania Avenue offices of his former law firm."
Source: Washington Post, 02/26/2019
Climate Scientist Canned, SCOTUS To Rule on Chemical ‘Secrets’ and Army Corps Sued Over Permit Info
A scientist contracted to report on climate impacts for the National Park Service was caught up in a fracas over attempted censorship of her findings. Now she’s been fired. That, plus a FOIA case before the Supreme Court and an enviro group sues the Army Corps of Engineers over info on a permit for a new plastics plant in Louisiana. Read the latest on freedom-of-information issues in this month’s WatchDog TipSheet.
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Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Sicken Military Families
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When Army Staff Sgt. Samuel Fortune returned from Iraq, his body battered by war, he assumed he’d be safe. Then the people around him began to get sick. His neighbors, all living near five military bases, complained of tumors, thyroid problems and debilitating fatigue. Soon, the Colorado health department announced an unusually high number of kidney cancers in the region. Then Mr. Fortune’s wife fell ill."
Source: NY Times, 02/25/2019
Public Health: EPA Stalls Review Of 'Erin Brockovich' Chemical: Emails
"Last July, career EPA officials were set to unveil their plan to complete a long-awaited health review of the toxic metal hexavalent chromium, but more than half a year later, the plan is still under wraps — the latest delay for the human health assessment of the anti-corrosion chemical made infamous by the 2000 film 'Erin Brockovich.'"
Source: Greenwire, 02/25/2019
"Bayer Faces Second Trial Over Alleged Roundup Cancer Risk"
"Bayer AG is set to face a second U.S. jury over allegations that its popular glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes cancer, six months after the company’s share price was rocked by a $289 million verdict in California state court."
Source: Reuters, 02/25/2019
Reckoning Day: US Cities Burn Recyclables After China Bans Imports
"Residents of cities like Chester, outside Philadelphia, fear a rise in pollution from incinerators after China’s recycling ban".
Source: Guardian, 02/21/2019
How Wehrum’s Law Firm Profited From The Fight To Roll Back Air Rules
"The nation’s biggest coal-burning power companies paid a top lobbying firm millions of dollars to fight a wide range of Obama-era environmental rules, documents obtained by POLITICO reveal — shortly before one of the firm’s partners became President Donald Trump’s top air pollution regulator."
Source: Politico, 02/21/2019
"Pollution Casts Shadow Over New Mexico’s Booming Dairy Industry"
"For months, Clovis, New Mexico, dairy farmer Art Schaap has been watching his life go down the drain. Instead of selling milk, he is dumping 15,000 gallons a day – enough to provide a carton at lunch to 240,000 children. Instead of working 24/7 to keep his animals healthy, he’s planning to exterminate all 4,000 of his cows, one of the best herds in his county’s booming dairy industry."
Source: Guardian, 02/20/2019
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