Chemicals

Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules

September 1, 2017 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Chemicals, Congress, Texas

By David Sirota, Alex Kotch, Jay Cassano, and Josh Keefe for IBT - The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing "noxious" smoke — and may explode — successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections. The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors. Representatives from Arkema Americas and the American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In 2013, a West, Texas, chemical plant explosion killed 15 people, prompting the Obama administration to try to raise chemical plant safety standards (investigators later found the explosion was caused deliberately).

11 States Sue EPA Over Chemical Accident Safety Rule

July 25, 2017 Staff, www.ag.ny.gov Resist! Attorney General, Chemicals, EPA, Lawsuit, New York (NY)

By Staff of Attorney General of NY - NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a coalition of 11 state Attorneys General, today filed a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for illegally delaying a vital rule meant to protect communities, workers, and first responders from dangerous chemical accidents. The rule – the Accidental Release Prevention Requirements or the “Chemical Accident Safety Rule” – makes critical improvements to Congressionally-mandated protections against explosions, fires, poisonous gas releases, and other accidents at more than 12,000 facilities across the country—including over 200 in New York—that store and use toxic chemicals. The lawsuit is led by Attorney General Schneiderman and signed by the Attorneys General of New York, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Click here to read the lawsuit. “Protecting our workers, first-responders, and communities from chemical accidents should be something on which we all agree. Yet the Trump EPA continues to put special interests before the health and safety of the people they serve,” said Attorney General Schneiderman.

Emissions Found Coming From Dominion Cove Point Right Now!

February 28, 2017 Staff, www.wearecovepoint.org Resist! Chemicals, Dominion, Export Terminals, pollution

By Staff of We Are Cove Point - After being invited by We Are Cove Point, a team from Earthworks traveled to Cove Point in early February, bringing a FLIR camera operator all the way from Colorado. FLIR cameras are designed to pick up heat and gaseous emissions invisible to the naked eye. Click here for more details on Earthworks’ FLIR camera program. FLIR cameras can show that emissions are occurring, but not the volume or type of emissions. In the words of the FLIR operator who came to Cove Point, the resulting footage shows “a noticeable non-heat plume above the point source, and it went quite high into the air. There is a possibility that this emissions plume contains toxic volatile organic compounds, and it definitely contains greenhouse gasses. It is usually understood that between 92 and 97 percent of combusted point sources are actually burned. The rest, particularly methane in the context of gas-fired compressor turbine exhaust, emits without being burned off fully.

‘Extremely High’ Jump In Post-Fukushima Radioactive Chemicals

July 22, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Educate! Chemicals, Fukushima, Radioactive

By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - Greenpeace Japan reported Thursday that waterways in the Fukushima district have hundreds of times more radiation now than before 2011, when the nuclear disaster that forced the evacuation of at least 160,000 people occurred. Looking back at the past five years, the environmental group's new report, Atomic Depths: An assessment of freshwater and marine sediment contamination: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster—Five years later (pdf), finds that the hazardous chemical cesium-137 was present in the soil on the banks of the Abukuma, Niida, and Ota rivers.

Hundreds Of Cancer-Causing Chemicals Pollute Americans’ Bodies

June 15, 2016 Alex Formuzis, www.ewg.org Educate! Cancer, Chemicals, pollution

By Alex Formuzis for EWG - WASHINGTON- Hundreds of cancer-causing chemicals are building up in the bodies of Americans, according to the first comprehensive inventory of the carcinogens that have been measured in people. EWG released the inventory today. EWG spent almost a year reviewing more than 1,000 biomonitoring studies and other research by leading government agencies and independent scientists in the U.S. and around the world. The nonprofit research group found that up to 420 chemicals known or likely to cause cancer have been detected in blood, urine, hair and other human samples.

West Coast Cities Sue Monsanto To Pay For Chemical Cleanup

May 20, 2016 Sarah Gilman, www.hcn.org Resist! Chemicals, Lawsuit, Monsanto, West

By Sarah Gilman for High Country News - Portland, Oregon’s Willamette is no wilderness river. But on a spring day, downstream of downtown, wildness peeks through. Thick forest rises beyond a tank farm on the west bank. A sea lion thrashes to the surface, wrestling a salmon. And as Travis Williams, executive director of the nonprofit Willamette Riverkeeper, steers our canoe under a train bridge — dodging debris tossed by jackhammering workers — ospreys wing into view. The 10-mile reach, known as Portland Harbor, became a Superfund Site in 2000.

Fukushima: The World’s Never Seen Anything Like This

October 2, 2015 Robert Hunziker, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Chemicals, Nuclear Power

By Robert Hunziker for Counter Pounch - The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No. 2 nuclear reactor fuel is missing from the core containment vessel. (Source: Up to 100% of No. 2 Reactor Fuel May Have Melted, NHK World News, Sept. 25, 2015.) Where did it go? Nobody knows. Not only that but the “learning curve” for a nuclear meltdown is as fresh as the event itself because “the world has never seen anything like this,” never. Utilizing cosmic ray muon radiography with nuclear emulsion, researchers from Nagoya University peered inside the reactors at Fukushima. The nuclear fuel in reactor core No. 5 was clearly visible via the muon process.

First Nations Protest Pollution In Ontario’s Chemical Valley

September 8, 2015 Fram Dinshaw, www.earthfirstjournal.org Resist! Chemicals, First Nations, Oil & Gas

By Fram Dinshaw in Earth First Journal - Hundreds of climate activists marched in a ‘Toxic Tour’ through a bleak industrial landscape on the edge of Ontario that is a frontline in Canada’s climate wars. They were gathered to support the tiny Aamjiwnaang First Nation, whose traditional territory lies near an area known as “Chemical Valley” — a 15 square-mile area in Sarnia, where over 40 per cent of Canada’s chemical industry is based. Nearly 60 oil refineries and factories are crammed into an industrial strip overlooking the St. Clair River. Storage tanks and oil terminals just a stone’s throw from Aamjiwnaang lands, and the skyline dominated by familiar company logos: Enbridge, TransAlta, Cabot, Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil, among others.

Denmark Suspends Fracking Over ‘Hazardous’ Chemicals

May 10, 2015 Staff, www.rt.com Resist! Chemicals, Environment, Fracking, Gas

Denmark has suspended the first exploratory drilling for shale gas which lasted only one day after it discovered that French gas-giant Total, in charge of the project, had used “unauthorized” chemicals. "They used a product that was not part of those authorized" for the procedure, Ture Falbe-Hansen, a Danish Energy Agency spokesman told AFP Wednesday. The type of defoamer known as Null Foam is used in fracking to extract shale gas and is considered hazardous to the environment, according to Danish public broadcaster DR.

Coalition Challenges Expanded Use Of Hazardous Herbicide

April 22, 2015 Center For Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org Resist! Chemicals, Food and Agriculture

A coalition of conservation, food safety, and public health groups filed a motion today challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s decision to expand the use of “Enlist Duo” on genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy crops to nine additional states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety filed the motion in the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Environmental Working Group, the National Family Farm Coalition, and Pesticide Action Network North America.

Protests Prompt Mongolia To Close Chemical Park

April 9, 2015 William Ide and Fang Bing, www.voanews.com Resist! Chemicals, Environment, Mongolia, Protests

A local government in China’s Inner Mongolia has ordered the closure and relocation of a chemical industrial park following weeks of anti-pollution protests. The order comes shortly after police launched a massive crackdown that a U.S.-based rights group says left one protester dead and injured dozens of others. Inner Mongolia’s Naiman Banner government said in a statement that in addition to ordering all of the companies in the park to shut down their operations, an investigation also will be conducted into Tongliao Longsheng Chemical Company. A local villager, who did not want to be named, confirmed the government statement during a phone interview with VOA. "The protest is over, the government compromised and announced Monday that it would close the refinery," he said.

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