"An agreement on cleanup measures at one of the nation’s most notorious Superfund sites is drawing blowback from some environmental advocates skeptical of provisions within the deal."
"The EPA is vowing to move quickly to designate two “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, but has to balance the Biden administration’s desire to better protect disadvantaged communities with public and private sector fears they’ll be held liable for a problem not of their own making."
"A loophole in the federal government’s procedures for reviewing new chemicals has allowed at least 600 so-called forever chemicals into American markets despite evidence they pose serious health risks, according to a petition filed Thursday."
"Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens residents have been fighting for years to get hazardous creosote chemicals cleaned up from the ground and groundwater around their homes. But creosote might not have been the only harmful substance that workers used at the rail yard in the neighborhood, and it might not have been the most dangerous."
"EPA today proposed designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the Superfund law. That move would unlock a major tool for regulators seeking to recoup costs from polluters as they progress with cleanup efforts at contaminated sites."
"Contaminated soil from a Superfund site in Navassa [N.C.] will be shipped to one of three landfills outside Brunswick County, likely moving toxic pollution from one non-white or low-income community to another."
"The EPA wants to test soil for lead contamination in two historically Black neighborhoods on Atlanta’s west side. Residents, eyeing the creep of gentrification, worry that the cleanup is part of an effort to push them out."
"Sewage treatment plants around the country and many of the factories that send them wastewater face a new and shifting array of regulations over how they handle PFAS."
"A dozen deeply contaminated areas will get a significant boost toward cleanup following an announcement this week by EPA. The agency is adding sites to the National Priorities List, a special designation under the Superfund program that oversees cleanup at areas that pose significant threats to human health and the environment."
"A group of New Orleans residents whose homes were built on a toxic landfill decades ago have won a $75.3 million court judgement against the city, its housing authority and the local school board."
