Latest news with #SuperfundNationalPrioritiesList
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
EPA announces start for cleanup of Atlanta neighborhood contaminated with lead
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the cleanup of Atlanta's Lindsay Street Park area in the English Avenue neighborhood had started. The northwest Atlanta community is including in the EPA's work to clean up the Westside Lead Superfund Site. Over the next three months, the EPA will have work crews excavating up to two feet of lead-contaminated soil, dispose of it off-site, then replace the contaminated soil with clean fill and topsoil. They'll also restore the landscaping. On the city's end of things, Atlanta will replace the park's playground equipment before it reopens. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The playground itself has been closed since 2022. Channel 2 Action News covered in years past when the federal government started its efforts to clean up lead waste in the soil of several Atlanta neighborhoods, including Vine City and English Avenue. TRENDING STORIES: Today marks 20 years since deadly Fulton County Courthouse shooting rampage GA church daycare employee accused of giving Benadryl to toddlers to make them go to sleep Suspect in 77-year-old woman's murder hasn't had his mental health evaluation yet The EPA proposed adding the Westside Superfund site to the Superfund National Priorities List so resources could be assigned in the long-term for cleaning up the area in 2021. It made the list in 2022, according to the federal agency. In 2023, $1 billion in funding was allocated to clean up nearly two dozen sites with lead contamination. 'This federal-state-local partnership between EPA, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the City of Atlanta will get children back on the playground and residents back to enjoying their park,' Administrator Kevin McOmber of EPA's Southeast Region said in a statement. 'We are proud to play a role in making Lindsay Street Park safe for children.' According to the EPA, the park first opened in 2015 as the English Avenue community's first public park. It was built across six once-blighted lots with support from the community and several companies and organizations, but three years later, researchers found lead contamination, leading to the need for cleanup. Now, the EPA says the work is underway. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Washington Post
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
As Trump administration reforms the EPA, cleanups of America's most toxic sites are uncertain
LOS ANGELES — Just over a mile from where Patricia Flores has lived for almost 20 years, a battery smelter plant spewed toxic elements into the environment for nearly a century. Exide Technologies in southeast Los Angeles polluted thousands of properties with lead and contributed to groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical. Since Exide declared bankruptcy in 2020, California has invested more than $770 million to clean the various properties. But much more cleanup is needed, and with Donald Trump's return to the White House, those efforts are uncertain. 'The groundwater that was found to have TCE is spreading,' said Flores in Spanish. 'It's not just going to affect us – other people will also be impacted by the contamination. And it is worrying that we won't be added to the priority list for the cleanup to be done.' Residents, environmental advocates and state and federal lawmakers have urged the Environmental Protection Agency to list Exide as a Superfund site, which would unlock federal resources for long-term, permanent cleanup. Last year, the EPA determined the plant qualifies due to TCE in the groundwater, which advocates worry is tainting drinking water. But toxic cleanup experts say the Trump administration could make it harder for hazardous sites to get designated, create a backlog, reduce program funding, and loosen contamination standards. The goal of the Superfund program, begun more than four decades ago, is to clean the nation's most contaminated sites to protect the environment and people – often in low-income and communities of color . After a site is added to the National Priorities List, crews evaluate the contamination, create a cleanup plan and execute it. Once that happens, the EPA deletes the site from the list, which could then be redeveloped. There are currently 1,341 Superfund sites, according to EPA figures from December. While the program has historically received bipartisan support, changes in administration impact how it operates, its funding and oversight. In a statement to The Associated Press, EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said the agency 'is putting together a leadership team composed of some of the brightest experts and legal minds of their fields, all of whom will uphold EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship in his first term and the EPA will continue this legacy in his second term.' It's too soon to know how Trump's second presidency will impact the program, but some experts point to his previous term for clues. A backlog of toxic Superfund cleanups grew, even as Trump declared the program a priority while seeking to defund it and the EPA . Vaseliou said Trump's EPA 'cleaned up more toxic sites than its predecessor by fully or partially deleting 82 sites from the Superfund National Priorities List.' The AP previously reported that Trump and a former EPA administrator took undue credit for cleanups when they made similar statements in 2019. It can take decades to clean up a Superfund site, meaning that by the time it's removed from the list a new administration is in power. If Trump seeks to defund the EPA again, it could have big impacts on site cleanups in states with less money. Some states don't have the staff or economic wherewithal to address these sites themselves, 'and so they need the federal government as a partner to do it,' said Michael Blumenthal, co-chair of McGlinchey Stafford's environmental law group, who has represented Superfund cases. 'Polluters pay' taxes, which imposed fees on polluting companies for Superfund cleanups, expired in 1995. They were reinstated with the Biden-Harris administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Many hoped the renewed funding would reverse the decades-long trend of slow clean ups, but some now worry they could be repealed, reducing program funding. Trump has already moved to oust career staff at EPA and other agencies, removed scientific advisers and closed an office that helps minority communities disproportionately struggling with pollution. Granta Nakayama, a lawyer and partner at King & Spalding, said a reduced number of EPA staff will have a 'dramatic effect' because 'you just don't have the bodies to really run the program at the level they've historically operated at.' If the federal government doesn't put in the same effort, state cleanup programs will have to decide if they'll step in to pick up the slack, added Nakayama, who served as EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. 'Some states have more political will than others.' In his first term, Trump also rolled back environmental oversight and protections, including for air and the nation's waterways . Trump signaled he could do the same this time when he signed an executive order to repeal 10 regulations for every one that takes effect. Experts say environmental deregulation could weaken the framework that supports Superfund cleanups. Blumenthal said there could be efforts to revise the hazardous ranking system, making it harder for sites to be listed. He also said states like California, awaiting a decision, won't get one straight away. 'It could be months,' he said, adding that sites like Exide could be listed as low priority. Some people working on cleanups are already seeing impacts. Connie Westfall, lawyer and founder of the Westfall Law Firm, has been working on the U.S. Oil Recovery Superfund site in Texas. Her team is waiting on the EPA to sign off on site reports so they can move to the next stage. 'I've never seen anything like it,' she said. 'The delays are costing us money.' Aleja Cretcher, legal fellow for the environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, said they have worked closely with the EPA for years, including on Exide. Losing that support would be a 'backslide.' 'It's been decades of poisoning with no accountability,' she said, 'and everyone deserves clean soil in their yards and clean air, clean water.' ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit .
Associated Press
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
As Trump administration reforms the EPA, cleanups of America's most toxic sites are uncertain
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Just over a mile from where Patricia Flores has lived for almost 20 years, a battery smelter plant spewed toxic elements into the environment for nearly a century. Exide Technologies in southeast Los Angeles polluted thousands of properties with lead and contributed to groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical. Since Exide declared bankruptcy in 2020, California has invested more than $770 million to clean the various properties. But much more cleanup is needed, and with Donald Trump's return to the White House, those efforts are uncertain. 'The groundwater that was found to have TCE is spreading,' said Flores in Spanish. 'It's not just going to affect us – other people will also be impacted by the contamination. And it is worrying that we won't be added to the priority list for the cleanup to be done.' urged the Environmental Protection Agency to list Exide as a Superfund site, which would unlock federal resources for long-term, permanent cleanup. Last year, the EPA determined the plant qualifies due to TCE in the groundwater, which advocates worry is tainting drinking water. But toxic cleanup experts say the Trump administration could make it harder for hazardous sites to get designated, create a backlog, reduce program funding, and loosen contamination standards. The goal of the Superfund program, begun more than four decades ago, is to clean the nation's most contaminated sites to protect the environment and people – often in low-income and communities of color. After a site is added to the National Priorities List, crews evaluate the contamination, create a cleanup plan and execute it. Once that happens, the EPA deletes the site from the list, which could then be redeveloped. There are currently 1,341 Superfund sites, according to EPA figures from December. While the program has historically received bipartisan support, changes in administration impact how it operates, its funding and oversight. In a statement to The Associated Press, EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said the agency 'is putting together a leadership team composed of some of the brightest experts and legal minds of their fields, all of whom will uphold EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship in his first term and the EPA will continue this legacy in his second term.' It's too soon to know how Trump's second presidency will impact the program, but some experts point to his previous term for clues. A backlog of toxic Superfund cleanups grew, even as Trump declared the program a priority while seeking to defund it and the EPA. Vaseliou said Trump's EPA 'cleaned up more toxic sites than its predecessor by fully or partially deleting 82 sites from the Superfund National Priorities List.' The AP previously reported that Trump and a former EPA administrator took undue credit for cleanups when they made similar statements in 2019. It can take decades to clean up a Superfund site, meaning that by the time it's removed from the list a new administration is in power. If Trump seeks to defund the EPA again, it could have big impacts on site cleanups in states with less money. Some states don't have the staff or economic wherewithal to address these sites themselves, 'and so they need the federal government as a partner to do it,' said Michael Blumenthal, co-chair of McGlinchey Stafford's environmental law group, who has represented Superfund cases. 'Polluters pay' taxes, which imposed fees on polluting companies for Superfund cleanups, expired in 1995. They were reinstated with the Biden-Harris administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Many hoped the renewed funding would reverse the decades-long trend of slow clean ups, but some now worry they could be repealed, reducing program funding. Trump has already moved to oust career staff at EPA and other agencies, removed scientific advisers and closed an office that helps minority communities disproportionately struggling with pollution. Granta Nakayama, a lawyer and partner at King & Spalding, said a reduced number of EPA staff will have a 'dramatic effect' because 'you just don't have the bodies to really run the program at the level they've historically operated at.' If the federal government doesn't put in the same effort, state cleanup programs will have to decide if they'll step in to pick up the slack, added Nakayama, who served as EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. 'Some states have more political will than others.' In his first term, Trump also rolled back environmental oversight and protections, including for air and the nation's waterways. Trump signaled he could do the same this time when he signed an executive order to repeal 10 regulations for every one that takes effect. Experts say environmental deregulation could weaken the framework that supports Superfund cleanups. Blumenthal said there could be efforts to revise the hazardous ranking system, making it harder for sites to be listed. He also said states like California, awaiting a decision, won't get one straight away. 'It could be months,' he said, adding that sites like Exide could be listed as low priority. Some people working on cleanups are already seeing impacts. Connie Westfall, lawyer and founder of the Westfall Law Firm, has been working on the U.S. Oil Recovery Superfund site in Texas. Her team is waiting on the EPA to sign off on site reports so they can move to the next stage. 'I've never seen anything like it,' she said. 'The delays are costing us money.' Aleja Cretcher, legal fellow for the environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, said they have worked closely with the EPA for years, including on Exide. Losing that support would be a 'backslide.' 'It's been decades of poisoning with no accountability,' she said, 'and everyone deserves clean soil in their yards and clean air, clean water.'
The Independent
15-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
As Trump administration reforms the EPA, cleanups of America's most toxic sites are uncertain
Just over a mile from where Patricia Flores has lived for almost 20 years, a battery smelter plant spewed toxic elements into the environment for nearly a century. Exide Technologies in southeast Los Angeles polluted thousands of properties with lead and contributed to groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical. Since Exide declared bankruptcy in 2020, California has invested more than $770 million to clean the various properties. But much more cleanup is needed, and with Donald Trump 's return to the White House, those efforts are uncertain. 'The groundwater that was found to have TCE is spreading,' said Flores in Spanish. 'It's not just going to affect us – other people will also be impacted by the contamination. And it is worrying that we won't be added to the priority list for the cleanup to be done.' Residents, environmental advocates and state and federal lawmakers have urged the Environmental Protection Agency to list Exide as a Superfund site, which would unlock federal resources for long-term, permanent cleanup. Last year, the EPA determined the plant qualifies due to TCE in the groundwater, which advocates worry is tainting drinking water. But toxic cleanup experts say the Trump administration could make it harder for hazardous sites to get designated, create a backlog, reduce program funding, and loosen contamination standards. The goal of the Superfund program, begun more than four decades ago, is to clean the nation's most contaminated sites to protect the environment and people – often in low-income and communities of color. After a site is added to the National Priorities List, crews evaluate the contamination, create a cleanup plan and execute it. Once that happens, the EPA deletes the site from the list, which could then be redeveloped. There are currently 1,341 Superfund sites, according to EPA figures from December. While the program has historically received bipartisan support, changes in administration impact how it operates, its funding and oversight. In a statement to The Associated Press, EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said the agency "is putting together a leadership team composed of some of the brightest experts and legal minds of their fields, all of whom will uphold EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship in his first term and the EPA will continue this legacy in his second term.' It's too soon to know how Trump's second presidency will impact the program, but some experts point to his previous term for clues. A backlog of toxic Superfund cleanups grew, even as Trump declared the program a priority while seeking to defund it and the EPA. Vaseliou said Trump's EPA 'cleaned up more toxic sites than its predecessor by fully or partially deleting 82 sites from the Superfund National Priorities List." The AP previously reported that Trump and a former EPA administrator took undue credit for cleanups when they made similar statements in 2019. It can take decades to clean up a Superfund site, meaning that by the time it's removed from the list a new administration is in power. If Trump seeks to defund the EPA again, it could have big impacts on site cleanups in states with less money. Some states don't have the staff or economic wherewithal to address these sites themselves, 'and so they need the federal government as a partner to do it,' said Michael Blumenthal, co-chair of McGlinchey Stafford's environmental law group, who has represented Superfund cases. 'Polluters pay' taxes, which imposed fees on polluting companies for Superfund cleanups, expired in 1995. They were reinstated with the Biden-Harris administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Many hoped the renewed funding would reverse the decades-long trend of slow clean ups, but some now worry they could be repealed, reducing program funding. Trump has already moved to oust career staff at EPA and other agencies, removed scientific advisers and closed an office that helps minority communities disproportionately struggling with pollution. Granta Nakayama, a lawyer and partner at King & Spalding, said a reduced number of EPA staff will have a 'dramatic effect' because 'you just don't have the bodies to really run the program at the level they've historically operated at.' If the federal government doesn't put in the same effort, state cleanup programs will have to decide if they'll step in to pick up the slack, added Nakayama, who served as EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. 'Some states have more political will than others." In his first term, Trump also rolled back environmental oversight and protections, including for air and the nation's waterways. Trump signaled he could do the same this time when he signed an executive order to repeal 10 regulations for every one that takes effect. Experts say environmental deregulation could weaken the framework that supports Superfund cleanups. Blumenthal said there could be efforts to revise the hazardous ranking system, making it harder for sites to be listed. He also said states like California, awaiting a decision, won't get one straight away. 'It could be months,' he said, adding that sites like Exide could be listed as low priority. Some people working on cleanups are already seeing impacts. Connie Westfall, lawyer and founder of the Westfall Law Firm, has been working on the U.S. Oil Recovery Superfund site in Texas. Her team is waiting on the EPA to sign off on site reports so they can move to the next stage. 'I've never seen anything like it,' she said. 'The delays are costing us money.' Aleja Cretcher, legal fellow for the environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, said they have worked closely with the EPA for years, including on Exide. Losing that support would be a 'backslide." 'It's been decades of poisoning with no accountability,' she said, "and everyone deserves clean soil in their yards and clean air, clean water.' ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump packs EPA with chemical, oil industry alumni
A significant number of political appointees who have joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Trump used to work for or have lobbied on behalf of the chemical and fossil fuel industries. The appointments come as the administration has made apparently competing promises about aggressively cutting regulations while also 'Making America Healthy Again.' Among the figures appointed to the agency is Nancy Beck, who used to work at the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade and lobbying group, before serving in the EPA during Trump's first term. Beck has faced controversy over her handling of chemical safety during her first EPA tenure. Also joining the administration is Lynn Dekleva, who spent more than 30 years at chemical giant DuPont, according to her LinkedIn page. DuPont is well known for, among other things, its relationship to 'forever chemicals,' a toxic family of chemicals also known as PFAS that have been linked to several cancers and other health concerns and are the subject of EPA regulations, like many toxic substances. DuPont's legacy parent — E.I. du Pont de Nemours — and its spinoff Chemours have manufactured many types of PFAS. The companies settled a lawsuit from water utilities affected by the chemicals last year. Other legal proceedings remain ongoing. Additional appointments include Chad McIntosh, a former Ford executive, and Alexander Dominguez, who worked for the American Petroleum Institute, a major oil and gas lobbying group. Dominguez has also lobbied on behalf of companies and groups in the biofuels, plastic and oil industries. Steven Cook, who was a lawyer for chemical and oil refining company LyondellBasell, will also be rejoining the EPA. Like Beck, Dekleva, McIntosh, Dominguez and Cook also held EPA positions in Trump's first administration. The EPA did not directly respond to The Hill's questions about the appointments or whether officials with industry ties would work on issues that impact their former employers or clients. Instead, spokesperson Molly Vaseliou provided a written statement saying the 'EPA is putting together a leadership team composed of some of the brightest experts and legal minds of their fields, all of whom will uphold EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment.' 'During President Trump's first term, the combined emissions of criteria pollutants and their precursors dropped by 7 percent and the American people saw significant improvement in air quality. Additionally, the Trump EPA cleaned up more toxic sites than its predecessor by fully or partially deleting 82 sites from the Superfund National Priorities List,' she said. Criteria pollutants refers to a set of six commonly found types of air pollution: smog, soot, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Beck is among the most controversial picks to rejoin the administration. She previously served as deputy and then principal deputy assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention in Trump's first term. She later served in the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The Associated Press reported at that time that she was involved in sidelining guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention related to reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. The president nominated her in 2020 to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but that push was derailed when even some Republican senators raised concerns about her record on chemical safety. Maria Doa, a former EPA official who worked on chemical issues at the agency for several decades, including during the first Trump administration, told The Hill that Beck tried to weaken the science surrounding toxic chemicals. 'When I was at EPA dealing with Nancy Beck, I regularly pushed back against her efforts to … undermine the science, to change scientific determinations so that chemicals would not be regulated,' said Doa, who is now senior director for chemicals policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. She particularly noted that Beck pushed back on efforts to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals. 'She would downplay the risk from trichloroethylene, which causes three types of cancer, multiple effects on the body, developmental toxicity,' Doa said. Doa also recounted a meeting in which she said Beck did not appear to care that deaths related to paint remover methylene chloride were likely being undercounted. 'She said, 'Well, what is that, like 1 percent? What's the issue?' … which is just shocking, because parents lost children, and children lost a father or mother, so there were a number of deaths,' Doa recalled. The EPA did not provide a comment on the specifics of Doa's statements. Instead, a spokesperson reiterated the same statement provided by Vaseliou. Other Trump appointees to the agency also held lobbying positions. Official Aaron Szabo lobbied on behalf of the sterilization industry on issues related to its use of the toxic chemical ethylene oxide, and for DuPont successor Chemours on issues related to forever chemicals. Szabo additionally lobbied for the American Chemistry Council, a number of oil and pipeline companies and electric utilities Duke, Exelon and NextEra. Jessica Kramer lobbied on behalf of various water utility trade organizations, as well as Duke Energy, Talos Energy and LG Chem. Justin Schwab has provided legal services to utility Southern Co. Kramer and Schwab also served at the EPA during Trump's first term, while Szabo worked in the White House. E&E News first reported that these officials would be rejoining the administration. The Hill has verified using the agency's employee database that they are working at the EPA. Matthew Tejada, a former career official who worked in the EPA's Office for Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, noted that the involvement of officials with ties to industry is not unique to Trump's administrations. 'It's kind of the rhythm of our government that many of us have become used to — that when a conservative administration comes in, they bring in a coterie of polluting industry representation,' said Tejada, who is now senior vice president for environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He noted that it's not clear whether any given individual will necessarily feel beholden to their prior employers. 'Are these folks who maybe have differences of philosophy with us, but we can try to find areas of common ground where we can positively advance environmental health protections … or are these folks who are just hell-bent on eliminating any resistance from the executive branch of the government to the whims of our president?' he said. 'That is what we have to assess right now.' Trump has pledged to roll back environmental regulations and bolster the oil and gas industry while in office, and made some moves to do so in his initial slate of executive actions last week. But while Trump and his team have supported such rollbacks and appointed officials who worked in the chemical and fossil fuel industries to the EPA, he has also repeatedly said that he supports clean air and clean water. Trump has also adopted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda. Kennedy, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has expressed interest in removing toxic chemicals from the environment and limiting corporate influence on the federal government. While he appears to be close with President Trump, Kennedy won't have any direct say over the EPA's actions if he's confirmed as HHS secretary. Nevertheless, Doa sees a 'hypocrisy' in the administration claiming to want a healthier America while putting industry-affiliated people in top EPA positions. 'There's a hypocrisy there if you put people in place who are going to approve chemicals to go on the market that are risky … or who are going to, when they assess chemicals that have long been on the market, downplay their harms, their risks, not regulate them,' she said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
