Current Issues
Central Louisiana Coalition for a Clean and Healthy Environment
Central Louisiana Coalition for a Clean and Healthy Environment (CLCCHE) Public Testimony before the USEPA Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery Calling for a National BAN on Open Burning and Detonation of Hazardous Waste March 22, 2022 My name is...
EPA Plan Falls Short Of Environmentalists’ Call For Ban On Open Burning
by Inside EPA Publishers EPA plans to revise its regulations governing the open burn/open detonation (OB/OD) of waste explosives to require evaluation of alternative destruction methods and may set minimum technical criteria for remaining OB/OD units, but the...
Army Finds Contamination at Site of Underground Fire
The first warning of trouble occurred when a routine prescribed burn of vegetation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) ignited an underground fire that burned from August 26-28, 2020. Despite millions spent on cleanup, residual soil...
Biden’s SOTU Remarks Drive Calls For New Efforts To Address OB/OD
by Inside EPA Publishers President Joe Biden’s State of the Union (SOTU) call to better address health concerns about military veterans exposed to toxics from overseas “burn pits” is driving new efforts for policymakers to address the issue at home, with...
Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Kills PFAS Groundwater Regulations
by Chris Hubbuch | Wisconsin State Journal - February 23, 2022 Conservatives on Wisconsin’s natural resources board has approved weakened regulations for toxic "forever chemicals" in public water supplies but killed a rule to limit them in groundwater, which one in...
Pentagon Relies on Antiquated, Dangerous Methods for Hazardous Waste Disposal
by Enid Sisskin, PhD, Director of Gulf Coast Environmental Defense. It's a shocking case of arrested development. In a nation that prides itself on high technology, our federal government is burning and detonating hazardous waste in the open air, using stone age...
Virginia Army Base is National Cancer Hotspot
The 7,000-acre Radford Army Ammunition Plant spans both sides of the New River. (Image from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) VIRGINIA – Researchers at Cancer Control and Population Health Research at the University of Virginia are warning that all...
PFAS in Fish a Risk to Wildlife, not just People
Following is CSWAB's testimony at the recent WDNR public hearing on proposed SURFACE WATER criteria for certain PFAS: My name is Laura Olah and I live in Merrimac, Wisconsin, in rural Sauk County, and I am here today on behalf of Citizens for Safe Water Around...
Wisconsin Watch: ‘Something has to be done’: Living along Madison’s Starkweather Creek, one of Wisconsin’s most polluted waterways.
By Isaac Wasserman / Wisconsin Watch October 7th, 2021 Melody Homesly, left, and Carnetta Galvin stand on a bridge that crosses Starkweather Creek near Galvin’s home of 16 years in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood of Madison, Wis. Galvin says she was not initially...
Hundreds Call on EPA to Stop Open Air Burning of PFAS and other Toxic Chemicals
Today, more than 260 people – representing more than 100 environmental and social justice organizations from the U.S. and its territories – co-signed an open letter calling on U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan to end the dangerous practice of open air burning and...
Demilitarization of Military Flares as an Uncontrolled Source of PFAS
Pyrotechnic compositions of magnesium/Teflon/Viton (MTV) are widely used in military flares and for igniting the solid propellant of a rocket motor, and are comprised of as much as 45% PFAS. The demilitarization of excess, obsolete, or unserviceable flares and other...
EPA Must Protect Public Health by Regulating PFAS as a Class
By Dr. Linda Birnbaum, Dr. Betsy Southerland and Robert Sussman Originally published in THE HILL on July 30, 2021 The high-stakes debate is raging over a broad class of toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water consumed by tens of millions of people. These...