Environmental contamination

Scott Pruitt: Too Many Conflicts of Interest to be Next EPA Chief

February 15, 2017 | Shawn Collins

It is well known that President Trump’s pick to run the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has sued the EPA 14 times.

What is not so well known is that many of these lawsuits are still pending. Specifically, still pending are lawsuits that Pruitt filed charging that the EPA is behaving illegally for requiring big polluters-like the oil and gas companies that have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Pruitt’s political campaigns-to cut down on the tonnage of toxic chemicals that they belch into the environment.

What happens to these lawsuits when Pruitt takes over at EPA? He goes from the one suing EPA, to the one being sued.

Scott Pruitt has no Business Running the Environmental Protection Agency

February 13, 2017 | Shawn Collins

This week, the U.S. Senate votes on whether to approve President Trump’s choice, Scott Pruitt, to head the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). Why should every Senator in the building vote “No”?

Let me ask you this:

Would it be OK with you if a lawyer for the world’s largest oil companies-who has spent his career attacking the environmental protections which the EPA is charged with enforcing-was suddenly in charge of whether your family was protected against pollution caused by the world’s largest oil companies?

Scott Pruitt: Donald Trump’s Pick to Dismantle the US EPA

February 5, 2017 | Shawn Collins

I’ve written recently about President Trump’s determination to get the EPA out of the business of protecting the environment and the lives and health of the American people. (EPA Blog) (Gorsuch blog). Huge corporate polluters-including petroleum and mining companies-are tired of having to comply with the federal clean air and water laws, and, in Trump, have found their man to take them off the hook.

Trump, in turn, has selected the man whose job it will be to starve the EPA of the resources necessary to do its job-resources like money, scientists, and the right to speak, so the EPA can warn families living in contaminated neighborhoods that they need to protect themselves. This is the blueprint for how the Trump EPA will clear the way for polluters who want to get back to profitable polluting.

Trump’s man is Scott Pruitt, Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma. If you care about clean air and water for yourself and your children, you’ll want to know about Pruitt. And once you know about him, I hope you will contact your US Senator, and insist that he/she vote to not confirm Pruitt to head the agency charged with the sacred obligation of protecting our environment. Because Pruitt has no intention of protecting the environment.

Dirty Water: House of Representatives Kills Stream Protection Rule

February 3, 2017 | John Risvold

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to gut the Stream Protection Rule, which prevents coal companies from dumping mining waste into local streams. The environmental regulations on coal mining also required companies to test the quality of water that their mining operations could affect and to restore streams that were damaged by coal mining operations.

The vote to kill the Stream Protection Rule sends the resolution to the Senate. If it clears the Senate, which took up the resolution to dismantle the rule on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump is expected to sign it.

The Stream Protection Rule went into effect in December, just before President Obama left office. Environmental groups have hailed the rule as necessary to ensure coal mining does not interfere with access to clean water. The purpose of the rule was simple: to prevent coal companies from dumping waste in local waterways.

Why Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Neil Gorsuch, Matters so much to Those Whose Lives and Health are Threatened by a Polluted Environment

February 3, 2017 | Shawn Collins

If you care about the environment’s impact on our life and health, should you care about whether Judge Neil Gorsuch, who President Trump has just nominated, is approved for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court?

Yes. You absolutely should. Here’s why:

(1) Trump has a plan to dismantle environmental regulation [cite to my blog of earlier this week]. That plan includes Trump’s determination to encase in American law his scientifically fraudulent view that climate change/global warming is a “hoax”. To leave no room for doubt on this, Trump appointed to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) a man named Scott Pruitt, who, as the Attorney General of Oklahoma, has sued the EPA some 14 times, mostly arguing that EPA has no right to regulate the petroleum industry. That’s the industry most responsible for global warming. In plain terms, Pruitt doesn’t want the EPA to have the power to stop polluters from polluting. And, courtesy of our new President, he’s going to be in charge of the EPA in a few days.

IS THE EPA GOING OUT OF BUSINESS? President Trump Plans to Gut Environmental Protection in America

February 1, 2017 | Shawn Collins

New President Trump’s hostility for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and, really, for environmental protection in general, is well-documented. He thinks global warming/climate change is a “hoax”. He thinks that the EPA’s regulations providing clean water for us to drink and clean air to breathe are hurting the ability of American businesses to turn a profit. So, Trump wants to get rid of them, or of the EPA’s ability to enforce them. He also thinks that EPA scientists are a bunch of left-wingers, who rig science to make trouble for corporations.

So, it’s not surprising that recent news reports tell us how Trump plans to neuter the EPA into irrelevance. For example:

·Huge cuts. Myron Ebell was appointed by Trump to head his EPA transition team. Ebell is the director of an organization called the “Center for Energy and the Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute”, a business think tank challenging the science behind global warming, and trying to do away with the EPA. Ebell says that global warming is “a fad” and “alarmist”, and that no one should be concerned about historically-unprecedented rises in global temperatures and ocean levels, because “warmer climates are more pleasant and healthier.” Ebell recommends cutting EPA staff by 67%–from 15,000 to 5,000-and its budget by 50%. 1 It’s too early to know what the cuts will actually be, but that kind of recommendation from Trump’s hand-picked representative has a pretty obvious goal in mind: the EPA can’t very well protect the environment if it doesn’t have any money or people to do it with.

NEW EPA CHIEF IS BEST FRIEND TO THE WORLD’S BIGGEST POLLUTER: THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

December 15, 2016 | Shawn Collins

“You know a man by the company he keeps.” That’s what the Ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop, said a long time ago. The expression has survived until today because it makes sense: we all know that there is a lot to be learned about someone by seeing the friends he/she chooses.

If Aesop was right, then environmental protection in the United States is in big trouble. That’s because President-elect Trump has chosen as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency one of the very best friends of the biggest polluter in the world, the oil and gas industry. His name is Scott Pruitt. He’s currently the attorney general of the oil and gas industry-controlled State of Oklahoma. In that job, Pruitt has behaved as though he’s one of the largest stockholders of Exxon Mobile. For example, he has:

· Sued to block the Clean Water Rule, which is meant to ensure safe drinking water sources.

WHAT THE PEOPLE OF NONANTUM NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TCE VAPOR CONTAMINATION

October 31, 2016 | Shawn Collins

For the last 17 years, I and a team of lawyers have been representing families threatened by TCE contamination in their water supply, in the groundwater underneath their homes, and in the air inside their homes (called “vapor intrusion”). Recent reports in the media, unfortunately, describe how TCE, disposed of years ago in Nonantum, Massachusetts has seeped into the groundwater about 60 feet below the surface, and, after turning into a gas (‘vapor”), has risen back up through the soil and intruded into the breathing space of area homes.

Having known many hundreds of families over the years who were horrified to receive such news about TCE contamination in their homes and communities, my heart goes out to the families of Nonantum. I know many of them are scared- “What can this chemical do to me and my family?” they will ask. They have important questions that deserve answers such as: “How long has this contamination been in my neighborhood, and in my home, and who is responsible?” And they might well be angry- “Why didn’t someone in government protect us from this, or at least warn us that this could happen?”

With exactly these anxieties in mind, I want to provide some information to the people of Nonantum who are dealing with this, so they might understand what is going on, and how better to protect themselves. Here are some important things I have learned over the years:

TEST ILLINOIS SCHOOLS FOR LEAD IN THE DRINKING WATER: PROTECT THE KIDS…..AND STOP BICKERING ABOUT WHO PAYS FOR IT!

September 24, 2016 | Shawn Collins

Illinois legislators have an opportunity this fall to do something important and help to regain some of the public’s trust in government. They can pass a bill to test for lead in the drinking water at Illinois’ schools. (Yes, believe it or not, no such testing is currently required….as if we needed a reason to think even less of the state’s leadership.)

Last May, the Illinois Senate passed Senate Bill 550, sponsored by State Senator Heather Steans, (D – Chicago 7th), which, among other things, requires elementary schools in the state to test for high levels of lead in drinking fountains and sinks. Environmental groups, such as the Illinois Environmental Council are pushing for the House to pass the bill in their November Veto Session. 1

Some organizations are pushing back. The Illinois Association of School Administrators is asking who will pay for this, and the Illinois Municipal League, an advocacy group for local governments, opposes the bill because they don’t want municipalities to pay. 1

“Willful” Exposure of Workers to Lead and Other Toxins Demands the Personal Accountability of Company Executives

August 8, 2016 | Shawn Collins

This is about how to send the right message to a company that is alleged to have willfully endangered the health of workers.

The company is Fraser Shipyard of Superior, Wisconsin. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has accused Fraser of exposing 190 welders and ship fabricators to toxic levels of some nasty chemicals, including lead, asbestos, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium. 75% of the workers tested had elevated levels of lead in their systems, including 14 who had lead levels up to 20 times the maximum allowable exposure. 1

It’s OSHA’s job to take this seriously. Because, as we have known for a long time, lead is a toxic chemical, and the health consequences of exposure to lead are quite serious.