News Clips

Nearly two years after Chuck Sams took over as director of the National Park Service with a determination to improve employee morale, workforce morale continues to fall, employee flight from the agency is growing, and the agency’s directorate is failing to reverse those trends,  ...

A wild horse roundup currently underway in Northern Nevada is expected to gather about 2,875 horses to put up for adoption. The use of helicopters leads to injuries as the horses are gathered, and a 2023 lawsuit highlighted the death of a horse in eastern Nevada that was put to death after ...

The National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration have completed an air tour management plan for the park, which is home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Under the plan, only 1,548 air tours will be authorized per year — down from existing levels of more ...

Nearly every time that oil and gas operators have applied for exemptions measures aimed at protecting the endangered lesser prairie chicken, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office has granted those requests, according to information gathered by Public Employees for ...

EPA recently ordered Inhance Technologies, based in Houston, to stop producing PFAS in the manufacture of plastic bottles made with HDPE. These bottles, labeled with the number 2, often contain milk, shampoo, soap, detergent and motor oil.  The EPA said that three of the compounds ...

The morale among National Park Service (NPS) employees ranks well below that of other Interior Department workers and federal employees generally, according to the latest Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results posted Dec. 19 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). ...

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has completed its review of an EPA proposed rule to list four PFAS as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) “hazardous constituents,” which once finalized would give regulators the authority to require cleanup actions for ...

A California environmental justice (EJ) group is threatening to sue EPA and the Navy over the troubled cleanup of radiological and other contamination at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS) site in San Francisco, alleging the agencies violated the Superfund law pertaining to ...

As part of its crackdown on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Inhance Technologies (Houston, Texas, USA) to halt production of three of the so-called “forever chemicals” generated in its manufacturing process for fluorinated ...

In February, ABC and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility led more than 60 other nonprofit groups in calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to make major reforms in the way it regulates systemic insecticides. The proposal focuses on neonicotinoids (neonics), systemic ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly abbreviated as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” are ubiquitous. They have also been associated with debilitating health impacts, such as cancer, birth defects, liver disease, kidney disease and more. This can make it overwhelming to know what ...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scored both wins and losses in its enforcement of environmental laws for 2023, stepping up fines for polluters and on-site inspections but cleaning up fewer pollutants than it has in a decade, according to the agency’s annual enforcement and ...

The Haw River cuts through North Carolina’s Piedmont region from its source in Forsyth County. The river is undeniably beautiful. But per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly abbreviated as PFAS, are not visible to the naked eye. PFAS are chemicals that have been linked to ...

Insights into morale issues within the National Park Service are contained in the latest Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which points to concerns with leadership as well as unsustainable workloads. “We know we still have room for improvement,” Park Service Director Chuck ...

A federal court wants to know more, by Jan. 5, about a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a citizens group seeking access to some U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents about a radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge… Read the PEER Story&# ...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is maneuvering to shirk much of its responsibility for addressing the PFAS contamination crisis by narrowing the definition of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) it will use. That’s according to a report released recently from Public ...

A watchdog group says the Bureau of Land Management has allowed energy companies to sidestep timing restrictions and develop inside-buffer zones designed to protect the imperiled lesser prairie chicken in New Mexico. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, says records ...

The Merit Systems Protection Board on Monday upheld a judge’s ruling that the U.S. Geological Survey unlawfully retaliated against an agency-scientist-turned-whistleblower. In a two-judge decision, the board largely sided with the judge’s ruling in favor of Eveline (Evi) ...

Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist who now works with the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the emails provide more evidence that the EPA needs an overhaul and that it is steeped in an “industry-beholden culture” that persists regardless of which ...

The public interest organization, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), sued the National Park Service (NPS) under the Freedom of Information Act Tuesday to compel the agency to disclose records related to Wi-Fi or cellular proposals and installations across three parks ...