July, 18 2018, 12:00am EDT
![Earthjustice](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012672/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lisa Evans, Earthjustice, (978) 548-8645 or levans@earthjustice.org, Larissa Liebmann, Waterkeeper Alliance, (212) 747-0622 x 122 or LLiebmann@waterkeeper.org, Brian Willis, Sierra Club, (202) 895-0420 x103 or brian.willis@sierraclub.org, Michael Kelly, Clean Water Action, (202) 895-0420 x103 or mkelly@cleanwater.org, Andrew Rehn, Prairie Rivers Network, (217) 344-2371 x 208 or arehn@prairierivers.org, Tim Maloney, Hoosier Environmental Council, (812) 369-8677, Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, (443) 510-2574 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org, Ruth Santiago, Comite Dialogo Ambiental, Inc., (781) 312-2223 or rstgo2@gmail.com
Trump Administration's New Rule Weakens Toxic Coal Ash Pollution Safeguards
EPA Announcement Puts People at Increased Risk to Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke, Brain Damage
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed yesterday the first rule of its two-part rulemaking to weaken the first-ever federal regulations that provide health and environmental safeguards for communities near toxic coal ash waste dumps. The rule was made public this morning.
The new rule:
- Fails to add boron, a common and dangerous coal ash contaminant, to the list of pollutants that will drive cleanup of groundwater at contaminated sites nationwide.
- Weakens drinking water protection standards by removing strong national limits for groundwater contamination for several hazardous chemicals, namely lead, cobalt, lithium and molybdenum.
- Extends compliance deadlines for closing unlined leaking ash ponds and ash ponds within five feet of groundwater and permits hundreds of leaking ponds to continue to operate.
- Permits state officials to terminate groundwater monitoring.
- Allows state officials to judge whether sites are following the rules instead of qualified, professional engineers.
All of these changes significantly weaken the protections established in 2015. Every single one of the changes is in response to an industry petition filed with the Trump administration in 2017.
Coal ash is the toxic waste left over from hundreds of coal-burning power plants throughout the United States. For decades, coal ash has been dumped into giant pits, where toxic chemicals seep into water and blow into the air. Coal ash waste is filled with some of some of the deadliest known toxic chemicals, including heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and chromium. The toxics raise the risk for cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and can inflict permanent brain damage on children.
"Today's rule indicates Wheeler is continuing EPA's radical drive to remove critical health protections at the behest of industry," said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans. "This is the first major rule signed during Andrew Wheeler's time running the EPA, and his true colors are shining through. Wheeler is ignoring the serious health threats to hundreds of communities at risk from contaminated drinking water."
"This indefensible gutting of our nation's first-ever coal ash pollution control rule cements the shameful environmental legacy of the Trump Administration," said Lisa Hallowell, Senior Attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. "Today's action opens the door for weakened monitoring and cleanup standards, which means - in no uncertain terms - that the public and the environment on which we all depend will be in harm's way."
In October 2015, the first-ever EPA safeguards to protect communities near coal ash dumps went into effect after Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of public interest groups and a Native American tribe, the Moapa Band of Paiutes. The EPA received more than a half-million comments from people supporting the safeguards that the EPA gutted today.
EPA is finalizing this rollback of coal ash protections just as the nation is discovering that nearly all coal ash ponds and landfills are leaking toxic pollutants to groundwater. The EPA's 2015 coal ash rule required utilities to test the water near their coal ash dumps to make sure hazardous chemicals were not leaking into drinking water sources. Coal ash contains concentrated levels of heavy metals, which are released to water when the ash is dumped into unlined pits. According to recently released industry data, about 95 percent of all the dump sites have contaminated groundwater with toxins like arsenic and boron to levels the EPA has deemed unsafe to drink.
We now know that the coal ash dumps are leaking, but EPA is looking the other way. Requirements to close these leaking dump sites and to clean up poisoned water were set to go into effect later in 2018, but the new rule weakens cleanup standards and pushes closure and cleanup dates to 2020.
"We will not stand by and allow the Trump Administration to give carte blanche to well-funded polluters that threaten the water of thousands of communities across our country with their toxic coal ash," said Dalal Aboulhosn, Sierra Club's Deputy Legislative Director for Land and Water. "We'll use every means we have to beat back this latest attempt to weaken basic clean water protections for working families, farmers, and outdoor businesses - whose lives and livelihoods are being threatened by coal ash every day. Our work will not be completed until every coal ash pit is properly secured and every local resident has access to an online monitor that confirms it."
"This administration is doing everything it can to give coal a free ride, including dismantling our bare minimum protections," said Larissa Liebmann, staff attorney at Waterkeeper Alliance. "The corporate dollars saved by weakening the CCR rule will be born by the communities living near coal ash disposal sites -- they will pay the costs of contaminated drinking water and polluted waterways."
"EPA failed for three decades to protect our water from toxic coal plants and now the Trump administration is turning back the clock, doubling down on that failure, and leaving communities in jeopardy," said Jennifer Peters, Clean Water Action's National Water Programs Director. "Trump clearly doesn't care who his administration puts at risk as long as he can give handouts to the corporate polluters who write the checks for re-election campaigns."
The EPA and Wheeler are caving to pressure from polluters who have fought hard against common-sense pollution protections for coal ash dumps. Over 1,400 coal ash waste dumps are spread across the nation, and at almost every site, the toxic waste has contaminated water sources.
"These changes aren't going to help Illinois," said Andrew Rehn of the Prairie Rivers Network. "We need professional engineers, not political appointees or polluters, making decisions about the safety and clean up of coal ash."
"Decades of regulatory inaction on coal ash disposal has left Indiana with a toxic legacy of serious groundwater contamination - with unsafe levels of arsenic, lead, boron, and radium, among other contaminants -- confirmed at fifteen disposal sites in Indiana located on the shores of the White River, the Wabash River, Kankakee River, the Ohio River and Lake Michigan," said Tim Maloney of Hoosier Environmental Council. "It is simply negligent for the EPA to roll back the long-overdue federal coal ash standards that the agency adopted in 2015, and would result in this pollution being left in place to continue contaminating our waterways and drinking water sources for many years to come."
Federal protections are critical, because the dumps are ticking time bombs. In 2008, the single-largest toxic waste spill in U.S. history happened when a billion gallons of coal ash sludge burst through a dam at the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston plant and covered 300 acres, destroying dozens of homes. In 2014, a portion of a coal ash dump in North Carolina collapsed, fouling 80 miles of the Dan River with toxic sludge.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Critics of East African Crude Oil Pipeline Target AIG in NYC
"We will continue to stand in solidarity and fight together with our African comrades to stop EACOP, to stop the plunder of our homelands, to stop the displacement of our peoples, and to stop imperialist climate destruction."
Jul 26, 2024
The "Summer of Heat" continues—both in terms of record-breaking temperatures driven by fossil fuels and a series of nonviolent direct actions targeting Wall Street for its contributions to the climate emergency.
After protests last month calling out Citibank for "financing the arsonists," climate campaigners on Friday set their sights on finance and insurance giant AIG for "stubbornly" refusing to join over two dozen other insurers that won't cover the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
EACOP is set to run nearly 900 miles from Uganda's Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. Rights groups have sounded the alarm about how the project has devastated the lives and livelihoods of people in its path as well as violence endured by African activists, who have been "kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained, or subjected to different forms of harassment."
Ugandan climate activist Hillary Taylor Seguya declared Friday that "EACOP is a carbon bomb being built in my backyard."
"Thousands of communities in Uganda are being displaced because of corporate greed," added the campaigner, who is affiliated with StopEACOP. "Today, as Ugandans, as Tanzanians, as Africans, we want to be loud and clear that we shall not allow any pipeline to put oil in our backyards."
Friday's demonstration targeting AIG's office in New York City was organized by activists from the Ugandan diaspora and groups including 350.org, the Black Hive, and Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM).
"I am here to ask AIG to refuse to insure EACOP, and to insure our future instead," said Joseph Senyonjo, a Ugandan diaspora activist. "AIG is one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, and they still haven't ruled out insuring EACOP. So we are here to say: We don't want carbon bombs, we don't want fossil fuels. We want renewable energy. Insure our futures instead."
Protesters held signs and banners with messaging that included: "AIG = Climate Crimes," "Protect Our Land," "People Not Profits," "Stop Funding Our Destruction," "Stop Insuring Climate Chaos," and "The People Say: Stop EACOP!"
Demonstrators hold banner that says, "Global South Diaspora for Reparations + Repair," while protesting AIG and EACOP in New York City on July 26, 2024. (Photo: 350.org)
"From the pipeline's path in East Africa, to the corporate offices here, to our government institutions, we need to make our message clear: Stop EACOP!" said Evan Bell of 350 Mass. "I am willing to do what it takes to make sure AIG does not insure EACOP."
Bell noted that he is afraid of the New York Police Department, "especially after their brutal response to campus protesters peacefully demonstrating for an end to genocide in Gaza."
"But I am more afraid of runaway climate change," he added. "I'm more concerned about the current human rights abuses in Uganda and Tanzania. But we are more determined than we are scared."
Molly Ornati of 350 Brooklyn emphasized that "the EACOP pipeline is a doubly destructive disaster—for the people of Uganda and Tanzania, and the planet. The construction of the 900-mile pipeline will disrupt and destroy the homes, land, and livelihood of 100,000 people along the route, as well as the surrounding water and ecosystems."
"Once built, it will be a carbon bomb for humanity," Ornati warned. "In the climate crisis there are no borders, and we are a global movement, united in support of frontline communities, fighting to stop the greed of fossil fuel finance."
DRUM's Mohiba Ahmed delivered a similar message of unity, saying that "we add our communities' voices to the growing international demand 'Stop EACOP!' because we know that our struggles are one and interconnected."
"Our peoples in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Guyana, and Trinidad are similarly harmed by foreign domination, imperialism, and capitalist projects that reduce our lives to investments, profit margins, and coins," she stressed.
"Our people and homelands contribute the least to the human-caused climate crisis but disproportionately suffer the most," she added, "and that is why we will continue to stand in solidarity and fight together with our African comrades to stop EACOP, to stop the plunder of our homelands, to stop the displacement of our peoples, and to stop imperialist climate destruction."
Opponents of EACOP block AIG's office with a banner in New York City on July 26, 2024. (Photo: 350.org)
Beth Yirga of the Black Hive—part of the Movement for Black Lives—highlighted the frontline resistance to the pipeline, declaring that "we stand with Ugandans and Tanzanians, whose bravery and stories of resistance to stop EACOP are inspiring."
"The climate crisis we are facing exacerbates the oppressive systems designed to extract the most from our planet and global majority community, and unites us that are most impacted," she said. "From Cancer Alley on the riverbanks of the Mississippi River to the lead in Flint, Michigan's water, to the attempts of crude oil extraction in Western Uganda, to the ongoing cobalt mining crisis in Congo, the destructive practices of environmental racism on Black communities is collectively held and felt across the world."
"As we fight to stop climate injustices globally," Yirga added, "we also collaborate to imagine and build a world free of the capitalistic pillaging of Mother Earth."
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Critics Warn Manchin-Barrasso Permitting Bill 'Is Taken Straight From Project 2025'
"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
Jul 26, 2024
Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that one campaigner linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
While Manchin has been trying—and failing—to pass fossil fuel-friendly permitting reform legislation for years, Brett Hartl, director of public affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that his "Frankenstein legislation is taken straight from Project 2025, and it's the biggest giveaway in decades to the fossil fuel industry."
Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
"And it mandates oil and gas extraction in our oceans," he continued. "The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate emergency."
"Monday was the hottest day in recorded history," Hartl noted. "It's shocking that as the climate emergency continues to break records around us, the Senate continues to fast-track the fossil fuel expansion that is killing us. This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
However, Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's U.S. manager, warned Thursday that "this bill is yet another dangerous attempt by Sen. Manchin to line the pockets of his fossil fuel donors, sacrificing communities and our climate along the way."
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else," she continued. "It would unleash more drilling on federal lands and waters, unnecessarily rush the review of proposed oil and gas export projects, and lift the Biden administration's pause on new LNG exports."
"We urge Congress to reject this proposal and commit to action that protects frontline communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth added.
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
"We cannot afford to roll back so many of our bedrock environmental and community legal protections and offer a blank check to the oil and gas industry," she stressed. "We need new solutions for permitting if we are going to meet our clean energy potential and address the climate challenge. But this is not it."
"This bill would altogether be a leap backward on climate, health, and justice if passed into law," Adams added. "The Senate should reject it and look toward alternative solutions already being considered."
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'Nothing To Eat': War-Torn Sudan Faces Mass Famine as Military Delays Aid
Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem.
Jul 26, 2024
Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
"We had nothing to eat," Bahja Muhakar, a Sudenese mother of three, told the Times after she crossed into Chad, following a harrowing six-day journey from Al-Fashir, a major city in Darfur. She said the family often had to live off of one shared pancake per day.
Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
In April, Reutersreported that people in Sudan were eating soil and leaves to survive, and The Washington Postcalled it a nation in "chaos," reporting that World Food Program trucks had been "blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained."
In late June, a coalition of U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments warned that 755,000 people in Sudan faced famine in the coming months.
The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
Some officials including Thomas-Greenfield, who has dubbed the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," have called for the U.N. Security Council to allow aid delivery into the country even in the absence of SAF approval; it's believed that Russia would veto such a measure.
Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
The SAF and Sudanese government figures have cast doubt on international experts' claims about famine in the country.
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