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Somerset County Wastewater Treatment Plant Accepts Potentially Contaminated Runoff

by Water Quality Products Magazine | November 8, 2019
“Discharging PFAS contaminated leachate into a wastewater treatment system without continuous monitoring and strict pollution controls is asking for trouble,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in a statement. “What’s ...

Lowell Water Treatment Plant to Stop Accepting Toxic Water from N.H. Landfill

by The Boston Globe | November 7, 2019
“Under pressure from lawmakers and environmental advocates, officials in Lowell said Thursday that they had suspended a contract with a New Hampshire landfill that sent a large volume of toxic runoff into the Merrimack River, a source of drinking water to more than a half-million ...

ANALYSIS-Cause of Philadelphia fire sounds alarm over aging U.S. refineries

by CNBC | November 6, 2019
The CSB found that prior to the California and Washington fires, as well as the BP Texas City blast in 2005 that killed 15, internal and external instructions for keeping plants operating safely were either ignored or not followed correctly. That regulatory approach makes rules difficult ...

State, Feds Ramp-Up ‘Good Neighbor’ Timber Projects

by | November 6, 2019
Jeff Ruch is the Pacific Director for the Washington D.C-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. Ruch says, “They’re letting the state take over a significant part of the sale administration, basically letting your neighbor come in and sort your own pantry ...

Treatment Plant Discharging into Kennebec River Processed Runoff Possibly Laced with ‘Forever Chemicals’

by Portland Press Herald | November 6, 2019
“AUGUSTA — A wastewater treatment plant in Somerset County that discharges into the Kennebec River accepted more than 250,000 gallons of liquid runoff from a New Hampshire landfill that was potentially contaminated with the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. While the ...

EPA Rejects Petition to Ban Chemical Used to Make Gas

by Bloomberg Environment | November 5, 2019
The EPA won’t ban a chemical that oil refineries use to make high octane gasoline, jet fuel and marine diesel fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency rejected a petition that Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) had submitted asking the agency to ban hydrofluoric ...

Toxic Chemicals Can Be Dumped into Merrimack River, Federal and State Officials Say

by The Boston Globe | November 5, 2019
“Federal and state environmental officials have renewed a controversial permit allowing a New Hampshire landfill to send as much as 100,000 gallons a day of polluted runoff to a Lowell treatment plant that empties into the Merrimack River, a source of drinking water to more than a ...

Trump Interior nominee fast-tracked a ‘deficient’ drilling permit

by Reveal | November 4, 2019
Complaints of political and corporate interference have been rife at the Interior Department since Trump took office, a recent survey of 16 of the department’s most senior career employees indicates. The survey, conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental ...

Why We Need to Protect Government Scientists from Political Retaliation

by Brennan Center for Justice | October 29, 2019
The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), part of the Department of the Interior, is the federal agency responsible for the protection of endangered species. But in 2004, Andrew Eller Jr., a biologist for the FWS, filed a formal complaint that charged agency officials of knowingly using  ...

New Studies Show PFAS in Artificial Grass Blades and Backing

by Environmental Working Group | October 29, 2019
In July, the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that synthetic turf contains toxic chemicals, some of which are known to cause cancer. The EPA report was not a formal risk assessment and did not address the potential harm. PEER and the Ecology Center tested eight different ...

Interior removes controversial proposed change from final FOIA rule

by The Hill | October 25, 2019
“The concern is that they haven’t even been following their own rules previously. Even if this rule got rid of the really bad stuff, Jorjani has not been afraid to ignore the rules when it’s politically expedient or would be embarrassing for [Interior Secretary] David Bernhardt ...

Trump’s SEC ‘determined to leave public in the dark’ on climate change, Sierra Club alleges in lawsuit

by CNBC | October 24, 2019
“The Sierra Club has a recent history of success litigating FOIA issues against the Trump administration. It sued the Environmental Protection Agency after FOIA requests made under former Trump EPA director Scott Pruitt were ignored, and the ultimate release of those documents — ...

New EPA Chief in New England Barred from Many Decisions Because of Conflicts

by The Boston Globe | October 22, 2019
“A former chemical industry lobbyist who was recently appointed as regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has been barred from overseeing a range of vital issues in New England because of conflicts of interest that could compromise his public duties. Dennis ...

A New Volley in the Debate over Turf Versus Grass

by The Martha’s Vineyard Times | October 22, 2019
“The use of synthetic turf at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has been debated for years, and discovery of a toxic chemical in some artificial fields is likely to renew the debate. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were found in several test samples taken from ...

BLM whistleblower reinstated in Nevada grazing dispute

by New Haven Register | October 21, 2019
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A longtime government range specialist who claimed he was fired in retaliation for repeatedly reporting illegal livestock grazing on federal land in eastern Nevada has been reinstated as part of a settlement of his whistleblower complaint against the U.S. Bureau of Land ...

Enlarged Atlantic fishing area could further imperil right whales

by Salon | October 20, 2019
Donald Trump likes scallops, ordering the seafood for Chris Christie even though the former governor of New Jersey is allergic to them, but a new fishing map that benefits scallop fishermen could push the endangered North American right whale into extinction. Trump regulators opened ...

Industry group calls NGO report on PFASs in synthetic turf ‘inaccurate’

by Chemical Watch | October 17, 2019
US industry group the Synthetic Turf Council has dismissed as “inaccurate” a recent NGO report claiming to have found per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in samples of the artificial turf used on playing fields. The study, conducted by Public Employees for Environmental ...

Refinery Explosions Highlight Lack of Emission Reporting

by YubaNet.com | October 17, 2019
Washington, DC, Oct. 17, 2019 — A massive refinery explosion that this week paralyzed much of the San Francisco Bay Area raised uncertainties about the contents of the massive chemical plume coating neighboring communities.  A new regulation requiring that regulators, responders, and ...

United States: The Chemical Compound – October 2019

by Mondaq | October 16, 2019
This quarterly newsletter provides updates on litigation, regulatory, legislative, and other notable developments involving chemicals of concern to business. Our present focus is on substances which are the subject of regulatory activity or scrutiny by various government agencies and ...

NRDC Briefs Congress on Neonic Pesticide Human Health Harms

by NRDC | October 15, 2019
I am pleased to be able to brief Congressional staff—both the House and Senate side—on the potential for adverse human health harms from neonicotinoid pesticides, or ‘neonics’. NRDC is one of a coalition of environmental groups—including Friends of the Earth (FOE US) and Public ...
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