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Postcard from California: Trump vs. the delta smelt
The most powerful man in the world is waging war on a tiny, almost extinct fish.
The fish is the minnow-like delta smelt, less than three inches long with a lifespan of only a year. Its sole natural habitat is the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta – a marshy maze of more than 1,100 miles of waterways, levees and islands where its namesake rivers intertwine.
The smelt is a federally protected threatened species, a state endangered species and a key indicator species for the overall health of the Delta, a crucial migration corridor for Pacific salmon and steelhead trout.
It is under attack by President Trump, who blames the “essentially worthless fish” for restrictions on the flow of water from the Delta to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities.
The smelt’s survival depends on keeping enough fresh river water in the Delta to balance the salty seawater drifting in from San Francisco Bay. Until it was declared endangered in 2009, triggering flow limits, few people other than California water wonks had heard of it.
It has become a flashpoint in the California water wars – the never-ending debate over the best use of a scarce resource in a state burdened with recurrent drought, wildfires, and the climate crisis.
Now Trump is seizing control of the debate – regulations and the truth be damned.
PFAS found in household dust near North Carolina chemical plant
By Shannon Kelleher
Residues of harmful industrial chemicals, including some phased out of production 20 years ago, have been found in household dust in research that shows exposure risks go beyond contaminated food and water, according to a study published Monday.
The study analyzed kitchen dust collected in 2019 from 65 households in an area of North Carolina near a plant owned by DuPont spin-off company Chemours, looking for 48 types of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The researchers identified at least one type of PFAS in every sample, with higher concentrations of the chemicals in homes located closer to the facility.
Twelve of the PFAS chemicals the researchers detected were per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether acids [PFEAs], a subset of PFAS chemicals had previously been found in the plant’s air emissions or wastewater. All were detected at least once in the dust samples, with seven found in more than three-quarters of all samples. The researchers also found high levels of PFAS chemicals not necessarily linked to the plant in over 90% of samples.
“The detection of PFEAs [per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether acids, a subset of PFAS chemicals] in residential dust is important considering growing evidence of PFEA toxicity,” the authors wrote in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. “Our findings demonstrate the need for more rigorous exposure monitoring of dust in homes in PFAS impacted communities and more work to identify sources of ultrashort chain PFAS.”
Out of the 65 households, nine reported having at least one participant who had ever worked at the nearby chemical plant, the researchers said.
Federal hearing to take up hotly debated issue of wetlands protections
By Shannon Kelleher
In a court hearing that could have implications for the fate of federal protections for US wetlands, lawyers for an Iowa farmland owner will face off on Monday against the federal government and environmental advocates over the constitutionality of the Farm Bill’s hotly debated “Swampbuster” law.
The hearing in the case pits CTM Holdings LLC against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and several organizations that intervened in the case in support of USDA, and addresses a provision of the US Farm Bill dealing with wetlands management.
First introduced by Congress in 1985 after more than half of all US wetlands had been drained or filled, the provision prohibits farmers from using designated wetlands on their property if they want to be eligible for crop insurance subsidies, farm loans and other federal benefits.
The measures aims to prevent farmers from draining, filling in or otherwise altering wetlands, which provide critical habitats for fish and waterfowl, help mitigate flooding and sequester carbon. The provision currently protects about three-quarters of remaining wetlands in the contiguous US – at least 78 million acres.
CTM and supporting organizations are challenging Swampbuster, arguing that the provision violates farmers’ Fifth Amendment rights because it amounts to a taking of private property without just compensation and exceeds the federal government’s authority.
CTM owns a 71-acre parcel of land that includes 9 acres deemed wetlands by the government, but argues that the land in question is dry and not connected to any water source. Regardless, CTM is not allowed to farm the land in question without putting USDA benefits at risk, the plaintiffs argue.
Utah becomes first state to ban water fluoridation
By Douglas Main
Utah has become the first US state to ban the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the new law on Thursday, prohibiting fluoridation starting May 7. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the practice, which started in the 1940s as a strategy to help people prevent cavities and reduce tooth decay.
Though more than 70% of the US population receives fluoridated public water supplies and many medical professionals support the practice, opposition has been growing due to studies suggesting fluoride may have neurotoxic effects on fetuses and young children.
Newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years.
Some professional bodies remain ardent supporters of the practice, however. The American Dental Association issued a statement on Friday accusing Utah lawmakers and the governor of showing “wanton disregard for the oral health and well-being” of state residents.
Chewing gum releases microplastics into saliva, study finds
By Douglas Main
Chewing gum made from either synthetic polymers or tree-based resins sheds significant quantities of tiny plastic particles into saliva, according to a study currently undergoing peer review that was presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Researchers found that chewing gum, on average, releases over 600 particles of microplastics per gram, with the average stick of gum weighing between two and six grams, according to the study, in which researchers chewed 10 different types of leading gum brands and then sampled their saliva at various time points.
“We need to be aware that these gums are releasing plastics into our body,” said Sanjay Mohanty, study co-author, a professor at University of California Los Angeles.
Synthetic gum is made up of plastic polymers, a fact that most people are not aware of, said study lead author Lisa Lowe, a graduate student in Mohanty’s lab. It didn’t come as a shock to the researchers, then, that gum released microplastics.
The scientists were surprised, however, that “natural” gums that use plant resins as a base had similar levels of microplastics, which must be getting there somehow during the manufacturing process, they said.
As EPA shutters environmental justice offices, rural Americans at risk
By Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder
Environmental justice efforts at the 10 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional offices have stopped and employees have been placed on administrative leave, per an announcement from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this month. Former EPA employees involved with environmental justice work across the country say rural communities will suffer as a result.
Before being shuttered in early March, the EPA’s environmental justice arm was aimed at making sure communities were being treated fairly and receiving their due protection under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Zealan Hoover, former senior advisor to the EPA administrator under the Biden administration, told the Daily Yonder that this work had big implications for rural places since there are pollution concerns in rural areas across the country.
“EPA was very focused on making sure that not just on the regulatory side, but also on the investment side, we were pushing resources into rural communities,” said Hoover.
According to Hoover, most of the pollution challenges the US faces are not new. He said that the employees—now on leave—who staffed the EPA’s regional environmental justice offices were deeply knowledgeable on the issues affecting communities in their regions; issues which can go on for decades. Hoover said he worries about recent changes to the agency under the Trump administration, which also include a series of deregulatory actions and a proposed 65% budget cut.
“I trust that the great folks at EPA who remain will still try valiantly to fill those gaps, but the reality is that this administration is pushing to cut EPA’s budget, pushing employees to leave, and that’s going to restrict EPA’s ability to help rural communities tackle their most significant pollution challenges,” Hoover said.
$2 billion Roundup jury verdict drives down Bayer shares as company seeks law change
By Carey Gillam
A Georgia jury verdict ordering Bayer AG to pay over $2 billion to a man suffering from cancer he blamed on his use of Roundup weed killer comes as that state’s governor weighs whether to sign into law a measure that would effectively bar such cases from going to trial in the future.
Friday’s verdict rocked Bayer investors, driving down the German company’s shares more than 8% on Monday. The Georgia jury found that Bayer, which bought Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, failed to properly warn users of years of scientific evidence that exposure to Roundup could cause cancer, awarding plaintiff John Barnes $2 billion in punitive damages and $65 million in compensatory damages.
Barnes developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after using Roundup to spray weeds around his home in Dalton, Georgia, from 1999 to 2019, purchasing the herbicide from Home Depot stores. He was diagnosed with NHL in 2020 and has endured multiple rounds of treatment and one recurrence of the disease, though he currently is in remission, according to his lawyers. He is one of more than 100,000 people in the US who have filed lawsuits alleging they developed cancer due to use of Monsanto’s weed killers.
Barnes, a father, grandfather and former Marine, testified in the three-week trial that the disease and treatment have taken a lasting toll.
“With this cancer … there is no cure,” Barnes testified. He cried as he described persistent fear that his time with his family may be limited. “Every day is worry, not just for me but my family.”
Dissolving EPA’s research arm may jeopardize toxic chemical protections
By Shannon Kelleher
The Trump administration’s plan to eliminate the entire research arm of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have devastating impacts on toxic chemical research, destabilizing infrastructure that forms the scientific backbone of regulations that protect people and the environment, according to former agency leaders.
The move to dissolve the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), first reported by The New York Times last week, would stagnate new environmental regulations for years to come, the former EPA officials claim.
The ORD, which employs more than 1,000 scientists, operates six research programs that work to inform policy making on a range of environmental issues, including air and water quality, climate concerns, and chemical safety. ORD research topics include chemicals such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, greenhouse gases and health-harming soot.
The administration reportedly plans to cut 75% of ORD’s staff and to relocate those left to other parts of the agency.
“What it means is that any child born in 2025 will grow up in an environment that has more contaminated air, more contaminated water, and more contaminated land than any previous generation that was born after the 1970s,” when Congress put in place major environmental statutes, said Betsy Southerland, a former EPA senior scientist and a director in the agency’s Office of Water. “Any new administration that comes in, it will take them years to rebuild that scientific expertise and capability,” she said.
If the Trump administration dismantles the EPA’s research office and rolls back existing environmental rules, it could force the nation into a fragmented, state-by-state regulatory approach reminiscent of a pre-1970s era when city air was thick with smog and oil-coated rivers caught fire, said Southerland.
10 ways the Trump administration is “making America toxic again”
By Susan Lamontagne (Republished from the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.)
“Our goal is to get toxins out of the environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong.” – President Trump during his State of the Union address, March 4, 2025
We agree. This is a goal we have been working toward since our inception. However, while this administration says removing toxics from the environment and keeping children healthy is their goal, many of their actions are doing the opposite.
10 ways the new administration will expose children to more chemicals that will make them sick:
#1: Put chemical industry lobbyists in charge at EPA, including one who worked for Dupont, a leading manufacturer of PFAS that have now contaminated drinking water supplies around the world. The number two in charge at the Agency fought against banning asbestos. And another EPA appointee lobbied on behalf of cancer-causing and asthma-inducing formaldehyde. And now she’s in charge of regulating…formaldehyde.
#2: Taking steps to roll back a Biden initiative to reduce lead in drinking water. There is no safe level of lead, especially for children.
#3: Announced a delay of a new rule to regulate trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning that is harmful to children’s brains.
An open letter from EPA staff to the American public
“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”
Editor’s note: This op-ed was written by a group of current and former employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who have asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about retaliation. It was originally published by Environmental Health News and is republished with permission.
The Trump administration is making accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse associated with federal environmental justice programs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as justification for firing federal workers and defunding critical environmental programs. But the real waste, fraud, and abuse would be to strip away these funds from the American people.
As current and former employees at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who developed and implemented the agency’s environmental justice funding and grant programs, we want to offer our first-hand insights about the efficiency and importance of this work. This is not about defending our paychecks. This is about protecting the health of our communities.
IRA funding is often described as a “once-in-a-generation investment,” putting billions of dollars toward improving the lives of American families in red, blue, and purple states. Working with communities, we’ve been placing these resources directly into their hands, supporting people to better protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land where we live, learn, work, play, and grow — including key protections from natural disasters.
As civil servants, we took an oath to protect and invest in the American public. We are committed to providing effective programs and being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and there are many policies in place to ensure our accountability. But despite our careful planning and oversight, the new administration is halting programs Americans depend on for their health and wellbeing.
We should work together to demand that the Trump administration restore this critical funding back to the people.