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EPA

Protesters Converge On All EPA Regional Offices Against Clean Power Plan

January 13, 2016 Leila Roberts, www.ourpowercampaign.org , , ,
By Leila Roberts for Our Power Campaign - Albuquerque, NM | 12 January 2016 — Environmental justice leaders from frontline communities hardest-hit by climate change and pollution will converge on 10 Environmental Protection Agency regional office headquarters Jan. 19, 2016, to mark the end of the final public comment period for the Obama Administration’s federal Clean Power Plan to reduce power plant carbon emissions 32% by 2030. These peaceful protests and press conferences will launch the “Our Power Plan,” the Climate Justice Alliance’s answer to the Clean Power Plan. Community leaders are also arranging private meetings with EPA Regional Administrators on that day.

EPA Bans Highly Toxic GMO Pesticide

November 29, 2015 Ocean Robbins, www.foodrevolution.org , , , ,
By Ocean Robbins for the Food Revolution Network. In phenomenal and ground-breaking news, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced that it is revoking the registration of the controversial chemical Enlist Duo. This is a huge set-back for the GMO industry. Enlist Duo is the super-toxic herbicide (a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D) that is designed to be sprayed on Dow Chemical’s genetically-engineered corn (and soy), widely referred to in the organic industry as Agent Orange Corn. The EPA recognized that the two active ingredients in Enlist Duo could result in greater toxicity to non-target plants, and issued a ruling that may effectively end the threat of Agent Orange Corn. But, at the very same time, Monsanto, Dow, and their special interest friends have unveiled a new, sneaky approach to hide information about GMOs. Recognizing that the “Deny Americans Right to Know (DARK)” act that they pushed through the U.S. Congress is likely dead in the Senate, they're offering a "compromise" piece of legislation. It would require GMO labels on food products, but ONLY if they're hidden in QR codes (which take a smart phone to decipher) on the back of a product.

EPA Finding On Fracking Disputed By Own Scientists

November 22, 2015 Neela Banerjee, www.insideclimatenews.org , , ,
By Neela Banerjee for Inside Climate News. Washington, DC - An Environmental Protection Agency panel of independent scientific advisers has challenged core conclusions of a major study the agency issued in June that minimized the potential risks to drinking water from hydraulic fracturing. The panel, known as the Science Advisory Board (SAB), particularly criticized the EPA's central finding that fracking has not led to "to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States." The oil and gas industry has seized on the conclusion to argue that broad concerns about fracking's impact on drinking water are overblown. The SAB's 30 members, from academia, industry and federal agencies, said this and other conclusions drawn in the executive summary were ambiguous or inconsistent "with the observations/data presented in the body of the report."

Navajo Nation Declares State Of Emergency Over ‘Tragic’ Spill

August 14, 2015 Tristan Ahtone, www.america.aljazeera..com , , , , ,
Farmers and ranchers on Navajo land in northwestern New Mexico are preparing to take heavy losses this season as a plume of wastewater laced with toxic chemicals flows south from an abandoned mine in Colorado. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency spilled around 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River. According to the EPA, the incident occurred when a crew hired to pump and treat wastewater inside the abandoned Gold King Mine outside of Durango, Colorado, accidently released a brew of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals from a mine tunnel. As a precautionary measure, the Navajo Nation has asked citizens to keep livestock away from the San Juan River and stop diverting water from the river for crops. That means farmers like Lorenzo Bates are beginning to plan for the worst. “What is in the water? To what extent are those heavy metals?” said Bates, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council and farmer from Upper Fruitland, New Mexico.

EPA’s Mine Disaster Plume Flows Toward Grand Canyon

August 9, 2015 Bruce Finley, www.denverpost.com , , ,
By Bruce Finley in The Denver Post. Silverton, CO — Three days after EPA workers triggered a huge blowout at a festering mine in southwestern Colorado, a mustard-colored plume — still fed by 548 gallons leaking per minute — stretched more than 100 miles, spreading contaminants including cadmium, arsenic, copper, lead and zinc. Environmental Protection Agency regional chief Shaun McGrath on Saturday conceded that federal officials know the levels of the heavy metals in Cement Creek and the Animas River but would not reveal early testing results. "Those data sheets have not been finalized by the scientists," McGrath said. "As soon as we are able to release them, we will."

Oil & Water: How Oil Companies Are Ruining Our Water Sources

June 27, 2015 Christopher Judges, www.vcreporter.com , , ,
By Christopher Judges in Ventura Country Reporter - California farmers are desperate for water. Every year, Chevron sells back billions of gallons of recycled oil extraction wastewater to them. This water contains acetone, oil and methylene chloride, a known carcinogen, in nearly four times the amount found in a contaminated Arkansas River after the 2013 ExxonMobil tar sands pipeline failure. Our farmers assume the water is passing health standards, but the government authorities and local water boards charged with overseeing this practice are relying on decades-old monitoring, which does not test for carcinogens or the chemicals used in modern-day oil production. Big oil companies like Chevron, Shell, BP and the Koch Bothers, etc., are aware of their environmental destruction, their disgusting pollution and their “en masse” spreading of cancer-causing agents worldwide.

Native Tribes Declare Sovereignty From Maine

June 1, 2015 Alex Freeman, www.thefifthcolumnnews.com , , , ,
By Alex Freeman in The Fifth Column News - The new Order maintains that native tribes in Maine retain their sovereignty, but holds that they now have a “relationship between equals with its own set of responsibilities,” yet declares that tribal lands, forms of tribal governance and natural resources controlled by the native tribes are subject to the laws and jurisdiction of the State of Maine. The takeover of lands was prompted by an EPA letter to the State, and claims that lack of Tribal participation in “the State’s interests” required the usurpation of Tribal sovereignty. The Letter, in fact, actually supports the Tribal position, as the Tribal standards of environmental protection are much stricter than those of the EPA or the State of Maine. Those close to the Penobscot Tribe tell The Fifth Column that LePage threatened to sue the EPA over the proposed new regulations, leading the Agency to back down.

Earth Day March: EPA To The Pentagon

April 14, 2015 National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, www.facebook.com , , , , , ,
For all of you who are sick of heart over the destruction of the earth through pollution and militarization, we call on you to get involved in an action that speaks to your heart and mind, from the EPA to the Pentagon on April 22, Earth Day. [Details below.] In Climate Change Challenges by Kathy Kelly: “. . . it seems the greatest danger – the greatest violence – that any of us face is contained in our attacks on our environment. Today’s children and generations to follow them face nightmares of scarcity, disease, mass displacement, social chaos, and war, due to our patterns of consumption and pollution.” She adds this: “What’s more, the U.S. military, with its more than 7,000 bases, installations, and other facilities, worldwide, is one of the most egregious polluters on the planet and is the world’s largest single consumer of fossil fuels. If you are concerned by the challenges facing Mother Earth and want to end the killer drone program, get involved with the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance on April 22, Earth Day.

Docs Show Industry Influence Of EPA’s Nat’l Fracking Study

March 4, 2015 Sharon Kelly, www.desmogblog.com , , ,
“This is about using the best possible science to do what the American people expect the EPA to do – ensure that the health of their communities and families are protected,” Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator for the agency's Office of Research and Development, said in 2011. But the EPA's study has been largely shaped and re-shaped by the very industry it is supposed to investigate, as energy company officials were allowed to edit planning documents, insisted on vetting agency contractors, and demanded to review federal scientist's field notes, photographs and laboratory results prior to publication, according to a review by DeSmog of over 3,000 pages of previously undisclosed emails, confidential draft study plans and otherinternal documents obtained through open records requests.

EPA Sued Over Toxic Pollution From Drilling & Fracking

January 25, 2015 Sharon Kelly, www.desmogblog.com , , ,
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been sued over toxic chemicals released into the air, water and land by the oil and gas industry, a coalition of nine environmental and open government groups announced today. The extraction of oil and gas releases more toxic pollution than any other industry except for power plants, according to the EPA's own estimates, the coalition, which filed the lawsuit this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, noted. But the industry has thus far escaped federal rules that, for over the past two decades, have required other major polluters to disclose the type and amount of toxic chemicals they release or dispose. The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is a federal pollution database, established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, and can be used by first-responders in the event of a crisis as well as members of the general public.

Deep Questions Over Portland’s Corporate Water Takeover

January 8, 2015 Victoria Collier, www.truth-out.org , , ,
A simmering water war is about to come to a boil over the fate of historic, well-loved public reservoirs in Portland, Oregon. At the heart of the controversy is a breakdown in public trust that reflects the dangers of corporate-led water privatization schemesin the United States and around the world. In an emotionally charged public meeting on November 18, 2014, Portland residents bombarded two of their city commissioners with questions about what they believe is a cronyism-driven plan to kill the elegant, gravity-fed, open water reservoir system that has reliably served their city safe, clean drinking water for more than 100 years.

Skirting ‘Halliburton Loophole,’ EPA Slams Exxon With Fracking Fine

January 5, 2015 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org , ,
Side-stepping a shifty exemption for fracking pollution known as the "Halliburton loophole," the Environmental Protection Agency is fining the world's largest natural gas company for dirtying West Virginia's waterways. The EPA, the Justice Department, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) on Monday charged XTO Energy, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil, $2.3 million for violating the Clean Water Act for fracking-related activities in West Virginia. The company will also have to pay an additional $3 million to restore eight sites damaged by the unauthorized discharge of fill material into streams and wetlands.

5 Trillion Pieces Of Plastic In World’s Oceans, Take Action

December 12, 2014 Center for Biological Diversity, www.biologicaldiversity.org ,
A new study says the world’s ocean is awash in 5 trillion pieces of plastic — from tiny beads and toys to shopping bags and bottles — weighing more than 250,000 tons. One of the researchers said it’s the equivalent of two-liter plastic bottles stacked end-to-end in a column that stretches to the moon and back twice. The study, published in PLOS One, is one of the largest attempts to date to quantify plastic litter in the world’s oceans. Much of the plastic ends up in giant swirling gyres like the Pacific Garbage Patch that spreads across some 276,000 square miles — an area larger than the state of Texas.

Energy Firms In Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General

December 11, 2014 Eric Lipton, www.nytimes.com , , ,
Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year. They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority — 27 — of attorneys general’s offices. The Times reported previously how individual attorneys general have shut down investigations, changed policies or agreed to more corporate-friendly settlement terms after intervention by lobbyists and lawyers, many of whom are also campaign benefactors.

FBI Charges President Of Company For West Virginia Chemical Spill

December 10, 2014 Joanna Rothkopf, www.salon.com , , , ,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested Gary Southern, former president of the company responsible for contaminating the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians earlier this year, on criminal fraud charges. According to a complaint unsealed on Monday, Southern was charged with bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud and lying under oath in hearings following the spill. This January, up to 300,000 people were left without tap water after 10,000 gallons of a coal-cleaning chemical began leaking into the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia, just upstream of the largest water treatment plant in the state. The leak sprung at a storage tank run by Southern’s former company, Freedom Industries, which manufactures chemicals for coal and steel production.
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