Science Ignored on Dangers of Methyl Iodide Fumigant for Strawberry Production
As part of the suit, the groups asked the Department of Pesticide Regulation to release documents explaining how the agency decided to approve the chemical. The plaintiffs wanted to know how the agency had settled on exposure levels more than 100 times higher than what scientists within the agency believed were safe.
Haliburton Introduces ‘CleanStim’ Fracking Solution & Gas Worker Takes a Drink: Environmental Groups Weigh In
A liquid concoction, often laced with toxic chemicals, is a central villain in the controversy over extracting natural gas by fracturing rock beneath the earth’s surface. Opponents fear this fracking fluid may foul water supplies, endangering human health and the environment. Adapting, the industry is responding to public concern. Giant energy services company Halliburton, in a safety demonstration at an August 3 industry conference in Colorado, had an employee demonstrate just how palatable fracking fluid can be. He drank it.
Earthjustice Documents Coal Ash Health Problems in Moapa Reservation
Coal ash is the waste leftover at the end of the coal burning cycle. It’s laced with the same arsenic, mercury, lead and other toxics. It’s the second largest waste stream in America—15 billion tons of toxic sludge per year. And here’s the dirty little secret: it’s subject to less regulation than the garbage you take to the curb every week.
1987 EPA Report Provides Evidence for Water Contamination from Fracking
In 2006 — according to a ProPublica report — a residential drinking water well in Garfield County, Colo., spewed gas and polluted water into the air after a nearby gas well was hydraulically fractured. Tests detected a chemical called 2-butoxyethanol (2-BE), commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, in the drinking water well. The EPA never studied the case, and Colorado officials did not pursue an in-depth investigation before the gas company reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the homeowner that included nondisclosure agreements.
EPA Proposes to Regulate Fracking Air Emissions After Favorable Ruling in Advocacy Lawsuit
The EPA proposal is the result of a successful 2009 lawsuit brought against the agency by WildEarth Guardians and another advocacy group alleging that the agency had not updated air-quality rules as required. The EPA is supposed to review such rules at least every eight years, but in some cases had not done so for 10 years or more.
Air Pollution from Gas Drilling a ‘Huge Problem’
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release in May regarding an “air quality study near Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, and Tioga counties.” Eight sites were sampled over three five-day periods to determine if specific pollutants were a threat to anyones air quality in acute amounts.
EPA Announces to Disclose Confidential Chemicals: Industry Fears Mimicry in the Market
The chemical industry’s chief trade association, meanwhile, is urging the EPA to continue considering its wishes to keep information confidential so competitors won’t learn about it. The chemical industry noted that there are “legitimate claims to safeguard intellectual property.” The EPA’s new steps towards disclosure offers the public more information about the potential dangers of chemicals used in many consumer products, from stain removers to non-stick materials, and is the latest in what the EPA describes as “unprecedented” steps towards transparency.
Hazardous Classification of Coal Ash Tabled by EPA: Industry Costs A Determining Factor
The Environmental Protection Agency this week released the plans, saying they were an important step toward improving coal ash storage and avoiding a repeat of the 2008 Kingston, Tenn., disaster. “EPA is committed to making communities across the country safer places to live,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPAs Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “The information we are releasing today shows that we continue to make progress in our efforts to prevent future coal ash spills.”
Coal Ash Products Unsafe According to EPA’s Recent Report
The inspector general’s report, released Wednesday, said sites where coal ash was used as wallboard “may represent a large universe of inappropriate disposal applications with unknown potential for adverse environmental and human health impacts.” EPA is considering imposing stricter regulations for coal ash, or fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal at power plants. The rule changes were prompted by a 2008 environmental disaster at a Tennessee power plant that released more than 5 million cubic yards of ash into a river and nearby lands.
Spent Fuel: The Story Behind Nuclear Waste Storage in America
Spent nuclear fuel is about 95 percent uranium. About 1 percent are other heavy elements such as curium, americium and plutonium-239, best known as fuel for nuclear weapons. Each has an extremely long half-life — some take hundreds of thousands of years to lose all of their radioactive potency. The rest, about 4 percent, is a cocktail of byproducts of fission that break down over much shorter time periods, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90, which break down completely in about 300 years.
*Accepting cases in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
