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Amid series of rapid-fire policy reversals, Trump quietly withdraws proposed limits on PFAS
By Shannon Kelleher
Amid a flurry of actions curtailing Biden’s environmental policies, the administration of newly inaugurated President Donald Trump this week withdrew a plan to set limits on toxic PFAS chemicals in industrial wastewater.
The draft rule, which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent to the White House for review in June, was seen as a precedent-setting move by reducing allowable discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals that have been linked to an array of health problems.
“It is abundantly clear that this action was taken to benefit the chemical industry – and every American will suffer for it,” said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “PFAS contamination is already a national health crisis, and this will force states to try and fill the regulatory void left by EPA’s failure. “
The decision to withdraw the draft rule came as Trump issued an executive order to freeze any new federal regulations pending review.
Though the initial rule would have applied to only about 13 facilities, almost 30,000 industrial sites have been identified as potential sources of PFAS in the environment, including drinking water sources, according to a 2021 analysis of EPA data by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). And the EPA itself has identified more than 120,000 facility sites around the US where the agency says people may be exposed to PFAS.
The proposal’s withdrawal is a “devastating setback” that “not only delays establishing critical federal standards but also sends a dangerous message giving polluters a green light to continue poisoning our water and communities without fear of consequence,” Melanie Benesh, EWG vice president for government affairs, said in a statement. “It’s an unconscionable betrayal of the public’s health in favor of corporate interests.”
When asked about the move, an EPA spokesperson said it was “common transition procedures,” to pause major decisions, including a hold on new and pending regulations.
Close to 30 million Americans face limited water supplies, government report finds
By Carey Gillam
Nearly 30 million people are living in areas of the US with limited water supplies as the country faces growing concerns over both water availability and quality, according to a new assessment by government scientists.
The US Geological Survey (USGS), which is part of the Department of the Interior, issued what it said was a first-of-its-kind report last week, with USGS Director David Applegate warning of “increasing challenges to this vital resource.” The Jan. 16 report, based on data from 2010 to 2020, examines not only water supplies but also demand patterns and water quality. The report showed that most of the country had supplies that exceeded demand during the period examined, but worrisome trends were noted.
“Water availability is an issue everywhere in our country and beyond,” Lori Sprague, USGS national program manager for the water availability assessment, said in a webinar presenting the report. “It raises the question – do we have enough water to sustain our nation’s economy, ecosystems and drinking water supplies?”
Among the key findings from the new analysis was that people who are considered “socially vulnerable” have a higher risk of experiencing limited water supplies. Overall, about 27 million people lived in areas where the USGS found a “high degree of local water stress.” And a higher proportion of the people living in those areas were considered socially vulnerable compared with those living in areas of more local water availability, the USGS said.
The report also added to evidence of widespread pollution in waterways across the US Midwest and High Plains regions where worrisome levels of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations – tied in large part to large animal agriculture operations – can pose a threat to human health.
EPA moves to withdraw decision on paraquat, delays report on risks
By Carey Gillam
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to withdraw its interim regulatory decision on paraquat, announcing that it needs more time to examine the potential health effects of the weed killing chemical that has been widely used in agriculture for decades, but also linked for years to the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson’s disease.
The EPA had promised to issue a report by Friday, January 17 updating its position on paraquat after a petition filed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and several other health advocacy organizations challenged the EPA’s 2021 interim registration review decision in which the agency concluded that there was “insufficient” evidence linking paraquat exposure to Parkinson’s.
That interim EPA decision did call for certain mitigation measures to reduce risks the agency said it found necessary to protect human health and the environment, and labels on paraquat products were amended in 2022 to reflect those measures. But critics have pressed the EPA to go further and ban the pesticide entirely.
The petition, filed in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, challenged not only the agency’s position on Parkinson’s risk, but also the EPA’s analysis of respiratory and dermal exposures, exposure risks from paraquat drift, and how to balance paraquat’s risks and benefits.
As part of the process of reexamining its interim decision, the agency said a year ago that it would spend 2024 analyzing new information about paraquat health effects and considering public comments about the issue. The agency said last year it would issue a final document and potential next steps for paraquat use by the mid-January 2025 date.
Instead, on Friday, the EPA said it is delaying any action. The agency issued a statement saying it had “determined that additional data are necessary to resolve the uncertainty” surrounding certain paraquat risks. The agency cited the “potential for paraquat to volatize,” and said it would be trying to determine potential “inhalation risks to bystanders from the volatilization of paraquat.” Such data “could change the underlying human health risk assessment,” and the regulatory decision based on that assessment, the EPA said.
And on Friday, the EPA asked the 9th Circuit to allow it to withdraw its interim decision on paraquat while it further investigates the concerns surrounding the chemical.
“EPA intends to withdraw the Interim Decision and will promptly do so once the Court rules on this motion,” the agency states in its court filing. If the court agrees, the case brought by the health advocacy groups will become moot, the EPA argues in the filing.
Scientists cite disease “epidemic” in launch of new “Center to End Corporate Harm”
By Carey Gillam
Citing an “industrial epidemic of disease,” a group of scientists have launched an organization aimed at tracking and preventing diseases tied to pollution and products pushed by influential companies.
The new “Center to End Corporate Harm” is based at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and will bring together scientists to develop strategies “to counter the destructive influence of polluters and poisoners,” according to a press release announcing the launch.
“Industries that produce health-harming products, including fossil fuels, plastics, petrochemicals, tobacco, and ultra-processed foods, have waged a decades-long assault on government regulatory agencies and policymaking to rig rules in their favor at the expense of public health. At the same time, these health harming products have contributed to a rise in chronic disease. We are working to change that,” the center states on its website.
Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA nominee, pledges independence from industry ties in senate hearing
By Douglas Main
Incoming President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appeared on track for confirmation after a Senate hearing Thursday in which he pledged independence from industry money and influence.
Senators with the Committee on Environment and Public Works quizzed nominee Lee Zeldin, a former Congressman from eastern Long Island, on a wide range of issues, including his associations with, and financial ties to, the fossil fuel industry, his stance on government inducements for electric vehicle expansion, and environmental justice issues.
In one line of questioning, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, pressed Zeldin on how he would “separate” his work at EPA from the demands of the fossil fuel industry, in particular.
Zeldin has numerous ties to what Whitehouse described as a “climate denial front group,” and has been the recipient of what Whitehouse said was nearly $300,000 from the oil and gas industry back to 2007, and “large campaign support” from the wealthy Koch family, which runs a variety of businesses involved in oil and gas exploration, pipelines, refining, and chemical production, among others.
Zeldin said the connections would have no role in how he leads the EPA.
“There is no dollar, large or small, that can influence the decisions that I make, who has access to me and how I am ruling in my obligations under the law,” he responded.
“Well good luck standing up to these guys cause they’re going to come at you,” Whitehouse said.
Certified “naturally grown” offers alternative to the USDA organic label
By Harshawn Ratanpal, KBIA
Prairie du Rocher, Ill. – On a cold winter day in Illinois, three little pigs are resting in a three-sided shed. They have plenty of space to trot around, as they do when Jennifer Duensing approaches. Those footsteps mean it’s feeding time. They squeal impatiently, waiting for their usual diet of organic feed, which sometimes includes vegetables like squash grown right here on the farm.
The farm, Illinois Country Harvest, had been in Duensing’s family for generations when she took it over in 2015. She was new to farming, so there was a lot to learn about how to best manage the near-12 acres now under her purview. But one thing she definitely knew was that she wanted to manage the land, crops and animals without chemical inputs.
“We use absolutely zero chemicals, which means if we have pests, we don’t spray,” she said.
There are countless certifications she could have chosen and labels she could slap on her products to try and prove her farm has good practices. In the midst of rising consumer demand for organic foods, a nonprofit called “A Greener World” which “promotes practical, sustainable solutions in agriculture by supporting farmers and educating consumers” has a 15-page guide that attempts to clear up consumer confusion around labels that use terms like “natural,” “humane” and “organic.”
Certified Naturally Grown was a perfect fit for how she was already running her farm.
“Our certification process is really pretty simple, because we have zero chemical inputs,” she said. “There’s nothing we had to justify or have reasoning for, because we just do not use anything.”
Millions of Americans exposed to unregulated chemicals in drinking water, study finds
By Shannon Kelleher
Almost 100 million people in the US may be exposed to unregulated industrial chemicals in their drinking water, with communities of color especially at risk, according to a new analysis of federal monitoring data for water systems across the country.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, analyzed data gathered by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013 to 2015 for four types of unregulated chemicals, finding that 27% of those nearly 5,000 public water systems had detectable levels of at least one contaminant.
Overall, more than 97 million US residents were served by a public water system with detectable levels of the contaminants examined in the study.
The colorless, flammable solvent 1,4-dioxane was most pervasive, showing up in 22% of the public water systems, according to the study. The researchers also found the refrigerant HCFC-22, as well as a solvent called dichloroethane used in plastics production, and toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in about 4-6% of the water systems. The EPA data accounted for six types of PFAS, a category including thousands of chemicals: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA) and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).
Hispanic and Black populations are at especially high risk for exposure to unregulated chemicals in their drinking water, the authors reported. Public water systems with detectable levels of the contaminants served counties with higher proportions of Hispanic residents than those with no detections, for example, the authors said.
FDA announces long-awaited ban on Red Dye 3
By Carey Gillam
US regulators on Wednesday said a food additive long linked to cancer will no longer be allowed in food and drugs that are ingested, a regulatory decision health advocates have demanded for years.
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is revoking the authorization for the use of what is known as Red Dye No. 3, a chemical used to give popular candies, cakes, cookies and other foods cherry-red colors.
The action comes in response to a 2022 petition filed by scientists and more than 20 public health organizations that cited studies finding the chemical causes cancer in laboratory animals. The petition cited a federal law that bars the FDA from allowing a color additive to be used in products that are ingested if the additive is found to induce cancer in “in man or animal.”
“This move by the FDA is long overdue, but represents a step in the right direction for consumer safety from harmful, cancer-causing chemicals. This is exactly the action we need to see from the FDA,” said Rebecca Wolf, a policy analyst with Food & Water Watch, which was among the petitioners.
In its announcement Wednesday, FDA officials said they were taking action as “a matter of law,” but stressed that the agency does not believe the dye poses an actual health risk to people. Exposure levels for humans are “typically much lower than those that cause the effects” seen in laboratory rats, the agency said.
“Claims” that the dye puts people at risk “are not supported by the available scientific information,” the agency said.
Manufacturers who use the dye in food have until Jan. 15, 2027 to reformulate products. Drug makers have until Jan. 18, 2028.
PFAS in sludge spread on farmland poses health risks, EPA report says
By Shannon Kelleher and Carey Gillam
US regulators on Tuesday added to growing concerns about the long-standing practice of using sewage sludge to fertilize farmland, releasing a report warning that chemicals contaminating the sludge pose heightened human health risks for cancer and other illnesses.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said two types of hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) widely found in sewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, can contaminate the milk, eggs and meat that come from farm animals raised on agricultural land where the sludge has been applied. Those “exposure pathways” are among multiple ways in which people can be at risk, the EPA said.
The agency focused on perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), two well-studied types of PFAS chemicals linked to testicular and kidney cancer as well as liver problems. The EPA last spring designated PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances under the so-called Superfund law and announced the first legally enforceable limits for the two chemicals and four other types of PFAS in drinking water.
The EPA said that though the majority of US food crops are not grown with the use of sewage sludge as a soil conditioner or fertilizer, because of the “extreme persistence” of PFOA and PFOS in soils, land where sewage sludge was applied years ago may still be contaminated.
The agency’s draft risk assessment, which was made publicly available Jan. 14, said that “under certain scenarios and conditions,” land-applying or disposing of sewage sludge containing 1 part per billion (ppb) or more of PFOA or PFOS “could result in human health risks exceeding the agency’s acceptable thresholds for cancer and noncancer effects.”
EPA boasts of clean energy advances as reversal threat looms
By Shannon Kelleher
In the final week before Donald Trump takes office, federal regulators announced today that the Biden administration has awarded nearly $69 billion through two historic pieces of legislation designed to slash greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, support the clean energy transition and help communities address pollution.
“In just three years, [the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] has funded thousands of incredibly popular projects in every part of the country, from electrifying school buses in rural Texas to replacing lead pipes in Pittsburgh,” Zealan Hoover, senior advisor to the EPA administrator, said on a press call Friday.
As of Jan. 6, the EPA had awarded 93% of grant funding made available by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to the new report. Biden signed the IRA in August 2022, with the administration calling it “the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever.” The agency has awarded 82% of funding through the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which passed in November 2021.
The report comes amid concerns that a Republican budget reconciliation bill could seek to reverse the IRA. A list of “spending reform options” reportedly distributed among House Republicans includes reversing $468 billion in Biden climate policies, which would entail repealing, among other measures, IRA green energy grants.
But while it may be easier to repeal the IRA under a Republican-controlled federal government, Republican lawmakers may hesitate to get rid of funding that benefits their constituents, according to the Brookings Institute, an independent, non-partisan think tank.
Almost 60% of announced IRA projects are in Republican congressional districts, according to a two-year review of the IRA released in August. That month, 18 Republican House Representatives signed a letter calling for attempts to repeal the IRA to leave the legislation’s energy tax credits in place.