I’ve been an environmental lawyer for more than 20 years, working for communities whose homes, air, and water have been polluted by industry’s careless disposal of dangerous chemicals. I’ve seen government respond aggressively to protect its citizens under these circumstances, but more often not so aggressively. I’ve even seen government…
Update, July 2022: After being passed in the House and Senate, the Honoring Our PACT Act was expected to go to President Biden’s desk for his signature, but it is currently being blocked in the Senate by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. After years of denials by the government, Camp…
Update, July 2022: The House and Senate recently passed the Honoring Our PACT Act, which will allow veterans and their families to recover damages for illnesses caused by toxic water at Camp Lejeune by filing an FTCA claim, and if that claim is denied, by filing a toxic tort lawsuit…
Something really wrong happened here. Bronx Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott just announced the closing of the Bronx New School. Walcott said that the soil at the school– and the air that the kids breathe at the school–are soaked with a carcinogen known as trichloroethylene, or TCE. And not just a…
If you have reason to research how chemicals can harm your family-say, for example, your water supply has been found to be contaminated-please be careful. There is a lot of “information” available on the internet, but not all of it is reliable. In the unreliable category are studies performed or…
It’s such a compelling story: A 10-years-in-the-making plan to pour $1 billion into the redevelopment of Jordan Downs, a once-dangerous, crime-ridden public housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, that had been the stage for nationally-televised riots in the 1960s. The idea is to convert what had been…
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…
For decades, hundreds of homes in a section of Union, New York known as Endicott have been sitting above a plume of TCE and PCE contaminated groundwater. TCE and PCE are man-made solvents historically used by corporations to strip grease and grime off metal parts. Endicott is just south of…
Before we get to the broken promise, let’s first re-cap DOE’s disregard for the health of the children who have attended The Bronx New School for the last 20 years [feel free to visit my previous blogs on this subject dated: 8/30, 8/26, and 8/22. ] (1) In 1992, DOE…
This is a hopeful story. But it must first wind its way through some seemingly discouraging territory. Hang with me, though, and we’ll get to the hopeful part. I promise. Here’s the discouraging part: You cannot trust your government to tell you that your air or water is contaminated. Or…