Environment America

April 19, 2024

EPA moves to make polluters foot the bill for PFAS cleanup

By Shannon Kelleher

US regulators on Friday finalized a rule designating two widespread PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances, a step they say will ensure polluters pay to clean up contamination and reduce Americans’ exposure to the toxic chemicals.

Under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund law, the rule will require leaks and spills of these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be immediately reported and will enable investigation and cleanup of the chemicals.

The finalized rule “enables the agency to use one of its strongest enforcement tools to compel polluters to pay for or conduct investigations and cleanup, rather than taxpayers,” said the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a press release. “Designation is especially important as delay in addressing contamination allows PFOA and PFOS more time to migrate in water and soil, worsening existing contamination.”

“This is great news for the many communities grappling with PFAS contamination – many of which are also low income and communities of color,” said Tracey Woodruff, an environmental health researcher at the University of California, San Francisco and a former EPA senior scientist.

The move comes days after the EPA announced the nation’s first legally enforceable drinking water limits for the same chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), along with four other PFAS.

So-called “forever chemicals,” which do not break down naturally, have been used for decades in consumer products ranging from nonstick pans to waterproof clothes and stain resistant carpet. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancers, liver and heart problems, and immune and developmental damage in children, according to the EPA. The chemicals are found in the blood of almost all Americans.

February 23, 2024

Postcard from California: After plastic bag ban backfires, lawmakers seek a fix

By Bill Walker

Ten years ago, Californians threw away an estimated 157,000 tons of plastic bags, about 8 pounds for each person in the state. To stem the tide of polyethylene piling up in landfills, polluting parks and beaches, and imperiling wildlife, that year California enacted the nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic grocery bags.

It didn’t work.

In 2021, the latest year for which figures are available, Californians tossed out more than 231,000 tons of plastic bags – almost 12 pounds per person.

Now lawmakers in Sacramento are trying again.

A pair of bills introduced earlier this month – SB 1053 and AB 2236 – would ban the use of all plastic bags by groceries and other stores that sell food. That means not only the flimsy single-use bags covered by the 2014 law, but also the thicker bags that technically can be reused and recycled, but almost never are.

The thicker bags, of the more durable polyethene called HDPE, carry the familiar, but often misleading, “chasing arrows” recycling symbol. But they can’t go in curbside recycling bins, and good luck finding a store that will take them back or a recycling center that will accept them. They’re designed to be reused up to 20 times, but most consumers toss them as soon as they unload their groceries at home.

“A plastic bag has an average lifespan of 12 minutes and then it is discarded… clogging sewage drains, contaminating our drinking water and degenerating into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years,” state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, co-author of SB 1053, said in a press release. “It’s time to improve on California’s original plastic bags ban and do it right this time.”

What went wrong? What happened to turn the state’s good intentions into a disheartening lesson in the law of unintended consequences?

Enter the plastics industry.

December 15, 2023

EPA proposes tighter standards to slash slaughterhouse pollution

By Shannon Kelleher

Following a legal challenge from environmental groups, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday proposed new standards aimed at reducing water pollution from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. The move is the agency’s first such effort in two decades.

The EPA said its preferred option presented in the proposed rule could eliminate about 100 million pounds of water pollution generated by large slaughterhouse and meat processing plants each year.

The plan would put stricter limits in place for nitrogen in liquid waste that is directly discharged into waterways and would establish limitations for phosphorus for the first time. It would also establish the first pretreatment standards for oil, grease, and certain other pollutants. The standards would apply to about 845 of the 3,879 slaughter and meat processing facilities that discharge waste into US waters.

“It’s a very good step in the right direction,” said John Rumpler, senior clean water director for Environment America, a network of state environmental groups. “But by EPA’s own estimates they could be doing more to curb pollution from this sector,” he said.

The EPA said its plan “follows the latest science” and “would help protect the nation’s vital water resources, which support safe drinking water, agriculture, industry, recreation activities, and thriving communities, through the implementation of affordable and available wastewater treatment technologies.”

An alternative option proposed by the EPA would apply to the same 845 facilities, eliminating an estimated 228 million pounds of water pollution per year, according to the EPA. A third option would extend requirements to some smaller facilities, affecting almost twice as many facilities and eliminating an estimated 322 million pounds of pollution per year, the EPA said.

In addition, the EPA is proposing limits on E. coli bacteria in wastewater directly discharged into waterways, which can cause severe illness if consumed by humans.

July 6, 2023

Poop pathogens threaten US beachgoers nationwide, study finds

By Shannon Kelleher

Beachgoers may be on the lookout for sharks and jellyfish, but one danger lurking beneath the waves this summer originated onshore — pathogens from human and farm animal waste. Over half of US beaches tested in 2022 harbored potentially unsafe levels of contamination, according to an analysis released today by the organizations Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group.

The study found that 1,761 out of 3,192 coastal and Great Lakes beaches tested across the country last year showed fecal contamination levels above an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) benchmark on at least one day that year. 363 of the beaches showed potentially unsafe levels on at least a quarter of the days they were tested. Much of the contamination comes from stormwater runoff in developed areas, outdated and deteriorating sewage systems, and factory farming, the authors write.

Swimming in water contaminated with fecal bacteria can cause gastrointestinal and respiratory illness, as well as infections, according to the EPA’s website.

“If it [had] just rained the day before, that might not be the day to go to the beach, particularly if there are local sewage treatment plants that discharge anywhere [nearby],” said John Rumpler, Clean Water Director at Environment America Research & Policy Center and an author of the report.

Rumpler also advised checking real-time water quality data that many communities use to alert beachgoers before traveling to a favorite vacation spot.