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For Immediate Release
March, 03 2014, 02:10pm EDT
Contact:
Amy Souers Kober,Communications Director,206-213-0330 x 23
EPA Takes Step Toward Protecting World's Largest Salmon Fishery from Harmful Mine
Statement of Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers
The Environmental Protection Agency today announced a process that could lead to prohibiting industrial mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The agency is invoking its Clean Water Act authority to assess whether to prohibit or restrict waste disposal from the proposed Pebble Mine into Alaska's pristine Bristol Bay watershed, one of the most productive on earth.
WASHINGTON
Statement of Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers
The Environmental Protection Agency today announced a process that could lead to prohibiting industrial mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The agency is invoking its Clean Water Act authority to assess whether to prohibit or restrict waste disposal from the proposed Pebble Mine into Alaska's pristine Bristol Bay watershed, one of the most productive on earth.
The rivers of Bristol Bay support the world's largest salmon fishery, worth more than $300 million annually. Pebble would be North America's largest open pit mine, threatening not only clean water and salmon, but the way of life of native tribes and the economy of local communities.
American Rivers listed the rivers of Bristol Bay among America's Most Endangered Rivers for six years (1990-1993, 2006, and 2011), highlighting the threat of mining and the national importance of the rivers.
Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers, made the following statement:
"We applaud EPA for taking this important step toward protecting one of the world's last great places. The risks associated with this mine are simply too great to allow it in such a pristine area. We hope EPA follows the science and ultimately decides to block the mine. We must protect Bristol Bay and its salmon and clean water for future generations."
- See more at: https://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/press-releases/epa-invoking-auth...
American Rivers is the only national organization standing up for healthy rivers so our communities can thrive. Through national advocacy, innovative solutions and our growing network of strategic partners, we protect and promote our rivers as valuable assets that are vital to our health, safety and quality of life. Founded in 1973, American Rivers has more than 65,000 members and supporters nationwide, with offices in Washington, DC and the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, California and Northwest regions.
LATEST NEWS
House Dems Rip Lance Gooden for 'Blatantly Racist' Attack on Rep. Judy Chu
"When we say Republican rhetoric and policies embolden anti-Asian hate and violence, this is what we mean," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Feb 24, 2023
Democratic U.S. lawmakers and Asian-American and Pacific Islander advocates joined Rep. Judy Chu in condemning Congressman Lance Gooden on Friday after the MAGA Republican—who took part in an effort to overturn the last presidential election—cast aspersions upon the California Democrat's loyalty to the United States.
Gooden (Texas) appeared Wednesday on FoxNews' "Jesse Watters Primetime" and suggested Chu—who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus—should be kept from seeing certain classified materials and investigated for defending Dominic Ng, a Chinese-American banker appointed by the Biden administration to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's Business Advisory Council.
"I question her either loyalty or competence," said Gooden. "If she doesn’t realize what's going on then she's totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies."
"After centuries of being targeted for not being 'American enough' and viewed with suspicion based on looking 'foreign,' this type of insinuation and fear-mongering only further endangers our communities."
Earlier this month, The Daily Caller—a far-right news site known for platforming xenophobes and white supremacists—published an article in which Gooden is quoted urging the FBI to "immediately launch an investigation" into Ng's alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party.
"Rep. Gooden's comments on Fox News questioning my loyalty to the USA is absolutely outrageous," Chu, the first Chinese-American woman elected to Congress, said in a statement reported by NBC News. "It is based on false information spread by an extreme, right-wing website. Furthermore, it is racist. I very much doubt that he would be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese-American descent."
\u201cDear @Lancegooden: I served in the US military (unlike you) to defend your right to say stupid, racist shit. Attacking the loyalty of Asian Americans like @RepJudyChu is a racist trope that has harmed Asian Americans throughout US history. Stop harming Americans of Asian descent.\u201d— Ted Lieu (@Ted Lieu) 1677198785
Chu's Democratic colleagues took to Twitter to condemn Goodman's remarks as "racist."
"Insinuating that Chair Chu is disloyal to the United States because she is Chinese-American is categorically wrong," the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) said in a statement. "This type of racist targeting and profiling of Chinese-Americans by right-wing extremists is not only xenophobic, it is incredibly dangerous."
"After centuries of being targeted for not being 'American enough' and viewed with suspicion based on looking 'foreign,' this type of insinuation and fear-mongering only further endangers our communities," the caucus added.
\u201cWhen we say Republican rhetoric and policies embolden anti-Asian hate and violence, this is what we mean.\n\nI'm proud to stand with @RepJudyChu and I condemn these racist and xenophobic comments by Rep. Gooden.\u201d— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley(@Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley) 1677258002
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) tweeted that "baseless, xenophobic, and blatantly racist attacks against Rep. Judy Chu by extreme MAGA Republicans are right out of their anti-American playbook."
"Rep. Chu is an exceptional public servant and leader," he added. "House GOP leadership: It's past time to hold your conference accountable."
Taking aim at Fox News for airing Gooden's "xenophobic and racist" attack, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asserted that "we cannot allow anti-Asian bigotry to go without condemnation."
Some observers noted that Gooden's remarks came just days after the anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's infamous executive order authorizing the concentration camp imprisonment of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast—largely due to baseless concerns regarding their loyalty.
"More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated because of false claims of disloyalty because of their ethnic origin," tweeted Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, an interpretive center at the site of one of the World War II concentration camps. "The U.S. government apologized for it. Now the same kind of false claims are being made again."
\u201cWe will not stand by as racists like this one try to revive one of our ugliest moments in history. \ud83d\ude21 TY @RepJeffries & others for speaking up against ignorant fear mongering. We are American too. \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u201d— Grace Meng (@Grace Meng) 1677201536
On Friday, Gooden doubled down on his remarks, accusing both Chu and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)—who published a statement defending the congresswoman—of "playing the race card in a sick display of disloyalty to our nation."
Gooden is a member of the so-called "Sedition Caucus" of nearly 150 Republicans in Congress who attempted to subvert the 2020 U.S. presidential election in service of former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the contest was stolen.
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Study Ties Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure to Higher Heart Attack, Disease Risk
"Our study clearly adds to the evidence that the current regulatory standards are not sufficient to protect the public," the study's lead author says as the EPA considers stricter standars.
Feb 24, 2023
Adding to the body of research that highlights the deadly effects of air pollution, a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open connects long-term exposure to fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, to heightened risk of having a heart attack or dying from heart disease.
Conducted by experts at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the study comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering tougher air quality standards for PM2.5, which comes from sources including construction sites, fires, power plants, and vehicles.
The researchers focused on over 3.7 million adults who were members of the Kaiser Permanente healthcare consortium in Northern California from 2007-16 and had lived in the state for at least a year. They linked each patient's address to a geographical location to establish annual average exposure, then they identified who experienced heart problems.
"Our work has the potential to play an important role in ongoing national conversations led by the Environmental Protection Agency on whether—and how much—to tighten air quality standards."
"We found that people exposed to fine particulate air pollution have an increased risk of experiencing a heart attack or dying from coronary heart disease—even when those exposure levels are at or below our current U.S. air quality standards," said lead author Stacey E. Alexeeff, a research scientist and biostatistician at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.
Specifically, they found that PM2.5 exposure at high concentrations, or between 12 and 13.9 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3), was tied to a 16% increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 10% increased risk of experiencing a heart attack—officially known as acute myocardial infarction—compared with exposure to concentrations under 8 μg/m3.
"We found strong evidence that neighborhood matters when it comes to exposures to this type of air pollution," noted study co-author and Kaiser research scientist Stephen Van Den Eeden. "The strongest association between exposure to air pollution and risk of cardiovascular events in our study was seen in people who live in low socioeconomic areas, where there is often more industry, busier streets, and more highways."
According to Alexeeff, "Our work has the potential to play an important role in ongoing national conversations led by the Environmental Protection Agency on whether—and how much—to tighten air quality standards to protect the public from pollution's effects."
\u201cCan you take 2 minutes to help amplify the voice of our @ecomadres_ program and ask the @EPA to strengthen the rules affecting particle pollution? You will find the link at the bottom of this blog post:\nhttps://t.co/1fePVQHTAZ\nPetitions DO matter!\n#CleanAir4Kids #EPA #NAAQS\u201d— CleanAirMoms_IA #ClimateActionNow (@CleanAirMoms_IA #ClimateActionNow) 1677257326
The EPA in January proposed strengthening the annual public health standard for PM2.5 from 12 ÎĽg/m3 to 9-10 ÎĽg/m3 but is currently accepting public comment on a range of 8-11 ÎĽg/m3. The pending rule notably would not change the PM2.5 standards for exposure over a 24-hour period and for public welfare; it would also keep current standards for larger particles known as PM10.
As Common Dreams reported, in response to the plan, Earthjustice attorney Seth Johnson said last month that "though aspects of EPA's proposal would somewhat strengthen important public health protections, EPA is not living up to the ambitions of this administration to follow the science, protect public health, and advance environmental justice."
Alexeeff said Friday that "our study clearly adds to the evidence that the current regulatory standards are not sufficient to protect the public."
"Our findings support the EPA's analysis that lowering the standard to at least 10 ÎĽg/m3 is needed to protect the public," the researcher added. "Our findings also suggest that lowering the standard to 8 ÎĽg/m3 may be needed to reduce the risk of heart attacks."
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'I Am Disturbed': Locals Alarmed Over Plan to Inject Toxic Ohio Wastewater Underground in Texas
"It's foolish to put it on the roadway," said one Houston-area resident. "We have accidents on a regular basis. Do they really want to have another contamination zone?"
Feb 24, 2023
Residents and officials in Harris County, Texas have expressed alarm since learning that contaminated water used to extinguish a fiery train crash in East Palestine, Ohio has been transported more than 1,300 miles to a Houston suburb for disposal.
Houston's Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience tweeted Thursday: "We are disturbed to learn that toxic wastewater from East Palestine, Ohio will be brought to Harris County for 'disposal.' Our county should not be a dumping ground for industry."
The Norfolk Southern-owned train that derailed and ignited near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border on February 3 was carrying vinyl chloride and other carcinogenic chemicals. After ordering evacuations, authorities released and burned hazardous materials from several tanker cars to avert a catastrophic explosion. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water used to put out the flames have been collected and trucked to Texas Molecular, a private company in Deer Park that specializes in injecting hazardous waste underground.
"There has to be a closer deep well injection," Deer Park resident Tammy Baxter toldABC13 on Wednesday night. "It's foolish to put it on the roadway. We have accidents on a regular basis. Do they really want to have another contamination zone? It is silly to move it that far."
ABC13 reported that Baxter "first heard that the waste may be transported to the city she lives in from a video circulating on social media." After calling the mayor's office in Deer Park—one of 34 communities in Harris County—"she expected a return phone call dispelling the rumor. Instead, it was confirmed."
"I am disturbed," said Baxter. "I am shook by the information."
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told ABC13 that Texas Molecular "is authorized to accept and manage a variety of waste streams, including vinyl chloride, as part of their [Resource Conservation and Recovery Act] hazardous waste permit and underground injection control permit."
George Guillen, a biology and environmental science professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, told the local news outlet that deep well injection is a typical practice that poses minimal risks to the health of current Deer Park residents.
"This injection, in some cases, is usually 4,000 or 5,000 feet down below any kind of drinking water aquifer," said Guillen, who also serves as the executive director of the Environmental Institute of Houston. "Could it come up someday? Yes, maybe, but hundreds of years from now or thousands of years from now."
But he shared Baxter's concerns about the dangers of transporting toxic wastewater hundreds of miles across the country.
So too did U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee who represents Harris County. She toldKHOU11 that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contracted a company to move contaminated liquid from the East Palestine derailment site to Deer Park, some 1,350 miles away.
"I'm not clear on who has the full picture of what is happening here and that is a problem."
The Ohio EPA said Thursday that more than 1.7 million gallons of toxic wastewater have been removed from the disaster zone, where nearly 44,000 animals, most of them small fish, have died over the past three weeks.
"Of this, 1,133,933 gallons have been hauled off-site, with most going to Texas Molecular," said the agency. "A smaller amount of waste has been directed to Vickery Environmental in Vickery, Ohio."
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a Thursday night press conference that Texas Molecular had received roughly 500,000 gallons of wastewater since the middle of last week, from up to 30 trucks per day.
According toThe Houston Chronicle, "Texas Molecular president Frank Marine in a statement Thursday said the company is keeping the city of Deer Park and Harris County updated on water management efforts related to the Ohio derailment fire."
Hildago, however, said she first learned that hazardous waste from East Palestine is being disposed of in Deer Park from a journalist on Wednesday, "not from a regulatory agency, not from the company," a fact she called "unacceptable."
She said the amount of toxic wastewater, and the length of time it had been moving through Harris County, was unknown to her and other county officials until Thursday.
As the Chroniclereported: "Hidalgo said there was no law requiring her office to be informed about wastewater but said she was upset local officials were kept out of the loop by a 'fundamentally broken' system. She said her office had been in contact with the company, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the [U.S.] Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and outside industry and environmental experts."
"This is a wake-up call," Hidalgo said. "It doesn't look like any regulations necessarily were broken by the fact that nobody told us. But it doesn't quite seem right."
“The government officials have readily provided the information they have, but what we’re learning is that they themselves don't seem to have the full information. I'm still not sure why," Hidalgo continued. "I'm not clear on who has the full picture of what is happening here and that is a problem."
"There are many things we don’t know that we should know," she added. "That doesn't mean that something is wrong, but it's worth noting."
Per the Chronicle: "Hidalgo said she wanted more information about the material being injected into the wells and how it could affect other material already injected in the wells or surface water. She also said she wanted clear information about how the water was being moved from Ohio to Texas and what precautions were being taken to protect it. Finally, she also wanted information on why the water was taken to Texas instead of wells closer to Ohio."
As The Associated Pressreported, Hildago noted that "Harris County has around 10 injection wells capable of receiving hazardous commercial waste, making the area one of the few places where the materials could be disposed. But she said there are similar facilities in Vickery, Ohio, and Romulus, Michigan, that also could handle the wastewater and are located closer to the crash site."
"There may be logistical reasons for all of this. There may be economic reasons. Perhaps Texas Molecular outbid the Michigan facility," said Hidalgo. "It doesn't mean there's something nefarious going on, but we do need to know the answer to this question."
Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton, for his part, told residents on Thursday that they need not worry about the safety of their drinking water.
"It goes through a water treatment plant and there's no possible scenario where there's any contamination to do with industry," said Mouton.
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