SF SHIPYARD ACTIVISTS FRUSTRATED BY NAVAL OFFICIALS ON ALLEGED SOIL TEST FRAUD
From: San Francisco Chronicle “Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a statement. ‘The Navy created an environmental nightmare on this stretch of the San Francisco Bay but, instead of cleaning it up, has spent the past several years compounding it.'” Read more . . . Read ...
LETTER FROM EPA REPORTS NEW PROBLEMS WITH RADIATION DATA AT HUNTERS POINT
From: KRON4 “Instead of half the soil samples conducted by a subcontractor being questionable, they found 90 percent of the soil survey from Parcel B and 97 percent of samples from Parcel G of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard are suspect. That letter was obtained by the DC-based ...
EPA REVIEW OF CONTAMINATED HUNTERS POINT SHIPYARD FINDS MORE FALSIFIED SOIL TESTING DATA
From: San Francisco Examiner “The EPA’s December review of the data was released Tuesday by the environmental advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. In its report, the EPA raised ...
EPA LETTER REVEALS NEW PROBLEMS WITH HUNTERS POINT RADIATION DATA
From: NBC Bay Area A December 2017 letter sent by the EPA to the Navy – and obtained by a Washington D.C. advocacy group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) – explains that on about 40 percent of the shipyard, the EPA found between 90 percent and 97 percent ...
FAKE SOIL TESTING AT SAN FRANCISCO SHIPYARD SITE COULD BE WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED
From: San Francisco Business Times “What makes these findings so remarkable is that the Navy was on notice for years that it had a major data meltdown on its hands yet is still trying to cook the books.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
WHO CAN STOP JEFF SESSIONS FROM BREAKING HIS RECUSAL PLEDGE? PROBABLY NO ONE.
From: Mother Jones “It’s hard to think of a scenario where an attorney general would be held to account because of administrative violations,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which represents federal whistleblowers. He ...
EPA STIFLES OPPOSITION TO GIANT ALASKA MINING DUMP
From: The National Memo “The Trump administration is trying to rush through a review of the Pebble Mine in Alaska with some public hearings not even having microphones for speakers. Also, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has stripped the regional EPA office of its power to make ...
SCOTT PRUITT’S ETHICS SCANDALS AREN’T STOPPING HIM FROM GUTTING THE EPA
From: Vox “Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental advocacy group for government workers, published a startling memo showing that Pruitt made himself the final authority on decisions surrounding the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, the central federal ...
HUNTING DECIMATING WOLF POPULATIONS AT DENALI NATIONAL PARK
From: National Parks Traveler “According to a release Tuesday from PEER, “studies show hunting and trapping outside Denali is having a big impact on the viability of wolf packs inside Denali, which is Alaska’s top tourist attraction, drawing more than a half-million visitors ...
THE SUN ALSO RISES FOR EPA’S SCOTT PRUITT
From: Washington Examiner “Twenty-four hours have passed since a flurry of bad headlines hit, and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is still standing. Lobbyists, Trump donors and conservative advisers tell John the decision on whether he stays, or goes, will come ...
FORMER WATER OFFICIAL ACCUSES PRESS SHOP OF SMEAR CAMPAIGN
From: E&E News “In an effort to discredit me for speaking out and to intimidate current EPA employees, EPA may have provided my private employment information to media outlets and a political opposition research firm following my retirement,” Southerland said in a statement ...
PRUITT TAKES CLEAN WATER ACT DECISIONS AWAY FROM REGIONAL EPA OFFICES
From: Inside Climate News “Authority previously delegated to regional administrators to make final determinations of geographic jurisdiction shall be retained by the Administrator,” Pruitt wrote to EPA employees on March 30. The memo was made public on Wednesday by Public ...
ZINKE EXTENDS TENURE OF ACTING DIRECTORS
From: Greenwire “Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, said the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 is clear that the president — and only the president — can designate acting directors and assistant secretaries.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
PRUITT TAKES OVER AUTHORITY FOR WATER PROTECTIONS POLICY
From: The Hill “The new order heavily downplays the role of local EPA experts in the field who in the past have made the final recommendations — and often decisions — regarding necessary environmental protections in their region.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
WOLF KILLINGS REVIVE CALLS FOR PROTECTIVE ZONE AROUND DENALI
From: CGreenwire “The photographs have caused a stir in Alaska and elsewhere, prompting state officials to call them part of a “media campaign.” PEER published the photos on the group’s website yesterday, calling it an “assault rifle slaughter.” Read ...
LEAKED MEMO: PRUITT TAKING CONTROL OF CLEAN WATER ACT DETERMINATIONS
From: CNN “This action subjects safeguards for clean water across the US to filtration through one politician’s hands,” said Bennett, an attorney, scientist and wetlands specialist who formerly worked for the EPA. “Every corporation that wants a pass on Clean Water ...
DENALI WOLF BUFFER BILL LIKELY TO STALL IN SENATE
From: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner “Despite getting one committee hearing last month, a bill that would ban wolf hunting on a section of state land near Denali National Park remains unlikely to advance in the Senate, according to the bill’s sponsor.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
BODINE SAYS INFORMAL ENFORCEMENT MAY CUT CASES BUT SPEED COMPLIANCE
From: Inside EPA “EPA enforcement chief Susan Bodine says the agency plans to launch pilot projects using “informal” enforcement actions that notify a facility of a violation and aim to achieve immediate compliance without waiting for formal litigation steps, saying that while it may ...
FWC RESCUES MANATEE HIT BY BOAT NEAR SANFORD MARINA
From: WFTV9 ABC “The injury comes as watchdog groups say Florida is on pace for another record year for manatee deaths in 2018. A total 166 manatees have died statewide through March 2. Cold spells are to blame for 51 deaths. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...
IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES MARK EVALUATIONS OF EPA’S PERFORMANCE
From: Government Executive “The advocacy group PEER, using numbers from EPA’s results and analysis and trends website, concluded that the number of administrative enforcement cases initiated by EPA fell by more than one-third in 2017 from just five years earlier, and are on a course in ...
CONNECT:
